【Editor/Observer Network Chen Sijia】
"The bronze plaque depicts ObaHobua, a scepter in his hand symbolizing authority and power. He wears a tunic with folds and intricate embroidery, a belt with tassels, and a royal tattoo (Iwu) painted on his body, which is the symbol of Benin's citizenship. ”
The kingdom of Benin bronze sculpture "Oba Orhogbua" is from the website of the Horneman Museum in London, England
It is an ancient bronze carving that features an ancient Benin ruler and is one of the precious legacies of the Kingdom of Benin, the ancient country of West Africa. However, this artifact, which should have been treasured in Africa, was snatched away in the "bloody and devastating" invasion of the Kingdom of Benin by British colonists in 1897, and was lost to the West along with thousands of African artifacts.
It is only recently that the sculpture has been given the opportunity to return to its homeland. The Honeyman Museum in London, England, announced on the 7th that it agreed to the request made by the Nigerian government in January to return 72 ancient Benin Kingdom cultural relics to Nigeria.
This is yet another step forward in Nigeria's efforts to recover historical artifacts. In October last year, two British universities returned two bronzes, and the German government returned two artifacts in July, promising to return more than 1,100 artifacts from german museums.
Nigeria's successful recovery of cultural relics can be described as an important victory on the road to the recovery of cultural relics in the country and even in Africa as a whole. Today, more than 90% of African artifacts are in the hands of Western museums and private collectors.
"A Victory for Nigeria"
According to CNN, the 72 cultural relics announced by the Horneman Museum on the 7th are mainly brass altar ornaments, brass ceremonial vessels, palace keys and ivory products and other cultural relics, which also include 12 brass plaques, which are part of the well-known Benin bronzes, which were once decorated in the palaces of the ancient Kingdom of Benin.
Originating from the ancient Kingdom of Benin in West Africa, these artifacts are located in today's southwestern Nigeria and date back to the 11th century, making it one of the oldest ancient countries in West Africa, known for its exquisite bronze carvings, ivory carvings and woodcuts. Some Western scholars believe that Benin's carvings are exquisite enough to be compared with Greek and Roman sculptures.
Infographic: Geographical location of the ancient Kingdom of Benin
The rulers of the Kingdom of Benin were known as "Oba", the most famous of which was Ewuare the Great, who reigned from about 1440 to 1473, who greatly expanded the territory of the Kingdom of Benin during his reign, consolidating the monarchy by weakening the power of chiefs, and expanding the size of the capital City of Benin.
After the Arrival of the Portuguese in the Kingdom of Benin in the late 15th century, the city of Benin soon became an important center of trade between Europe and the interior of Africa, dominating almost all trade from the western Niger Delta to Lagos, hence the name of the Gulf of Benin. According to the National Geographic website, the Portuguese pursued art, gold and ivory from the Kingdom of Benin, and Benin made a lot of money through trade.
But beginning in the 19th century, civil unrest caused by power struggles in the Kingdom of Benin led to the decline of the country. In 1897, in order to control trade in West Africa and seize land, Britain launched a war of aggression against the Kingdom of Benin. In this "bloody and devastating" invasion, the ancient city of Benin was burned down by the British army, and thousands of works of art were stolen and shipped to Britain as "booty".
The most valuable of these artifacts are the more than a thousand plaques, sculptures, royal relics and other artifacts collectively known as Benin Bronzes, which were used to decorate the royal palaces of the Kingdom of Benin. One of the most well-known is the brass plaque in the palace, which records important historical events in the Kingdom of Benin.
In January, the Honiman Museum in London received a request from the National Museum and Monuments Commission of Nigeria (NCMM), which demanded that the museum return artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin. After careful study of the artifacts in the museum, the Horneman Museum finally agreed to Nigeria's request on August 7, promising to return 72 artifacts.
One of the artifacts of the Kingdom of Benin in the collection of the Houniman Museum, a carved wood pulp from the Website of the Houniman Museum (the same below)
Sculptures of three warriors of the Kingdom of Benin are displayed
A sculpture depicting priests and military chiefs of the Kingdom of Benin
Eve Salomon, chair of the Board of Directors of the Honeyman Museum, said, "The evidence clearly shows that these artifacts were acquired by force and that external consultations also support our view that it is both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria." ”
Abba Tijani, Director General of the National Commission on Museums and Monuments of Nigeria, welcomed the decision. In a statement, he said the committee looked forward to working with the Horneman Museum, including exploring the possibility of leasing artefacts to UK museums in the future.
CNN said the Horneman Museum's decision was also seen as a "victory" for Nigeria and African countries that have struggled to recover artifacts looted by Western colonists. Today, most of these artifacts are scattered in Europe, the United States and Australia.
Germany has pledged to return more than 1,100 artifacts
Over the past few decades, the Nigerian government has attached great importance to the recovery of cultural relics, repeatedly demanding the return of cultural relics from Western museums. But it is only in recent years that Nigeria's efforts have gradually paid off.
According to Reuters, the University of Aberdeen and Jesus College at the University of Cambridge returned two Benin bronzes to Nigeria last October, and they eventually returned to Nigeria in February this year, with a statue of a king and a statue of a rooster. The City of Benin held a warm welcoming ceremony for that purpose.
In February this year, the city of Benin in Nigeria held a ceremony to welcome two Benin bronzes returned from the United Kingdom
Progress was also made quickly in the return of cultural relics in Germany. According to the British "Guardian" reported on July 1, German Foreign Minister Berberk, Culture Minister Ross and Nigerian Foreign Minister Zubairu Dada and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed signed an agreement in Berlin on the same day, promising to return more than 1,100 cultural relics collected by German museums to Nigeria.
Under the agreement, the Nigerian government will negotiate separately with German museums on specific return matters, and some artifacts may remain on display in Germany under the terms of the custody agreement.
At the scene of the signing of the agreement on July 1, the German government handed over two Benin bronzes to Nigeria, one of which is a statue of an ancient King of Benin dressed in 18th-century ceremonial clothing, and the other is a 16th-century carving depicting guards accompanying the king on his travels. A German diplomat bought the two artifacts from the British and sold them to a museum in Berlin in 1898.
Two Benin artifacts returned to Nigeria by Germany in July are from IC photo
In addition, some Western museums have begun to consider the return of cultural relics. CNN said the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., had removed the Benin bronze from the exhibition last November and planned to return it to the Nigerian government. The museum's database shows that at least 38 of its collections come from the ancient Kingdom of Benin, most of which were looted by British colonists.
But the British "Guardian" mentioned that the British Museum has the world's largest collection of Beninese bronzes, but the museum has always used the British Museum Act of 1963 and the Heritage Act of 1983 as a "shield" to refuse to return more than 900 Benin bronzes to Nigeria.
A 16th- to 17th-century Benin bronze vessel showing the Kingdom of Benin and its symbol of power, shown on the British Museum website
There are still 90% of African-language flows in the West
At a time when Nigeria's quest for heritage is beginning to dawn, other African countries also appear to be having some success. Agence France-Presse said the French government returned 26 artifacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the predecessors of the Republic of Benin, to the Republic of Benin in November last year. These artifacts include the thrones and statues of the Kingdom of Dahomey.
Last October, a French museum exhibited an upcoming return of the Dahomey Kingdom artifacts from Xinhua News Agency
However, compared with the cultural relics looted by Western colonists in the past hundred years or so, the number of cultural relics recovered by African countries so far can only be described as "a drop in the ocean".
In May, Foreign Policy columnist Nosmot Gbadamosi wrote that after more than a hundred years of violent looting, museums in Europe and the United States already hold the world's largest collection of African artifacts, such as the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Belgium with 180,000 pieces, the British Museum with 73,000 pieces, and the number of African antiquities in museums across the United States with 50,000 pieces.
Badamosi quoted the research results of Bénédicte Savoy, a well-known French art historian, that although Western curators continue to make promises of "decolonization of museums", in practice they have found ways to find excuses to prevaricate, or claim to be sure that cultural relics are indeed stolen, or question whether African museums have the ability to store them.
Badamosi writes in Foreign Policy: Discussion on stolen antiquities in Africa 'frozen' in time
In the most typical example, Ekpo Eyo, then head of Nigeria's Heritage Department, sent letters to various European embassies in 1972 asking for a permanent loan of a batch of Beninese bronzes. But the request was rejected by Hans-Georg Wormit, then president of the German Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, who insisted that Berlin's collections were "legally purchased."
Savoy notes that what Womidt didn't mention at all was that the artifacts were originally stolen in 1897 when British soldiers ransacked the Kingdom of Benin. The West German Foreign Ministry at the time also finally rejected Nigeria's request.
In 1974, after the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to "return art to plundered countries," Friedrich Kussmaul, then director of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, claimed that African museum managers "hardly had enough modern education" to maintain the museum. He even threatened that the claim to repatriate artifacts in Africa "had no legal or moral basis" and that "the independence movement brought an exaggerated sense of self-dignity and tradition to Africans."
In response, Savoy criticizes in her book that these examples show that Western museums believe that their African collections help to display the so-called "universal heritage", but their statements clearly show that the concept of racial and civilization hierarchy has long penetrated into their minds.
But the behavior of Western museums has also been criticized by people of insight in Africa and Europe. As early as 1965, Beninese writer Paulin Joachim asked Western museums to "liberate black gods." He argues that the African artifacts are "imprisoned in the icy universe of the white world and will never be able to play their part." ”
During the inaugural World Black Arts Festival in Dakar in 1966, European museums agreed to lend African artifacts to organizers but refused to discuss any returns. At the time, Joachim mocked that Westerners had packaged their looting as "defenders of African culture" through "dazzling sophistry."
Similar views are supported by some European scholars. According to The New Yorker, Savoy stressed in a 2018 report that returning cultural relics to African countries can promote cultural development and make cultural relics become "budding forces".
A 2018 op-ed by Kenyan journalist Christine Mungai on Qatar's Al Jazeera also pointed out that those who believe that Africans are not capable or interested in protecting antiquities are also dead wrong. For example, during the riots triggered by the 2012 Malian coup d'état, Malians used donkey carts, boats and other means to transport a number of precious manuscripts from Tunbutu (also known as Timbuktu) to protect them from the risk of destruction.
Mungay hit back at the "better" and "better" preservation of African artifacts in Western museums, arguing that for some artifacts, "even if they circulate in the community, even if they inevitably decay and be replaced, it is part of their cultural value." ”