BLM, British Museum, and Benin Bronzes: A Question of Restitution

By Eilís Doolan 

After several months of coronavirus closures, museums around the world have reopened to a changed and unfamiliar world. Aside from new regulations about sanitizing, social distancing, and contact tracing, institutions are facing another, much more critical threat to their futures – that of decolonisation through restitution.  

The powerful resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the past eight months has not left museums unscathed. Indeed, it has given new weight to the call for Western museums to address their links to slavery and colonialism. The British Museum is one institution which has faced particular criticism, starting with its response to the death of George Floyd. Alongside many other institutions, the British Museum attempted to express support for BML in June, when director Hartwig Fischer tweeted that the museum is “aligned with the spirit and soul of Black Lives Matter everywhere.” Mr. Fischer’s tweet was met with immediate mockery online. Author Stephanie Yeboah responded: “Did our lives matter when you STOLE ALL OUR THINGS?” “If we matter that much to you, give it back.”  

The critical response to Mr. Fischer’s tweet is understandable – it is difficult to reconcile his statement, deemed “knee-jerk” by many, with the museum’s record on restitution. Indeed, his statement seems to have done more harm than good, only drawing further attention to the museum’s failure in this area. 

Founded in 1753, the British Museum is the world’s largest global history museum, possessing over eight million artefacts from around the world, including some 73’000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa. However, the museum’s ownership of many of these objects has been scrutinised, and they are facing accusations that they were not legitimately obtained but stolen from their rightful owners. 

Benin Bronzes on display at the British Museum in London (credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty)

Among the most contentious items in the museum are the Benin Bronzes, which embody the results of extractive colonialism. Originally produced by the kingdom to depict the history of the Royal Court of Benin City, thousands of objects from their collection were looted in 1879, when British military forces invaded Benin on a ‘Punitive Expedition.’ These treasures ended up in museums and private collections around the world- about 800 of them ended up in the British Museum. For years, the museum has faced calls for the bronzes to be returned to Africa. Indeed, in 2000, the Benin royal family requested the property to be restored to them. Yet, the British Museum has yet to return a single object. The museum has expressed willingness to loan some items to Nigeria – but it refuses to return them permanently. 

To say that the British Museum has done nothing to decolonise itself would be misleading. Since reopening, it has introduced two main changes. Firstly, the museum moved a bust of its founder, Hans Sloane, to be displayed in a case alongside objects related to the British involvement in the slave trade, where he is clearly labelled as a “slave owner.” The second change consists of the museum’s creation of a new guided route named “Collecting and Empire,” which aims to explain how items made their way into the museum—though it emphasises that most objects were bought or donated, not stolen. 

Bust of Hans Sloane, displayed in case with items related to Britain’s involvement in slave trade (credit: Tom Jamieson)

The museum’s efforts are fundamentally undermined by their reluctance to take action regarding the Benin Bronzes. According to Chika Okeke-Agulu, professor of African and African Diaspora art at Princeton university, the museum must commit itself to the necessary project of cultural reconstitution, if it truly wants to decolonise. He posits: “the British Museum still behaves like a colonial museum. You cannot claim to be an encyclopaedic collector of stolen objects.” 

Returning African objects to their legitimate owners is not only a long-overdue chance for cultural institutions to atone for crimes committed under colonialism—it is a chance to listen to black voices, and to allow Africans to control their own heritage. Currently, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of all African heritage is held in museums outside the African continent. As a result, most Nigerians will never have a chance to see the Benin Bronzes, a crucial part of their collective historical identity, in their home country. The opportunity to see one’s own heritage becomes reserved for those privileged enough to afford international travel. Tandazani Dhaklama, assistant curator at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, argues that Africans “deserve the right to engage with and see themselves in their own culture, their own heritage on African soil.” Dan Hicks, restitution scholar and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, further argues that restitution has the power to undo structures of whiteness that museums have historically enforced. The economic impact of restitution, too, cannot be understated. Europe’s institutions generate around 509 billion euros each year – a benefit from which African nations have been excluded. In this sense, Onyekachi Wambu, the executive director of the African Foundation for Development, finds that restitution can be a step “towards constructing a more just future.”  

The long and ongoing fight for restitution has seen some successes, although they have been few and far between. In 2014, a grandson of a British soldier on the ‘Punitive Expedition’ returned two inherited items to the Benin Royal family. In 2018, the Museum of Black Civilisations (MCN) opened in Senegal, which documents the diverse history of the black world and calls for all stolen African objects to be returned. So far, the MCN has only received one item back, namely the sword of Omar Saidou Tall, which was returned by the French government in 2019 as part of a French project to return 26 artefacts to Benin. In response to George Floyd’s death, arts charity Culture& has announced the publication of a new BLM charter, intended to hold the heritage sector accountable and to encourage the decolonising of collections. According to Errol Francis, Culture& CEO, “the moral case has now become overwhelming. It’s unstoppable.” So far, only the Wellcome Collection and the Museums Association have made contact with Culture&. 

Prince Edun Akenzua and Mark Walker in 2014, at a ceremony in Benin City two return two artifacts (credit: Kelvin Ikpea/Agence France-Presse)

Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza at the Palais de Justice courthouse on September 30, 2020 (credit: Thibault Camus/AP)

Two weeks ago, five activists faced trial on theft charges for trying to remove a nineteenth century African funeral staff from the Quai Branly Museum in Paris this June. Congo-born activist Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza streamed the entire act on Facebook Live, parading it around the building and telling viewers: “We’re taking it home.” The men argued that the removal of the Chadian object, which was quickly stopped by guards, was an act of protest against colonial pillaging. The protesters were charged with attempted group theft of a historical object, facing up to ten years in prison and 150’000 euros in fines. In the courtroom, Diyabanza defended himself: “appropriation wasn’t my goal... The aim was to mark the symbolism of the liberation of these works.” The Parisian court reached a verdict today, fining Diyabanza 2’000 euros.

While the debate around restitution shows no signs of slowing down, it still remains to be seen whether museums will stand behind their knee-jerk reactions to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Alongside the scrutinising of diversity among staff and exhibited artists, the project of restitution is a crucial part of the heritage sector’s obligation to address the outstanding debt of colonialism. “It’s a test for us as a sector to see how resilient we are,” Hicks concludes, “how willing we are to change so that we aren’t hurting people by allowing displays that are racist or hurtful in any other way to exist.” 

Bibliography: 

Adams, Geraldine Kendall. “Black Lives Matter charter calls on heritage sector to turn words into action.” Museums Association. Published 23 July 2020. Accessed 30 August 2020. https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2020/07/24072020-black-lives-matter-charter/#.

 Marshall, Alex. “The British Museum Reopens to a World That Has Changed.” The New York Times. Published 27 August 2020. Accessed 20 August 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/arts/design/british-museum-reopening.html.

“Q&A: Racial Justice and Restitution.” Open Society Foundations. Published August 20 2020. Accessed 1 September 2020. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/q-and-a-racial-justice-and-restitution.

Hickmon, Gabrielle. “The Long Fight for Restitution.” Condé Nast Traveller. Published 28 August 2020. Accessed 30 August 2020. https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-long-fight-for-restitution.

Styles, David. “Black Lives Matter, Benin Bronzes and Britishness: how can UK museums decolonise?” Museums + Heritage Advisor. Published 27 August 2020. Accessed 1 September 2020.  https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/black-lives-matter-benin-bronzes-and-britishness-how-can-uk-museums-decolonise/.

“Activist seeking to ‘return’ African art go on trial in France.” Aljazeera. Published 30 September 2020. Accessed October 4 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/30/a-congolese-activist-and-four-others.

“Activist fined over anti-colonialism stunt at Paris museum.” Aljazeera. Published 14 October 2020. Accessed 14 October 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/14/activist-fined-for-dislodging-african-art-from-paris-museum.