Architecture of Unforgetting

Two children, a little girl and her kid brother, sitting on a carved wooden bench in an Edo courtyard, Benin City, mid 1930s. 2nd Image: The Iyasere of Benin, Iyase Okhoro-Otun. Photographer: Duckworth, E. H., a colonial era photographer for the colonial rule. Courtyard likely of Iyasere Okhoro-Otun In background,  the Edo architecture of horizontal wall fluting . An important part of the structure of a building, the horizontal fluting is anchored by supporting vertical wood beams forming the frame of each building. These striations are as well architectural aesthetic specific to Edo. It is not clear how often in the year, given the yearly rains, these walls were repaired.  Much knowledge has been lost, especially as local materials have been abandoned for the more durable cement. What is clear is that in the decades that followed the invasion of 1897 and the subsequent propaganda and discrimination Benin suffered at the hands of the colonial rule and its newly forming 'state'...

How did Berlin Museums get the Benin Bronzes? Part One What role do the self-dubbed, ‘great’ museums of the Western world play in colonialism?  Hari Kumar 19/01/2022 Earliest known photograph of Oba’s compound, Benin City, May 1891. Photo by Cyril Punch. Public Domain After much bluster, the Berlin Humboldt Forum finally agreed to return  its collection of the ‘Benin Bronzes’  to its native Nigeria. What are these Bronzes, how did many end up in Berlin? First of a two part article. 1. World museums gloss over brutal acquisitions Walking through museums we are often awed by their beautiful artifacts. The most famous museums dub themselves a venue of “the world’s civilizations!” Some believe this and do not see any of the blood of former owners or makers dripping over the art. But an important image that should come to mind is the violent, physical robbery of the colonies. This was fused into a core racism around ‘enslavement’, as Marx  put it : “The discovery of gold ...

How did Berlin Museums get the Benin Bronzes? Part Two Anti-colonial activists have succeeded in having some plunder returned to its original country, but the struggle goes on Hari Kumar 22/01/2022 Humboldt Forum. Photo: Derbrauni CC4.0 International This is the second part of this article. You can read part one  here . The complex nature of Western scholars in colonial times It would be one-dimensional and anti-dialectical to ignore the scholarly and sweeping visions of some of the leading “Orientalists”. Sir William Jones, for example, first translated Kalidas of 400 AD (“the Indian Shakespeare”) from Sanskrit into English. He undertook his studies in 1785, in the colony of “British india”. In his book,  India discovered , he declared Sankskrit “more perfect than either Greek or Latin”. It is true he was seen by Edward Said in a more diminished way than perhaps he deserved: “He was appointed to ‘an honourable and profitable place in the Indies’, and (took) up a post with the...

  QUESTION: Jacob Egharevba caused this misinterpretation of Benin history but what is confusing is that in his book titled Short History of Benin was purportedly reviewed by the Oba of Benin, Oba Eweka II (ie read to him by the then edaiken). Is it therefore safe to say the king himself affirmed the works of the late historian despite the errors? RESPONSE: Jacob Egharevba had his sentiments being that not only where he grew up but he was a self confessed member of a certain ROF. A historian is also a human being he has his sentiments. Although Egharevba's book is not perfect because of the imperfections of man but he tried. His book is great because of his sources but unfortunately his sentiments as a human being came to play in some areas. Coming to what you said I will like to point this out: 1. When he gave his manuscript (Ekhere) for approval to Oba Eweka, he was advised him to edit or remove some materials but he didn't. 2. When both Ekhere and the first edition of Short...

 THE REFUSAL OF BENIN Adolo is not the subject of this 1987 article but it is interesting to note how mere mention of him supports the argument we are about to make here. For a nation so enamoured by arriving Europeans, Benin's history with various European nations was one fraught with recurring decisions by various Benin kings to block or ban trade with the Europeans. These objections — as we find with Oba Adolo, father of no other than Oba Ovoranmwen himself — were evermore frequent and to do with the same recurring reasons that Esigie had in that first and early ban a good three centuries back, which was the European nature and choice of what they the European increasingly preferred to trade in: human beings.  Benin’s decision in banning and frequent acts of intrepid withdrawal from the European Trade must and deserves to be seen as a gesture of the refusal by the African and a counter to the contemporaneous norm of what was expected of ‘African Kingdoms’ of the time. Was t...