From being a rich people known worldwide for its riches, especially gold, Asante is now presented as an entity for which charity must be organised to support its museum. If the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wallace Collection, and other institutions would restitute stolen Asante artefacts, we could manage our activities to gather funds.
Those who stole our artefacts and refuse to return them now hold a charity ball to support us.
The British Museum announcement also declares that funds gathered will be used to support its excavation work in Benin City and support the new museum, Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City.
The rich and the prominent persons will be dining and dancing, surrounded by our looted artefacts that the British Museum refuses to return.
Is this a definite message to all who demand the restitution of their artefacts, Chinese, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Ghanaians, Greeks, Indians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Zimbabweans, and others?
Orthodox Christian crosses, captured in 1868 in Maqdala, in British Museum
The woes of all those who cry and beseech the mighty citadel in London to return the human remains of their ancestors for proper burial after a hundred years, do not seem to count and fall loudly on deaf ears.
The dancing rich do not usually hear the cries of those not attending the party. The music silences all disagreeable sounds from outside.
