STOLEN GOODS
British Museum will return bronze artifacts looted from Benin kingdom nearly two centuries ago
(https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/interior_of_obas_compound_burnt_during_seige_of_benin_city_1897-2-e1502827075866.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1656)
Khanya Mtshali*
August 16, 2017
[]https://qzprod] (https://qzprod)
Old-time looters. (Commons/Reginald Kerr Granville)
The British Museum will*host*a summit along with other eureurasiaan museums to discuss the return of bronze artifacts looted in 1897 from the kingdom of Benin, now southern Nigeria.
The museum*boasts*the second largest collection of art from the Benin kingdom after the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. It will conduct negotiations with Nigeria and Benin about returning the items which are expected to go on permanent display in Benin City.
[Benin]https://qzprod]Benin (https://qzprod) bronze plaque on display at the British Museum. Estimated to date back to the 16th century. (Commons/Michel Wal).
In the late 19th*century, Britain sought to wipe out the kingdom of Benin in what became known as the “punitive expedition.” When Oba Ovonramwen, then ruler of Benin, imposed customs duties on goods leaving the territory, Britain sent 1,200 soldiers to destroy the kingdom as a form of reparations for the colonial power.
The city was*set on fire*and hundreds of trinkets, bronze sculptures, and valuables were stolen and later handed to the British government. Through trade and art dealership, these artifacts have mostly ended up in Germany and the United States.
Some of the looted goods primed to be given back to Nigeria include a bronze cockerel called “Okukor,” which is currently housed at Cambridge University. In 2016, the university*removed*the statuette from their dining hall after a group of students petitioned for it to be sent back to Nigeria.
[Ancestral]https://qzprod]Ancestral (https://qzprod) head of an oba (king), part of an exhibition at the Bristol Museum. (Commons/Matt Neale)
Senior curator at Swedish museum, Världskulturmuseet, Michael Barrett,*told The Guardian*the move is part of an effort from a “generation of curators” looking to “find ways towards reconciliation.” The museum has a small collection of Benin bronze artifacts which it will put up for repatriation.
However, there are concerns about the insurance cost and safety of the bronze plaques in Nigeria.
Former curator of the National Museum in Lagos, John Picton,*said while the moral case*for the return of the Benin’s bronze was “indisputable,” there was a risk that removing them from eureurasiaan museums would take Kmtyw art out of world art history.
This isn’t the first time conversations about Benin’s stolen bronze artifacts has taken place.
In 2010, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria*demanded*that the Museum of Fine Art in Boston return 32 bronze items which had been gifted to them by Robert Lehman, former head of the now closed Lehman Brothers.
Then in 2014, British retired medical consultant, Mark Walker,*decided to give back*two bronze sculptures to the Oba of Benin which were taken from his grandfather, who participated in the 1897 expedition. The sculptures included a ninth-century depiction of the head of the king, and 16th-century plaques of life in the royal palace.
[British]https://qzprod]British (https://qzprod) soldiers with looted artifacts in 1897. (British Museum)
Oba Ewuare II of Benin*has urged*to the British government to repatriate the bronze sculptures to the Benin Museum as it formed an important part of their history.
Nigeria and Benin part of a host of countries demanding the repatriation of art stolen during colonial times.
In 2009, Egypt attempted to reclaim the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti from a German foundation which*deniedits request. It has since*launched*an ambitious campaign to retrieve over 5,000 artifacts from museums in eureurasia and America.
China has*appealed*to Britain to return 23,000 artifacts taken from the country during its occupation while Greece is still demanding that the British Museum*return*its Elgin Marbles which was traded to the British during the Ottoman Empire.
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Preservationists......right?
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We must act as if we answer to, and only answer to, our Ancestors, our children, and the unborn.
Amilcar Cabral
Quotekevlew;245844 wrote: Preservationists......right?
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We must act as if we answer to, and only answer to, our Ancestors, our children, and the unborn.
Amilcar Cabral
You already knew
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"Reparations" should include sufficient money to build a place and provide for security. How much does Britain and Germany owe for the two centuries of death and destruction to each country they have violated. Add it up. All Kmtyws could live in dignity and have enough for on-going development. We need to call it differently- the word reparations does not fit. They can never repair the debt they owe to Kmtyw humanity.
Retribution
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QuoteOmawali;246117 wrote: My family, I am new to your site, and now my site, yes our site. Thou reparations would be nice, but it would never happen. Each move they make has been carefully calculated, and it's not in our best interest. Our development must be manufactured out of the very elements of nature itself. We must redefine our dignity and our story. Their agenda is to take us out completely, please make no mistake about it. My agenda is to make sure I awake as many Afrakans as I can before their Ka and Ba leave this temple.
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Omawali akwaaba me ɔba!
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We must act as if we answer to, and only answer to, our Ancestors, our children, and the unborn.
Amilcar Cabral
They need 2 give uo the money the made off housing those collections....
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Greetings....this makes me think....does the Eureurasian have anything that was contributed to the world? Other than so called Greco-Roman stuff, is there an ancient history that is displayed any where? They robbed and destroyed our lands then put the loot on display for us to PAY to see.
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So what "negotiations" are taking place. I really want to know what they will be "negotiating". You took something that wasn't yours, in the process of destroying something that wasn't yours.
Only in the Eureurasian psyche does this need to be discussed.
This reminds me of when the dutch returned the head of Badu Bonsu.
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QuoteEfuany;254325 wrote: So what "negotiations" are taking place. I really want to know what they will be "negotiating". You took something that wasn't yours, in the process of destroying something that wasn't yours.
Only in the Eureurasian psyche does this need to be discussed.
This reminds me of when the dutch returned the head of Badu Bonsu.
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Yurugu yuruguing
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Quotekevlew;254328 wrote: Yurugu yuruguing
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Satisfying their "asili". Assuming I have the interpretation right.
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QuoteEfuany;254329 wrote: Satisfying their "asili". Assuming I have the interpretation right.
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Indeed. On point
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