Posted on 05/05/2023 6:14:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...When on December 20th German foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock headed a large delegation to Abuja, she handed over a second small batch of the 1,130 pieces her country's five leading museums gifted to Nigeria in 2022... Little did she (one hopes) or the German public suspect what Buhari and the NCMM would do, just three months later. Gifting the restitutions to the Oba, who is bound to no enforceable curatorial standards, is controversial in the West; not least because of the campaign by black Americans who descend from slaves, and who demand that the artworks stay safe in the museums and galleries which already display them, with their true history explained.
The Restitution Study Group protests that handing bronzes to today's Oba rewards the Benin Kingdom twice – the first time was when slave traders bought black Americans' manacled ancestors from the Kingdom with bracelets known as 'manillas' (largely brass) which were melted down to cast many of the bronzes; and now a second time today. There is nothing to stop the Oba selling his own property, and the highest known recent sale price was an off-market £10m in London for the ancient and exceptional 'Ohly Head' of an Oba...
Many of them had been standing crusted with the blood of human sacrifices on the Oba's family altars – which, along with the Oba's crucifixions and the history of their slave raiding and selling, is never admitted in Nigeria today. The bronze, ivory and wood relics taken from the Oba's palace were his own personal property and not, as is claimed, cultural artefacts and heritage of the Edo people or of the Nigerian state (which didn't then exist) or today's NCMM.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysceptic.org ...
That headline has me confused enough ... what’s it mean ? ...
Not sure who put the Koran keyword in there but
in this particular case and any case involving human cargo originating in Benin, the sellers and slaves were not Muslim but practicioners of Benin’s traditional religion, Vodun.
The Benin bronzes are the greatest example of native African art. No other African art comes even close!
Apparently, they were made not that long ago, from German material!
Sounds to me like the Oba Kingdom is the ones who owe black Americans reparations.
BTW, is Oba short for Obama?
That headline has me confused enough ... what’s it mean ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I felt the same way..... then I read the article and got even more confused.
“ Scholars, Western visitors and nearly all Nigerians will find it impossible to view bronzes which the Oba claims he would make accessible in some way: the Nigerian Government officially advises against driving the 197 miles from Lagos to Benin due to the danger of carjacking and murder – people should only fly – and like much of that country, Edo State is enduring an epidemic of kidnapping.”
_______________
Sounds like several Democrat run cities in the USA.
bro Peopl cannot rit gud!
Basically, some decent art pieces from this one African culture came to exist, and one day (1897)...some Brits came into the region and ‘acquired’ them (probably hundreds of pieces).
I won’t argue about the art appeal here.
Berlin (German gov’t) over the years came to acquire 20-odd pieces which were in a museum.
This eventually resulted in Nigeria putting a guilt trip on the Germans. Couple of years ago....Germans finally said that they’d fund a big art museum to be built in Nigeria...several million Euro of cost, and then when done, they’d return the art (those 20 pieces).
Well...the museum did get built. But what the Germans did was rig this to return the pieces to the ‘kingdom’ that was originally the owner (not really the government).
The ‘king’ of Benin (Oba) decreed the property was his alone....not of the gov’t or the German museum.
German politicians sat there in shock the past week....weeping openly about how they were mislead on this deal. My prospective....some of the pieces will be sold off eventually, and end up in private collections back in Europe or Asia.
Side note: There are various screw-ups like this going on with German-African relations, and you will see more German weeping as they find out they were misled (over and over).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
