African-American activists say Benin Bronzes shouldn’t be returned to Nigeria as it ‘profited from slavery’

[GemState]

A civil rights group in the United States has petitioned the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission to reject the repatriation of looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria because the West African nation also “profited from slavery.”

According to The Telegraph, the petition from the New York-based Restitution Study Group comes after the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge announced their intention to return the prized Bronzes to Nigeria. But the artworks can only be returned after the Charity Commission gives the green light.


British forces looted the artworks during an 1897 raid in the Kingdom of Benin. The city is situated in what is now known as Nigeria. The Restitution Study Group, which undertakes legal initiatives to have descendants of African slaves receive reparations, said it wants the Bronzes to remain in UK museums.

“We ask that you reject any request to transfer them to Nigeria,” the group wrote in a letter to the Charity Commission.

“The Kingdom of Benin, through Nigeria, would be unjustly enriched by repatriation of these relics. Black people do not support slave trader heirs just because they are black. Nigeria and the Kingdom of Benin have never apologised for enslaving our ancestors,” the group added.

“We ask that you not approve the transfer of these relics.”

The Kingdom of Benin was involved in the slave trade before the city’s ultimate collapse. European and American slave traders purchased enslaved people from the kingdom. The kingdom also used the earnings it received from the trade to make Bronzes that were used to adorn its royal palace.

U.S. activists say Benin Bronzes shouldn't be returned to Nigeria as it 'profited from slavery' - Face2Face Africa

The Restitution Study Group says it doesn't want Western museums to repatriate looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria because it also “profited from slavery.”

face2faceafrica.com

 

[GemState]

 

[Aurelian]

Ok, Nigeria didn’t exist back then.

 

[Macquul ah]

Mashallah the the African Americans are finally waking up they need to also get reparations from West Africans. The #ADOS movement is blessing, pan-Africanism is fake.

 

[Hotchick12]

Yes finally the west Africans getting the smoke that they should have in the beginning

 

[Reformed J]

I stand with ADOS and all those wronged seeking justice. Hold those slavers accountable for selling their ancestors into slavery in exchange for mirrors, booze, tobacco, maro dharka and cowrie shells

 

[Based]

 

[Nilotic]

I stand with ADOS and all those wronged seeking justice. Hold those slavers accountable for selling their ancestors into slavery in exchange for mirrors, booze, tobacco, maro dharka and cowrie shells

West Africa definitely needs to reckon with their significant role in the slave trade; Africa has probably been bedevilled by traitors and sell-outs more than any other continent or region of the world.

 

[Omar del Sur]

I think it's a dumb move. Europeans move as one when push comes to shove.

 

[Reformed J]

West Africa definitely needs to reckon with their significant role in the slave trade; Africa has probably been bedevilled by traitors and sell-outs more than any other continent or region of the world.

Traitor and sell-out are unfair characterizations imo. The Pan-African/Pan-Black 'us against them' thing is an unrealistic standard that hadn't been implemented anywhere else in the world. Europeans didn't enslave other Europeans to work on their plantations in the world because they've all been Christianised since the conclusion of the Baltic crusades and Reconquista. As a Christian couldn't enslave another Christian; whites had no sense of racial loyalty, it was a sense of religious kinship if anything.

 

[Hotchick12]

I think it's a dumb move. Europeans move as one when push comes to shove.

No they don’t, look what happens to the Jews and the Circassians

 

[Deleted L]

West Africa definitely needs to reckon with their significant role in the slave trade; Africa has probably been bedevilled by traitors and sell-outs more than any other continent or region of the world.

A lot of people don’t seem to talk about this. It’s always “let’s blame the White man” with these people.

 

[Omar del Sur]

No they don’t, look what happens to the Jews and the Circassians

well that you cite Jews as an example just reinforces my point. they consider the Jews as outsiders, at least traditionally.

as for Circassians, who are Circassians?

ok I looked them up and it says they were persecuted and subjected to genocide I believe by Russians. it also says they are mostly Muslim.

so your post reinforces my claim. from their perspective, at least traditionally, they perceive Jews and Muslims as aliens. European identity and Christianity are deeply tied together historically.