The Benin Bronzes belong to our king and no one else, Benin chiefs have said, in a growing row over who will care for artefacts repatriated from Britain.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have pledged to return hundreds of Benin Bronzes, a collective term for artworks looted in 1897 from the Kingdom of Benin – now part of Nigeria – but questions over their eventual ownership are stoking local tensions.
The most senior chiefs of the Benin people have warned that their king or “Oba” is the only acceptable owner of the artworks, despite competing plans for their future once they are returned to Nigeria.
The dispute over a permanent home for the artefacts has prompted concerns that British repatriation of the Benin Bronzes will become a “fiasco” in which there is “no certainty that they will be kept safe or accessible”.
The Nigerian government is poised to take control of collections from the British institutions, but Benin chiefs have told The Telegraph that the Oba alone should decide what should be done with the artworks of his ancestors, and insisted artefacts held in Oxford and Cambridge be returned to his palace.
‘We do not recognise any other place’
Chief Sam Igbe, the “Isaye” or prime minister to the Oba, said: “They were taken from the palace, and they should return to the palace. We do not recognise any other place. They belong to the Oba and in the palace, it is that simple.”
Chief Stanley Omoregie Obamwonyi, one the most senior members of Oba’s council, said: “You will recall that the British took the artefacts from the Oba’s palace. They must be returned to the Oba’s palace.”
The Bronzes were made over centuries for the Obas of Benin and kept at their royal palace in the capital Benin City until 1897, when it was sacked in a British military expedition, resulting in the pieces being looted and auctioned off to museums around the world.
Oxford’s Pitt Rivers and Ashmolean museums are set to hand over 97 objects, and Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 116, pending Charity Commission approval.
London’s Horniman Museum will also hand over 72 Benin artefacts to the Nigerian government through the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), which is handling the country’s repatriation claims.
The NMCC has offered no definitive plans for their final home in Nigeria, where there is limited museum capacity, and many may be loaned back to UK institutions.
But in the modern-day Benin City, where the reigning Oba Ewuare II acts as a near-divine custodian of Benin culture, many see the artefacts looted from his great-great-grandfather Ovonramwen as a birthright which should be returned directly to the royal palace.
Many local figures are more concerned about this than they are about any future display of the objects in a museum.
For members of the Oba’s “Eghaevbo N’Ore” or traditional council who spoke to The Telegraph, along with palace functionaries, it should then be a matter for the monarch to decide their future. Chief Igbe, his head advisor, was clear that “they should return to the palace first of all”, before any other decision is made.
‘A fiasco’
A “Benin Royal Museum” under the control of the Oba himself has been suggested by the palace, but this is far from being financed or built, meaning that if the Benin chiefs win their dispute the items which have long been on public display in the UK could remain out of sight within the royal compound.
The uncertain situation in Nigeria has prompted Prof Robert Tombs, a Cambridge historian, to criticise his own university, and other institutions ramping up repatriation, saying: “The story of the Benin Bronzes has turned into a fiasco.
“Virtue-signalling museums and universities have started handing back valuable objects without having any certainty that they will be kept safe or accessible.
“This is a betrayal of their duty to the objects themselves and to those who made them.”
He added that the Kingdom of Benin was involved in the slave trade, making handing Bronzes over to the sole ownership of its descendants “morally and culturally outrageous”.
The Benin Royal Museum itself has become another source of conflict between traditional and elected authorities, as Godwin Obaseki, the local Edo State governor, has backed a rival Edo Museum of West African Art to house the Bronzes.
This was welcomed internationally as a safe home for the Bronzes in Benin City itself, and preceded agreements for the return of artefacts from museums in the US, Germany, and the UK, but Chief Obamwonyi has dismissed this “alien” rival to his monarch’s claim.
The NCMM’s leadership suggested both planned museums could be used when built, but chiefs have rubbished any idea of “sharing” their Oba’s artefacts, casting further doubt on where items returned from the UK would be legitimately kept in Nigeria.
The Benin Dialogue Group which is negotiating repatriation deals includes members of the Oba’s family, and is seeking to work in his interests.
However, Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s culture minister, has previously made clear that ownership of the Bronzes, and decisions on their future home, lie with the federal government.
Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Nigeria, previously attempted to calm pensions by directing that two artefacts be returned to the Oba directly, but thousands could be returned in future and require more space, and Mr Buhari’s term and his personal dispensations will come to an end in 2023.
Credit: Yahoo News