Cooperation and dialogue

Research visit from Nigeria

The Swiss Benin Initiative (BIS) is partnering with the historian Dr. Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe, an academic based at the University of Benin in Edo State. As researcher, she is contributing a Nigerian perspective to the project, both in terms of the origin, meaning and provenance of the works, and their ongoing significance in Benin culture today.

Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe is studying objects from the Benin collection in the depot of the Museum der Kulturen Basel © MKB, Omar Lemke

In her research, Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe compiles oral histories about the objects and examines the mechanisms of the Nigerian art trade and collecting practices in both colonial and post-colonial times through archival material and interviews. The voices and narratives of the guilds, the palace society and other relevant persons are an important source for the entangled history of Benin and Europe.

The findings of Dr. Uzebu-Imahiagbe will complement the provenance research Dr. Alice Hertzog is doing in European archives on the question of how the Benin artworks arrived in Switzerland.

Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe in the exhibition "Memory", accompanied by Alice Herzog (BIS) and curators Michaela Oberhofer (MRZ) and Ursula Regehr (MKB) (from left) © MKB, Omar Lemke

In September 2021, Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe travelled to Switzerland for a scientific exchange. Hosted by the participating museums she met with the curators, visited the various museums, archives and depots and examined each of the approximately 100 Benin works.

"A different perspective on the history of the bronzes"

Afterwards, the Nigerian historian discussed the findings and the research plan with all BIS members in a workshop at the Museum Rietberg. Regarding the joint research at the collections in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen and Zurich, she stated: «This collaboration is opening an avenue to having a different perspective on the Benin Bronzes, bringing in a Nigerian perspective, and joining it with a European perspective – putting everyone on the same page».

Workshop in the Museum Rietberg with members of the Benin Initiative Schweiz (from left): Julien Glauser (Musée d'ethnographie de la Ville de Neuchâtel), Esther Tisa (Museum Rietberg), Alice Hertzog (BIS), Alexis Malefakis (Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich), Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe (University of Benin), Floriane Morin (Musée d'ethnographie de Genève), Michaela Oberhofer (Museum Rietberg), Ursula Regehr (Museum der Kulturen Basel), Sarah Oechslin (Museum Rietberg) und Samuel Bachmann (Bernisches Historisches Museum) © Jonathan Watts

After this first fruitful exchange between Dr. Uzebu-Imarhiagbe and the Swiss museums, a delegation of the BIS now envisages returning the visit, and plans to travel to Nigeria to present mid-term project results in early 2022. The BIS will expand this important cooperation with further academic and museum partners in Nigeria.