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Toward a New Relational Ethics Reimagining Relations Between the West, Nigeria, and the Kingdom of Benin
In this article, Reilly Clark examines how the return of Benin bronzes and other African cultural objects, though significant, does not alter the enduring extractive relations between Africa and the West. Tracing the transformation of looted objects into “African art” through colonial violence, market speculation, and museum practice, Clark argues that repatriation alone cannot repair these structures. Using the recent tensions surrounding Nigeria’s Museum of West African Art, the piece calls for a new relational ethics that reimagines power between nations and indigenous communities.
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