The story of the Benin Bronzes and how they ended up in Germany

On January 4, 1897, a British party led by vice Consular general James Philip entered the Benin Kingdom. He was accompanied by six other British officials, two businessmen, translators, and 215 porters. His intention was to depose Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi. The Benin Monarch had resisted attempts to take over the Kingdom and so it had remained independent of British rule despite pressure to annex it with the British empire.

When they entered through the north side of the Kingdom, they were ambushed by the guards of the king who had gotten foreknowledge of their plan. Unfortunately for them, their weapons were locked in their head packs. Philip and other members of his party were killed. At the end of the attack, only two Britons survived what was later known as the “Benin Massacre.”

So why was Philip plotting to depose the Oba of Benin and how did the monarch know about the plan which resulted in Philip’s death? It was due to the Oba’s perceived monopolistic control of the resources in the Kingdoms: palm oil, robber, and Ivory. Britain was interested in annexing the Kingdom as part of the Niger Coast protectorate which would also give it access to its wealth but Ovonramwen insisted on doing it his own way..

Philip became impatient as it seemed incomprehensible that the Benin Empire would stand against the British empire’s plan, In November 1896, he wrote a letter to his superiors asking for a recommendation for the enlistment of a Niger Coast protectorate force. His plan was to remove the Benin monarch. In his letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, Philip wrote: “I would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool.”

He then wrote to the monarch informing him of his plan to visit for a peace and trade talk. Unknown to him, Itsekiri traders had also sent a message to the king to let him know of the war plan of Philip.

Philip got a response that his planned visit was declined due to the ongoing ritual in the Kingdom which made it forbidden for him to step foot inside. Without getting any approval from his superior, Philip went with his party to the Kingdom in January 1897 where they were attacked by the guards and killed except for the two Britons, Captain Alan Maxwell Boisragon, Commandant of the Constabulary of the Niger Coast Protectorate, and Ralph Locke, District Commissioner of Warri, who escaped.

Eight days later, Rear Admiral Harry Rawson was instructed to lead an attack against the kingdom, burn it down, and remove the king. He assembled 1200 Royal Marines and on February 9, the invasion began. The kingdom was set ablaze including the palace and famed wall. Hundreds of people were killed although the official number of the people killed has been disputed. What is however confirmed is that eight members of the Royal Marines lost their lives.

The massacre also put an end to the independence of the Benin Kingdom. Oba Ovonramwen was sent on exile to Calabar with his two wives while six chiefs who played prominent roles in the attack against the British party were reportedly rounded up and hung in the marketplace, ultimately, a British resident was appointed to head the kingdom.

Following the massacre, the soldiers carried out large-scale coordinated looting of the Palace, shrines, and homes of chiefs of what is later known as the Benin bronze. Artefacts looted were royal king and queen heads used to decorate the palace of the Oba dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Ivories, ceremonial tusks, carved tusks, shields, staffs, bells, and figurines were also taken away. Any object that had decorative or religious value was taken away. Capt. Herbert Sutherland Walker, a British officer, wrote in his diary that one British soldier was “wandering around with a chisel & hammer, knocking off brass figures & collecting all sorts of rubbish as loot.

“All the stuff of any value found in the King’s palace, & surrounding houses, has been collected.”

Officers from the British raid pose in Benin City in 1897, with some of the bronzes in the background. Credit: Capt. Herbert Sutherland Walker, via Mark Walker

The official figures of the looted artefacts were not recorded partly because some of the soldiers kept to themselves and took home as spoils of wars which later became family heirlooms. In all, more than 2400 artefacts were taken away. Some of them were sold to private collectors while others were given to museums or auctioned. According to Dan Hicks, a curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford and the author of “The Brutish Museums,” they can be found in 161 museums across the world.

Piles of ceremonial tusk. Photo Credit: Capt. Herbert Sutherland Walker, via Mark Walker

Four items which included two ivory towers were gifted to Queen Victoria. The British Foreign Office gave a large cache to the British Museum while some ended up in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Many of these looted items were sold to collectors who either kept them or in turn sold them to other museums in Britain and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, Germany.

More than 500 of those items are in Germany while more than 700 pieces are in Britain with the two countries having the largest numbers of artefacts. A few are scattered around the world.

There have been several calls for the return of the artefacts to Nigeria. In 1950, about 30 of the artefacts were sold to the Nigerian government according to the BBC. This was however halted and the Museum expressed regret for doing so.

A pendant mask at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Photo Credit: Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

So far, only Germany has publicly announced its plans to return the looted artefacts to Nigeria. Germany’s minister of culture, Monika Gruetters, described it as a test of how the country deals with its colonial past.

She said: “We are confronting our historic and moral responsibility”

The planned return is to begin in 2022. To facilitate this, the Nigerian government through the ministry of information and culture, the Edo state government, and the Benin palace have met with the German government.

Britain which has the largest collection of the artefact, however, has no plan to return the looted artefacts The British Museum said “the devastation and plunder wreaked upon Benin City during the British military expedition in 1897 is fully acknowledged

“We believe the strength of the British Museum collection resides in its breadth and depth, allowing millions of visitors an understanding of the cultures of the world and how they interconnect over time – whether through trade, migration, conquest or peaceful exchange.”