Africa

Since 2019, an ongoing research and documentation project has focused on collections from the historic Kingdom of Benin. These collections comprise objects, photographs and an extensive associated archive. Many of the objects in this collection were looted from the royal palace and compounds in Benin City in 1897 by a British military expedition. This act of violence, which resulted in the capture and exile of the Oba (king) of Benin and effectively ended the kingdom, is fully acknowledged by the Museum. The detailed provenance of Benin objects is currently being researched and information is regularly updated in the digital records available on the Museum's Collection online database.

Since 2007 the British Museum has been a core member of the Benin Dialogue Group (BDG), a consortium of UK and European museums, and Nigerian partners represented by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Benin Royal Palace and the Edo State Government. This group is currently working towards the development of new museums in Benin City that will house permanent, rotating displays of iconic objects from the Kingdom of Benin on loan or returned from the BDG member museums.

The Museum is also participating in the Digital Benin project, an initiative that responds directly to Nigerian partner requests for an overview of globally-dispersed Benin collections. This two-year project (2020–2022), led by an international team based in Germany, will collate objects, photographs, archives, oral histories and personal accounts associated with the Kingdom of Benin for publication on an open-access digital platform.  

The Museum is also engaged in a number of other focused projects relating to Benin, which you can read about below.
 

The British Museum is working in partnership with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), to deliver a major pre-construction archaeological project in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria. The project is situated within the wider strategy of MOWAA to establish a new campus at the heart of the historic city that is dedicated to the preservation of heritage, the expansion of knowledge, and the celebration of West African arts and culture. The project will deliver essential archaeological mitigation works in advance of construction of museum buildings, while also aiming to enhance our understanding of the urban development of Benin City, and the chronology and origins of Edo material culture, including brass-casting traditions.  

The architectural vision for the 15-acre MOWAA campus is to develop a strong connection with heritage and archaeology as well as modern and contemporary artistry, by integrating the new buildings into the surrounding natural, cultural and historic landscape at the heart of the city. The MOWAA Archaeology Project encompasses collaborative excavations, laboratory analysis, public engagement activities with local communities, and knowledge exchange programmes. A key aspect of the project is supporting MOWAA's development of a new team of young Nigerian archaeologists and the creation of the MOWAA Institute, opening 2024.

More information about the MOWAA Archaeology project can be found on the British Museum's Research project page, and on the MOWAA website.

A new research project focusing on the relatively little-known Lower Niger Bronzes began in late 2019, drawing on experience and knowledge gained during previous projects relating to the archaeological sites of Igbo-Ukwu and the kingdoms of Ife and Benin. 

This project brings together critically needed documentation work with archival and provenance research to form collection histories and object biographies. Collaboration between colleagues in the Africa section and Scientific Research through a new Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow position will enable in-depth exploration and study of the composition and technologies of production relating to the Lower Niger Bronzes. The Museum is also establishing collaborations around this material with colleagues and institutions in Nigeria, as well as elsewhere internationally.

The British Museum holds the world's largest collection of Lower Niger Bronzes, numbering approximately 200 objects. William Buller Fagg, former Keeper of Ethnography at the British Museum (1969–1974), coined the term the 'Lower Niger Bronze Industries', here referred to as the 'Lower Niger Bronzes', in the 1950s. The term describes a miscellaneous grouping of lost-wax cast copper alloy objects ranging from bell heads to vessels and human figures, originating from the Lower Niger Delta region of what is now Nigeria. To date, the Lower Niger Bronzes remain globally under-researched, with objects from the corpus often being unrecognised and misidentified as belonging to the more well-known casting traditions of Igbo-Ukwu, Ife or Benin City. Understandings of this corpus remain highly partial; from the lack of provenance for objects in collections, to how these objects were made and used in the past. This project is therefore not only critically needed in terms of our basic knowledge of the Museum's collections, but will contribute towards more nuanced understandings of historical southern Nigerian casting traditions more widely.

Ethiopia has a very long and rich tradition of painting. Most painters were priests and monks who learnt the art of painting under the guidance of an experienced church artist. Church art was intended to be informative and to inspire devotion, and frequently illustrated scenes from the bible or drew inspiration from the lives of saints. 

The British Museum holds a significant collection of 20th century paintings from Ethiopia. In 2019, 13 large-scale paintings on canvas were selected for conservation treatment as part of the Conserving Religious Devotion project supported by Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, and Jack Ryan. This work was undertaken in the Norfolk studio of KSH Conservation Ltd where treatments included surface cleaning, the consolidation of friable and flaking paint, as well as re-stretching and framing.

During the conservation process, the Museum invited two colleagues from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to visit the studio to view the conservation treatments and to provide both technical advice and to share knowledge relating to the history, use and iconography of the paintings. These paintings have now been returned to the Museum and a collaborative research programme with colleagues from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is to be developed in 2021.

Generously funded by Arcadia, the aim of this five-year project (2013–2018) was to catalogue, research and disseminate a major collection (24,000) of digitised rock art images created by the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA).

Covering 20 countries and many of the most important rock art sites throughout the continent, the collection provides an instructive cross-section of the main styles, chronologies and themes of African rock art, as well as additional images of landscapes, ethnographic and archaeological materials.

Combining a wide range of research from the British Museum, TARA and other colleagues in Africa, the project is important in ensuring global open access well into the future. The department continues to work collaboratively with colleagues in Africa to enhance and develop areas of rock art research and accessibility.

Find out more on the African rock art website.

In West Africa, gold has traditionally been valued above other types of metal and was restricted to royal use and the creation of items of state. Gold-weights, miniature cast brass weights used to measure out gold dust, come in many different shapes and sizes yet, despite great physical variation, they are one of the most instantly recognisable art forms from West Africa.

A fully documented online catalogue has been produced, which features 2,000 gold-weights from the British Museum collection, and dated to between the 16th and 20th centuries. This includes providing a representative overview of weight ranges and illustrated examples of variations of geometric and figurative weight forms. The aim of this fully documented online resource is both to facilitate the comparative analysis of gold-weights in public institutions and private collections worldwide, and to help generate and promote wider interest and research into this important artistic and cultural material tradition.

Find out more on our Ghanaian gold-weights research page.

The British Museum has one of the most important collections globally of early African photography, including work by important early African photographers.

This includes around 40,000 photographs and glass plates from across the African continent, dating from the mid-19th century to the present day. The collection comprises images of anthropological and archaeological importance, as well as personal albums of European traders, colonial administrators and travellers documenting the social, economic, political and cultural milieu of Africans over 150 years. Dating back to the 1860s, early historic photography from Africa represents a major growing research methodology for exploring Africa's early history and colonial interaction.

Our current research focuses on the nature and role of photography in West Africa (particularly Nigeria and the Niger Delta) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from both European and African perspectives. In particular, this focuses on ways in which photographs can tell personal stories on the agency and networks of individuals while informing a broader understanding of African history and heritage, memory and identity.

Current research is positioned within the context of developing new partnerships with African institutions. The systematic study of the British Museum's African photography collections will be complemented by field research to partner with African institutions on the research, digitisation and preservation of their photographic archives, as well as critically engaged collaborations concerning these collections and their importance for understanding and thinking about the African past.

This exciting cultural initiative will provide a vibrant new space to explore and celebrate Yoruba heritage, past and present, and will create further opportunities for positive dialogue and collaboration between Nigeria and the UK.

– Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, October 2020

The John Randle Centre for Yoruba History and Culture is an ambitious initiative set in the heart of Lagos Island, close to the National Museum. Funded by the Lagos State Government, the centre is due to open in summer 2022.

The British Museum has championed its development from the outset and is supporting the initial displays with a long-term loan of 12 iconic objects.

The objects link the research and display interests of the Museum and partners in Nigeria by exploring together the multiple stories that constitute a shared heritage and history focused on the colonial period. Each of the selected objects provides a different perspective on the nature of relationships and encounters between the UK and Nigeria through colonial administration, missionary activity, exploration, trade and ethnographic fieldwork.

Notably, British research in Nigeria identified and named the previously unacknowledged Yoruba artists whose work is now celebrated in major museum collections throughout the world. These Yoruba artists will be 'relaunched' through this opening display at the John Randle Centre to reconnect a generation of young people in Nigeria to this heritage. The centre, with its multisensory approach and contemporary outlook, will offer a fresh approach to exploring Yoruba identity and history.