NEFERTITI, IDIA AND OTHER AFRICAN ICONS IN EUROPEAN MUSEUMS: THE THIN EDGE OF EUROPEAN MORALITY
By Kwame Opoku, Dr. Feature Article | Mon, 24 Mar 2008
| 
 if you wish on the wrong star, someone gets what you want - By: naa  |
I was once asked by someone, who was aware of my view that African art objects in European museums should in principle be returned to Africa, which of the African queens in European museums, Nefertiti or Ida was the most beautiful. My answer, not surprising for him, was that I could only really appreciate the full beauty of the ladies now kept in European captivity when they are released and freely return to their home countries; that for me beauty was more than the physical appearance. I need to see these persons in their social and cultural environment and to appreciate the respect and the veneration their people bring to them. Surely, their charisma can only be understood when they are with people who regard them as part of themselves and their history. I need to hear the songs of praise that the existence and the activities of these persons have generated. I know this is perhaps difficult for many Europeans who attach great importance to physical appearance and have no use for the spiritual attributes of such persons.
Europeans are very likely to measure the nose and other parts of the body as they do with prisoners. The ethnologists, especially the Germans were famous for that. African art objects are not simply objects to be admired but objects with a function and raison d'être. We are what we are not because of the length of our noses and the size of our heads but because of the circumstances of our birth, our function in society and our own achievements.
But the famous African queens are not the only African cultural objects illegally held in European collections. There are all the Benin bronzes, Akan gold, Nok terra cotta, various kotas from Central Africa, stools, statutes and various sculptures from the Akan, Baule, Chokwe, Dan, Dogon, Fang, Guro, Hamba, Senufu, various religious and other cultural objects, including precious artistic manuscripts from Magdala, Ethiopia. The Louvre, Quai Branly Museum, the Ethnology Museum, Berlin, the British Museum, the Ethnology Museum, Vienna and a whole lot of museums in the USA, Germany, Britain, France, Portugal, Holland and Spain have stolen African objects in their inventories. But how did these objects come all the way to Europe and why have they not been returned?
I. HOW DID THESE OBJECTS COME TO EUROPE?
Most of the African art objects now in European and American museums came there as a result of some illegality or some dubious means during slavery, the colonialism and our present neo-colonial times. Most of them have been seized either through the use of massive force or threat of use of force, bribery and intimidation or stealth.
DECEIT
A. EGYPTSo much cultural objects have been stolen or illegally transported from Egypt that one cannot hope to do justice to the issue here. We have chosen to consider very briefly the best known case of unjust possession by European museums of cultural objects from Africa: Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen, whose famous bust is everywhere presented and for some, the very essence of beauty. The Germans, who have been illegally detaining the African queen in the Altes Museum, Berlin for almost hundred years, now claim that she is a German, a “Berlinerin.” But how did this Egyptian queen end up in a German museum?
On 6 December 1912, when Egypt was still under Turkish domination (1) a group of German archaeologists and Egyptian assistants, under the leadership of the German archaeologist, Professor Ludwig Borchardt, dug out what turned out to be the bust of the Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. The practice at that time was that when such findings were made, they were presented to a committee that decided what part was to remain Egypt and what part would go to the country of the archaeologist who made the discovery. The committee at this time was always presided over by a European; in this case a Frenchman and many of the members were Europeans. In this particular case, Borchardt, was also a member of the committee. According to Gert v. Pacezensky and Herbert Ganslmayr, Nofretete will nach Hause; Europa - Schatzhaus der “Dritten Welt”, (2)Borchardt covered the find with a layer of grime, in such a way that the member of the committee who made the evaluation of the found did not see properly the whole lot and thus was not aware of the importance of the find. It was decided to leave the socle on which the bust stood in Egypt and let Borchardt have the bust. From documents later available, it was clear that the professor realized how important the found was and was planning to take it to German. When the bust came to Germany in August 1913 it was kept secret for some ten years and not exhibited so as to avoid the Egyptians getting to know about it. Finally, in 1923, after a decade, the bust of Nefertiti was shown in a book by Borchardt “Porträts der Königin Nofretete”. After this publication, the Egyptians started demanding that the bust be sent back. But the Germans have refused to return the bust.
PUNITIVE EXPEDITIONS
A. BENIN The best known example is the case of the Benin bronzes. The British attacked Benin in 1897, under the pretext that some British officials had been ambushed by persons from Benin whilst they were on their way to hold discussions with the Oba of Benin. The king had told the British official who had requested to visit Benin that the time chosen was inappropriate since there would be a traditional festival - yam festival - and during that period no foreigner was allowed to visit Benin City and therefore was dangerous for a foreigner.
The British invaded Benin City with a massive force, captured the City, stole the art works that were in the king's palace including door panels. They executed many Benin leaders and burnt the city. They terrorized the area for some six months in search of the king, Obi Ovomramwen and when they caught him, they sent into exile where he died. The truth of the matter is that the British were determined to get rid of the Oba who refused to submit to British rule and who controlled the trade in the area.
The British kept many of the Benin art works and sold the rest to finance the so-called Punitive Expedition of 1897. The Austrians, Germans and Americans bought these Benin art works. Thus we have in many museums all over the world these illegally obtained art works. Anja Laukötter, gives the following distribution, following Luschan: of the 2400 objects that left Benin: 580 in Berlin, 280 in British Museum, 227 in Rushmore, the Pitt Rivers Collection, 196 in Hamburg, 182 in Dresden,167 in Vienna, 98 in Leiden, 87 in Leipzig, 80 in Stuttgart, 76 in Cologne, and 51 in Frankfurt am Main.(3)
The current Benin exhibition, Benin Kings and Rituals Court Arts from Nigeria, now in Berlin until May 25, 2008, gives a good idea of what was stolen and who the present illegal holders are. (4)
B. ASANTE Less well-known than the British Punitive Expedition to Benin in 1897, was the British Punitive Expedition of 1874 to Kumasi, Ghana. The British had been trying to gain control over the lucrative trade in gold, slaves in the then Gold Coast but had found in the Asantehene, Kofi Karkari, the king of the Asantes from the interior of the Gold Coast, a formidable competitor who controlled effectively trade along the coast. The Asantes were known for their gold and the Golden Stool which was said to embody the spirit of the Asante nation and not even the Asantehene was allowed to sit on.
With such deliberate provocations and other acts of challenge by the British to the political authority of the Asantehene, wars inevitably ensued and gave the British the pretext they had been seeking to attack. The Asantes had besieged the British Fort at Kumasi and kept the British there surrounded for some time in 1867. In 1874 a British Punitive Expedition Army, under Sir Garnet Wolseley entered Kumasi. The Asantehene had left Kumasi, the capital but the town and the palace were taken by Wolseley and his troops who ransacked all the valuable objects they could find including, the king's sword, hammered gold masks in the shape of a ram's head, massive breast plates, coral ornaments, silver plates, swords, ammunition belts, caps mounted in solid gold, knives set in gold and silver, bags of gold and gold nuggets, carved stools mounted in silver, and other treasures including a 20-centimetre-high golden head, the largest gold work from anywhere in Africa outside Egypt. The town of Kumasi and the palace were destroyed by burning.
The British attacked Asante again in 1894 after Asante had refused an offer in 1891 from the British to be made a British protectorate. This time the pretext was that the indemnities levied after the 1874 had not been paid. The British expedition force entered Kumasi in January 1896 without meeting any resistance. The King and the Queen mother made their submission to the British authority by signing a treaty of protection. After the submission of Prempeh, the British soldiers collected all the gold-hilted swords, trinkets and other treasures from the palace. The Asantehene, Agyeman Prempeh was deposed, arrested and sent to exile in the Seychelles with his chiefs and their families. Britain annexed Asante and Fanti areas in 1896.
The last resistance of the Asantes to British domination came in 1900 when the remaining Asante chiefs, under the leadership of the Queen Mother of Edwisu, Yaa Asantewaaa, with an army lay siege to the British fort in Kumasi from March 28 to end September 1900 in what became known as the War of the Golden Stool or Sargranti War. Yaa Asantewaa and the other chiefs were also sent to exile in Seychelles to join Prempeh I in January 1902. Yaa Asantewaa died in exile some twenty years later. Prempeh was allowed to return in 1924 as a private person, later became Kumasihene. The title of Asantehene was only resumed by his successor, Agyeman Prempeh II in 1935.
Many of the stolen Asante items found their way to the Museum of Mankind in London and are in the Wallace Collection. There are also some Asante cultural objects in Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford and in the Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery. Many Asante gold objects are also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
C. ETHIOPIA The Ethiopians have been demanding for years from Britain the return of the various precious imperial, cultural and religious treasures stolen by British troops in 1868. These objects include a golden crown owned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church which is now at the Royal and Albert Museum and precious bibles, a chalice, silver processional crosses, gold and brass crosses as well as 350 illustrated manuscripts at the British Library. Six fine manuscripts are at the Royal Library at the Windsor Castle. Two manuscripts were presented by the commander of the British Expedition to the Royal Library in Vienna, two were sent to the German Emperor and another two to the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Some further 200 volumes are at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and Edinburgh and other collections. Sacred documents and items of religious importance to the Ethiopian Church, some of them 400 years old, are being held by British institutions. Some altar slabs or tabots of the Ethiopian Church are also in Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Two embroided tents of the Emperor are in the Museum of Mankind. Pieces of the hair of the Emperor are also to be seen in National Army Museum in London! The list of Ethiopian treasures stolen by the British is simply too long to list here.
The acquisition tactics here were similar to those employed in Asante and Benin. The British sent an army expedition, under command of Sir Robert Napier, later on Lord Napier of Magdala, to release two British envoys and a group of European artisans and missionaries held by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewedros in Magdala, the then capital of the Empire apparently because the British Queen Victoria, had failed to respond to his letter. In the massacre, some 700 Ethiopians were killed, 2 British died and 18 were wounded. The Emperor released the captives but the British nevertheless stormed the capital. The Emperor recognizing his hopeless situation shot himself with a gun given to him as a gift by Queen Victoria. The treasures of the palace and the Church of Madhane Alam (The Saviour of the World) were looted and the city was destroyed. The fire was so intense that it could be seen miles away and thousands of houses were destroyed. A leading British historian of the Expedition reported to have seen the soldiers swarming around the body of the dead Emperor, pulling and tearing his clothes until he was almost naked. The Expedition's archaeologist, from the British Museum's Department of Manuscripts, reported to have seen a British soldier carrying the crown of the Abun, Head of the Ethiopian Church, said to be “solid gold chalice weighing at least 6 lbs”.
A few items have been returned to Ethiopia but the bulk of the looted items remain in Britain and there is no sign that they are about to be returned. It is interesting to note that in the cases where the British have returned an item and where there were two versions, they always sent the inferior version to Ethiopia.
Prof Richard Pankhurst states in his article, “Magdala and its loot”, (5) that when the British Museum, examined the request of the Emperor Yohannes IV for the restoration of a manuscript, “Kebra Nagast” or “Glory of Kings”, the museum authorities found out that they had two copies, they agreed to return the less interesting one. Again, when Ras Tafari Makonnen, the future Emperor Haile Sellassie went to Britain in 1924, the British decided to send the reigning ruler, Empress Zawditu, one of the two crowns of Tewodros. They selected the silver-gilt one and left the more valuable gold crown with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The arguments of the British for not returning the items are the untenable familiar ones, including the insult about the Ethiopians not being in a position to guarantee the safety and security of the items. The thief requests from the owner of the stolen items a guarantee of their safety and security as a precondition for their return!
Continued
Europeans are very likely to measure the nose and other parts of the body as they do with prisoners. The ethnologists, especially the Germans were famous for that. African art objects are not simply objects to be admired but objects with a function and raison d'être. We are what we are not because of the length of our noses and the size of our heads but because of the circumstances of our birth, our function in society and our own achievements.
But the famous African queens are not the only African cultural objects illegally held in European collections. There are all the Benin bronzes, Akan gold, Nok terra cotta, various kotas from Central Africa, stools, statutes and various sculptures from the Akan, Baule, Chokwe, Dan, Dogon, Fang, Guro, Hamba, Senufu, various religious and other cultural objects, including precious artistic manuscripts from Magdala, Ethiopia. The Louvre, Quai Branly Museum, the Ethnology Museum, Berlin, the British Museum, the Ethnology Museum, Vienna and a whole lot of museums in the USA, Germany, Britain, France, Portugal, Holland and Spain have stolen African objects in their inventories. But how did these objects come all the way to Europe and why have they not been returned?
I. HOW DID THESE OBJECTS COME TO EUROPE?
Most of the African art objects now in European and American museums came there as a result of some illegality or some dubious means during slavery, the colonialism and our present neo-colonial times. Most of them have been seized either through the use of massive force or threat of use of force, bribery and intimidation or stealth.
DECEIT
A. EGYPTSo much cultural objects have been stolen or illegally transported from Egypt that one cannot hope to do justice to the issue here. We have chosen to consider very briefly the best known case of unjust possession by European museums of cultural objects from Africa: Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen, whose famous bust is everywhere presented and for some, the very essence of beauty. The Germans, who have been illegally detaining the African queen in the Altes Museum, Berlin for almost hundred years, now claim that she is a German, a “Berlinerin.” But how did this Egyptian queen end up in a German museum?
On 6 December 1912, when Egypt was still under Turkish domination (1) a group of German archaeologists and Egyptian assistants, under the leadership of the German archaeologist, Professor Ludwig Borchardt, dug out what turned out to be the bust of the Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. The practice at that time was that when such findings were made, they were presented to a committee that decided what part was to remain Egypt and what part would go to the country of the archaeologist who made the discovery. The committee at this time was always presided over by a European; in this case a Frenchman and many of the members were Europeans. In this particular case, Borchardt, was also a member of the committee. According to Gert v. Pacezensky and Herbert Ganslmayr, Nofretete will nach Hause; Europa - Schatzhaus der “Dritten Welt”, (2)Borchardt covered the find with a layer of grime, in such a way that the member of the committee who made the evaluation of the found did not see properly the whole lot and thus was not aware of the importance of the find. It was decided to leave the socle on which the bust stood in Egypt and let Borchardt have the bust. From documents later available, it was clear that the professor realized how important the found was and was planning to take it to German. When the bust came to Germany in August 1913 it was kept secret for some ten years and not exhibited so as to avoid the Egyptians getting to know about it. Finally, in 1923, after a decade, the bust of Nefertiti was shown in a book by Borchardt “Porträts der Königin Nofretete”. After this publication, the Egyptians started demanding that the bust be sent back. But the Germans have refused to return the bust.
PUNITIVE EXPEDITIONS
A. BENIN The best known example is the case of the Benin bronzes. The British attacked Benin in 1897, under the pretext that some British officials had been ambushed by persons from Benin whilst they were on their way to hold discussions with the Oba of Benin. The king had told the British official who had requested to visit Benin that the time chosen was inappropriate since there would be a traditional festival - yam festival - and during that period no foreigner was allowed to visit Benin City and therefore was dangerous for a foreigner.
The British invaded Benin City with a massive force, captured the City, stole the art works that were in the king's palace including door panels. They executed many Benin leaders and burnt the city. They terrorized the area for some six months in search of the king, Obi Ovomramwen and when they caught him, they sent into exile where he died. The truth of the matter is that the British were determined to get rid of the Oba who refused to submit to British rule and who controlled the trade in the area.
The British kept many of the Benin art works and sold the rest to finance the so-called Punitive Expedition of 1897. The Austrians, Germans and Americans bought these Benin art works. Thus we have in many museums all over the world these illegally obtained art works. Anja Laukötter, gives the following distribution, following Luschan: of the 2400 objects that left Benin: 580 in Berlin, 280 in British Museum, 227 in Rushmore, the Pitt Rivers Collection, 196 in Hamburg, 182 in Dresden,167 in Vienna, 98 in Leiden, 87 in Leipzig, 80 in Stuttgart, 76 in Cologne, and 51 in Frankfurt am Main.(3)
The current Benin exhibition, Benin Kings and Rituals Court Arts from Nigeria, now in Berlin until May 25, 2008, gives a good idea of what was stolen and who the present illegal holders are. (4)
B. ASANTE Less well-known than the British Punitive Expedition to Benin in 1897, was the British Punitive Expedition of 1874 to Kumasi, Ghana. The British had been trying to gain control over the lucrative trade in gold, slaves in the then Gold Coast but had found in the Asantehene, Kofi Karkari, the king of the Asantes from the interior of the Gold Coast, a formidable competitor who controlled effectively trade along the coast. The Asantes were known for their gold and the Golden Stool which was said to embody the spirit of the Asante nation and not even the Asantehene was allowed to sit on.
With such deliberate provocations and other acts of challenge by the British to the political authority of the Asantehene, wars inevitably ensued and gave the British the pretext they had been seeking to attack. The Asantes had besieged the British Fort at Kumasi and kept the British there surrounded for some time in 1867. In 1874 a British Punitive Expedition Army, under Sir Garnet Wolseley entered Kumasi. The Asantehene had left Kumasi, the capital but the town and the palace were taken by Wolseley and his troops who ransacked all the valuable objects they could find including, the king's sword, hammered gold masks in the shape of a ram's head, massive breast plates, coral ornaments, silver plates, swords, ammunition belts, caps mounted in solid gold, knives set in gold and silver, bags of gold and gold nuggets, carved stools mounted in silver, and other treasures including a 20-centimetre-high golden head, the largest gold work from anywhere in Africa outside Egypt. The town of Kumasi and the palace were destroyed by burning.
The British attacked Asante again in 1894 after Asante had refused an offer in 1891 from the British to be made a British protectorate. This time the pretext was that the indemnities levied after the 1874 had not been paid. The British expedition force entered Kumasi in January 1896 without meeting any resistance. The King and the Queen mother made their submission to the British authority by signing a treaty of protection. After the submission of Prempeh, the British soldiers collected all the gold-hilted swords, trinkets and other treasures from the palace. The Asantehene, Agyeman Prempeh was deposed, arrested and sent to exile in the Seychelles with his chiefs and their families. Britain annexed Asante and Fanti areas in 1896.
The last resistance of the Asantes to British domination came in 1900 when the remaining Asante chiefs, under the leadership of the Queen Mother of Edwisu, Yaa Asantewaaa, with an army lay siege to the British fort in Kumasi from March 28 to end September 1900 in what became known as the War of the Golden Stool or Sargranti War. Yaa Asantewaa and the other chiefs were also sent to exile in Seychelles to join Prempeh I in January 1902. Yaa Asantewaa died in exile some twenty years later. Prempeh was allowed to return in 1924 as a private person, later became Kumasihene. The title of Asantehene was only resumed by his successor, Agyeman Prempeh II in 1935.
Many of the stolen Asante items found their way to the Museum of Mankind in London and are in the Wallace Collection. There are also some Asante cultural objects in Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford and in the Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery. Many Asante gold objects are also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
C. ETHIOPIA The Ethiopians have been demanding for years from Britain the return of the various precious imperial, cultural and religious treasures stolen by British troops in 1868. These objects include a golden crown owned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church which is now at the Royal and Albert Museum and precious bibles, a chalice, silver processional crosses, gold and brass crosses as well as 350 illustrated manuscripts at the British Library. Six fine manuscripts are at the Royal Library at the Windsor Castle. Two manuscripts were presented by the commander of the British Expedition to the Royal Library in Vienna, two were sent to the German Emperor and another two to the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Some further 200 volumes are at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and Edinburgh and other collections. Sacred documents and items of religious importance to the Ethiopian Church, some of them 400 years old, are being held by British institutions. Some altar slabs or tabots of the Ethiopian Church are also in Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Two embroided tents of the Emperor are in the Museum of Mankind. Pieces of the hair of the Emperor are also to be seen in National Army Museum in London! The list of Ethiopian treasures stolen by the British is simply too long to list here.
The acquisition tactics here were similar to those employed in Asante and Benin. The British sent an army expedition, under command of Sir Robert Napier, later on Lord Napier of Magdala, to release two British envoys and a group of European artisans and missionaries held by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewedros in Magdala, the then capital of the Empire apparently because the British Queen Victoria, had failed to respond to his letter. In the massacre, some 700 Ethiopians were killed, 2 British died and 18 were wounded. The Emperor released the captives but the British nevertheless stormed the capital. The Emperor recognizing his hopeless situation shot himself with a gun given to him as a gift by Queen Victoria. The treasures of the palace and the Church of Madhane Alam (The Saviour of the World) were looted and the city was destroyed. The fire was so intense that it could be seen miles away and thousands of houses were destroyed. A leading British historian of the Expedition reported to have seen the soldiers swarming around the body of the dead Emperor, pulling and tearing his clothes until he was almost naked. The Expedition's archaeologist, from the British Museum's Department of Manuscripts, reported to have seen a British soldier carrying the crown of the Abun, Head of the Ethiopian Church, said to be “solid gold chalice weighing at least 6 lbs”.
A few items have been returned to Ethiopia but the bulk of the looted items remain in Britain and there is no sign that they are about to be returned. It is interesting to note that in the cases where the British have returned an item and where there were two versions, they always sent the inferior version to Ethiopia.
Prof Richard Pankhurst states in his article, “Magdala and its loot”, (5) that when the British Museum, examined the request of the Emperor Yohannes IV for the restoration of a manuscript, “Kebra Nagast” or “Glory of Kings”, the museum authorities found out that they had two copies, they agreed to return the less interesting one. Again, when Ras Tafari Makonnen, the future Emperor Haile Sellassie went to Britain in 1924, the British decided to send the reigning ruler, Empress Zawditu, one of the two crowns of Tewodros. They selected the silver-gilt one and left the more valuable gold crown with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The arguments of the British for not returning the items are the untenable familiar ones, including the insult about the Ethiopians not being in a position to guarantee the safety and security of the items. The thief requests from the owner of the stolen items a guarantee of their safety and security as a precondition for their return!
Continued
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