Dhe packing has begun. Tailor-made transport boxes are available in five German museums in Berlin, Saxony, Hamburg, Cologne and Stuttgart. In them, before Christmas, around 20 of the centuries-old metal castings from the former Kingdom of Benin will return to what is now Nigeria. More detailed information about this first cargo is not yet to be made public, although the date of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s trip to the capital Abuja and also which of the museum objects will travel on the government plane have been set.
Nigeria’s top museum director, Abba Tijani, has selected a cross-section of five centuries of courtly art foundry in various object groups such as sculptures, royal memorial heads, reliefs with historical images, jewellery, ritual and everyday objects, but also a tiny carved ivory mask. Shortly before departure, Tijani will obtain the outstanding signatures from the museum authorities – the individual countries and the city of Cologne. Only the nationwide Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin (SPK) had previously legally transferred its ownership of 514 Benin artefacts to Nigeria – the largest single restitution of non-European collection pieces worldwide.
Dispute between the royal family and the governor
The considerable material value associated with this and the enormous importance in many respects of the antiques, which have achieved international fame as “Benin bronzes”, obviously lead to concerns about their safety. In any case, all those in the know are silent about the exact circumstances of the return. Some museum officials say behind closed doors that this first small handover will also be a test. After all, attacks by the Islamist Boko Haram are not only threatened in northern Nigeria. Kidnappings make traveling across the country dangerous. Bloody conflicts between shepherd nomads and farmers even reached the state of Edo, which was previously considered relatively safe – where the Benin bronzes originated. In addition, there are exaggerated ideas about the financial motor of a future permanent exhibition for the region, which recently led to a dispute between the royal family and the governor over who is responsible, and which could also arouse the desires of the neighboring peoples, who were formerly oppressed by the Benin kings.
Political representatives play down the financial aspect of the return. At the culture committee meeting of the Bundestag in October, Claudia Roth’s head of department, Andreas Görgen, said: “We don’t believe that there is a market for these objects.” The Hamburg Senate put the value of its 179 Benin objects at 58.7 million euros more realistically than the Berlin state cultural authority.
The archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, warned that just transporting the bronzes back to Nigeria could be dangerous. On the occasion of his visit to the Benin bronze exhibition in Cologne’s Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in October 2021, Domradio quoted him as saying: “I don’t want these valuable artefacts to be lost. There is a risk if the return is hasty.” Nevertheless, the current procedure now seems hasty. Surely the German traffic light government finally wants to show some successes. Because the restitution can be presented in the media as the processing of Germany’s colonial legacy as agreed in the coalition agreement. On the other hand, the increasingly impatient Nigerian government and the influential court of Benin could create negative headlines about German hesitation if concrete results are not forthcoming.
Where are the treasures kept?
However, a crucial step before the handover was skipped: creating an exhibition space for the returning treasures. It should have been in Benin City, the former core area of the kingdom – the current capital of Edo State, since spring. Although this is actually Nigeria’s responsibility, the then Foreign Minister Heiko Maas promised financial aid in the summer of 2021 when a Nigerian government delegation and the British-Tanzanian star architect Sir David Adjaye presented him with the facade designs for an Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA). Its first part should be a pavilion in which the recovered cultural heritage of the population is shown.
Only now, when asked, did the Federal Foreign Office estimate the amount of the construction grants at 4.9 million euros up to the year 2024 and another 1.9 million euros for planning tasks. But still not even the foundation stone has been laid. For inquiries about the project, the London office refers Adjaye to the client – the Legacy Restitution Fund (LRT). This Nigerian foundation collects money for the construction in a private partnership, but also does not comment. On its website, the LRT announced the groundbreaking for mid-2022, so that the planned completion of construction as early as next year seems unrealistic.
Since Germany is returning unconditionally, the Nigerian side need not hurry in fulfilling their tasks. Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, who is responsible for culture, rejects criticism of this: “We will have no problems with it. We have storage capacity, curators, air conditioning and everything it takes to set up a museum,” he told British-Nigerian broadcaster Arise News in 2021. German museum directors also repeatedly emphasize that after the transfer of ownership, responsibility would lie in Nigeria’s hands. Nigeria seems to be keeping a low profile even about the forthcoming return transport. “Mr. Tijani will tell us what happens to the objects,” hopes Lars-Christian Koch, director of the Ethnological Museum of the SPK in Berlin. The German side accepts the possibility that the Nigerian museum authorities will also transfer the returns to the palace. As early as 2019, there was a consensus within the international Benin Dialogue Group, founded by the current Hamburg museum director, Barbara Plankensteiner, to “establish and support a new Royal Museum”.
Slavery in Benin
What is surprising about this return is the one-sided moral argument. In her speech at the signing of the declaration of intent, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth emphasized: “We recognize the murders and looting, we recognize racism and slavery, we recognize the injustice and trauma that have left visible scars to this day.” However, they benefited by no means only Europeans from slavery. Rather, they resorted to existing trade structures in West Africa.
Benin’s rulers have always sold prisoners to Arab states. Their business had been boosted by the needs of the transatlantic colonies since the 16th century. That is why the Benin Bronzes are so ill-suited for moral redress for a controversial story. With the attack on Benin City and the plundering of the palace in 1897, the British also enforced their previously issued ban on slavery and ended human sacrifices during court ceremonies.
The director of the Restitution Study Group, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, represents the interests of slave descendants in the USA. At the end of August, in a circular to various German museum directors and politicians, she referred to this origin of many bronzes: that Africans from conquered neighboring areas were exchanged for European copper and brass rings because this material was needed for the mass casting of the courtly ritual objects that are highly valued today. Accordingly, the descendants of those abducted at the time would also be moral co-owners and would have a right to the witnesses of their history remaining in their museums in America and Europe. Their interests should therefore not be valued less than those of the heirs of the black slave traders.
Mrs. Farmer-Paellmann did not receive an answer to her letter from anyone. When asked, the press office of the Federal Foreign Office explained: “The federal government does not answer public letters as a matter of principle.”