In Episode 2 of The Native Nigerian, we interrogate the nefarious histories of Western museums and pose the provocative question: What if we stole our artifacts back? Colonial looting was a deliberate act of violence against indigenous African communities, so our quest for the return of these artifacts must be thunderous and relentless.
Our guests British-Nigerian digital designer Chidi Nwaubani and Brazilian artist Ile Sartuzi share accounts of their heists at the British Museum, highlighting the role of this institution and several other Western museums in legitimizing crime and violence through military conquest and expeditions. By magnifying these long-standing harmful practices, we question when African artifacts will return to their homelands, how far we are willing to go to enforce this return, and the potential future for our homegrown African museums. #TheNativeNigerian #InMyNativeBag #AfricanArchives
Chapters
00:00 - Intro
03:18 - Tracing the evolution of museums from cabinets of curiosity to grand institutions that flaunt colonial exploits, the provenance of looted African artifacts, the power of curated museum staging and decolonizing the museum
08:53 - Unpacking the meticulous planning of a museum heist, the theft of a Goya painting from the National Gallery, the 1968 British Theft Act.
14:12 - The self-proclaimed responsibility of Universal museums, the 1963 British Museum Act, museums as the foundation of national imagination, centering African museums around communal values, the impact of black festivals (FESMAN ‘66 and FESTAC ‘77) on art and culture.
22:37 - Using LiDAR and 3D scanning technology for a digital heist, risking deportation and media blowback for tricking the British Museum, the theft of unregistered artifacts by Peter Higgs - a former British museum senior curator, the hypocrisy of the British Museum, and the urgency for repatriation backed with financial reparation
30:16 - Stealing one of the few British things in the British Museum, the value and lost function of museum artifacts, the relationship between the colonial authority and colonial subject
36:16 - Re-looting African artifacts from Western museums, the importance of increasing accessibility to Indigenous Nigerian communities, the limits of digital repatriation, and the intergenerational trauma and impact of Western museum culture
44:08 - Connecting to ancestral practices, the relationship between magic and technology, and the significance of Ghana Must Go, African artifacts in the metaverse
53:53 - Designing an African museum, the communal and environmental ethos of the Mbari house
56:57 - Outro
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Produced by Diasporic Femme Studio
Theme: <<Space>> by Mr Yohan