The African-Caribbean Institute for Global Engagement (AFRICIGE) has launched a fundraiser to help the Benin Cultural Heritage Centre (BCHC) complete its museum project for Benin artefacts.
BCHC, which aims to protect, preserve, and restore the cultural heritage of the Benin people, seeks $500,000 to complete the museum to house the Benin artefacts being returned to Nigeria.
AFRICIGE is raising the funds through the GoFundMe platform.
Nigeria recently received a Benin bronze artefact from the University of Cambridge, more than 100 years after it was taken from the country. In 1897, British troops took away thousands of artworks, known as the Benin bronzes, from the Benin kingdom.
The museum, which is currently at lintel level, is part of a much larger Benin Cultural Village project. The museum is expected to house an art gallery, open air theatre, cultural herbal garden and African restaurant.
The Benin artefacts hold deep cultural significance for the Benin people and there is a growing international pressure for the return of the artefacts.
‘They [BCHC] need these funds to help them finish the project’, Executive Director of AFRICIGE, Bekeh Ukelina, said.
According to the BCHC, the museum will be one of the first green buildings in Nigeria, fully equipped with solar panels, with temperature controls and a full security system to preserve and protect the artefacts.
‘We are aware that there has to be constant electricity and we know what the electricity supply is in Nigeria – it is not regular, so we are proposing a solar system that could power the place 24 hours, so the artefacts will be preserved’, President of the BCHC, Ehi Ighile, told Development Diaries.
He also said that the museum would act as a ‘renaissance programme’ to revive the prominence of the Benin cultural heritage and artefacts.
‘Currently the Benin Cultural Heritage Centre organises summer-free Edo language programme for Edo children’, he said.
‘A year before last, we trained about 3,000 of them in three locations free of charge – free food, free books, free writing material, everything free.
‘When the museum is built…we are going to be teaching our children not only the language but our history, our culture, our dances, you name it’.
Photo source: GoFundMe
