Historic Return: Celebration in Nigeria as US hands over two Benin artefacts

Femi Fabunmi

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA, has returned two famous Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) announced on Monday.

Olugbile Holloway, head of the NCMM, said the return was an important moment for Nigeria. He explained that the bronze artworks are a major part of the country’s history and culture.

The Benin Bronzes are a large collection of metal sculptures and plaques made in the old Benin Kingdom (now Edo State, Nigeria) from around the 1500s. British soldiers took them in 1897 after invading the Benin royal palace. Since then, the artefacts have been kept in museums and private collections around the world.

In recent years, some Western museums in countries like Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands have returned several of these artworks, but many are still missing.

Nigeria’s culture minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, described the return from Boston as a “historic moment.” She said talks were still going on with other museums, and she believes more of the bronzes will eventually come back to Nigeria.

There has been some disagreement in Nigeria about who should control the returned bronzes. The Oba of Benin says the artefacts belong to the Benin royal family because they were taken from his ancestors’ palace.

But others think the new Museum of West African Arts (MOWAA) in Benin City might manage them. The museum says it has no such plan.

In a similar development, more than 130 gold and bronze items taken from Ghana in the late 1800s and early 1900s were recently returned to the Asante king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

These items included royal objects and cultural symbols that show the history aqnd traditions of the Asante people.

The returns are part of growing international pressure on Western museums to give back African artefacts taken during colonial times.