Kobojunkie:

I am puzzled. Who exactly are you attempting to petition here? The Nigerian government? Or Sothebys?

Goodluck with the whole petition thing. In this country and under English law, I very much doubt there is anything illegal with the auction. As far as it goes, someone paid for it legally and in good faith when it was bought. As it stand, the person of family are now selling it in return.

I am not sure there is any law they broke in that process,


This what I was trying to say as per private collectors and some art stuff.  I mean, it will be a crime now if this was the Mona Lisa (??) or something as it is more or less a state property and cannot be own by one person.

I heard that during the FESTAC77, the governemnt then made an offer to buy back some of those artifacts for the festival but the British govt refused.

Yeah I saw the article on Metro UK saying that the OBA has "resurfaced" what are these Oyinbo's trying to say? The mask hid itself,stole itself & now it has come from hibernation all on it's own??
why can't they be truthful for once and say what exactly went down 1.) A royal Family in Benin City gave it as a gift to some family or 2.) They took the OBA forcefully and we know what that is called!!

ElRazur:

Goodluck with the whole petition thing. In this country and under English law, I very much doubt there is anything illegal with the auction. As far as it goes, someone paid for it legally and in good faith when it was bought. As it stand, the person of family are now selling it in return.

I am not sure there is any law they broke in that process,


This what I was trying to say as per private collectors and some art stuff.  I mean, it will be a crime now if this was the Mona Lisa (??) or something as it is more or less a state property and cannot be own by one person.

Thats the thing . . . what we're left with is the court of public opinion, the one that tried Gordon Brown in th Al Megrahi case, if the Nigerian Goverment steps up and gets it into the papers, I'll be satisfied.
There's prolly precedent for that somewhere.

I remember vaguely the case of the Bible at the Alake's palace.
It was about 100 years old and a gift from Queen Victoria, the Brits wanted it back and I think they sent a replacement or sumn, I can't remember the facts of that case.

Abeg let me hear word

Like if the mask is returned to Nigerian  

it will be probably be mishandled or rot away in one ancient museum in Nigeria

I like my oyinbo too much  - see how they kept it  in perfect condition  

abeg let the thing remain for u.k  - so i can go and view it sometimes when i get chance.

If possible self i will sell my whole family to Oyinbo and be assurred that they will be well kept.

Your fellow nigerians are still dying of malaria on daily bases and your government no do anything.  u dey worry about benin mask. i dey laugh.

if Oyinbo people need receipt for mask - make then come see me for my my office  - I will be glad to write one for them on behalf of Nigeria

If we cannot get them to return it to its rightful origin may i suggest that our rich billionaires/ millionaires by it from the aution house through a 3rd party. I am quite sure that some of our former and present politicans who has looted us dry can afford it.
If all fails, i will set up "operation Nick Winston Churchill's head from Parliarment's square" on facebook. I am sure alot of my fellow Nigerians will sign up.

Lets unleashed our Yahoo boys on them, they will cry like new born babes, selling a mask of the benin kingdom that was stolen from us is fraudulent. This is pure Fraud

Off Dat!:

If we cannot get them to return it to its rightful origin may i suggest that our rich billionaires/ millionaires by it from the aution house through a 3rd party. I am quite sure that some of our former and present politicans who has looted us dry can afford it.
If all fails, i will set up "operation Nick Winston Churchill's head from Parliarment's square" on facebook. I am sure alot of my fellow Nigerians will sign up.

Ode

How many people back home have you paid their school fees?

blacksta:

Abeg let me hear word

Like if the mask is returned to Nigerian

it will be probably be mishandled or rot away in one ancient museum in Nigeria

I like my oyinbo too much - see how they kept it in perfect condition

abeg let the thing remain for u.k - so i can go and view it sometimes when i get chance.

If possible self i will sell my whole family to Oyinbo and be assurred that they will be well kept.

Your fellow nigerians are still dying of malaria on daily bases and your government no do anything. u dey worry about benin mask. i dey laugh.

if Oyinbo people need receipt for mask - make then come see me for my my office - I will be glad to write one for them on behalf of Nigeria

Slave Boy

I suggest we (all Nigerians in London) stage a massive peaceful protest on the day of the auction at sothesby's.

seanet02:

Slave Boy

lol

which one do you prefer Internal Colonism or External one or the other you are still been colonised.

blacksta:

lol

which one do you prefer Internal Colonism or External one or the other you are still been colonised.

Is this all you learn in London? Killing Hundreds of Thousand in Iraq and calling Abacha a Tyrant. Your case is Pathetic

blacksta:

Abeg let me hear word

Like if the mask is returned to Nigerian  

it will be probably be mishandled or rot away in one ancient museum in Nigeria

I like my oyinbo too much  - see how they kept it  in perfect condition  

abeg let the thing remain for u.k  - so i can go and view it sometimes when i get chance.

If possible self[b] i will sell my whole family to Oyinbo [/b]and be assurred that they will be well kept.

Your fellow nigerians are still dying of malaria on daily bases and your government no do anything.  u dey worry about benin mask. i dey laugh.

if Oyinbo people need receipt for mask - make then come see me for my my office  - I will be glad to write one for them on behalf of Nigeria

abegi
Is your situation that worse ?

UK own don finish, Ok let them auction it but i bet we the Benin boys will recover that money in folds from them shortly, let the bidding go on.

eldee:

Thats the thing . . . what we're left with is the court of public opinion, the one that tried Gordon Brown in th Al Megrahi case, if the Nigerian Goverment steps up and gets it into the papers, I'll be satisfied.
There's prolly precedent for that somewhere.

I dey join you hope say Naija goverment makes noise about this one.

If you care to look into it, I think there is a prequel and back story to the whole Benin mask and what not.  If memory serves me right, there was some brouhaha about it in the 80s.

, abeg bone!, sign which petition? how about us signing petitions against corruption,malaria, poverty here in naija first.
I even get that kind benin bronze head in my living room wey one local artist carve for me, kini big deal?

ettebobson:

, abeg bone!, sign which petition? how about us signing petitions against corruption,malaria, poverty here in naija first.
I even get that kind benin bronze head in my living room wey one local artist carve for me, kini big deal?

Big deal be say, yours ain't hundred plus years old. Big deal be say, the Oba of Benin from 100plus years ago no wear yours. Big deal be say, this one na heritage and have culture behind it. Big deal be say it hurt to see people making money off our culture, especially when it was "stolen" off us.

The history of Europeans interaction with Africans, Indian or any other race at that is full of murder, robbery, rape, deceit and other unmentionable but despicable acts. Their forefathers did same to our forefathers, they are rubbing it in our face presently, but they better tell their descendants to sleep with one eye open because our descendants might not be as gentle as we are.

ElRazur:

Big deal be say, yours ain't hundred plus years old. Big deal be say, the Oba of Benin from 100plus years ago no wear yours. Big deal be say, this one na heritage and have culture behind it. Big deal be say it hurt to see people making money off our culture, especially when it was "stolen" off us.

, and mine will be a 100 years old someday.
, Oba of benin na God?
, show me other heritages and culture wey we don preserve
, it doesn't hurt to see OUR own people stealing money off us?

The glorious mask was stolen all right but it was part of what can be regarded as spoils of war. When you lose a war you are bound to lose a lot of property you may never get back. You may trade your life or even  your race for those material things. The mask is currently in private hands and we cannot use poitics to get it back. I suggest that Edo state govt with the assistance of the Federal government buy the mask back and ensure it 's safe keeping and preservation, That is the way to go

^Well said.

Solozzo:

The glorious mask was stolen all right but it was part of what can be regarded as spoils of war. When you lose a war you are bound to lose a lot of property you may never get back. You may trade your life or even  your race for those material things. The mask is currently in private hands and we cannot use poitics to get it back. I suggest that Edo state govt with the assistance of the Federal government buy the mask back and ensure it 's safe keeping and preservation, That is the way to go

GBAM!

notice how it's called the
'punitive expedition' . . . a gentler way to describe murder, massacre and robbery.

This is why it was a 'punitive' expedition. It was perhaps justifiably retaliatory:

In response to the massacre of a previous British-led invasion force, naval and protectorate troops deposed the king and captured, looted and burnt the city of Benin. The admiralty confiscated most of the booty and auctioned it off to defray the costs of the expedition

@ Topic

Well, might is always right. Thats the world we live in, and this fact is evident in our daily dealings as human beings as well as in the dealings between states in the comity of nations. There is no point whining about how the British 'stole' a Bini mask in the 17th century. We have more pressing issues to worry about. Heck, I am dead sure that the darn mask would have long decayed and disappeared had it remained in Nigeria. Is there ay single item in any of Nigeria's museums (relic houses more like) that dates back to the 17th Century? (other than Murtala's bullet-ridden Benz 200 and a few shillings and Biafra notes). Do we even have an original recorded history dating back to the 17th Century (other than that authored by British and other foreign sources)?

As usual we like to make a jamboree out of chasing rats when our house is on fire. Lets leave the oyinbos to bask in their taste for the exotic. Afterall the so-called masks would have been of much less value to the average Nigerian than a sumptuous plate of food. Lets deal with the basics first - the outrageous level of hunger, poverty and infrastructural decay - and leave the developed West to worry about masks, paintings and carvings.

pro01:

This is why it was a 'punitive' expedition. It was perhaps justifiably retaliatory:
@ Topic

Well, might is always right. Thats the world we live in, and this fact is evident in our daily dealings as human beings as well as in the dealings between states in the comity of nations. There is no point whining about how the British 'stole' a Bini mask in the 17th century. We have more pressing issues to worry about. Heck, I am dead sure that the darn mask would have long decayed and disappeared had it remained in Nigeria. Is there ay single item in any of Nigeria's museums (relic houses more like) that dates back to the 17th Century? (other than Murtala's bullet-ridden Benz 200 and a few shillings and Biafra notes). Do we even have an original recorded history dating back to the 17th Century (other than that authored by British and other foreign sources)?

As usual we like to make a jamboree out of chasing rats when our house is on fire. Lets leave the oyinbos to bask in their taste for the exotic. Afterall the so-called masks would have been of much less value to the average Nigerian than a sumptuous plate of food. Lets deal with the basics first - the outrageous level of hunger, poverty and infrastructural decay - and leave the developed West to worry about masks, paintings and carvings.

No. We must all sign the petition

blacksta:

Abeg let me hear word

Like if the mask is returned to Nigerian  

it will be probably be mishandled or rot away in one ancient museum in Nigeria

I like my oyinbo too much  - see how they kept it  in perfect condition  

abeg let the thing remain for u.k  - so i can go and view it sometimes when i get chance.

If possible self i will sell my whole family to Oyinbo and be assurred that they will be well kept.

Your fellow nigerians are still dying of malaria on daily bases and your government no do anything.  u dey worry about benin mask. i dey laugh.

if Oyinbo people need receipt for mask - make then come see me for my my office  - I will be glad to write one for them on behalf of Nigeria

i wonder what your mind tells you when you condemn Esau for selling his birthright for a messy plate of food.

This is a complete travesty! These ancient Benin mask should be given back to their rightful owners. The British stole them like they have stolen other artifacts from ancient cultures. What gives them the right to do such a thing? It is so unjust, that it makes very angry. The British really messed up this world with their British Empire.

stolen by who? oya go collect am now, mumu

Sad, sad and so very sad.

The western invasion of Africa and subsequent colonial rule is the greatest injustice the galaxy has ever known.

This mask is only a tip of the iceberg, on a visit to the museum in Birmingham some months back, i was appalled at the number of bini artefacts i found.

Oba gha to kpere, ise.

snowdrops, I agree with you with everything you have stated. And I am actually amazed that some of the people on this thread had the audacity to say that it was the "spoil of war." I do not believe in that though processes. The British committed what can be tantamount to cultural genocide on their African subjects. The same goes for the French, Germans, Portuguese, Italians and Belgium. African states should sue their former colonial "masters" for reparations, because the impact of colonialism can still be felt in many African states.

relax relax guys. i personally know nigerian people who have stolen tenfold the price of that artifact from the british govt  my mums friends daughter made up about 40 fictitious names in the nineties and collected giro on those 40 names. i believe she made a coupla million pounds. now she has mansions all over lagos witht that money. i also know a nigerian guy who throws in bogus checks into accounts in manchester. he musta made about 3 million pounds from that stuff. i myself took my share of stolen african loot back from the british govt. all am saying is that the british govt has been kind to the 1 million nigerian in london so no need to hold past gripes. they have more than made up for their transgressions. 
i remember when i used to come to london back then. as soon as i landed on british soil, i am walking into giro office and i get free money till i go back to nigeria. lets cut the british some slack. they are generous people 

@Buzugee: Na wa o, this one wey be say all ur friends, family and Acquaintances nah criminals and fraudsters. . . . hmmmm, sha u sef confess say u be ogbologbo olodu, so I guess no shaking. Abi?