Germany will start returning Benin bronze to Nigeria next year Art and Culture News

Authorities say Germany plans to start returning objects known as Benin bronzes in its museums from next year to Nigeria.

A colonial expedition led by British soldiers intercepted a metal foundry and sculpture in 1897 in an attack on the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, separated from the then British-ruled Nigeria.

“Bronzes” – truly copper alloy relief sculptures, many of which show court figures – were auctioned off and then expanded from New Zealand to Germany and the United States, making it the largest collection in London.

In recent years, calls are made louder to return what was stolen, partly driven by a decolonization movement across Europe.

“We are facing our historical and moral responsibility,” German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters said in a joint speech with the Foreign Ministry and German museums on Thursday night.

“We want to help each other understand and reconcile with the descendants of people who stole cultural treasures during colonialism,” Gruetters added, noting that the first rounds are scheduled for next year.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, meanwhile, welcomed the agreement reached with Nigerian museums and authorities to work out a plan to return a number of “outstanding” works of art, and said it was “a turning point in tackling our colonial history”.

One historian was happy to take the plans, but said they were not going far enough.

“Unfortunately, there is no specific time plan, no unconditional commitment to recover all the looted artifacts,” said Juergen Zimmerer, a professor of global history at the University of Hamburg.

He also noted that it was not yet clear how many objects would be returned, or whether the efforts of civil society groups requesting the return would be recognized.

The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin has more than 500 historical artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin in its collections, most of them bronze.

Last month, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland became one of the first public bodies to agree to unconditionally return looted bronze.

The British Museum, which has hundreds of sculptures, has set up a Benin Dialogue Group with several other museums to discuss the exhibition in the city of Benin, some of which have been officially borrowed.

Plans are underway in Benin City, the capital of Nigeria, to build a center for the preservation and study of artifacts returned in late 2021 and a permanent museum by 2025.

The National Museum of Ireland is working to return the stolen objects. The Church of England, which did not take part in the looting but was given two bronze busts in 1982, has stated that it will take them home.

According to artist and historian Peju Layiwola, such ads are welcome despite being taken with a pinch of salt in Nigeria.

He has been using his artwork for years to bring bronze to light, believing that it is undeniable evidence of the precolonial suffering of the City of Benin.

“Looking at metallurgy, it can be said that it was a very developed civilization, as it still is,” Layiwola, a descendant of the Benin royal family, told Al Jazeera earlier this month.

“Artists were not skilled in metal sculpture, as well as in understanding aesthetics, in their ability to place cultural meanings; meanings that are important today. “

Despite its deep cultural resonance, few Nigerians today have seen the plundered bronze, most of which is stored abroad.

This, Layiwola said, removes the agency from their history, hindering efforts to achieve an ugly colonial past.

“We were told that our culture was commonplace, that our religion was fetish, that we were pagans. So we need to have some kind of reorientation, a new way of seeing African culture as a whole culture – not one defined by others, ”Layiwola added.

“Returning the bronzes is key to that.”