DAWN

Page 58

Governance

Why it’s not Nearly Enough that Germany Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronze

By Jürgen Zimme

AFTER YEARS OF PRESSURE, Germany recently announced that an agreement had been reached to return hundreds of priceless artefacts and artworks that had been looted from Nigeria in colonial times and were on display in German museums. Commonly called the Benin Bronzes, these beautiful and technically remarkable artworks have come to symbolize the broader restitution debate. Why has it taken so long, will other countries follow Germany and what happens next? We asked a leading expert on colonial German history and a prominent voice in the debate around the artefacts, Dr Jürgen Zimmerer, to tell us. What are the Benin Bronzes and why are they so important? The Benin Bronzes—or rather Benin objects, because not all of them are made of metal; some are ivory or wood—are objects originating from the Kingdom of Benin, in today’s Nigeria. When the British Empire invaded the kingdom in 1897, thousands of the objects were looted, partially to pay for the costs of the military expedition. They were later auctioned off in London and elsewhere and soon became central pieces in the collection of many museums in the Global North. Due to their artistic brilliance, they changed the way Europeans saw African art, as they could no longer pretend that there was no art in Africa but only craftsmanship, as the old racist colonial stereotype had it. Nevertheless the Europeans, and later the US, had no problem keeping the loot. Why are they in the news now? Almost since their looting, demands for their restitution have been made by Nigeria and other African states. So they were never entirely absent, but perhaps not in the global media. Now, with the intense interest in the question of colonial loot, the

58

November-December 2021

focus has also turned to them. Central for this shift in interest was the announcement by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017 in Ouagadougou, to return colonial loot from French colonial museums and to commission the ground-breaking report by Senegalese academic and writer Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy that ultimately supported his decision. So was the approaching opening of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin (which eventually opened on 20 July 2021), one of the largest museums in the world. It houses the collections of the former Berlin ethnological museums and more than 200 Benin Bronzes were meant to go on display there. However, activists and scholars, who had pointed to the problem of colonial loot, have stopped the plans for the moment, not least because of the international media interest. In Germany, this parallels the attempt to come to terms with the first genocide of the 20th century, committed against the indigenous Herero and Nama people in what was then German South west Africa, today Namibia, which also drew attention to the question of colonialism and its legacies. How has Germany handled the return? Poorly, very poorly, to be honest. Those in charge of (cultural) policy and many of the museums were initially unaware of the “problem” of colonial loot at all. When pressure mounted, they downplayed the critique, ridiculed the critics, then attacked and defamed them. The low point, so far, has been one of the initial founding directors of the Humboldt Forum, the art historian Horst Bredekamp, accusing postcolonial critics of being anti-Semitic. All this in order to protect both the collections and the traditions of Western scholarship connected to them against the allegation—justified in my opinion—of having ignored the racist traits in their DAWN

www.africabusinessassociation.org


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Articles inside

Milwaukee Bucks Celebrate NBA Championship with White House Visit

2min
page 105

How Masai Ujiri is Using Basketball to Transform the Lives of African Youth

8min
pages 109-111

Pro-gamers are Pu ng Kenya on the Global Esports Map – Quartz Africa

7min
pages 106-108

UFC Will Debut in Africa in 2022, Thanks to African MMA Champions

1min
page 104

6 Essen al Essays by Groundbreaking Cultural Cri c Greg Tate

2min
pages 102-103

Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

4min
pages 100-101

African Vibes' Mag Off ers List of 10 Educa on Apps all Parent's Should Know About

2min
page 92

Google Honors the Founder of African Sign Language Studies in one of Their Latest Doodles

1min
page 96

Cambridge University to Return Benin Bronze to Nigeria in Historic Moment

2min
page 97

'A Tes mony that We Existed': Benin Receives Looted Art from France

2min
pages 98-99

Ethical AI Trained on Reddit Posts Said Genocide is OK if it Makes People Happy

6min
pages 90-91

‘There’s a Blockchain App for That’

6min
pages 93-95

Founder of Tribl Messaging App for Pan-African Commerce Plans for a New Black Wall Street

3min
page 89

Black Company Raises $2.4 Million to Build

2min
page 88

This 29-year-old is on Track to Build a $1,000,000 So ware Development Company

11min
pages 83-87

Worldcoin Launches a Global Cryptocurrency that will be Given to Every Person on Earth

4min
pages 81-82

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners Closes Second Fund with $325 Million in Capital Commitments

3min
pages 79-80

Silicon Valley has Deep Pockets for African Startups – if you’re not African

9min
pages 70-72

Google will now off er African Startups more than No-Strings Cash and Offi ce Space

6min
pages 74-78

African Stock Exchange/Bourse

2min
pages 68-69

West African Regional Bloc Adopts New Plan to Launch Eco Single Currency in 2027

1min
page 67

Permanent Forum on People of African Descent

5min
pages 62-63

Africa's First Chief Heat Offi cer - on a Mission

2min
page 66

The United Na ons Could Finally Create New Rules for Space

6min
pages 64-65

Erdogan Meets Liberia's Weah, Leaders of Togo Burkina Faso

1min
page 61

Pfi zer Moves to Allow Cheap Versions of Promising Covid Pill

2min
pages 56-57

Why it’s not Nearly Enough that Germany is Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronzes

4min
pages 58-59

Biden Meets Kenya's President Uhuru Kenya a at the White House

1min
page 60

WHO-led Program Aims to Buy An viral COVID-19 Pills for $10

5min
pages 54-55

How Tech and Agriculture can Help Africa’s Pandemic Recovery

3min
pages 40-41

Eco-friendly, Lab-grown Coff ee is on the Way but it Comes with a Catch

6min
pages 45-46

WHO Honors Henrie a Lacks for "Incalculable" Medical Breakthroughs

6min
pages 47-49

Re red Black Surgeon is on Global Mission

4min
pages 50-51

Growing Crops Under Solar Panels - a Bright Idea

7min
pages 42-44

First Malaria Vaccine Approved by W.H.O

5min
pages 52-53

An Airline CEO’s Strategy for Making African Avia on Sustainable

14min
pages 36-39

COP26: World Leaders Promise to end Deforesta on by 2030

2min
page 35

Nearly 90 Countries Join Pact to Slash Planet Warming Methane Emissions

2min
page 34

How Mobile Money Grew in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Last 10 Years

3min
pages 30-31

Nigeria Launches Digital Currency ‘to Drive Economic Growth’

2min
page 32

USAID Delivers on Prosper Africa Goals with Africa Trade and Investment Program

2min
page 33

Has Black Lives Ma er Really Helped African Brands?

5min
pages 24-25

Africa’s Post-Covid Economic Recovery will be an Uphill Ba le

2min
page 28

Alphabet Device Makes Drinking Water From Air

4min
pages 26-27

With 900,000 Developers, Here's Where the Next Big Startup Ecosystem Will Be

1min
page 29

What I've Learned as a Black Female Founder in Silicon Valley

5min
pages 22-23

400 Rand - The Global Gig Worker

5min
pages 8-9

Make Your Business Idea a Reality

5min
pages 10-11

5 Strategies Entrepreneurs can Incorporate to Build Brand Awareness

3min
pages 14-15

“Something from Nothing,” Inspiring People to Turn their Dreams into Reality

2min
page 7

The Interna onal Cheat Sheet for Startups and Small Businesses

11min
pages 16-19

Chris an Loubou n, Sabrina Elba, and Idris Elba Reinvented Red-Bo oms for a Cause

3min
pages 20-21

‘Invest in Yourself’: How to Grow Your Business With Self-Investment, Educa on and Authen city

4min
pages 12-13

Publisher's Message

3min
pages 4-6
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.