We're here today at the Liverpool Museum
to talk about the objects and artefacts
from the Benin collection,
and the modernisation
of that installation.
We're all at different ages and
different experiences
within the community,
but, we all have a passion
about our community heritage
and our connection to Africa.
We have been discussing how we
re-examine a museum exhibition
dealing with an African country
that was colonised,
that would like some of the things back
that we keep in our museums,
and how do we contextualise that
to understand the British
relationship with Africa.
We go into an exhibition on Egypt
or China,
or Greece,
and we are wowed by the
amazing achievements.
This should be what we do with
exhibitions on these African civilisations.
And then, we can discuss
the recent history of colonisation
then, where we are up to now
in terms of their art and culture
civilisation and society.
It's about creating something
more engaging,
and bringing a fresh narrative
to the artworks that they have.
- It takes effort to try and find
what you're looking at,
do you know what I mean?
- Yeah, yeah yeah,
and you do have to look closely.
Part of the role of this
particular display should be,
it's probably about challenging
some of the language.
If we can use language like
"theft" and "stolen"
to describe how we came by
the artefacts,
immediately, that challenges
the idea that they
just kind of appeared.
People will already start to
kind of think about,
well, what does that mean
stolen? Who stole it,
why was it stolen?
What does that actually mean?
The museums have decided, like,
that they have a right to own it
and their right to show it
in their museums is more
important than the people
who it was stolen from
having it returned.
With the bureaucracy of it,
it's like, well, you didn't have
bureaucracy when you stole it,
[laughter]
so it's like, why...
so it's kind of like, why don't we just
steal it back?
[the group laughs]
It has unearthed,
for me as an individual,
a lot of...
cultural...
anxiety.
Is the intention just to
show the stuff, or is it to
really engage people?
Is it to try and show that we're being...
more forthright and more honest
than museum displays
traditionally have been in this country?
It is challenging, but it's difficult,
these conversations,
and that should come across.
People should be challenged.
It's emotional for us, isn't it?
- Yeah.
Think about it, once you start
realising that you come from a city
called Liverpool, and it's involvement in slavery,
and it's involvement in this and that,
once you start realising the truth,
it's a blow.
That we still have this
connection to Africa...
and knowing that that whole...
the whole continent
in various ways, as far as we've
been taught history, and what
we've seen on the television
and been taught in school
and what people generally think,
in the place where we grow up,
what's been passed down to us is
that all this...
this kind of history has been hidden
and that is a fact, you know,
not only Benin, but all over the continent.
So, it's really deeply emotional,
and it's hurtful, you know,
the history of slavery and everything,
it sits really really deeply.
Everything's been stolen from us.
- Our heritage has been stolen.
Even our language,
I can't speak an African tongue,
I can say a couple of words
that my dad passed down to me
from his dad.
My surname, Elliott,
is an adopted surname,
everything,
every last thing's been stripped from us
and then we're born here,
so we've got that identity,
so anything that,
this is just another thing
that's been stolen from us.
It's horrific!
If you really think about it,
it's horrific,
and it can get very emotional.
No one's asking for grief and tears,
but just an explanation to the
young viewers who will be looking at
some of these artefacts to understand
where they came from.
Restoring that understanding will...
will get rid of how I thought about Africa
when I was a kid.
It's important to learn about
world history, it's important to
present it as truthfully and
honestly as possible,
uncomfortable truths need to be addressed.
From my personal perspective,
it's a privilege to be a part of.
It's a unique opportunity to actually get
my voice heard,
but I also believe that
I should be a part of it.
Once you open Pandora's Box,
to this, and other artefacts
and other museum pieces
from around the world,
you now may be
bringing into question the definition
of a museum.
In a sense, it's trying to
flip that kind of colonial perspective
and look upon Benin as being a vibrant culture.
That's been one of the kind of key challenges
really, for us,
to make sure that voice is
represented, and represented fairly.
For me, personally,
the real reason to do this is that
a lot of what has happened
on that continent has been white-washed,
has been hidden,
has been written out of history,
and all we're trying to do is be honest.