Architecture of Unforgetting

EXCERPTS OF AN ADDRESS GIVEN APRIL 29 2022 BY THE BENIN MONARCH OBA EWUARE II DURING A VISIT TO PRESIDENT BUHARI, ABUJA NIGERIA Purpose: To thank the president over his support and encouragement regarding the return of 2 items of the stolen Benin artefacts from foreign countries and to present to the president members of the board of the upcoming Benin Royal Museum. Excerpts: His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President and Commander-In-Chief Of The Armed Forces Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria First of all, we must thank the Almighty God and our ancestors for making this thank-you visit to our dear President possible today, after previous attempts proved unsuccessful, due to Your Excellency’s very busy schedule. As they say God’s time is the best, Mr. President, for finding time to receive us now despite your very tight schedule, we say thank you immensely. Mr. President, sir I bring warm greetings from the Benin Royal Family, the Benin Traditional Institution and the good peo...

Judging from the British Museum’s page, the primary purpose for the #EMOWAA project is continued colonial custody of repatriated Benin artefacts, and the custody as well of any archeological excavations in Benin, which they the British, in the name of the said proposed ‘EMOWAA’, intend on taking as on as some kind of inventory, thus continuing Britain’s legacy of looting by another name.  We are asking @governorobaseki to be clear and transparent on this difference, by which we mean, what exactly is intended for his proposed ‘EMOWAA’.  Clearly, the Oba’s Benin Royal Museum and this British Museum’s ‘emowaa’ are not the same proposal. Yet, the governor keeps failing to state exactly as much.  The 1897 artefacts do not belong to the Edo State government nor to the federation of Nigeria but rather to the spiritual and ancestral heritage of the Benin People, through the ancestral and legitimate representative of the Benin people, the Oba of Benin.  The artefacts from 189...

  ESIGIE, THE SCULPTOR KING  Image:  Commemorative Head, 1500s, Benin City Material: Bronze, Iron Igun  Eronmwon Guild  Benin City Current Location: British Museum One of the thousands of looted #BeninBronzes hidden from view in storage at the British Museum. This Commemorative Head, currently not on display at the British Museum, was stolen by Felix Roth from the palace at Benin City and later sold by his brother Henry Ling Roth. The former Roth served as ‘Advance Surgeon’ during the British invasion of Benin City, 1897, while the later Rother, published, right after, the infamous work of British propaganda, ‘Great Benin; Its Customs, Art and Horrors’ in 1903. Henry Roth would then sell this stolen Commemorative Head of Oba Esigie to the British Museum.  Interesting to note both the  damage to the vertical forehead marks and the quite visible dents to face, which may have occurred during the raiding, burning and looting of the palace. *comingsoon

1897 and Erdmann the German Caption translation:   Fig. 18. Benin artist molding a group of Europeans. Photographer:     Erdmann. 1897. Text:  “Due to a particularly happy stroke of luck Mr. Erdmann himself was even able to photograph a modern Benin artist at work in 1897.  The instructive photograph is reproduced here in Fig. 18.  Similarly large reliefs appear very often in Benin serving the purpose of decorating the inner rooms; […].” (von Luschan,  Die Altertümer von Benin;   p. 26) The German foray in Africa is known for its genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in Germany’s attempt to erase them from the face of the earth. On our West African coastline however, accounts of Germans are scant, as we all know, though not so scant as we may believe, especially as some of the surviving and earliest European accounts appear to have been written by German visitors and/or traders on the West African coastline. It would seem that on our co...

  Disk Of Life / Plenitude, 1700s, Benin Kingdom   Royal Bronze-casting Guild (Igun Eronmwon), Benin City Size: 1 × 1/16 × 24 in. (2.54 × 0.203 × 61 cm) Recurring Benin Arts motifs hammered on metal in low relief. Material: Brass plate More info : click here   Note: Would really be nice if the current sculptors at Igun Eronmwon guild revisit this disk.  Quite wonderful to find a kind of synchronicity of similar images from all over the world, from Asia to the civilizations in the Americas, etc: CLICK here to see DISKS from all over the world. 

A brief history here of Benin Empire with a focus on the arts and the Benin artefacts from a project put together by Black Brits in  partnership project with  museums in Greater Manchester: The empire of Benin and its cultural heritage by Kuljit 'Kooj' Chuhan The ancient kingdom of Benin began around AD900 although some sources suggest much earlier dates. From its base located in what is now Nigeria, it became a large empire and by around the fifteenth century some sources say that it stretched from Sierra Leone to as far as Congo. Its people were known as the Edo and they were ruled by an Oba (king). High quality arts Benin was, and still is, famous for its oral history traditions and for its highly skilled craftsmanship and arts, especially wood carving, weaving and brass casting. Brass casting reached a particularly high level of aesthetic and technical sophistication in the sixteenth century when decorative plaques and sculptures (now known as ‘The Benin bronzes’) were ma...

  MEANING, THEMES AND MESSAGES THE USE of THEMES to declare awareness of trials and travails. (more on this soon) IMAGE: 18th/19th century Helmet, Benin Empire The Benin Arts motif  of endless interlocking marks lace the lower part or base of the helmet. Spread along the vertical side towards the top is the recurring theme of ‘Bird of Prophecy’. Here the bird of prophesy is actively attacking a snake-like form also positioned at the top and which may or may not be an extension of the frontal ram-horse head that is, like the base of the helmet, decorated at the mouth with motifs of endless interlocking marks. The horse-like or ram headed frontal piece also carries decorative pair of horns. What trials are being pointed to here?  A later era piece, this helmet was attributed to Ife by the Brits or some indifferent curator. In terms of the British it was usual practice for them to mis-attribute Benin Arts to Ife as part of the propaganda to erase the Benin Kingdom...