About the campaign
Ending the 120 year exile.
Trophy Extra Special Stout is brewed in Nigeria from plants grown locally. Reclaim Your DNA extends that pride into cultural heritage: a call to repatriate Naija's lost treasures to their rightful home.
Overview
Pride in Nigerian roots, and a renewed demand for cultural justice.
The campaign frames heritage as something that should be reachable, reusable, and understood by the people it belongs to.
A museum in Benin City, full of magnificent Benin Bronzes returned from Europe, would be one of the most significant moments in African cultural history since independence.Barnaby Phillips
History
In 1897, British colonial troops invaded Benin City.
They looted over 3,000 priceless artefacts. Most of these treasures ended up in museums abroad, including the British Museum.
For more than a century, Nigeria has pleaded for their return. The campaign challenges the idea that Nigerians cannot care for their own heritage.
The crime of disinheritance
The Benin Bronzes were stolen by force, then held out of reach.
Regarded as some of Africa's greatest treasures, they influenced European and Western art. For Nigerians, many remain inaccessible, locked in glass cases thousands of miles away.
Invasion and looting
British colonial troops invaded Benin City and removed thousands of artefacts.
Stolen artefacts
The campaign archive repeatedly highlights the scale of the theft and the absence it created.
Return and re-engagement
Their return would allow Nigerians to learn, reflect, and create from heritage on Nigerian soil.
The past and the future
The past cannot be changed, but the future can be repaired.
The campaign's plan is to take the artefacts out of glass cases and make them accessible to all Nigerians through an open-source museum online and in the real world.
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