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Protesters have disrupted a preview event at a new museum in Nigeria that has become embroiled in a row over the restitution of artefacts looted by British colonial forces.
In a video circulating on social media, demonstrators were seen loudly chanting: “Oba ghato kpere ise” (“Long live the king” in Bini language) while foreign and local visitors were ushered out of the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) by security personnel in Benin City. Reporters at the scene said there was minor damage to the museum, which is due to open to the public on Tuesday.
Phillip Ihenacho, Mowaa’s director, told Agence France-Presse: “Protesters entered and began vandalising part of the reception pavilion, where we receive visitors, then they stormed inside the front section, where the exhibition area is located.”
In a statement, the museum said it was deeply grateful to guests for their patience. “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this situation may have caused,” it said.
Mowaa is a highly anticipated art campus comprising conservation labs, galleries, and studios aimed at fostering exchanges around west African art. Originally called the Edo Museum of West African Art, it is in what was once the capital of the ancient Benin empire, whose vassal states included modern-day Lagos. Benin City is now the capital of Edo state.
The museum, which is co-funded by French and German governments as well as private donors, was supposed to host several of the Benin bronzes – the name given to artefacts looted by British soldiers during a punitive expedition in 1897 that were then scattered across collections in Europe and America. About 40 miles north of Mowaa is a smaller museum dedicated to the victim of a similar British expedition four years earlier.
More than 150 original bronzes have been returned to Nigeria over the last five years from European state museums and private collections, as the west attempts to atone for its past.
However, a rivalry between Edo state’s former and current governors, who belong to different political parties, means that none of the bronzes will be on public display at Mowaa.
The current administration is allied to Oba (King) Ewuare II, the spiritual and cultural leader of the Edo people. In March 2023, Nigeria’s federal government sided with Ewuare, a former diplomat who has long posited that the artefacts should be housed at the Benin palace since they were looted from there.
Although the demands of the people who protested at the museum on Sunday were not clear, their chants appeared to be in support of the king and the current Edo state administration.
In its statement, Mowaa distanced itself from the state government, saying it was an independent, nonprofit institution, of which the former governor had no interest financial or otherwise. It also advised against any visits to the campus until further notice.
Nigeria’s culture minister, Hannatu Musawa, said: “The reported disruption at Mowaa not only endangers a treasured cultural asset but also threatens the peaceful environment necessary for cultural exchange and the preservation of our artistic patrimony.”
The incident drew mixed reactions across Nigeria, with some calling for a quick resolution as the country seeks to consolidate its standing as a cultural superpower.
“This is not good optics for Edo state and not also for Nigeria,” the Lagos-based Zero Prive gallery said in a post on Instagram. “We stand in support of Mowaa as an independent body. Whatever political issues or differences let it be sorted out in the interest of the people of Edo state and the country.”
