A Cambridge University College, Jesus College, has handed over the statue of a bronze cockerel, looted by British colonial forces during its invasion of Benin in 1897, to Nigeria.
BBC reports that the statue, locally called “Okukur”, was given to Jesus College in 1905 by the father of a student.
The sculpture of the cockerel was one of the hundreds of Benin Bronzes pillaged from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria.
Recall that in 2019, the college’s Legacy of Slavery Working Party had concluded that the cockerel “belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin.”
It, however, removed the statue on display in 2016, saying it will be given to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
The mistress of the College, Sonita Alleyne, while speaking at a handover ceremony on Wednesday, said that returning the artefact was the “right thing to do” especially because the said bronze statue was of “cultural and spiritual significance to the people of Nigeria.”
Alleyne said the Nigerian delegation would decide how and when to move the artefact.
She also disclosed that museums in France, Germany and the Netherlands were also engaged in discussions about returning Benin bronzes.
“We hope they do get to the same position as we do. We think it’s a morally grounded position,” she added.
Also speaking at the handover ceremony, the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, said he hoped that others would “expedite the return of our artworks, which in many cases are of religious importance to us.”
