Sonita Alleyne:
“The tone has shifted… [Africa] expects its cultural property to be returned. Institutions in the UK and USA and national leadership from France, Belgium and Germany are returning single and whole collections of Benin Bronzes. This is real action.”
The move towards restitution was in part “because of the agency, scrutiny and determination that more diverse communities and leadership bring to institutions”.
A group of students initially raised critical questions about the ownership of the Bronze in the College’s possession. The College’s Legacy of Slavery Working Party then carried out research which confirmed the statue was looted directly from the Court of Benin, as part of the punitive British expedition of 1897, and was given to the College in 1905 by the father of a student.
“This process of open, honest and rigorous historical research, followed by a proper discussion of the issues, is a model that many organisations are now following,” Alleyne said.
She told delegates research was still ongoing into the College’s historical links to slavery and colonial violence with the report on track to be published later this year.
She concluded: “It has been written that ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.’ That quotation can be used to avoid interrogating history properly and failing to solve urgent contemporary problems whose roots may be centuries old.
“I say the present is our country and we have the power to do things better here. By learning from the past and by taking action in the present we can create a better future for ourselves and future generations.”
