Latest news with #BeninBronzes
Express Tribune
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Europe pressed to return looted art
After the French parliament voted on Monday to return to Ivory Coast a "talking drum" that colonial troops took from the Ebrie tribe in 1916, here is a recap of other disputes over artefacts looted from Europe's former colonies, reports AFP. The Djidji Ayokwe, the beloved "talking drum" is one of tens of thousands of artworks and other prized artefacts that France looted from its colonial empire from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. Three metres long and weighing 430 kilogrammes, it was seized by French troops in 1916 and sent to France in 1929. President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 promised to return the drum, used as a communication tool to transmit messages between different areas, and other artefacts to the west African country. Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all asked for the repatriation of their treasures. In late 2020, the French parliament adopted a law providing for the permanent return to Benin of 26 artefacts from the royal treasures of Dahomey. In a similar exhibit, the Parthenon Marbles, the object of a long-running dispute between the United Kingdom and Greece, are the most high profile of contested treasures. Athens has for decades demanded the return of the sculptures from the British Museum, saying they were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, the then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The current government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has escalated its efforts to secure the repatriation of the Marbles, holding official and unofficial meetings with the government of Keith Starmer last autumn. The British Museum has also refused to return any of the sacred sculptures and carvings known as the "Benin Bronzes" taken during a British military expedition in the former kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria in 1897. It has the biggest collection of the Benin Bronzes which are held in museums across the United States and Europe.
News24
08-07-2025
- Politics
- News24
Stolen treasures: France returns ‘talking drum' as nations push to recover looted artefacts
France has committed to returning several artefacts looted during its colonial rule, such as the 'talking drum' seized from Ivory Coast in 1916. The UK also faces pressure over multiple looted treasures, including the Parthenon Marbles (claimed by Greece), Benin Bronzes (Nigeria), and Ethiopian tabots. Germany and the Netherlands have begun returning Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, while disputes persist over high-profile Egyptian antiquities like the Rosetta Stone, Nefertiti bust, and Dendera Zodiac showcased in European museums. After the French parliament voted on Monday to return to Ivory Coast a 'talking drum' that colonial troops took from the Ebrie tribe in 1916, here is a recap of other disputes over artefacts looted from Europe's former colonies. France: tens of thousands of pieces The Djidji Ayokwe, the beloved 'talking drum,' was one of tens of thousands of artworks and other prized artefacts that France looted from its colonial empire from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. Three metres long and weighing 430 kilogrammes, it was seized by French troops in 1916 and sent to France in 1929. President Emmanuel Macron, in 2021, promised to return the drum, which was used as a communication tool to transmit messages between different areas and other artefacts to the West African country. Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all asked for the repatriation of their treasures. In late 2020, the French parliament adopted a law providing for the permanent return to Benin of 26 artefacts from the royal treasures of Dahomey. Britain: refuses to budge The Parthenon Marbles, the object of a long-running dispute between the United Kingdom and Greece, are the most high-profile of contested treasures. Athens has for decades demanded the return of the sculptures from the British Museum, saying they were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, the then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The current government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has escalated its efforts to secure the repatriation of the Marbles, holding official and unofficial meetings with the government of Keir Starmer last autumn. AFP The British Museum has also refused to return any of the sacred sculptures and carvings known as the 'Benin Bronzes' taken during a British military expedition in the former kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria in 1897. It has the biggest collection of the Benin Bronzes, which are held in museums across the United States and Europe. The British Museum is also standing firm on the 11 Ethiopian tabots, or sacred tablets, that it holds. Germany: agrees to return Bronzes The German government agreed in 2022 to hand 1 100 Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria. The first 22 were sent back in December 2022. AFP Netherlands too In June 2025, the Netherlands officially handed back 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, and a ceremony was held at the National Museum in Lagos, showcasing four of them in the museum's courtyard. Egyptian antiquities Many artworks and artefacts have, over the centuries, been looted from Egypt, the cradle of an ancient civilisation that has long fascinated Europeans. Among the most high-profile cases are the Nefertiti bust, the Rosetta Stone and the Dendera Zodiac, which are on show in top museums in Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The bust of Nefertiti, the wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, was sculpted around 1340 BC but was taken to Germany by a Prussian archaeologist and was later given to the Neues Museum in Berlin. AFP The Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab dating from 196 BC, has been housed in the British Museum since 1802, inscribed with the legend 'Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801'. It bore extracts of a decree written in Ancient Greek, an ancient Egyptian vernacular script called Demotic and hieroglyphics. The Dendera Zodiac, a celestial map, was blasted out of the Hathor Temple in Qena in southern Egypt in 1820 by a French official. Thought to date from around 50 BC, it has been suspended on a ceiling in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1922.
First Post
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
"Relooted": South African Game Reclaims Stolen Artefacts From Western Museums
"Relooted": South African Game Reclaims Stolen Artefacts From Western Museums | Firstpost Africa "Relooted": South African Game Reclaims Stolen Artefacts From Western Museums | Firstpost Africa A new South African video game titled Relooted is turning heads by letting players reclaim stolen African artefacts from Western museums. Created by studio Nyamakop, the game is a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer set in a futuristic world where African heroes pull off digital heists to recover real-world treasures like the Benin Bronzes and Kenya's sacred Ngadji drum. Unveiled at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, the game has struck a chord with Africans and the diaspora. Developers say it's not about promoting theft, but about reclaiming history, sparking conversations, and giving Africa the power to tell its own story. See More
The Star
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Game 'reloots' African artefacts from Western museums
Ncube plays a game called 'Relooted' at their office space in Rosebank near Johannesburg. Relooted is set in an imaginary future but tackles a topical issue: calls for Western institutions to return to Africa the spoils of colonisation. — AFP JOHANNESBURG: Under the cover of darkness, Nomali jumped over a wall, burst into a museum and snatched a human skull from a pedestal before escaping through a window to the wail of an alarm. The daring heist was not the work of a real-life criminal. Nomali is the protagonist of a new action-packed video game where players "reclaim" artefacts taken from African countries to be displayed in the West. Developed by Johannesburg studio Nyamakop, Relooted is set in an imaginary future but tackles a topical issue: calls for Western institutions to return to Africa the spoils of colonisation. Players are tasked with taking back 70 artefacts – all of which exist in real life – with a "team of African citizens", said producer Sithe Ncube, one of a team of 30 working on the game. The items include the "Benin Bronzes" sculptures removed from the former kingdom of Benin more than 120 years ago, and which The Netherlands officially returned to Nigeria on June 21. Another is the sacred Ngadji drum from Kenya's Pokomo community, which was confiscated by British colonial authorities in 1902. "Its removal destabilised the community," Ncube said as an animated drawing of the wooden instrument flashed on her computer. Players "can see where it's from... and read about the history," she said, giving a demo. 'Is it stealing?' On the screen a crew of characters in Afrofuturist costumes debated a plan to recover the remains of Tanzanian chiefs hanged by German colonial forces. One asked: "Is it stealing to take back what was stolen?" "We are going to do whatever it takes to take back Africa's belongings, and we are going to do it together," said the character Nomali. "Sometimes the stories behind these (artefacts) are actually very upsetting," Ncube told AFP. "It makes you see how much colonialism has affected... and shaped the world." Growing up in Zambia, she knew of her country's iconic "Broken Hill Man", a skull about 300,000 years old held in London's Natural History Museum and which is also featured in Relooted . But it was only when working on the game that Ncube realised how many African cultural artefacts were held abroad, she said. In France alone, museums stored about 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the government. "Africans, to actually see these things that are part of their own culture, have to get a visa, pay for flights and go to a European country," Ncube said. "My whole life, I've never seen 'Broken Hill Man'." Skewed identity The looting of artefacts over centuries robbed communities of their "archives" and "knowledge systems", said Samba Yonga, co-founder of the digital Museum of Women's History in Zambia. "Our history predates colonisation by millennia," she told AFP, but many people "don't even realise that we have a skewed sense of self and identity." Reclaiming these objects would enable "a shift in how the next generation views their culture and identity," she said. The same hope underpinned Relooted , which was unveiled this month at Los Angeles's Summer Game Fest where it attracted a lot of interest from the diaspora and other Africans, Ncube said. "I hope that the game encourages people from other African countries to want to tell their own stories and bring these things to light," she said. One character felt personal for the producer: Professor Grace, Nomali's grandmother and described as "the brains behind the mission". "I started seeing my own grandmother in her," Ncube said with emotion. "She represents a connection between our generations, fighting for the same thing we've always been fighting for." – AFP
New Straits Times
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
Game 'reloots' African artefacts from Western museums
JOHANNESBURG: Under the cover of darkness, Nomali jumped over a wall, burst into a museum and snatched a human skull from a pedestal before escaping through a window to the wail of an alarm. The daring heist was not the work of a real-life criminal. Nomali is the protagonist of a new action-packed video game where players "reclaim" artefacts taken from African countries to be displayed in the West. Developed by Johannesburg studio Nyamakop, "Relooted" is set in an imaginary future but tackles a topical issue: calls for Western institutions to return to Africa the spoils of colonisation. Players are tasked with taking back 70 artefacts – all of which exist in real life – with a "team of African citizens", said producer Sithe Ncube, one of a team of 30 working on the game. The items include the "Benin Bronzes" sculptures removed from the former kingdom of Benin more than 120 years ago, and which The Netherlands officially returned to Nigeria on June 21. Another is the sacred Ngadji drum from Kenya's Pokomo community, which was confiscated by British colonial authorities in 1902. "Its removal destabilised the community," Ncube said as an animated drawing of the wooden instrument flashed on her computer. Players "can see where it's from... and read about the history," she said, giving a demo. On the screen a crew of characters in Afrofuturist costumes debated a plan to recover the remains of Tanzanian chiefs hanged by German colonial forces. One asked: "Is it stealing to take back what was stolen?" "We are going to do whatever it takes to take back Africa's belongings, and we are going to do it together," said the character Nomali. "Sometimes the stories behind these (artefacts) are actually very upsetting," Ncube told AFP. "It makes you see how much colonialism has affected... and shaped the world." Growing up in Zambia, she knew of her country's iconic "Broken Hill Man", a skull about 300,000 years old held in London's Natural History Museum and which is also featured in "Relooted." But it was only when working on the game that Ncube realised how many African cultural artefacts were held abroad, she said. In France alone, museums stored about 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the government. "Africans, to actually see these things that are part of their own culture, have to get a visa, pay for flights and go to a European country," Ncube said. "My whole life, I've never seen 'Broken Hill Man'." The looting of artefacts over centuries robbed communities of their "archives" and "knowledge systems", said Samba Yonga, co-founder of the digital Museum of Women's History in Zambia. "Our history predates colonisation by millennia," she told AFP, but many people "don't even realise that we have a skewed sense of self and identity." Reclaiming these objects would enable "a shift in how the next generation views their culture and identity," she said. The same hope underpinned "Relooted", which was unveiled this month at Los Angeles' Summer Game Fest where it attracted a lot of interest from the diaspora and other Africans, Ncube said. "I hope that the game encourages people from other African countries to want to tell their own stories and bring these things to light," she said. One character felt personal for the producer: Professor Grace, Nomali's grandmother and described as "the brains behind the mission." "I started seeing my own grandmother in her," Ncube said with emotion. "She represents a connection between our generations, fighting for the same thing we've always been fighting for." - AFP
