Jesus College hands back Benin Bronze Artefact, ‘Okukor’, to Nigeria

Jesus College of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK), on Wednesday handed a Benin bronze artefact to the Nigerian authorities in the UK. The artefact was taken away from the Benin Kingdom, Edo State, over 100 years ago.

The Cambridge University on Wednesday handed over the artefact to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, in the UK, for onward return to Nigeria. This was observed to be the “first institutional return of its kind.”

Jesus College has become the first UK institution to return a Benin Bronze Artefact to Nigeria, thus, increasing anticipation of more responses from other institutions in custody of the Benin Bronze, including the British Museum.

Leader of the Nigerian delegation, Professor Abba Tijani, receiving the bronze cockerel, known as “Okukor”, declared: “We are excited, very happy to see that this artefact, which has been away from Nigeria for decades, is in good shape.”

Tijani noted that the bronze was the artefact a UK institution would be returning to Nigeria in the long negotiations for the repatriation of looted Benin bronze.

Tijani commended the Jesus College for being “a great example for other institutions and other countries”. He appealed to  the British Museum to change its stance on the bronzes in its collection.

Tijani assured that the returning Benin Bronze “are going to the right place and they will be looked after”. He disclosed that Nigeria has made formal request for the repatriation back home.

Jesus College of the Cambridge University had taken the cockerel out of  public display in 2016 as students opposed it repatriation on the argument that the artefact represents a symbol of Britain’s colonial past, against the reality that it is a cultural heritage of the Benin Kingdom.

The British authorities took away the bronze the kingdom of Benin in 1897.