Re Nigerian cultural heritage, I saw an interesting and detailed article
on this topic: "Cultural heritage legislation and management in Nigeria"
by Folarin Shyllon (Professor of Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria) -
published in "International Journal of Cultural Property" Vol 5 (1996)
No.2, pp.235-268.

Re the Benin expedition of 1897, my brother wrote a book on this: "City
of blood revisited" by Robert Home (published Rex Collings, London,
1982). The book includes oral testimony from Nigerian survivors of the
massacre, collected by my brother in Benin in the early 1960s. My
brother and I lived for some time in pre-independence Nigeria in our
childhood, as our father worked there for the colonial administration.
I still possess two Yoruba Ibeji figures, given me as a personal gift by
the Chief of a town where we lived. They are of great sentimental
significance to me: I hope no-one will require me to return them! :-)
However, I'm strongly in favour of the return of cultural heritage to
its legitimate heirs.  I'm now documenting the Ethiopian Jewish
traditions: photographing manuscripts and taperecording oral traditions.
I return photocopies of the manuscripts and copies of the recordings to
those who gave them to me.  An Ethiopian Jewish Qes once grumbled to me
about researchers (not me!) who visit and record material from them, and
then disappear: he commented: "they are stealing our heritage"!

Margaret Hayon
Student of Museology,
University of Haifa, Israel

Shana Chambers wrote:
>
> Although I am not from Benin, I am of African descent and I agree with Mr.
> Buffalo.  However, I once encountered a curator who, when asked if African
> art that was stolen should be returned he replied that Africa was too
> unstable (politically) to be entursted with objects of such value and
> significance. Of course beacuse i was working at this museum and I wanted
> to be respectful of this person, i bit my tongue until it bled. I found
> myslef wondering if museums or western countries actually had the right to
> deny a people their cultural property based on a western standard of
> political stability without factoring in colonialism and neo-colonialism?
> I read a book by bell hooks and she says that as a student in Paris, she
> was amazed at the amount of African art in French museums.  Her theory
> about why there was sucha plethora of objects to chose from was this ( and
> i am paphrasing) if a people are forced to lose touch with their ability
> to create then they can easily be conquered.
>
> So lets suppose that various African groups decide to ask that their art
> be returned.  Would this process be the responsibility of the U.N. or
> would ICOMOS be involved, or just exactly who? As a former Poli Sci
> student, I think this would be an interesting process to follow.  How
> about you?
>
> Shana
>