Africa's looted art | DW Documentary
Africa's looted art | DW Documentary
Africa’s colonial overlords brutally stripped it of countless cultural treasures. Now, the fate of these items is being hotly debated in Europe and Africa as well. Some say the pieces should be returned, while others have reservations.
European museums proudly present art and cultural artifacts from all over the world. But until recently,…
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"Perhaps we need to accept the fact that there won't be a solution at all." The disrespectful nerve of these European patronizing institutions. Mercy!
The response to Barbara the museum director's permanent loan suggestion is fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
They remain unrepentant by not returning what they stole, but whatsoever a mans sows that shall he reap
Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Mark12:17
I highly recommend a book on African religions: "Masques of Africa" by V.S. Naipaul.
The wholesale looting of cultures across the world by all colonial powers speaks volumes to the emptiness of the souls of European cultures. We are all aware of the consequences of those soulless cultures. The dark heart at the core of European culture eventually led to ww1 and ww2. It would be a wonderful healing process for all concerned if ex-colonial powers were to offer to build museums in looted countries so that the stolen artifacts could be returned as a means of reparations and to begin the meaningfully process of healing cultures on both sides.
3:23
Ooohhh poor babies. Look to the world. As if poor Africa is the only one with stolen art. If look beyond black into world history. It's been around since one group over powered another people. Sooo poor little Africa. Your not alone.
Now the British museum wants back its artifacts. I guess the British Museum wants to now control the narrative.
There were so many stolen items that made Britain GREAT, not only from Africa but all over the world including slavery! The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set at the edge.
The English, the Germans and the French. Evil empires.
One of the best thing these countries can do is move away from colonial languages.
With universal interpreters coming, there is no need for them to adopt to European languages.
Like what happened to the Benin Kingdom, the British destroyed the Summer Palace and Old Summer Palace in China. They also looted the palaces of their treasures.
Wie viele Kruzifixe wurden eigentlich aus Europa verschleppt ? Sucht man diese, werden sie vermisst ? Eine Nationale Katastrophe.
3:30
Just give them back their art and quit making things so complicated that's what makes me sick about these caucasians they always want to try to throw some salt on the wound when it's cut and dry give it back to the owners.
It's no complexity give those countries back their art and whatever else they looted and stop with the red tape it came from there end of story no argument , no honor in theft thieves.
disgraceful, no fancy words thieves.
We seem to forget that the pain and hurt that was committed centuries ago is still present in EVERY descendant of victims of colonialism. We need to start healing, apologizing and forgiving.
Eastern Europe has proven of locals selling out privately their national antic treasures, so if all those artifacts were in Africa they wouldn't last long and be damaged or sold to individuals,rather than being kept immaculately in museums and available to the public for display
Is this documentary meant to make me feel good as an African?…….Didn't the Germans during the second Riech who run DW today totally wipe out the Heroro Tribe in Namibia and steal from them.
Madam Nike's argument is so colonial-like and come across to me as weak and baseless. 🙄
It doesn't matter where we keep them. These items have existed before the creation of America, Australia, England, Germany and most European countries. They're thousands of years old. Know your history guys.
One day, African leaders will unite and take back what's rightfully theirs
I just followed up on such a "repatriation" of art to Kenya. Sadly, the artifacts stayed for several months in the harbor in Mombasa while they were figuring out what to do with them. When they finally knew what to do, the artifacts were already stolen.
If you have never lived in subsahara Africa, you can't understand how hopeless it is to try to do anything meaningful here. The artifacts are much safer in the western world, according to me.
Why Namibia is glorifying and celebrating the same weapon called the bible that was used to colonize them is shocking
Your children might never know peace, if these are not returned
Can we plz get ✊🏾 are art back
Benin-Bronzen landen in Nigeria nicht im Museum, sondern in Privatbesitz.
Die Bundesregierung-Von einem Ochsen kann man nicht mehr verlangen als Rindfleisch!!!
I'm a Edo girl and I'm Bini, honestly they took a lot from us,I used to hear stories of how we had a form of locally made street lights and how those bronze were used to decorate the Palace, my Mum ( who is ora from owan west, Edo state) actually saw the local lamps we made from palm oil or so,I can't remember clearly but it was from a natural product and it has a native name in my mum's ethnic group, they called our languages vanacular and our people primitive, yet we invented clothes like Adire( tie and dye) Aso oKe, unique art works, locally made soaps and accessories like coral beads etc, we had mud houses which provided warmth during cold and cold during warmth,it was a natural temperature regulator, woven items and so many more, in Benin ( Nigeria) there are no new roads because all the paths which formed roads today have been interlinked for many years ,that's why one place can have three different roads of accessing it, what I plan to do in future is to document nigerian languages and create an app and plead to the government to make our indigenous languages as official languages along side English like what South Africa did, before our languages go extinct, they took our art which was all that was left due to distraction of our palaces, and now our languages are vanished, I don't have anything against the Europeans, we have forgiven them a long time ago but what they did to us, really ruined our mindset, if Africans built on their native inventions we would have been so ahead, those days how many Africans fell ill or even had diabetes or all those other illments, we ate fresh vegetables and a balanced diet, we drank Agbo ( local herbal medicine) my mum still buys ruzu bitters because they helped us stay healthy, black soup is also very good from the skin and made from local products, they need to return these artifacts belonging to Africans and Asians at least 85 % to boast tourism and also because its ours, whether whatever we decide to do,its our decision to make, until we Africans realise that our ancestors were not primitive and our language isn't vanacular but theirs is to us, then we can begin to move forward culturally as a people, the Asians did it and look at them today, one of the top richest men in the world is an Indian they were colonised by the British but they still let their culture grow and survive including their languages though the British still have the kohinoor, which isn't nice in my opinion, I'm happy that these countries are still prospering in their true identity. GOD BLESS AFRICA 🌍 🙏
Our African history ruined and indeed a vacuum has being created , we lost our historical culture and reference notes
That man is right about hostages in those museums. For years the only owl I ever saw was a stuffed one in a science museum.
Meanwhile they still rob each other before any others ever came and robbed anything. There will always be robbers of every culture good and bad
I am author of the books: The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10,000 Mile Long Wall, The Real Wakandas of Africa and The Real Vibranium of Africa (by Maurice Miles Martinez). Most people are unaware that African people built a wall before transatlantic slavery in the Benin empire that is one of the most massive structures in the world. At 10,000 miles long, the Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the buildings in New York City’s Manhattan. If cut into 1 meter high blocks, it would wrap around the equator more than 65 times! It is arguably the planet’s greatest man-made structure. Yet, it has been ignored by historians. In my book The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10,000 Mile Long Wall, I explore the dimensions of the wall, the history of the Benin Empire’s Kings (Obas) and the stolen Benin Bronzes. This video also discusses this topics. These treasures that sit in the world’s museums amount to more than $14 Billion. Most people who read this book are left wondering why they never heard about the Great Wall of Africa in their history classes. The world needs more videos on this topic of stolen artifacts from Africa.
Maurice Miles Martinez
The dislikes are modern colonizers and it's subordinates …
Colonialism was a great injustice. Show some good will, make a copy for the museum, and return the artifacts to their original homes. The acknowledgement, the humanity, the good will, are what is important, not the objects.
The bible and the whip is the last thing we need back
The best thing to do first is public apology
Edo benin City Nigeria 🇳🇬
Reminds me that they killed Koitalel Samoei, cut off his head and took it to Britain. They have never returned his head and also looted the Kalenjin artifact.
The Europeans are never to be trusted!! History is everything!!
We know who the savages are, without our artifacts they are devoid, empty
sending love, this video has been with me since starting yoga and now I am a vinyasa teacher thanks for the beautiful practice. ☯☯💕💕
Coming to terms with your own history is a difficult thing. The problem is to accept all of it, including those aspects that, in contemporary view, are ugly. In Benin it really begins with an expedition, years prior to the "punitive expedition" whose goal it was to trick the oba to sign all of his rights away to secure 'protection' in queen Victoria's name. I found a contemporary publication of the document. The king's signature was a cross, the translator's signature also was a cross, i.e. neither could read or write English let alone the English legal system and what it entailed. The lack of understanding on the Benin side let to the expedition to Benin City which led to the "punitive expedition'. That must be admitted on the British side – most likely not just in the case of the Kingdom of Benin.
In regard to the former Kingdom of Benin, it is necessary not just to glorify the past but to face a history of very cruel human sacrifice on a very large scale, a social order in which everyone in the kingdom was automatically the oba's slave, even though the oba, at the end of the 18h century had little knowledge of what was going on in or outside his court, and he was dependent on a group of elders politically and physically.
Only when those aspects of Benin culture are held up to historical truth, regardless how embarrassing, inglorious, but also glorious they may be, can a repatriation of the objects that are witness be truly meaningful.
First thing to do is build a big museum in Benin because if we have thousands of artifacts abroad then we need a place to display them…
A very interesting history that I never heard from anyone or any politician. well done!!!
American thieves return the stolen art work to African countries and other countries.
European thieves. Return the African art work.
I shan't apologize for being from a race capable of reading, writing and maths. African savages would have destroyed the artifacts for a few beads and trinkets from a cannibal warlord.
Why would the want to keep things that came to them through such bloody means
Black millionaires need to unit and form a independent council to get bring back and returned to the true owners of your beautiful art and the soul of your history, use your money and influential powers to get it back, and become the modern heroes of our time. I'm not from African decent. I am asian raised in America. Growing up I was taught to understand the difference between the right and wrong, please help your brothers and sisters and your new generations to obtain what is rightfully your. Not to be sarcastic in any way money and power with some great leadership much can be accomplished, God be with you my brothers and sisters