The clamor for the return of the Benin bronze figures to Nigeria has been on going since the 1930’s with Nigerian’s at home and in diaspora speaking with with one voice against their stay in London and Berlin.
The valuable artifacts were stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin by the British when they sacked Benin City in 1897. The royal palace was razed to the ground, and Benin City, in what is now the southern Nigerian state of Edo, was almost destroyed. The German government had signed an agreement to return these artifacts to their home in July and true to their word, twenty one of those artifacts were returned yesterday to Nigeria’s minister of culture Lai Mohammed.
“She comes back to where she belongs,” Germany’s foreign minister Anaelena Baerbock said as she handed over a miniature mask of the Iyoba (queen Mother), made of ivory and decorated with yellow glass pearls, red coral and a crown of stylised electric catfish, which was looted from the bedchamber of the last independent oba.
A sample of more than 1,000 Benin bronzes whose ownership Germany legally transferred to Nigeria on 1 July, the artworks were picked up by lorry from the museums, loaded into the cargo hold of a German air force plane at Cologne airport and then flown to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, via Berlin on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the artworks were unwrapped and put on display on the back of a stage inside the wood-panelled conference hall at Nigeria’s foreign ministry.
Whilst there is no official official statement from the British government on any plans to return the Benin bronze figures in their possession to Nigeria, A British museum had agreed to return 72 Benin bronze figures to Nigeria stating that it was “The right thing to do” as the figures had been acquired through force.
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