Kwame Opoku

'Any Herero found within the German borders, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I no longer receive women or children. I will drive them back to their people or order them to be shot.

We read with astonishment and anger that recently discovered Nok sculptures are being displayed for the first time ever in Germany and not in Nigeria where they were discovered.

Queen-mother Idia, Benin, Nigeria, now in Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, Germany.

We read with great interest a report about the exhibition of Ife art in Swedish National Museums for World Culture, starting 6 September, 2013 for eight months. (1)

'The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections, directly or indirectly, possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded, must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricks.' Gert v.

‘What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ Shakespeare (1), Romeo and Juliet

‘There was a dim grandeur about it all, and also these seemed to a fate.

On 1 October 2012, anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, I am reading an article by Tajudeen Sowole, in The Guardian titled, ‘Ahead of 2013 show of looted Benin artefacts, US museum plots legitimacy’.

“The year 1897 means much to me and my people; it was the year the British invaded our land and forcefully removed thousands of our bronze and ivory works from my great grandfather, Oba Ovonramwen’s Palace." His Royal Highness Oba Erediauwa, Oba of Benin.

It has been reported in the New York Daily News that the widow of the French artist Arman, is suing in Manhattan Supreme Court for damage to a Nok sculpture caused during a photo shooting session for an art magazine. The sculpture fell and broke into pieces as shown above.

‘I, the great general of the German troops, send this letter to the Herero people. The Herero are no longer German subjects. They have murdered and stolen, they have cut off the ears and other parts of the bodies of wounded soldiers, and now out of cowardice they no longer wish to fight.