By Ademola Aina – Few days ago, BBC on behalf of the British government reported that Ghana was set to receive 150 years old 32 royal artefacts looted by the British empire from Ghana’s Asante kingdom in the nineteenth century during the colonial era. Although these historical treasures are not to be returned unconditionally or permanently, they are actually loaned to the Ghanaian government for a period of three years.
This has sparked outrage among African people world over, they consider this colonial arrogance ludicrously obscene. Aghast by the British audacity influenced by colonial nostalgia, Africans – many in the cyber space – have consistently asked one question: how can a thief loan his loots to the owners?
This paternalistic relationship that exists between Africa and the west specifically, the British government is hinged on sheer colonial arrogance and racial superiority- this has been the basis upon which Europe has been relating with Africa; it appears that Europe has not purged itself from its colonial mentality that has put the world into an endless cycle of carnage in the last five hundred years. The event that occurred in Festac 77— Pan- African festival of arts and culture held in Nigeria in 1977— is a testimony to this fact. During the Festival of arts and culture, millions of Africans from the continent and the diaspora gathered in Lagos, Nigeria to felicitate the enormity of Africa’s cultural tenacity for the very first time, the then president of Nigeria, General Olusegun Obasanjo demanded that the Benin Bronzes – thousands of which in the first place were looted from the Benin empire in 1897 after the sacking, mass murder and rampage of the country by the Royal Navy under the command of Rear Admiral Harry Rawson – held in the British museum be returned to Nigeria to commemorate Festac 77, the British government overtly refused and instead proposed that these artifacts – specifically the Queen Idia masks be loaned ti the Nigerian government for two million pounds. This attitude as we can see is a proof of British colonial paternalism- the belief that Africans are sub – humans who should be under the “protection” of the imperial states, archetypical of the 19th century Victorian racism. And also, the attitude is largely as a result of the lack of closure on the question of colonialism. Like the post World War Two Nuremberg trials that saw the trials and prosecutions of Nazi war criminals like Hans Frank – Nazi military governor of occupied Poland – for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Africa nations in their collective have not really had closures, not really held to account the people who encroached on their territory, invaded, mass- murdered their people and carted away their historical treasures. It is this lack of accountability that has given the erstwhile colonial states, notably Britain to act as an arbiter in a case of theft in which it is primarily culpable. This then brings forth the ubiquitous questions in the streets of Africa: How can a thief loan his loots to the owners?
After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, following the Second World War and the subsequent Nuremberg trials, Germany and private holders of looted Jewish treasures were compelled to return the historical artefacts, documents and treasures of the Jewish people back to the state of Israel with financial compensation to follow up. Obviously, Germany’s return of Jewish artefacts and treasures including thousands of books to Israel did not stem from western altruism or German benevolence, on the contrary it was a matter of moral responsibility and restitution: Germany coming to terms with her hideous colonial past. If this logic and argument can be applied to Israel and the Jewish people, why can it not be extrapolated to Africa? Why are African historical treasures – including skulls of African ancestors – looted during the colonial period still lying in western museums after more than a century?
A commentary on Barnaby Phillips’ book, Britain and the Benin Bronzes by a Benin city artist says: ‘Benin Bronzes’ are now among the most admired and valuable artworks in the world. But seeing them in the British Museum today is like visiting relatives behind bars’. This insightful commentary does not only evoke a poignant history of British colonialism, it also illuminates the cultural, religious and historical significance of these artworks and treasures, these African treasures, clearly do not exist for the amusement and artistic consumption of westerners in the imperial metropole, on the contrary, they are an embodiment of the culture and history of African people, not only are they aesthetically fascinating, they are a legacy of African forebears; they therefore do not deserve to be perpetually incarcerated in museums far across the Atlantic in Europe and America, they belong where they were carted from: Africa. Britain, who is primarily responsible for these dispossessions must come to terms with its colonial past and unconditionally return these artefacts to their rightful owners.
Ademola Aina wrote from Lagos, Nigeria
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