Yesterday’s Sunday Times carried a shocking story by Christina Lamb OBE, the foreign correspondent and author.
Incredibly, not once but three times she refers to the outlawed practice of FGM (female genital mutilation) as “circumcision” of girls. That might be forgivable ignorance in a rookie male reporter, but for a writer of Lamb’s gender and experience there’s no excuse.
She reports that the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum’s is currently playing host to a group of Maasai women from East Africa in search of “sacred objects” taken from their ancestors. These include “an emonyorit – an earring worn by girls after circumcision” and “an isikira – a headdress worn by newly circumcised girls”.
The Museum’s enthusiasm for returning artefacts has been widely reported, and in the case of body parts such as shrunken heads, no-one but an idiot would oppose returning them to descendants. More controversial has been the long campaign by Pitt Rivers curator Dan Hicks to gift its superb collection of Benin bronzes to Nigeria.
As DS has reported repeatedly (here, here and here) various developments have derailed the ignorant campaign to return Benin artefacts in the last couple of years.
They were the private cult objects of a murderous line of kings, and never sacred to – or the property of – the Bini people. The greatest setback has been the Nigerian President’s shock decree that all returned Benin items would no longer belong to the Nigerian people (i.e., the National Commission for Museums and Monuments) but would be given to the current Oba of Benin, a private citizen. Similar fates have befallen other artefacts returned to Nigeria.
From 1991-2021, New York’s Metropolitan Museum held two Benin bronze plaques, provided by the British to Lagos Museum around 1951. After independence in 1960, they were looted by Nigerians and resurfaced in the USA. As Barnaby Phillips wrote in the second edition of his book Loot, the Met ignored his information until the first (2021) edition appeared, then caved in and returned the bronzes – not to the British, but to the Nigerians. If they were now safe in the National Commission for Museums and Monuments’ museums in Lagos or Benin, they would be recorded today on Digital Benin, but they’re not – they’ve disappeared.
The Smithsonian Museum’s National Museum of African Art suddenly lost its South African director in March 2023. She’d assured its Regents (trustees) that the RSG’s (Restitution Study Group) argument that the museum’s Benin bronzes were cast from brass bracelets used to buy slaves from the Benin kingdom was untrue. But it was true, as the Smithsonian’s own magazine was about to reveal in its archaeological report on ships wrecked on their way to West Africa. The Museum’s Director Ngaire Blakenberg had to go – and fast.
The Smithsonian secretly handed over 20 bronzes to the National Commission for Museums and Monument anyway (where are they now?) and wants to send nine more. But the RSG currently has a petition before the USA’s Supreme Court, arguing that the Smithsonian has acted unconstitutionally by setting its own restitution policy without the statutory consultation.
The above photo shows RSG director Deadria Farmer-Paellmann visiting the British Museum this month; she’s holding a copy of the Supreme Court petition and had been supposed to meet with a BM curator and a head of department on her visit from the USA – both were unavailable after all, one suddenly taking annual leave – to discuss the BM’s display captioning. Increasingly, museums are seeing the force of RSG’s arguments: that the brass manillas used to buy slaves and then cast the bronzes were “Blood Metal”; that the Obas of Benin were despots who enslaved other West Africans and either sold them to European traders or sacrificed them as ancestor-worship in appalling numbers.
Tens of millions of today’s Americans, Brazilians and Caribbeans are descendants of those slaves. So, says RSG, those “stolen souls” (or rather, their descendants) have a better claim on Benin artefacts than the Obas’ descendants on these “stolen goods”. The RSGs want Benin collections to remain in world museums with accurate descriptions of their origin, to honour the stolen or murdered slaves – among other things, nailing the lie that the 1897 British expedition, which finally deposed the murderous Oba and his regime, also killed thousands of his subjects.
Historically truthful descriptions would also be helpful at the Pitt Rivers Museum, as well as in articles by writers like Christina Lamb. Female genital mutilation is no longer something to be coyly referred to as “circumcision” or tolerated as ceremonial and sacred. It’s the deliberate maiming of defenceless young females, many of whom, if not killed by shock, infection or loss of blood after this torture, suffer lifelong pain. It’s still done in Africa – generally by older female relatives of the same family or tribe – and even, allegedly, in secret in the U.K., where the NHS identified nearly 12,000 victims in 2022.
Stop Press: The U.S. Supreme Court gets over 7,000 petitions a year, asking it to grant a writ of certiorari, and typically accepts only 100-150 of them for hearing. Whether the RSG’s petition against the Smithsonian Museum will be among them is due to be decided this week and presents the court with an interesting challenge to its impartiality. The Smithsonian’s Regents voted in April 2023 to hand over the museum’s Benin bronzes to Nigeria (not the Oba): these trustees include Vice President Kamala Harris and the Supreme Court’s own Chief Justice, Honorable John G Roberts Jr. – neither of whom were present for that vote, as it happens.
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hahahaha
and people wonder why we say it’s not really freedom.
Freedom is just some people talking
Highly Vaccinated Israel Has a Nagging Coronavirus Problem
Analysis by The Vaccine Reaction
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/07/17/israel-covid-cases-surge-post-vaccination.aspx?ui=1fb065e0c4152b58bd4ed94cf29c7cbfad40307fb723460ddabacd55f3c58b0c&sd=20210518&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2HL&cid=20210717_HL2&mid=DM927064&rid=1210361369
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Home Schooling – Ex-Primary School Teacher on Resistance GB YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5oS2ejye0
https://www.hopesussex.co.uk/our-mission
So a vaccine that requires protection from the virus it’s supposed to be protecting people against, isn’t much of a vaccine.
But I thought all BBC staff were given their very own electronic tag to maintain unsocial distancing earlier this year? https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/bbc-coronavirus-employees-wear-proximity-tags-social-distancing-820967
And I often think the government has been offering “little incentives” to businesses to keep pushing the bloody mask mandate!
I just went to pick something up at an optician.
The (not very smart) front office staff are literally behaving as though every visitor could kill them. The door is locked and they are all masked plus with gloves. They even look scared.
I chose not to go in. Too dystopian.
Anyway, I heard the most scary thing (for me) so far in this mess. I asked one of them when she thought this might end. I was trying to get her to think about the fact that perhaps life needs to restart. Her response was that she thinks this will be for the rest of our lives.
A large group of people is seriously brain washed by the media images and (I believe) will never snap out of this.
Agree about the brainwashing, Stephen. If people continue to wear masks when they don’t have to, it begs the question when will they feel safe enough to go without ?
Some will wear them permanently, except, perhaps, in their own home. Some Gov’t radio ads telling people they don’t need to wear a mask outdoors in 30 degree heat right now would be good, to get a semblance of common sense.
Talking of ads has anyone else noticed that the radio ads that were being played every twenty minutes re covid have reduced to almost nothing?
You still haven’t got this. The taxpayer funded ads will continue to instill fear.
The muzzle can possibly still have a use to protect the uninjected against the spike spit spray from the injected lab rats.
pine needle tea, I heard…
You should have told her that if she had been vaccinated, it might be a very short life. Give her something to REALLY think about.
Brain dead more like.
Not just our lives but of those who come after us.
This was precisely what the government wanted when it started this mad policy of lockdown back in March 2020. The MSM has gone along completely with this idiocy; few people holding the rational and opposite view have been allowed anywhere near either the MSM or any governmental site . I have yet to hear mention of the GBD. Some have been so terrified that they are mentally ill and it will take a lot to convince them that their terror is ridiculous and ill founded, encouraged by biased so called “experts” ( if they are experts, it’s mostly not in epidemiology or virology) purely in the interests of them keeping their power over the population.
deary me. I don’t normally like revolution, but really||||||||||||!
I thought the standard symbol of cowardice was a white feather, not a lanyard.
Next week is going to be hilarious. Got no idea what any of the guidance & proclamation’s are now. I wonder if the true Covidian’s do too lmfao.
In England it’s basically wear a mask if you want, except for public transport on TFL in London and some other transport areas where regional Mayors have got involved. None of it has any law behind it, so no fines. They can only ask you to leave, and if you are exempt, you should be left in peace. I’ve no doubt Sadiq Khan’s ‘Enforcement Officer’ goons and others around the country will be heavy-handed for the first few weeks, as they probably won’t be properly trained. I don’t think many shops, entertainment venues will police this now, they’ve lost enough revenue already.
I am 74, fully vaccinated and had a major, life saving op in Dec 2020 from which I have fully recovered. I have no intention of wearing a mask on buses, in shops, in pubs. Recently I did a boat trip, on deck, in then open air, and had to mask up. Breathing my own stuffy air was far more damaging than breathing the fresh sea air. And being forced against my will and against common sense to wear a mask is far more damaging for my stress levels than the “fear” of covid. I agree about loss of revenue – most businesses have been unnecessarily locked down as it is.
Regarding the BBC, I think it’s going to be unworkable in a lot of offices. They will either need to stick to corona safety nonsense, and those who don’t like it will have to put up with it or stay away, or they will have to get back to normal and the frightened or those who disapprove will have to stay away. Having a mixture in one place will just lead to a lot of unpleasantness.
Regarding the gyms, it’s all in keeping with the government’s very clever move to outsource impositing and enforcement of restrictions so they can appear to be giving freedom of choice. It’s especially evil.
Not that it would make much difference, but I would like to see the LS editorial team and TY formally recognise that the PM and senior leadership are our enemies, not our friends, and that they are irredeemable.
Wouldn’t white feathers be more appropriate?
If BBC staff are not returning to work until September as the Telegraph article states they needn’t worry. WFH home will be back by then.
I would have though a small rubber chicken on a necklace would do it.
A white lanyard eh?
What was it women gave to menfolk who would not enlist during WW1?
Ah, I remember, a white feather which denoted cowardice; at the BBC?
How appropriate.
I note a BBC spokesman declaring the importance of “the small steps… needed to keep critical public services on air.”
I suspect most would prefer the BBC did nothing which in itself would be a massive boost to public health.
4 BBC staffers get into a lift.
One has a transgender lanyard.
One has a social distancing lanyard.
Another has a Carbon Zero lanyard.
The last has free Palestine lanyard.
No one makes eye contact.
Nobody gets out alive!
Instead of a lanyard, it would be more fun for everyone if they wore a red nose.
No it certainly isn’t freedom. But then none of us believed it would be.
“Critical public services”?!
Blimey, I like that!
To hell with the cattle scum.
Highly Vaccinated Israel Has a Nagging Coronavirus Problem
Analysis by The Vaccine Reaction
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/07/17/israel-covid-cases-surge-post-vaccination.aspx?ui=1fb065e0c4152b58bd4ed94cf29c7cbfad40307fb723460ddabacd55f3c58b0c&sd=20210518&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2HL&cid=20210717_HL2&mid=DM927064&rid=1210361369
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Home Schooling – Ex-Primary School Teacher on Resistance GB YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5oS2ejye0
https://www.hopesussex.co.uk/our-mission
There’s a surprise BBC workers don’t want to return to work. They continue to spout their propaganda from home.
Muzzle, muzzle and muzzle…you no longer have a voice on ‘freedom day’ there, there, be good children and muzzle up
Or you could use your muzzle as toilet paper!
Are people really ‘scared’ to go to work or are they just lazy sods?
Might dig the old yellow star out – a reminder of where this shit is at now – apartheid by proxy – Lee Jones at summit yesterday was spot in in terms of the ‘outsourcing’ of controls / protocols – let the publican or the gym owner be the enforcer – like self censorship by stealth this is the most corrosive of all tactics – setting humans upon humans – I need to get the F out of here
Twats
Wouldn’t it be a good idea if all of the BBC presenters and journalists just stayed at home indefinitely? Most of us are sick of their COVID propaganda.
Why don’t they ALL decide to work elsewhere and save millions of us the licence fee? Would we miss their brand of bias?
If the ceilings at the BBC are more than 2 metres high (which they will be of course) and the lanyards are strong enough, it should be suggested to them that they could
hangfasten themselves up there, they are then out of harms way, obviously.They might just be
stupidsensible enough to take the suggestion seriously.Making them all wear white is a massive microaggression and i expect someone in HR will be getting a bollocking as a result.