(Cambridge) To cheers and with a fanfare of trumpets, Cambridge University officially handed Nigeria a bronze rooster sculpture looted a century ago on Wednesday, becoming the first UK institution to return an item stolen during the colonization.
A delegation of Nigerian officials received at this highly symbolic ceremony organized by Jesus College Cambridge this fine sculpture, known as “Okukor”, the culmination of a procedure triggered by a student protest in 2016.
The work of art, donated in 1905 by a British soldier, father of a student, is one of hundreds of sculptures, engravings and bronzes looted in 1897 in the kingdom of Benin, which today corresponds to the southwest of Nigeria.
“I am really proud that we are the first institution to follow through on this moral imperative to make Benin a bronze,” college director Sonita Alleyne told AFP.
“We are delighted that it is now in the hands of its rightful owner,” she said during the ceremony, hailing a “truly historic occasion”.
His institution withdrew in 2016 the rooster, which once decorated the refectory, after a campaign led by some of its students against symbols recalling the British colonial past.
This questioning is further reinforced in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement: after the death of George Floyd, a black American killed by a white policeman in May 2020, disputes, questioning and introspection have spread in the United Kingdom around its colonial past and its representation in public space.
“Example for others”
At the end of the ceremony, the Nigerian delegation held up the bronze to cheers and applause.
“Thank you for this wonderful initiative. The Nigerian people are grateful to you, ”said Ambassador to the United Kingdom Sarafa Tunji Isola, conveying the thanks of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Glad to see that this ancient object, which has been removed from Nigeria for decades, is in excellent condition.” Professor Abba Isa Tijani, director of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, said the act of Jesus college was “a great example for other institutions and other countries.”
Certain European and American institutions have indeed announced their intention to return several looted objects. Thus, France acts on Wednesday the return to Benin of 26 works from the royal treasures of Abomey, so far kept at the Quai Branly museum in Paris.
Abba Isa Tijani, who is also due to travel to Scotland on Thursday to receive a Beninese bronze from Aberdeen University, urged the British Museum, which has the world’s largest collection of bronzes, to follow the same path. which the British institution refuses for the moment.