Protesters disrupted a preview event at the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) in Benin City, accusing the new institution of violating the cultural authority of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, in a long-running dispute over artefacts taken by British colonial forces.
Video shared on social media shows demonstrators chanting “Oba ghato kpere ise” (“Long live the king” in Bini) as security escorted foreign and local visitors from the building. Reporters said there was minor damage; the museum, due to open to the public on Tuesday, advised against visits until further notice.
Phillip Ihenacho, Mowaa’s director, told Agence France-Presse that protesters “began vandalising part of the reception pavilion” before entering the front section and exhibition area. In a brief statement the museum apologised to guests for the disruption and thanked them for their patience.
Mowaa — originally called the Edo Museum of West African Art — houses conservation labs, galleries and studios intended to promote exchanges around West African art. It stands in what was once the capital of the Benin empire. Co-funded by the French and German governments and private donors, the museum had planned to display several of the Benin bronzes, artworks seized by British forces during a punitive expedition in 1897 and dispersed to collections across Europe and America. About 40 miles (65km) north of Mowaa is a smaller museum marking another British invasion.
Over the past five years more than 150 original bronzes have been returned to Nigeria from European state museums and private collections. But a political rivalry between Edo state’s former and current governors — who are from different parties — means the returned bronzes will not be on 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 said it is an independent, nonprofit institution and 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, with calls for a swift resolution to safeguard the country’s cultural standing. Lagos-based Zero Prive gallery posted on Instagram that the incident is “not good optics for Edo state and not also for Nigeria,” and expressed support for Mowaa as an independent body, urging political differences be resolved in the public interest.
