Loudly though it demands restitution of ancient artefacts from Western museums, the Nigerian Government seems less concerned about the Benin Bronzes which it already owns. Where exactly are they? The questions just keep coming.
Germany signed over 1,130 bronze artworks from five of its state museums on July 1st 2022. Two were presented to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) that day, 20 more at Abuja five days before Christmas.
All the rest now belong to the NCMM, with a few allowed to remain on display in German museums for up to 10 years (but no more than 40 at a time) and the rest in storage. Despite Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s claim in Nigeria that she was returning the bronzes to “you, the people”, they’ve not been seen by the Nigerian people since. The NCMM’s director, the modestly-qualified Professor Abba Tijani, has been quietly handing them over to the Oba (King) of Benin.
In 2018 the enormous ‘Benin Red Book’ was published, propaganda for the present Oba and his forebears covering 592 lavishly printed pages. It weighs 4.8kg without slipcase and Blackwell’s have some new copies online at £55.99 post free – a snip at £11.65 a kilo (you even get ten free teabags). Official title: The Benin Monarchy, an Anthology of Benin History.
Full-page colour plates show Benin ivory and bronze artworks, many credited to German, British, American and Austrian museums (the German pieces now belong to Nigeria of course). Many other pictures are unsourced, but bronzes on pages 73 and 82 are credited to “National Museum, Benin” – the NCMM’s own museum in Benin City.
In November 2022, the German-financed Digital Benin database went online. This splendid resource shows 5,246 artefacts in 131 institutions around the world; the fifth-biggest collection is the 285 pieces at the National Museum, Benin, illustrated with either modern colour snaps or old sepia photos stapled to file cards. Neither of the NCMM’s own bronzes which are shown in the Oba’s propaganda volume is listed. So where did they go between 2018 and the end of 2022?
Since independence in 1960 there have been repeated, well-reported thefts from Nigeria’s state museums, some of which artworks have been returned but many not – the best known being the Windsor Castle Oba which General Gowon stole from Lagos museum to give to Queen Elizabeth II on his state visit in 1973. Why are curators and trustees in the U.K. and America persisting in efforts to restitute bronzes to Nigeria, which seems unable to keep them safe?
The Oba’s book is interesting for a number of reasons. A 1970 colour photo across pages 70 and 71 shows blood-soaked ancestral altars with massive carved ivory tusks and bronze heads, bells and plaques. Bronzes which the 1897 Punitive Expedition found on display in Benin – the ones now shown, cleaned up, in Western museums – were crusted with the blood of human sacrifices then. Presumably by 1970 it was only chicken gore which was being splashed on the altars, to honour the ancestors and in memory of the mass sacrifice of prisoners and slaves in former times.
A modern colour painting on pages 302-3 imagines street fighting in Benin as the expedition deposed Oba Ovonramwen. Most of the advanced column which entered Benin were in fact black soldiers, not the blood-crazed whites shown here, and nor was there any fighting inside the city. A couple of the notoriously inaccurate rockets which the expedition had aimed in the general direction of Benin as it fought through the jungle had landed, by a fluke, in the Oba’s palace compound, so he and his supporters ran away into the bush. Those two rockets prevented an awful lot of bloodshed.
Nor was the city burnt on February 18th: thatched roofs on the far side of town caught fire by accident three days later, and strong wind blew the flames across to the Oba’s palace. The blaze was so sudden and unexpected that only the wounded in the temporary ‘hospital’ and the expedition’s ammunition could be saved from the flames. Officers lost everything but the clothes they stood up in, provisions too, so they were delighted when the Illustrated London News correspondent arrived that evening and shared out his three months’ personal provisions before they set off back to the coast next morning.
The Red Book’s text is as contentious as one might imagine, but fair enough, he who pays the printer may always call the tune. It’ll make a splendid doorstop.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
https://t.me/cxemu/4013
What’s really going on?
Ukraine develops its own long range cruise missile.
The driver for this development is the reluctance of Ukraine’s partners to provide long-range weapons
The R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missile, two of which were used to sink the Russian missile cruiser Moskva a year previously, clearly offered a suitable platform for modification as a long-range surface-to-surface missile (SSM).
Technological improvements to the R-360 include a new stand-alone GPS guidance system which takes the missile close to its target before a seeker head homes in on a pre-loaded image of the final objective and guides a terminal attack.
This system, a combination of two target acquisition technologies called Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation (DSMAC) and Automated Target Recognition (ATR) means the missile will be hard to jam.
The system can deliver a 150-kilogram high explosive fragmentation warhead out to 300 km.
Part of the missile development will be to extend the range of the missile to enable it to strike Moscow (a distance of at least 600 km) and other targets inside Russia.
If the missile can achieve that range, it represents a step-change in Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian rear area locations with big implications for the conduct of the war.
Historically Ukraine was a centre for the development of both missile and aviation technology while part of the Soviet Union.
Latest update:
31 May 2024 Cruise missile attack on Russian Kavkaz port near Kerch.
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defence announced attacks by anti-ship missiles “Neptune” on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The partial damage to the oil depot, as well as the disabling of the “Avangard” railway ferry, as a result of a missile attack on the Kerch port the day before, will complicate logistics for the Russian army in Crimea and on the southern fronts.
It is a shame that military supplies for Crimea go by rail using the land route skirting the Sea of Azov. It means yet more missiles wasted on vengeance attacks
The destruction accomplished by this attack now forces Russia to rely on road and rail links across occupied Ukraine — which puts trains and trucks into easier range of Ukrainian attack.
“Considering the fact that the railway line Russians are building through the occupied territories of Ukraine is not finished yet, this civil ferry was their army’s main logistics route,” Pletenchuk said. “Their sea logistics is also long gone after Ukraine destroyed four and damaged five of their landing ships,”
I don’t blame Nigel Farage for choosing to focus on the US election rather than stand in the UK one. Whoever wins here will sign us up to any global agreement going and kowtow to any global body – the UN, the WHO, Human Rights courts. America, with Trump in charge, still has enough clout to refuse to comply or endorse as he showed with NATO. And if they can do that, we have some chance in the UK that these treaties fail and be spared what any of the parties will merrily sign us up to.
“Keir Stamer caves in and says Diane Abbott can stand as candidate”
Good grief, Starmer is about as tough and decisive as a wet rag! What a disastrous choice for a so called leader
At risk of sounding like a right biatch ( but being a ”better out than in” type of person I’ll plough on anyway ), I think Diane Abbot looks like a hippo. Especially if you see photos of her with her mouth agape. She totally needs a stylist because that severe bob and blunt fringe do no favours for a person with that sort of face. Even the glasses don’t suit her. She should try different shape frames or contacts. Just her entire look is completely unflattering, in my opinion.
I’m off for a saucer of milk now…
I like pussy cats.
Worse than her appearance are her arrogant character and hoity toity personality.
I recall her on Andrew Neil’s late night discussion show with the equally egregious Michael Portillo. She was reasonably presentable then, but her insistence that all and sundry should be allowed to come to the UK was strident and grating.
Immigrants always seem to think they’re much more important and necessary than the historical population that created this country. To ‘enrich it’ as Leftards always dribble. Our culture has not been ‘enriched’ but degraded beyond what anyone could have imagined before mass immigration was forced on us without a ‘by-your-leave’.
Pity the poor constituency flippy floppy Queer Smarmer lets Abbott stand in, though it’s probably going to be a Labour stronghold, so Labour voters will get what they deserve.
Chosen or Placed ! SIR is a clue & member of The Tri Lateral commission the rubber stamp that Starmer is upto no good !!…
The WHO assembly draws to a close.
For now the Pandemic treaty and IHR amendments are off the table.
Big protest in Tokyo.
Today a freedom rally in Geneva (wish I was there…).
They will keep trying though, so this will need to be a long campaign.
Yes it’s ongoing ,also have you seen Tedros the Terror-st telling us that anti vaxers are the cause of people being wary of Fauci,s brew !
Tedros – the disgusting lackey of the Chinese communists.
Not being a specialist in legal or tax matters, let alone American ones, my question is whether Donald trump personally filled in his company tax returns or simply takes responsibility for everything his tax advisers write by signing them off.
If they are good enough for the tax man and at least two previous jurisdictions who declined no to take action, surely Trump himself would not be expected to spot these irregularities.
And the real criminal, to me, is Daniels, who apparently signed a legal document and accepted the cash ensuring her silence, and who then totally ignored her contractual commitment to silence.
Does all this make him a criminal or a dupe? Maybe he would rather be seen as a victim in this election.
“With Starmer floundering, Farage flailing and Ed Davey acting a fool, a Tory revival is now on the cards, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.”
Please, no.
Can’t Ms Tominey have the decency to call out the likes of Fishy and Kneel for the treasonous bar stewards that they are?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/dwp-worker-benefits-fraud-checks-not-enough-stop/
I can confirm that I was routinely in the same position as this DWP whistlblower. I used to say to colleagues that If I had been paid just 10% of the value of the frauds I detected I would have been able to retire a millionaire after twelve months. Fraud is rampant in the benefits system.
About fifteen years ago our office suffered a presentation from a senior manager. Said manager went in to some detail about how in the previous twelve months DWP had achieved a 15% reduction (something ludicrous) in benefit fraud. Unable to avoid stating the obvious I pointed out to the manager that as in the previous twelve months one third of fraud investigators had been re-allocated (non fraud jobs) the reduction in fraud was hardly a surprise because “If you don’t look for it you don’t find it.”
hux received a wagging finger summons for that statement of the bleeding obvious.
The tales I could tell.
Never try to present truth or reason to a lying fool.
“This is horrific and I want to see it fail as a political strategy” says Lionel Shriver
“Trump’s victory is now more likely, not less” says Boris
Of course! That was the whole idea, to stir up mass sympathy for the AntiChrist Drumpf. As he boasted,
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
It’s like watching Mass Hypnosis take over the minds of patriots everywhere…
I’m not a “fan” of Trump or any politician for that matter, but how would you vote if you were in the US? Trump or Biden or Kennedy or someone else? And who would you have voted for in the Republican primaries (assuming you’d be a registered Republican)?
Florida Governor Ron De Santis
Yup with you on that
I would vote Trump now though, because the Democrats are just terrible- clearly you see grave dangers from Trump that I don’t