The Benin Dialogue Group is a multi-lateral international collaborative working group that brings together delegates from Western museums with representatives of the Nigerian Government, the Royal Court of Benin, and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Its aims are cooperation between museums possessing Nigerian cultural heritage and the creation of a permanent display in Benin City, in particular the Benin Bronzes.
The aim of the group is "to work together to establish a museum in Benin City that will facilitate a permanent display [for] reuniting Benin works of art dispersed in collections around the world." [1] The group was formed in 2007 [2] and is one of the central bodies for discussion on the restitution of cultural objects looted from Benin City as part of the punitive expedition by the British Army in 1897, which resulted in the destruction and dispersal of the ancient civilisation of that city. [3] The group's discussions have focused on rotating long-term loans by some Western members, [4] while Nigerian members have demanded returns. Hamburg museum director Barbara Plankensteiner has stressed that the group has no competence to decide on any returns, which are legal responsibilities of the different organizations governing the group's members. Further, the cooperation has resulted in a proposal by Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye to design a new museum in Benin City. [5] [6]
Consortium members include Edo State Government, Royal Court of Benin, Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, Ethnological Museum of the State Museums of Berlin, Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) of Hamburg, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden Museum of Ethnology and Leipzig Museum of Ethnology, Linden Museum of Stuttgart, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen of The Netherlands, Museum of World Culture in Stockholm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge, British Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford. [7]
Following the French Report on the restitution of African cultural heritage in 2018, there has been a greater focus on returning ownership to Nigeria, rather than loans, and has led to returns by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland [8] and Jesus College, Cambridge, [9] in October 2021. In November 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) returned two brass plaques from its collection to the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NNCMM) and signed a memorandum of understanding on further cooperation. [10] This was accomplished after procedures relating to the authority to return such cultural items had resulted in definitive legal agreements between the owners and Nigerian collections. Thus, some members of the Benin Dialogue Group, such as the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge [11] and notably the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and other collections in Germany have agreed to return large numbers of Benin Bronzes. In return, the Nigerian authorities accepted to leave some pieces on long-term loans in Western collections. [12]
In March 2021, the achievements of the group had been criticised by Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's ambassador to Germany, who told Deutsche Welle that the dialogue "has been going on for so long now and nothing has happened and it seems to be gravitating more towards loans and which is totally unacceptable at the Nigerian side." [13]
In November 2022, ARTnews magazine reported that the Digital Benin online database had been created by a number of museums, including both experts from Nigeria (National Museum Lagos and Benin City National Museum) as well as from other African and Western institutions. [14] [15] Digital Benin lists 131 institutions from 20 countries with Benin cultural heritage in their collections. This new online platform allows visitors to learn about the specifications, location and provenance of more than 5,000 African artefacts, including maps, high-resolution images, and the title of the works in English and Edo languages. [16]
The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson. It came in response to the ambush and slaughter of a 250 strong party led by British Acting Consul General James Phillips of the Niger Coast Protectorate. Rawson's troops captured Benin City, bringing to an end slavery and human sacrifice in Benin, and indeed the Kingdom of Benin itself, which was eventually absorbed into colonial Nigeria.
The Oba of Benin is the traditional ruler and the custodian of the culture of the Edo people and all Edoid people. The then Kingdom of Benin has continued to be mostly populated by the Edo.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Modern Style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, and is known for its large collection of taxidermied animals. The building is Grade II* listed.
The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. Collectively, the objects form the best examples of Benin art and were created from the fourteenth century by artists of the Edo people. The plaques, which in the Edo language are called Ama, and depict scenes or represent themes in the history of the kingdom. Apart from the plaques, other sculptures in brass or bronze include portrait heads, jewelry, and smaller pieces.
Repatriation is the return of the cultural property, often referring to ancient or looted art, to their country of origin or former owners.
Dan Hicks, is a British archaeologist and anthropologist. He is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. His research is focused on contemporary archaeology, material culture studies, historical archaeology, colonial history, heritage studies, and the history of art, archaeology, anthropology, and museum collections.
Idia was the mother of Esigie, who reigned as Oba (king) of the Edo people from 1504 to 1550. Historians do know that Idia was alive during the Idah war because she played a role that led to a great Benin victory. It has been argued that Idia, therefore, was the true power behind the throne of her son. She played a significant role in the rise and reign of her son, being described as a great warrior who fought relentlessly before and during her son's reign as the Oba (king) of the Edo people. Queen Idia was instrumental in securing the title of Oba for her son Esigie following the death of his father Oba Ozolua. To that end, she raised an army to fight off his brother Arhuaran who was supposed to be the Oba by right and tradition but was subsequently defeated in battle. Esigie’s mother became the 17th Oba of Benin.
Benin art is the art from the Kingdom of Benin or Edo Empire (1440–1897), a pre-colonial African state located in what is now known as the Southern region of Nigeria. Primarily made of cast bronze and carved ivory, Benin art was produced mainly for the court of the Oba of Benin – a divine ruler for whom the craftsmen produced a range of ceremonially significant objects. The full complexity of these works can be appreciated through the awareness and consideration of two complementary cultural perceptions of the art of Benin: the Western appreciation of them primarily as works of art, and their understanding in Benin as historical documents and as mnemonic devices to reconstruct history, or as ritual objects. This original significance is of great importance in Benin.
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin is one of the Berlin State Museums, the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in the Humboldt Forum in Mitte, along with the Museum of Asian Art. The museum holds more than 500,000 objects and is one of the largest and most important collections of works of art and culture from outside Europe in the world. Its highlights include important objects from the Sepik River, Hawaii, the Kingdom of Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, China, the Pacific Coast of North America, Mesoamerica, the Andes, as well as one of the first ethnomusicology collections of sound recordings.
The Nigerian National Museum is a national museum of Nigeria, located in the city of Lagos. The museum has a notable collection of Nigerian art, including pieces of statuary, carvings also archaeological and ethnographic exhibits. Of note is a terracotta human head known as the Jemaa Head, part of the Nok culture. The piece is named after Jema'a, the village where it was discovered. The museum is located at Onikan, Lagos Island, Lagos State. The museum is administered by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
Barnaby Phillips is Director of Communications for the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI), working to shut down the ivory trade and save Africa's elephants. Previously, he worked as a television and radio correspondent. He was a Senior Correspondent for Al Jazeera English, the 24-hour international television news channel based in Doha in Qatar, and owned by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network. He was based in the Greek capital of Athens, and later moved to Al Jazeera's main European base in London. He was formerly with the BBC for 15 years and from 2001 was its Southern Africa Correspondent. He has extensive experience in several continents, and reported on major news stories from 1991-2018. His first book, Another Man's War, was published in September 2014. His second book, Loot; Britain and the Benin Bronzes was published in 2021. It tells the story of the Benin Empire, how its treasures were looted in 1897 by the British military, what happened to them next, and examines the current debate about restitution. 'Loot' was shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Crown Award. The judges described it as 'a balanced and expertly-written history of how the world-famous Benin bronzes were stolen and their fate, which dives deep into the moral and ethical dilemmas of museums and collectors today.'
Some African objects had been collected by Europeans for centuries, and there had been industries producing some types, especially carvings in ivory, for European markets in some coastal regions. Between 1890 and 1918 the volume of objects greatly increased as Western colonial expansion in Africa led to the removal of many pieces of sub-Saharan African art that were subsequently brought to Europe and displayed. These objects entered the collections of natural history museums, art museums and private collections in Europe and the United States. About 90% of Africa's cultural heritage is believed to be located in Europe, according to French art historians.
The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and former royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the fourteenth-fifteenth century C.E. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the offensive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop."
The Benin ivory mask is a miniature sculptural portrait in ivory of Idia, the first Iyoba of the 16th century Benin Empire, taking the form of a traditional African mask. The masks were looted by the British from the palace of the Oba of Benin in the Benin Expedition of 1897.
Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer known for his expansive works that engage with multinational cultural heritage and postcolonial socioeconomics of contemporary black lives. In 2017, he was selected to represent Nigeria at the Venice Biennale, the first time Nigeria would be represented in the event. His work has been described as representing "a symbol of resistance" to colonialism.
Peju Layiwola, is an art Historian and visual artist from Nigeria who works in a variety of media and genre. She is listed as a "21st Century Avant-Garde" in the book Art Cities of the Future published by Phaidon Press. She is currently a Professor of Art and Art history at the University of Lagos and has been described as a "multi-talented artist." Her works can be found in the collection of Microsoft Lagos, Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Pan Atlantic, Lagos and homes of private collectors such as JP and Ebun Clark and the Obi of Onitsha.
Okukor is the name given to a bronze statue of a cock from West Africa, held by Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1905 to 2021. One of the Benin bronzes, it was taken from the Kingdom of Benin during the Benin Expedition of 1897, a punitive expedition dispatched to punish the Oba of Benin after a Royal Niger Company delegation was ambushed and killed. It became controversial in 2016 as an example of looted art, with demands that the statue be repatriated back to Nigeria. It was transferred to Ewuare II, Oba of Benin, and Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments by Jesus College in 2021.
The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics is a report written by Senegalese academic and writer Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, first published online in November 2018 in a French original version and an authorised English translation.
Benin Altar Tusks are ivory artefacts from the Benin Kingdom in present-day Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. These tusks date back to the 16th century and measure approximately 61 inches (1,500 mm) in height, 5.2 inches (130 mm) in width, 4.7 inches (120 mm) in depth, and weighing 25 kilograms (55 lb) according to a sample at the British Museum. The tusks feature carved royal figures in traditional regalia, depicting scenes of power, ritual, and at times, conflict.
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