The movement of the Emwin Arre, objects of tradition or historical relevance, can be traced from their production in the Benin Kingdom to the collections that hold them today. Their biographies unfold through a chain of events, tracing their movement from makers through the looting of 1897, subsequent sales, gifts and museum acquisitions, and, more recently, restitution.
Where museum records are silent or incomplete, available evidence and contexts help reconstruct these histories, distinguishing what is documented from what is inferred and placing events within the wider histories that shaped the global dispersal of Benin heritage.
Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here