{"id":3212,"date":"2022-02-20T00:26:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T00:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amnewsworld.com\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2022-02-20T00:26:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T00:26:11","slug":"the-nigerian-artwork-challenging-british-history-in-st-pauls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amnewsworld.com\/fi\/the-nigerian-artwork-challenging-british-history-in-st-pauls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nigerian artwork challenging British history in St Paul’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leading Nigerian artist tells writer Molara Woods why his new installation at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral is important, as the world-famous building re-evaluates its memorials to historical figures including the admiral who led the campaign that resulted in the looting of the Kingdom of Benin.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Spotlights pick out the rhinestones in Victor Ehikhamenor’s giant rosary-bead tapestry so that it sparkles, brightening up part of the crypt in the 17th Century cathedral.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This image of the oba, or king, of Benin dominates the space, through which thousands of visitors pass every week, and draws the eye.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Next to it – barely readable and tarnished through time – is a much smaller brass memorial plaque in honour of Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, who led a punitive expedition in 1897 to the West African kingdom of Benin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He oversaw the British soldiers and sailors who destroyed of a centuries-old civilisation, looting and burning down the oba’s palace in what is now Benin City in the Nigerian state of Edo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Their looted treasures – thousands of metal sculptures and ivory carvings made between the 15th and 19th Centuries and collectively known as the Benin Bronzes – are now at the centre of a debate about the return of artefacts taken during the colonial era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But as his plaque recalls, Rawson was revered at the time for his exploits right across the British Empire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Sculptures<\/span>Getty Image<\/span>,<\/span>Sculptures looted by British soldiers from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 have ended up across the world<\/em><\/h5>
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Through memorials to hundreds of historical British figures, St Paul’s presents a version of the past. But in an ongoing art project the cathedral authorities are attempting to bring new perspectives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ehikhamenor’s 12ft-tall work (3.7m), Still Standing, was specially commissioned as part of the 50 Monuments in 50 Voices project to tell different stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There is something very powerful about seeing an oba standing there next to the panel memorialising the Benin campaign,” the cathedral’s chancellor, Dr Paula Gooder, told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The work is also a reminder of “the enduring legacies and losses of colonial war”, the exhibit’s co-curator Prof Dan Hicks said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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St Paul’s has decided not to get rid of any of its monuments, recognising that “people had different values” in the past, and instead wants to “engage in a conversation with history,” Dr Gooder explained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Victor<\/div>\n
PA To the British people [Rawson] was a hero, to the family he was a hero, but it could also be that to some other people he was a war criminal”<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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