The Museum of West African Artwork (Mowaa) and the row over Nigeria’s Benin Bronzes

[ad_1] Todah Opeyemi BBC Africa, Benin Metropolis

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/9cb4/live/1e47dd70-bffe-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="AFP/Getty Images Guests look out of a window as protesters storm the Museum of West African Art in Benin City - 9 November 2025" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> AFP/Getty Pictures Friends and dignitaries appeared on as protesters stormed the Museum of West African Artwork in Benin Metropolis on Sunday

Nigeria's gorgeous new Museum of West African Artwork (Mowaa) has discovered itself within the crosshairs of native energy politics on the week it was imagined to - however failed - to open its doorways to the general public for the primary time.

The six-hectare (15-acre) campus sits within the coronary heart of Benin Metropolis, capital of the southern state of Edo - and contains an archaeological dig and buildings designed by high-profile British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, greatest recognized for the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition that opened in Washington in 2016.

It has been 5 years within the making - and is envisioned to have a good time each the previous and the current of creativity within the area well-known for the Benin Bronzes, artworks looted from the town's royal palace by British troopers within the nineteenth Century.

It's spectacular - and forward of the deliberate opening, Mowaa was buzzing with employees decided to show it's a place that may rival established museums and galleries within the West.

Inside conservators rigorously unwrapped artworks from protecting packaging, inspecting each bit and taking meticulous data earlier than positioning them on partitions and plinths.

Technicians fine-tuned local weather management programs. Within the supplies science laboratory, officers calibrated tools meant to protect centuries-old artefacts.

The mission has been the brainchild of businessman Phillip Ihenacho - now Mowaa's govt director.

"I need us to have a major financial affect on communities round right here," he informed the BBC, including that he hoped to make Benin Metropolis "a cultural vacation spot".

Mowaa, a non-profit Nigerian establishment, sees itself creating greater than 30,000 direct and oblique jobs and contributing greater than $80m (£60m) yearly to the regional inventive financial system by way of partnerships and programming.

It has taken $25m (£19m) to get right here - cash raised from numerous donors, together with the French and German governments, the British Museum and the Edo state authorities.

However now the native authorities has pulled the rug from below it - revoking the usage of the land on which the museum was constructed.

An Edo state spokesperson informed the BBC this was as a result of within the unique paperwork it had referred to as itself Edo Museum of West African Artwork - and it had since dropped "Edo" from its identify.

This announcement adopted protests on Sunday, when individuals stormed the campus demanding or not it's referred to as the Benin Royal Museum.

A rowdy group insulted international friends on the museum forward of the opening - forcing them to be hurried away below police escort.

President Bola Tinubu has even stepped in to try to resolve the tensions, establishing a high-level committee to do some injury management.

However how has this change into so politicised - and such a PR catastrophe?

A lot of it comes right down to internecine rivalries at a neighborhood state stage, because it was Edo's earlier governor Godwin Obaseki - whose time period in workplace ended final 12 months - who was a serious backer of the museum.

And it appears the administration of the brand new governor, an in depth ally of the native conventional ruler, often known as the Oba, might want extra of a stake within the mission. The protesters on Sunday, for instance, have been demanding that the museum be positioned below the management of Oba Ewuare II.

This brings into focus the contentious subject of the Benin Bronzes, one among Africa's most celebrated cultural treasures.

As a result of even when the museum does finally open, these bronzes will likely be conspicuously absent.

They're brass, ivory and wood sculptures that after adorned the royal palace of the Benin Kingdom earlier than British troopers looted them in 1897 throughout a punitive expedition.

At this time, 1000's stay scattered throughout museums in Europe and North America -- together with the British Museum, Berlin's Humboldt Discussion board and the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.

Their return has change into one of the crucial contested debates within the world artwork world. About 150 have now made their method dwelling - and extra are as a result of comply with.

When plans for the museum in Benin Metropolis have been first introduced in 2019, the movers and shakers on Nigeria's artwork scene hoped it will change into their pure dwelling - a state-of-the-art complicated to indicate them off to the world.

However the waters have been muddied two years in the past after the federal authorities introduced that the Oba could be the rightful proprietor and custodian of any returned bronzes - and the palace pushed for a museum below the royal household's direct management, towards the desires of Obaseki, the previous governor.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fcb6/live/365ab560-c001-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="AFP/Getty Images Oba Ewuare II in royal regalia by Benin Bronze cockerel that was returned " class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> AFP/Getty Pictures The Oba of Benin at a ceremony in 2022 receiving one of many looted Benin Bronzes

This left Mowaa in a fragile place: asserting a transparent stance on restitution whereas remaining diplomatic on custodianship - and emphasising its broader imaginative and prescient, which led to it dropping "Edo" from its identify.

"One of many frustrations I've all the time had is that from the start we've got mentioned we will likely be in regards to the trendy and modern," mentioned Mr Ihenacho.

"However due to the Western story in regards to the return of the Benin Bronzes, everybody saved referring to us because the museum the place they are going to go. The issue with that's we're not the house owners, nor do we've got any authorized title to the bronzes."

His aim is to construct a haven for modern African creativity, together with movie, pictures, music, dance and vogue - not simply visible artwork.

"Sure, we need to concentrate on the historic, however the goal is to encourage the modern," he mentioned.

"What we've got change into is a museum that's actually about creating an ecosystem to help creatives in West Africa."

From a younger Nigerian artist who relocated from the US to work as a conservator, to a latest graduate present process his one-year obligatory nationwide youth service programme, to a Ghanaian PhD candidate conducting analysis, Mowaa has already change into a hub of regional collaboration.

Eweka Success, a 23-year-old sculpture graduate from the College of Benin who has had a tour of Mowaa, welcomed this chance.

He famous that whereas many residents of the town "do not care" in regards to the restitution dialog, the museum nonetheless provided one thing priceless.

"Many people have by no means seen the originals, however there we are able to examine their design, method and historical past extra intently," he informed the BBC.

Cultural specialist Oluwatoyin Sogbesan agrees that the dialog has grown more and more elitist.

"The on a regular basis individual is anxious about making a dwelling, going to work, and feeding their household. Many do not even know in regards to the bronzes," she informed the BBC.

For her, restitution should transfer past simply the return of artefacts to additionally restore reminiscence and language.

"We have to decolonise the time period 'Benin Bronzes' itself," she defined.

"Name them by their unique Edo identify – 'Emwin Arre' [meaning 'Cultural Things'] - what the individuals who made them would have referred to as them."

That is one thing that chimes with the museum's inaugural exhibition - Homecoming - ought to it open to the general public.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c893/live/81909850-c002-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="AFP/Getty Images Someone looking at Yinka Shonibare's Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul - a pyramid-shaped unit featuring more than 150 clay replicas of the Benin Bronzes." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> AFP/Getty Pictures Yinka Shonibare's set up options greater than 150 clay replicas of the Benin Bronzes

It options works by acclaimed artists akin to Yinka Shonibare, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Valuable Okoyomon, and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones - a lot of whom dwell within the diaspora and have not often exhibited in Nigeria.

Shonibare's Monument to the Restitution of the Thoughts and Soul has delight of place - a pyramid-shaped unit that includes greater than 150 clay replicas of the Benin Bronzes.

"Making a monument like that is acknowledging the trauma attributable to the looting of these non secular artefacts," he informed the BBC. "It is a deeply emotional engagement with the trauma of the invasion."

He selected clay intentionally, as a metaphor for reference to the land of Benin itself.

"Within the trendy world, we appear to have change into more and more distanced from nature, whereas our ancestors had a deep connection and respect for it."

The pyramid evokes Africa's historic wonders whereas the replicas communicate to absence and reminiscence.

"The work is conceptual - in regards to the which means of absence, the non secular which means of the bronzes," Shonibare defined. "In a method, the work is cathartic. It's nearly mourning."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0451/live/9994e390-c000-11f0-b081-bfd8669384ab.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="View of workmen seen from inside the new Museum of West African Art" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Employees on the museum hope the federal government will resolve the dispute that has marred the joy there was final week over the opening

Additionally commanding consideration is Ndidi Dike's 2016 mixed-media work Nationwide Grid, which displays on energy, each electrical and political.

Nigerians expertise energy outages so continuously they've change into an accepted a part of day by day life - a metaphor Dike makes use of to query the nation's broader failures in governance and infrastructure.

It's one thing prone to resonate all too properly for these working at Mowaa this week.

Although they could take coronary heart from the phrases of the tradition minister, who's chairing the presidential committee that desires to resolve the dispute.

"Cultural establishments are pillars of our nationwide id and have to be protected by way of collaborative approaches that respect each conventional custodianship and trendy institutional constructions," Hannatu Musawa mentioned.

There are fears the row could injury ongoing efforts to reclaim Africa's stolen artwork, with Western museums feeling justified about their issues over the conservation of returned works.

However many working throughout the partitions of Mowaa stay decided to indicate that their creativity can redefine what a contemporary African museum will be - with or with out historic artefacts.

Extra from the BBC on Nigeria's Benin Bronzes: <img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures/BBC [ad_2] Source link