Fall 2020 - Benin Museum Planned

Proposed Edo Museum of West African Art, Benin, Nigeria

LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 1897, the British army violently raided Benin City in what is now Nigeria, seizing thousands of priceless artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes.
Ever since, there have been hopes of bringing them back from Western museums.
On Friday, hope got a little closer to reality with the release of the first images of the planned Edo Museum of West African Art, which will house some 300 items on loan from European museums — if the money to build it can be raised.
The three-story building, designed by David Adjaye, looks almost like a palace from the ancient Kingdom of Benin. Adjaye intends it to be completed in five years, he said in a telephone interview.
On Friday, the architect, the British Museum and Nigerian authorities also announced a $4 million archaeology project to excavate the site of the planned museum and other parts of Benin City to uncover ancient remains, including parts of the city walls.
The developments will be a boost to campaigners urging the return of artifacts taken from Africa during the colonial era. But in the telephone interview, Adjaye, the architect behind the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Institution, seemed most excited about what it could mean for the people of Benin City. It could help spark “a renaissance of African culture,” he said, and be a space for residents to reconnect with their past and a showcase for the city’s contemporary artists.
“It has to be for the community first,” he said, “and an international site second.”
Adjaye also spoke about his thinking behind the museum, his obsession with the Benin Bronzes and his view on the debate around returning items to Africa from Western museums. These are edited extracts of that conversation.
Q: There have been calls for a museum housing the Benin Bronzes in Nigeria for decades. What drew you to the project?
A: To show the power of what a museum can be in the 21st century. It’s not just a container of curiosities. That doesn’t make sense in Africa; there is no empire or sort of “discovery” of what America is or China is.
But what is really critical is to deal with the real elephant in the room, which is the impact of colonialism on the cultures of Africa. That is the central discussion that the continent needs to have with itself about its own history and the structural destruction that happened with colonialism. Because actually, there is a myth that Africans know their culture, but a lot has been demonized because of colonialism, and there’s a lot that’s misunderstood because of the structures of colonialism — Christianity, Islam, etc. — that followed.
I’m not criticizing those religions, but they kind of degraded the cultural heritage of the continent. So there is the relearning of the fundamental meaning of these objects. And that retraining justifies, for me, a rethinking of what a museum is on the continent. It’s not going to be a Western model.
Q: So putting the returned bronzes on display isn’t the endpoint to you, but a beginning?
A: Exactly: the beginning of the renaissance of African culture. You need the objects because the objects provide the provenance and the physicality that start to connect you.
Q: When you talk about creating a non-Western museum, how will it be different? The images you’ve released still have display cases with objects in them.

https://artdaily.cc/news/130108/A-new-museum-to-bring-the-Benin-Bronzes-home#.X7LVOMhKjQU