On Wednesday, the administration in charge of Cambridge University college and a Paris museum returned the cultural artefacts plundered from West Africa during the colonial era, establishing a precedent that will put pressure On other Western institutions also to restore the stolen artefacts.
A sculpture of a cockerel captured by British forces in 1897 has been restored by authorities of Jesus College in Cambridge, one of hundreds of bronzes pillaged from Nigeria, which was once called the powerful kingdom of Benin. The Benin Bronzes are culturally significant artefacts from Africa.
Sonita Alleyne, a senior member and Master of the Jesus College told the media ahead of the ceremony where the cockerel was handed over to a Nigerian delegation that it was the right thing to do out of respect for the artifact’s unique tradition and history.
The object was looted and presented to Jesus College by the parent of a student in 1905. In 2019, the institution, which has a cockerel on its crest, stated that it would return it to Nigeria.
The officials from Quai Branly museum in Paris gave over 26 artefacts stolen in 1892 to the Republic of Benin. They are among the 5,000 works that the West African country, which borders Nigeria, has requested.
The handovers mark a defining moment in Africa’s years-long quest to reclaim works pillaged by explorers and colonisers, coming at a time when many many European institutions were dealing with colonial cultural legacies.
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