The University of Cambridge officially handed over on October 27, 2021, a bronze sculpture, known as “Okukor”, stolen at the end of the 19th century during British colonization.
This bronze rooster, donated in 1905 by a British soldier, father of a student at Cambridge, is one of hundreds of sculptures, engravings and bronzes looted in 1897 in the former kingdom of Benin, which today corresponds to the south- western Nigeria.
It is the first British institution to return an object stolen during colonization. “We are delighted that it is now in the hands of its rightful owner”, said the head of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, Sonita Alleyne, in the presence of a Nigerian delegation, welcoming a “truly historic occasion”.
This restitution is the culmination of a procedure triggered by a student demonstration in 2016. Jesus College withdrew in 2016 the rooster, which once decorated the refectory, after a campaign led by some of its students against symbols recalling the past British colonial.
A questioning further reinforced in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement: after the death of George Floyd, 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.
“I am really proud that we are the first institution to follow through on this moral imperative to make a bronze from Benin”
Sonita Alleyne, Director of Jesus College, University of CambridgeAFP
At the end of the ceremony, the Nigerian delegation – composed among others of Aghatise Erediauwa, brother of the Oba (king) of Benin – waved 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 this ancient object, which has been kept away from Nigeria for decades, is in excellent shape“Professor Abba Issa Tijani, director of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, considered that the deed of Jesus college constituted”a great example for other institutions and other countries “.
Professor Abba Issa Tijani, traveled on October 28, 2021 to Scotland to receive another Beninese bronze. University of Aberdeen, Scotland, said its museum would return a bronze head from Benin “without condition”. It is a bronze sculpture of a king (oba) of Benin, looted among others by British forces in 1897 during the destruction of Benin City (present-day Nigeria).
The United States, Canada, Germany and France have also announced their intention to return several looted objects. Thus, on October 27, 2021, France announced the return to Benin of 26 works from the royal treasures of Abomey, so far kept at the Quai Branly museum in Paris.
Nigeria through the voice of its ambassador in London urged the British Museum, which has some 950 bronzes from Benin, the largest collection in the world, to adopt the same path, which the British institution refuses to do for the moment. .