The Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Edo State, lies at the heart of the Benin Bronzes debate. Not only was it widely understood this is where Benin objects would be returned, but western institutions have contributed financially to its development.

Now those same western institutions are watching some of their well-laid plans unravel before them.

In November 2020 the Museum captured the world’s attention – and considerable institutional support - when the organisers behind the proposed new Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA) announced eye-catching plans to spark a renaissance of African culture. From the outset, exhibiting contemporary art from West Africa, as well as offering support and collaboration opportunities for young creatives, was always part of EMOWAA's agenda. "It will be a world-class arts, culture and heritage complex that will celebrate, research and conserve west African and diaspora art from antiquity up to the present day," said Aindrea Emelife, curator of modern and contemporary art.

But it was other collaborative projects that attracted wider global attention. EMOWAA also announced ambitious plans for a 5-year archaeological programme to be undertaken around the proposed new museum’s site. This, the organisers explained, would be a way of connecting the new complex into the architectural remains of the original Benin City, sacked by the British in 1897. This programme is being funded by a partnership between Nigeria’s Legacy Restoration Trust and the British Museum and involves $4 million of funding (EMOWAA Archaeology Project).

At the same time, the Museum announced it expected to play a significant role as a repository for returning Benin artefacts. Officials spoke of their ambition to create new opportunities to address “the painful history of the invasion and destruction of Benin City by British forces”. They spoke with confidence of EMOWAA’s intention to include “the most comprehensive display in the world of Benin Bronzes.”

As the agency tasked with leading the nation’s repatriation efforts, Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) contributed to this growing sense of optimism by persuading several western institutions to start returning their looted Benin trophies to the new museum. Not just UK institutions like the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, whose transfer arrangements were almost complete, but other institutions holding Benin artefacts across Europe and the United States.

Most of these arrangements involved an agreement that objects returned, whether on long-term loan or legally repatriated, would be exhibited in a brand new, secure state-of-the-art Pavilion at the EMOWAA. To reinforce this confidence, members of the Benin Dialogue Group pledged financial assistance to ensure safe storage of returning artefacts, before their eventual installation in the completed Pavilion.

All well and good. But this arrangement was turned on its head just a few months ago. Before stepping down as President, Muhammad Buhari signed a decree in May 2023 charging the Oba (king) of Benin with future responsibility for all returning Benin objects. Unfortunately for the NCMM and for those western institutions supporting the EMOWAA, the Oba appears to hold an alternative vision of where returning Benin objects should be located: in his own Benin Royal Museum project and not in the EMOWAA.

The scale of this volte face is hard to fathom. As the decree has not yet entered into force, the NCMM’s director general Prof Abba Tijani has been lobbying Nigeria's government to better understand this government change in direction. When we approached Tijani for an update, he could only tell us that the NCMM is still “awaiting formal directions from the Ministry of Justice.”

This was not the arrangement western institutions had signed up to and, not surprisingly, it may have left some of them feeling rather blindsided. For example, where does this leave their financial and educational investment in EMOWAA? Could this lead to withdrawing commitments made to repatriate Benin objects altogether? It's now apparent why some hand-over dates across the UK are currently being postponed.

To counter all this uncertainty, the Museum has moved quickly, re-branding itself with a less Edo-centric brief as the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA). It seems they are not to be set back by these changes in events.  At an Open Day and press briefing held last month, Phillip Ihenacho, director of MOWAA Trust explained “we have decided to update our brand identity to emphasise our focus.” This new focus is about upgrading and promoting the Museum's research and conservation ambitions, along with delivering creative hubs, research labs, galleries, education and performance spaces. The Museum also hopes to serve as a model for responsible heritage management; collaboration and global partnerships, they insist, will continue to be a priority. Ore Disu, director of the MOWAA Pavilion, explained the organisation has already begun “delivering programmes… in partnership with the NCMM, the German Archaeological Institute, the British Museum, Cambridge Archaeological Unit, Wessex Archaeology and the Open Society Foundation.”

But there was no notice of any future role for the Museum as an exhibition destination for returning Benin artefacts.

Also, the Museum must have been dismayed to learn this month that it’s designer and global ambassador, the Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye, is facing a number of serious allegations involving sexual misconduct. With a trophy list of global museums, foundations and arts facilities to his name, Adjaye has developed a close, personal connection to the MOWAA project, championing its future identity as “the keeper and re-imaginer of a new relationship with patrimonial artefacts.”

“My interest in this project is that I believe it has the power to transform - it will become a reteaching tool that will encourage the urgent reclamation of a culture that has been nearly lost due to colonial and post-colonial forces.”

David Adjaye

In the longer term and if funding channels continue to be productive, it seems unlikely that Adjaye’s personal problems will hijack progress on the Museum’s new agenda. But in the short term, they can hardly be useful as the MOWAA seeks to recover ground.

Adjaye has rejected all these allegations, although some clients have already taken steps to distance themselves from his practice. Work on London’s proposed new Holocaust memorial, for instance, has been suspended. Our attempts to invite Adjaye Associates to explain their current relationship with the MOWAA have so far met with silence.

Of course, where Nigeria decides to exhibit their returning Benin artefacts should not be a decision for western collections or governments. We must acknowledge the strong personal claim the Oba of Benin has for the recovery of his ancestor’s artefacts, a factor which presumably explains why Nigeria's federal government is prepared to leave the future ownership of these artefacts in the Oba's hands. Defending their decision to repatriate Benin Bronzes unconditionally, Germany's culture minister put it succinctly: “what happens to the Bronzes now is for the current owner to decide.”

We can only wait to see whether Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu, and his Ministry of Justice decide to make changes to the Buhari decree that might return responsibility to the NCMM and the MOWAA. In the meantime, we should be encouraged the Museum is forging ahead with a re-invigorated cultural, scientific and educational agenda, with ambitions and scope that extend beyond the Benin Bronzes.

After this was written....

With a certainty that Nigeria's Federal Government's Notice No.25 in the official Gazette No.57, dated 23 March 2023, has laid to rest the controversy over where returning Benin Bronzes will be exhibited, two Dukes (Enigie) from Benin Kingdom have expressed thanks to the Federal Government and the Oba of Benin 'for their determination and unwavering support for approving the Benin Royal Museum'. They pledged their loyalty to the Oba for being steadfast and are praying for continuous unity in Benin Kingdom.

Meanwhile, in August 2023 the University of Oxford confirmed their plans to work with the MOWAA in order to create a centre of excellence for archaeology in West Africa. The research institute, based in the Adjaye-designed Pavilion scheduled for completion in 2024, is intended to support skills development and world-leading research, as well as the analysis of material and biological remains. Irrespective of other distractions, clearly the MOWAA is determined to press ahead with its agenda for African-centred scholarship. According to Pavilion director Ore Disu, this partnership with the University of Oxford "sets us out firmly on an ambitious path to establish a world-class collections facility and a centre of excellence for archaeological science, conservation and museum practice in West Africa."

Photo: Proposed Museum of West African Art, Edo State, Nigeria

Courtesy of Adjaye Associates