Zainab Musa Shallangwa

The global momentum for the restitution of looted African cultural heritage has intensified significantly since President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 declaration, reviving long-standing debates around the return of the Benin Bronzes. Nigeria’s demands date back to the 1930s, and recent repatriation efforts by Germany, the University of Cambridge, and the Horniman Museum have brought questions of restitution, reparation, and cultural justice back to the fore. Beyond the moral case for their return, the displacement of these objects represents a profound cultural violence: within Benin society, the bronzes carry deep spiritual, political, and identity-forming significance.

Yet more than a century after the 1897 looting, shifting religious, cultural, and generational landscapes raise urgent questions about the contemporary meaning and relevance of these objects. Zainab Musa Shallangwa investigates how everyday people in Benin perceive restitution, how the significance of the bronzes has evolved over time, and what reparation might realistically look like. By foregrounding local voices that are too often excluded from elite-dominated restitution discourse, she provides grounded insights into cultural memory, identity, and historical trauma.