How Europeans Plundered Benin Artefacts (1)

The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a United Kingdom force of 1,200 under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson in response to the defeat of a previous British-led invasion force under Acting Consul General James Philips (which had left all but two men dead). Rawson’s troops captured, burned, and looted Benin City, bringing to an end the West African Kingdom of Benin. As a result much of the country’s art, including the Benin Bronzes, was either destroyed, looted or dispersed.

At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin had managed to retain its independence and the Oba exercised a monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. The territory was coveted by an influential group of investors for its rich natural resources such as palm-oil, rubber and ivory. The kingdom was largely independent of British control, and pressure continued from figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gallwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire and the removal of the Oba.

Benin had developed a reputation for sending strong messages of resistance. But the way Benin treated its slaves and the public display of large quantities of human remains hardened British attitudes towards Benin’s rulers. The trader James Pinnock wrote that he saw ‘a large number of men all handcuffed and chained’ there, with ‘their ears cut off with a razor’. T.B Auchterlonie described the approach to the capital through an avenue of trees hung with decomposing human remains.
On 4 January 1897, the Benin strike force composed mainly of border guards and servants of some chiefs caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared at Ugbine village near Gwato. Since Phillips was not expecting any opposition and was unaware that his operation was being perceived with alarm in Benin, the contingent’s only weapons, consisting of the officers’ pistols, were locked up in the head packs of the African porters. Only two British officers survived the annihilation of Phillips’ expedition, which became known as the ‘The Benin Massacre’.