As an African am wondering if the British government will one day return our arts and price possessions especially our heritage and multimillion dollar Queen Idia Mask of which the fake copy was used as the festac 77 face after the original prototype was confiscated (or isn’t it theft) in 1897 by the British and now their claiming we do not have the state of the art technology to preserve the hand crafted master pieces created and longed for by the Benin’s. You can imagine? These thoughts flowed freely in my mind as I had the opportunity of reading a prototype copy of a comic book called the Okiojo’s chronicle with 1897 boldly inscribed on it as I wondered how many people knew these true life story of our past. For those who don’t know? Expand your horizon on this matter, for those who do? Relive the experience and become the arbitrator as you read further down these note.
If the cartoon pinky and the brain is a caricature of the British and American relationship with Batman’s Gotham city depicting an age in New York while the names of the characters in the teenage mutant ninja turtle was derived from renaissance artist like Leornardo da vinci, Michelangelo and its clan, then Nigerian entertainment industry for kids is about to have a major shake with a revolution for fighting the odds of today while educating people especially the kids who have little or no understanding of how we got to where we are as people and as a nation but this time with an unbiased and truthfully painted picture arising from a thorough research of our past using its heroes mainly from the pre-colonial era to create characters that would live with us just like this cartoon and super hero character such as Leonardo from the ninja turtles and batman but as a metaphor to an era in our history and existence peculiar to us as Nigerians and Africans.
It’s to this effect that a revolution has just been created to promote the re-education of Nigeria’s history and culture while the high illiteracy rate in Nigeria is being fought straight from the grassroots of the young ones using comics and other amusement inducing format just so they can learn while having fun as it has been done by the likes of Marvel and DC comics which are renowned for their products such as Spiderman and Batman whose influence cannot be over emphasized not just because of the commercial success but the intellectual influence it has on even us who grew up watching them, it created in our minds at an early age the true meaning of heroism , responsibility and sacrifice and it’s to this effect that we write this note on a new revolution, It comes as an organization called Panaramic (Panaramic Nigeria). It’s a team of young Nigerians who has created a sustainable firm that will cultivate good books that are beneficial to the public thus promoting a haven for creative thinkers and a company that will promote Nigerian graphic designers, authors, and artists as they are encouraged to reach their potential by presenting them to the general public while preserving Nigerian history and culture, for example we had the opportunity of going through some of their unpublished work and it was way more than impressive. Striking to us were two products, one is a comic called OMOBOY and the other breathtaking product is called the Okiojo’s Chronicles, it features tales from a mysterious old man and in the first issue comes the tale of 1897, here Okiojo tells a tale of how our Benin forefathers were robbed of the sunshine of their kingdom by the British people, this true life story reveals what Some call looting, some call confiscating, a little bit over a hundred years ago an event occurred that would steal the thunder of the then great Benin kingdom, and leave it limping till this day. This story has never been told this way and the artifacts have not been returned
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 1,000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the “Punitive Expedition” of 1897 as referred to by the British and called “the Fall of Benin” by the Benin indigenes please read the issue when it finally hits the shelves, it’s called Okiojo’s chronicles, see http://panaramicnigeria.com/). Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainders were divided between varieties of collections. The seizure has led to a greater appreciation of African culture but the point is not the fortune that this artifact is worth in monetary value but the fact that our priceless heritage is trapped somewhere with the confiscators still holding on to them in an era where countries have had their heritage rightfully returned to them (even the east African animals that found their way to other nations by less virtues has had this animals flown back to them as a sign of fairness and conservation) but in our case where justice and fairness is being preached by these same people, the story remains different. Recently there has been several movement to bring back all the artifacts taken with most proven abortive but between 1950s and 1970s there were 50 artifacts returned. Till date there are efforts to return our price possession especially the Queen Idia Mask.
At this point we pledge that we read deep into our culture to understand the reasons why things are the way they are while supporting any positive movement for knowledge, change and justice with a thorough understanding of who we are else we’d never go very far like we haven’t as a nation with culture, intellects and great people thanks to our past and some leaders that came with it. Panaramic’s Okiojo’s Chronicles tagged 1897 was created just like other books in its series to promote awareness on the dire issues at hand. Please be knowledgeable, apply these knowledge while being positively active in all you do. That’s the message from foundation 360.
