''DIRTY SECRETS OF COLONIALISM''

 

'These are our artefacts you know'; 'these men in the photo found them and took them to London''; are stories that most Londoners or Europen children grew up listening to. Whenever they visit the museum, students nod in recognition of what their teachers narrate as they go around. But they do not know the hidden truth behind the curtained stories their fathers, grandparents and ancestors infiltrated into their minds.

During colonial rule in Africa and other parts of the southern hemisphere, thousands of cultural artefacts were plundered. This is not a thing to hide from now like what most European countries used to do. And African countries want their 'looted' artefacts back from wherever/whichever museum they are, to Africa where they were stolen. For the past decade, the fight to make this dream come true has been tough but in 2018 many museums across Europe agreed to loan the famous Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria. Within the following months, France launched a report calling for thousand of African arts in its museums to be returned to the continent. What is more surprising though is the rate at which these stolen treasures have been returned into countries they belong. And the Europen museums have come under the back foot following 'Black Lives Matter' protests that spread throughout the world. Barnaby Phillips an expert on the subject wrote; ' Nigerian politicians have the opportunity to shape the fate of the famous Benin Bronzes'. The Benin Bronzes; originally from what is now Edo State in Southern Nigeria, were stolen by British soldiers and sailors in 1897; and thousand similar bronze, ivory sculptors and carvings-have become highly charged symbols of injustice.

This brings back the memory of the 'Men eaters of Tsavo' two beasts killed by British engineer Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson in Tsavo region in Kenya at the end of the 19th century, at the helm of the railway project. The stuffed lions were purchased from Patterson by the Field Museum of National History in the US[Chicago 1925] and were catalogued in the museum's permanent collections. Seven of the  8 stolen Zimbabwe birds were in Zimbabwe since 2003, the people are waiting for the return of all the carvings that were looted from Great Zimbabwe to South Africa, Britain and wherever Cecil John Rhodes had taken them to. The Maqbala treasures and the Bangwa Queen; the Rosetta Stone are some of the few artefacts that can be mentioned; that Africans are waiting for their return back into the continent. The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum is originally from Egypt and is made out of granodiorite, which is of course a coarse-grained rock. From what is known, it is a broken part of a bigger slab with text carved on to it that has helped many researchers learn how to read the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The stone was discovered in 1799, but there's a general belief that it was found by French soldiers fighting under Napoleon Bonaparte, as they were building an extension to a fort near the town of Rashid -also known as Rosetta, in the Nile Delta. However, after Napoleon's defeat by Britain, the British soldiers took possession of the stone under terms of the treaty of Alexandria in 1801.

Unfortunately, in the middle of the global economic crisis sparked by the novel coronavirus, some of the African artefacts have been put for sale. According to a report from QUARTZ AFRICA; Christie; the British auction house announced a curated 'Arts of Africa, Oceania and North America' sale in Paris which included the Attakan terracotta head[Ghana], Benin Bronze and Urhobo figure [Nigeria]. The artefacts from around Africa including countries like Nigeria, DRC; Gabon and Ghana were being valued between  €30,000 to  €900,000. This action by Christie shows total ignorance in turning their back on the truth. There's no way the people who agreed to sell the above artefacts do not know how much these artefacts means to the African progeny who has been fighting decades so that what is theirs is given back to them. If that is the case with ignorance then, someone has to bring light to the ignorant; but most importantly more light to the educated Westerners.'For the vanity of education makes modern humans more ignorant than the ignorant.'

Few Westerners argued that Africa lacked the resources to look after its treasures, but they have to know that Western museums had no moral obligation to repair any damage inflicted during years of colonialism. Everything has changed now, the history they have been lying to their kids' generations after generations have to be rewritten. Only recently, some British experts on the subject matter have begun to accept the wrongs their forefathers did. Slowly but sure, behind scenes, things or rather artefacts have been moving back to where they belong. For those who haven't taken the African call seriously, 'return back treasures you stole !!'. 'Africans still question you about your persistence of colonial heritage in the art world. If it's not said forcibly as possible to you the issue will fall by the wayside. But never will the Africans keep quiet'.

Finally, the dirty secrets of colonialism are not anything to brag about. There is pain, fatigue; frustration and anger among the Africans and other people of the world who after gaining their independence, they still fight to get what is rightfully theirs. Many know how France plays its games in the Sahel region; as if it is part of the African Union. The fight against continued colonial mentality by some Western countries is a fight against an enemy that many people can not see. It is a fight against egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance and lies. If Africans can master and destroy them, then they will be ready to welcome the response they wait to see.