Project title

Our Voices Matter: Exploring Local Perceptions on the Restitution Issue in Benin City, Nigeria

Research question

How do communities in Benin understand, interpret, and respond to the restitution of the looted Benin Bronzes, particularly in terms of their cultural significance, generational perspectives, and expectations for reparation?

Project description

The global momentum for the restitution of looted African cultural heritage has intensified significantly since President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 declaration, reviving long-standing debates around the return of the Benin Bronzes. Nigeria’s demands date back to the 1930s, and recent repatriation efforts by Germany, the University of Cambridge, and the Horniman Museum have brought questions of restitution, reparation, and cultural justice back to the fore. Beyond the moral case for their return, the displacement of these objects represents a profound cultural violence: within Benin society, the bronzes carry deep spiritual, political, and identity-forming significance.

Yet more than a century after the 1897 looting, shifting religious, cultural, and generational landscapes raise urgent questions about the contemporary meaning and relevance of these objects. Zainab Musa Shallangwa investigates how everyday people in Benin perceive restitution, how the significance of the bronzes has evolved over time, and what reparation might realistically look like. By foregrounding local voices that are too often excluded from elite-dominated restitution discourse, she provides grounded insights into cultural memory, identity, and historical trauma.

Selected publications

  • Shallangwa Z. M. (2005) Culture and Education: Evaluating the Alternative Learning Program for Displaced Communities in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research. Vol. 22 (1). pp 107-121
  • Shallangwa, Z. M. (2023) To own and to Benefit: Rethinking Museum Practice in Africa. Maiduguri Journal of Arts and Design (MAIDJAD) Vol. 8 pp. 127-136
  • Shallangwa, Z. M. (2021) Beyond Aesthetics, Functionality and Economic Benefits: Art and Societal Transformation taking the Example of Cap Making in Northeast Nigeria Kulturelle Bildung Online Journal https://www.kubi-online.de/autorinnen/shallangwa-zainab-musa