A preview event at the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) in Benin City was disrupted by protesters who accuse the new institution of infringing the cultural authority of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, in an ongoing dispute over artefacts taken by British forces during colonial rule. Video shared on social media shows demonstrators chanting “Oba ghato kpere ise” (Bini for “Long live the king”) as security staff escorted foreign and local visitors from the building. Reporters described minor damage, and the museum — due to open to the public on Tuesday — advised people not to visit until further notice.
Phillip Ihenacho, Mowaa’s director, told Agence France-Presse protesters “began vandalising part of the reception pavilion” before moving into the front section and exhibition area. The museum issued a brief apology to guests for the disruption and thanked them for their patience.
Originally named the Edo Museum of West African Art, Mowaa contains conservation labs, galleries and studios designed to promote exchange around West African art. It stands in what was once the capital of the Benin empire and was co-funded by the French and German governments alongside private donors. The institution had planned to display several of the Benin bronzes — artworks seized by British forces during a punitive expedition in 1897 and since dispersed to collections across Europe and the United States. About 40 miles (65km) north of Mowaa is a smaller museum commemorating a separate British invasion.
More than 150 original bronzes have been returned to Nigeria from European state museums and private collections in the past five years. But a political rift between Edo state’s former and current governors, who belong to opposing parties, has left those repatriated bronzes unavailable for public display at Mowaa. The current state administration is allied with the Oba, and in March 2023 Nigeria’s federal government ruled that repatriated looted artefacts should be vested in the Oba of Benin, who maintains they belong in the Benin palace.
Mowaa says it is an independent nonprofit and has distanced itself from the state government, adding the former governor has no financial interest in the museum. Nigeria’s culture minister, Hannatu Musawa, warned the disruption “not only endangers a treasured cultural asset but also threatens the peaceful environment necessary for cultural exchange and the preservation of our artistic patrimony.” Reaction across Nigeria was mixed; Lagos-based Zero Prive gallery described the incident as “not good optics for Edo state and not also for Nigeria,” expressed support for Mowaa’s independence and urged that political differences be resolved in the public interest.
