Europe’s museums are full of items taken from Africa during colonisation, but many other objects on their shelves also carry an uncomfortable history.
Here are five examples of historic artefacts which have caused bitter ownership spats between nations:
– Benin bronzes –
So intricate that some Europeans of the day did not believe they could have been made by supposedly “primitive” Africans, thousands of these plaques were plundered from the Kingdom of Benin by British troops in 1897.
The British ransacked what is now Benin City in Nigeria, torching it and stripping it of its artwork in revenge for a massacre of their troops.
Showing scenes of court life, the “bronzes” date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and are in fact mostly made of brass.
Brisk trade scattered them around Europe, and today the biggest collections are in London’s British Museum and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.
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European and US museums have been meeting with Nigerian officials since 2007 but have thus far struggled to find a solution.
Last year, museums floated the idea of a permanent loan, but “many issues remain, not least whether or not a loan is agreeable to the Nigerian authorities”, according to the British Museum.
– Royal treasures of Abomey –
The Royal treasures of Abomey was not taken from Nigeria but from its neighbour, Benin Republic.
Like the British, French colonial troops also pillaged objects from conquered African lands which were considered the spoils of war.
They returned from the 1892 capture of Abomey, capital of the Dahomey kingdom in modern-day Benin, with a wealth of thrones, royal sceptres and statues.
Benin’s government says an estimated 4,500-6,000 royal items remain in France, including in private collections. The finest are in the Quai Branly museum in Paris.
France last year refused to return the artefacts but appears set to re-examine the issue after President Emmanuel Macron said Europe needed to return Africa’s heritage.
