NOW, THAT NIGERIA HAS TURNED UP THE HEAT ON THE LOOTERS…

ARTS & REVIEW

The official handover of the Benin bronze objects by two British universities as well as the submission of Nigeria’s official demands for the return of its looted objects herald a brighter prospect for the retrieval of other antiquities in the custody of Western museums. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

Recent landmark events of the just-concluded week should be a morale booster for advocates for the return of Nigeria’s looted artefacts. First, there was the Wednesday, October 27’s formal handing over of the Benin Bronze cockerel, called “Okukor”, to the officials of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments by the Jesus College of the University of Cambridge, England on in its premises. Then, following closely on the heels of this event, the following day, was the return of a Benin bronze head by the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

There was, of course, also the British Museum’s hosting of the Benin Dialogue Group for a discussion with museum administrators in Europe and Nigeria on how to repatriate Benin bronzes strewn all over the world. Perhaps, the major highlight of that event was the delivery of Nigeria’s government’s demand for the return of the country’s antiquities in the British Museum. The seven-page letter, signed by the Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was delivered by the National Commissions for Museums and Monuments director-general Professor Abba Isa Tijani on Monday, October 25. This was to the British Museum’s Trustees and its chairman, Sir Richard Lambert, through a director of the museum, Dr Hartwig Fischer.

Back to the historic handover of Okukor by Jesus College. Hopes that it would bring other repatriation ceremonies in its train are further buoyed up by the Nigerian government’s tenacity to keep the concerns over the ethics of plundered historical artefacts on the front burner. The college had earlier reiterated its commitment to returning the stolen bronze cockerel to its original owners. A statement by the Master of Jesus College, Ms Sonita Alleyne, had described the gesture as “historic”, adding: “We look forward to welcoming representatives from Nigeria and Benin to the handover ceremony and to celebrating the return of this Bronze.”

Events that climaxed to this handover, which had since been hailed by the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, dated back to February 2016. This was when student campaigners demanded in an 11-page report it had presented to the college’s student union, urging that the statue, which was later removed from public display the following month, be returned to the “community from which it was stolen.”

The bronze cockerel was believed to be among the objects acquired by George William Neville, a member of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Lagos and a businessman who had accompanied the British Expedition to Benin City in 1897. Neville had, upon his return to the UK, displayed in his home in Weybridge.

Neville had in 1905 gifted Okukor to Jesus College, where his son was studying. The college’s records corroborate the fact that it had “agreed gratefully to accept” the “gift of the bronze figure of a cock which formed part of the spoil captured at Benin, West Africa and to thank Mr Neville for making this appropriate gift.”

Thus, until March 2016, when the college removed it from the display and agreed to consider its future, the statue used to adorn its dining hall. Three years later, in 2019, it acknowledged the fact that it “belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin” and should be returned to Nigeria. This was backed up by an authorisation by the Charity Commission for England and Wales in December 2020 for the bronze statue to be transferred to the Oba of Benin. This was after the college’s application by under s. 106 of the Charities Act 2011.

As for the University of Aberdeen’s return on Thursday, October 28 of the Benin bronze head, it was in fulfilment of a promise it made days after the Humboldt Forum Museum in Berlin had said it was pursuing the return of its Benin bronzes.

This was a fallout of a conversation the university had instigated in 2020 through a Babcock University law professor Bankole Sodipo with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments through its legal adviser Babatunde Adebiyi, the Edo State Government through the state’s then attorney-general and Commissioner for Justice Professor Yinka Omoregbe and the Oba of Benin’s royal court through Prince Professor Gregory Akenzua.

The conversation, which led to the Scotland-based university becoming the first institution to agree to the full repatriation of the Benin bronze in its custody, was also endorsed by the Nigerian government through its Information and Culture Ministry and its minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The bronze sculpture, which depicts an Oba, was acquired by the university in 1957. It attests to the high-quality metalworking skills of the ancient Benin Kingdom, which was sacked by the 1897 British military expedition. A review of the university’s collection, according to its Head of Museums and Special Collections, had identified the bronze head of an Oba as having been acquired in a way they considered “to have been extremely immoral”.

This led to the university initiating a meeting with the possible claimants. After a deliberation of a panel of experts, which included academic specialists, curators, the university’s court’s representatives, the officials of the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum and the Nigerian claimants, it was unanimously agreed that the looted object be returned to Nigeria. This was a move welcomed by both the Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the University of Aberdeen’s principal and vice-chancellor, Professor George Boyne.

While Alhaji Mohammed hailed it as “a step in the right direction”, Professor Boyne said: “It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances.”

Meanwhile, excerpts from the letter, delivered by the National Commissions for Museums and Monuments director-general Professor Abba Isa Tijani at the instance of the information minister on Monday, October 25, explicitly called on the British Museum “to return Nigerian artefacts in the British Museum to Nigeria so that our museums and palaces can have things to show the present generation.”

The letter also alluded to the previous demands made by Nigeria to the British Museum at different fora. An example was when a replica of the Queen-mother Idia mask had to be used as the FESTAC ’77 (the second edition of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture) official mascot after when the British Museum refused to lend or sell the original to the Nigerian government.

While acknowledging the difficulties and constraints that might be faced by the British Museum in the event of relinquishing the stolen objects in its possession, the minister argued that the thoughts leading to the said provisions were mooted in the era of the British Empire, hence the “British Museum cannot hold on to the arts and antiquities of other friendly nations now under those terms.”

The letter further echoed the calls, canvassed over the years by activists, that source-nations be allowed to derive some benefits from their patrimony. Among other proposals, it insisted “that new agreements must be wrought which effect is first, the legal transfer of Nigerian antiquities in the British Museum to Nigeria and second, the physical return of Nigerian antiquities from the British Museum to Nigeria. Thereafter, agreements on joint travelling exhibitions, loans and other similar arrangements which are commonplace in the museum world can be discussed.”

In a related development, Nigeria is closing in on the tracks of stolen the Ife bronze head, known as “Ife 2”, which was stolen in a break-in at the National Museum Jos, Nigeria in 1987. “It was stolen alongside eight other very important antiquities of high value,” a document signed by Adebiyi disclosed. “The guard at the museum was beaten and was almost killed.”

According to Adebiyi, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) duly reported this theft to the local police and the INTERPOL. “Nigeria also reported to the UNESCO, this prompted UNESCO to announce the loss of the object to the world through its Quarterly Report of 1987.”

This explains Nigeria’s ongoing submission – presented by Adebiyi as its counsel – against Britain and Belgium before the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP), which was heard on Monday, September 27. Alhaji Mohammed had alluded to this case at the press conference he held in Lagos on Saturday, July 17. “We are currently before the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to it Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) in Paris, where we have instituted a claim against a Belgian who wanted to auction an Ife Bronze head valued at $5 million, at least,” he had said. “This Ife Bronze antiquity has been seized by the London Metropolitan Police, pending the decision on who the true owner is. Of course, we all know that the true owner is Nigeria.”

Similarly, Nigeria looks forward to December when the agreement for the repatriation of Benin bronzes held in Germany (which should be concluded by August 2022) would be signed.