The Benin National museum in Benin City Edo state, stands as one of Nigeria’s national monuments which has been successful at housing Benin monarchical history with a proper documentation of culture, culture similarities in Nigeria and the society in general since 1973.
National Museum, Benin City_Nifty Travels
The historical introduction of artifact and archaeological collections into the Benin National museum began in the year 1946 after popular writer, Chief Jacob Eghareba in partnership with the then Oba of Benin, Oba Akenzua saw reasons to document some of the heritage assets in the palace.
The creation of the museum came to be in two eras. The Archaeology collection era and the exhibition period. Both eras played a lead role in the collection of artifacts relevant to Benin Royal Kingdom and some other tribes in Nigeria.
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The second era took off in the year 1973 with an exhibition which was inspired by the donation of a spherical building (which presently houses the Museum today) by S.O Ogbemudia (former military governor of Edo when it was formerly referred to as Bendel). The exhibition began in 1973 and lasted through July 2016 of the same year before it was deinstalled.
Documenting history with the collection of archaeological artifact for the Benin National Museum’s gallery will never be completed without the mention of veteran photographer, S.O Alonge. Alonge became a pioneer photographer for the Royal court of Benin and was able to store up glass plate negatives for over forty years which was later acquired by American Smithsonian group after Alonge had a discussion (which was centered on preservation and documentation of his works) with one Professor Caplan.
Gallery classification at Benin National Museum
The exhibition gallery at the Benin National Museum has dutifully been classified into three different tiers.
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Oba Akenzua Gallery (Ground floor)
Chief S.O Alonge Gallery (First floor)
Unity Gallery (Second floor)
Oba Akenzua Exhibition gallery
Oba Akenzua exhibition has been segmented into four bases. The first is Oba superiority and authority. Just as said, artifacts in this exhibition involve everything that has to do with Oba’s superiority and authority. There you see Oba bronze head. The second base you see Oba Esegie’s contact with Europeans. This involves when the Portuguese came to Benin during Oba Esegie’s reign. It involves things related to his contact with them. The third one we call it divinity. Things found in this exhibition stand involve items related to shrines, sacred items used by traditional worshippers and other items within the divinity category. The fourth one is the punitive expenditure. That is the time termed, the Benin Massacre in 1897 when the British came to Benin and carted away with object belonging to the Benin ancestry.
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Chief S.O Alonge’s gallery contains all photography works of S.O Alonge in the year 1933 during the reign of Oba Akenzua. So most of the pictures he took in the Royal Court and outside it are the pictures you will see here.
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At the unity gallery, the museum is trying to showcase different cultural artifacts and historical items varying from one culture to the other. The idea as suggested by the museum for this gallery is to showcase the similarities between cultures in Nigeria.
Historical making of Benin National Museum The Benin National museum in Benin City Edo state, stands as one of Nigeria’s national monuments which has been successful at housing Benin monarchical history with a proper documentation of culture, …