27 Items Stolen From Africa By Britain

27 items stolen from Africa by Britain throughout history many conquerors or Colonies have taken Treasures back to their homelands as part of their expansions sometimes it was done to fund their Wars other times these items were just considered novelties regrettably many of these objects were lost or ruined for example thousands of mummies were unwrapped for entertainment at parties in 19th century England but other items found their way from one owner to the next until Landing in a museum though acquired through questionable methods these cultural Treasures remain on display in foreign lands hundreds and thousands of years after their thefts here are 27 items stolen from Africa by Britain

27. been in bronzes the bin inbronzes which are actually made of brass are a kingdom of Benin which is modern day Nigeria proudly boasted bronze sculptures dating back to the 13th century however during the Benin expedition of 1987 the British stole most of them more than 200 of these sculptures found a house in the British museum they are a window into the African art of those times and it's just unfair that the locals have to travel to London if they want to take a look at the scriptures

26. Rosetta Stonemade of grenoview right the Rosetta Stone has writing inscribed on it in three different Egyptian languages and dates back to 196 BC it was acquired from Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte and from him by the British when they defeated the Frenchman's army during the early 1800s.

25 McDowell Treasures the magdala treasures include an 18th century gold crown and a royal wedding dress taken from Ethiopia by the British Army in 1868. historians say 15 elephants and 200 mules were needed to cart away all the loot from mechdala Emperor two Andros the second Northern Citadel capital the British raided magdala in protest at the Detention of its Consul when relations between the two Powers deteriorated the treasures were later deposited at the UK's Museum the crown admired for its silver and copper filigree designs and religious embossed images and royal wedding dress are significant symbols of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

24 Zimbabwe bird a soapstone sculpture of a fish Eagle is Zimbabwe's main national emblem eight of the Zimbabwe birds were looted from the ruins of an ancient city only eight of the birds were ever recovered they stood on the walls and monoliths of the ancient city built between the 12th and 15th centuries by the ancestors of the Shona people seven of the carvings are in Zimbabwe since 2003 on the bottom section of one was returned by Germany the eighth remains in the old bedroom of 19th century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes whose home in the South African City of Cape Town is now a museum

23. a great star of Africa diamond amongst many prized possessions of the Queen the great star of Africa Diamond clearly stands out it is the world's largest diamond and weighs around 530 carats estimated to be worth around 400 million US Dollars the great star of Africa was mined in South Africa in 1905. according to many historians from Africa the jewel was mined in 1905 and was presented to Edward VII and they claimed that the diamond was rather stolen or looted by the British government during their reign as colonists the great star of Africa is currently in the Queen's scepter

22. the tomb of two tankmen dating back some 3 300 years to Egypt's New Kingdom the tomb of King Tut was discovered in 1922 by a team of archaeologists led by Howard Carter a British egyptologist although it was the smallest Royal tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings it was the most intact containing a treasure Trove of thousands of ancient Egyptian objects including an iron dagger made from a meteorite and an elaborate funerary mask the tune revealed to the modern world the sheer wealth that ancient Egyptian pharaohs took with them to the Grave

21 Old Island shoppers dating back between 2.5 and 1.2 million years ago Old Owen Chopper tools were created by ancient humans known as Homo Habilis for chopping cutting and scraping originally discovered at Old Dubai gorge in Tanzania in the 1930s the Primitive objects are considered one of the oldest Stone tools in existence their Discovery along with many others at Old duvai Gorge helped to establish the fact that the first humans evolved in Africa

20. brass head of life Unearthed at Ife in Nigeria in 1938 the brass head is one of 18 copper alloy sculptures that challenged Western conceptions of African art created during the 14th or 15th centuries ad the intricate and naturalistic features of the head displayed a sophistication of craftsmanship that is so unique in African art that it astonished historians across the world believed to represent a king of the West African Kingdom of if the remarkable piece of brass casting is seen as one of the highest achievements of African art and culture which is now in a Britain Museum

19. knock terracottas south of the Sahara the earliest known sculptures come from the knock culture a population that thrived for 2 000 years from 1 500 BC to 580 in what is now modern day Nigeria dating back to the early Iron Age the knock people were famous for their terracotta sculptures that have often been discovered in fragments due to erosion the Terracotta usually depicts the head of a man or woman with intricate detail given to their hair

18. bronze head of Queen idea the bronze head of Queen idea is a commemorative bronze head for medieval Bannon that probably represents idea mother of OBA essigi made during the early 16th century at the Benin Court many been in works of art entered the European art market after the Benin expedition of 18974 cast bronze heads of the queen are known and are currently in the collections of the British museum in London

17. 9th century iGo ukwu bronze ceremonial staff head inko huku is notable for threearchaeological sites where excavations have found bronze artifacts from a highly sophisticated bronze metal work in culture dating to 9th Century A.D and centuries before other known bronzes of the region the first called Eggo Isaiah was uncovered in 1938 by Isaiah anosi a local villager who found the bronze Works while digging beside his home five bronze artifacts from the original excavation are now in the British Museum's collection

16. The apapa Horde The apapa Horde is an important collection of medieval bronze jewelry found at apapa near Lagos Nigeria dating to the early 16th century The Horde has been part of the British Museum's collection since 1930. items from the treasure consist entirely of bronze jewelry they include a pair of wire bracelets two bracelets designed in the form of interlocking animals two staff mounts with pendant bells two ring-shaped armlets a group of bells a ring with caskables and a breastplate in the shape of a Ram's Head with pendant Bells the latter object is the most prestigious item from The Horde and is one of the finest cast bronzes ever found in southern Nigeria which is now owned by the British

15. Congo ivories Congo Ivory is one of the finest sculptural Works produced by the people of the West Central Africa's lower Congo region in the Congo Kingdom Ivory was a precious commodity that was strictly controlled by Chiefs and Kings who commissioned sculptors to produce fine Ivory sculptures for their personal and courtly use Congo oliphance and other Ivory sculptures from this period are in the British museum many of them made in Sierra Leone and Benin in the 15th and 16th centuries

14. Aiken drum the ancan drum is drum that was made in West Africa and was later found in the colony of Virginia in North America it is now the oldest African-American object in the British Museum and possibly the oldest surviving anywhere the drum is a reminder of all three continents involvement in the estimated

12 million people transported across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the transatlantic slave trade

13 to zero head the loser ahead locally known as them paint ahead is the name of a terracotta head found at luzira Uganda estimated to be about 1 000 years old in one of the oldest sub-Saharan sculptures yet discovered in Africa since 1931 it has been part of the British Museum's ethnographic collection

12. I can't gold weights a can gold weights locally known as ramu are weights made of brass used as a measuring system by the Aiken people of West Africa particularly for whey and fair trade arrangements with one another the status of a man increased significantly if he owned a complete set of weights complete small sets of Weights were gifts to newly wedded men this ensured that he would be able to enter the merchant trade respectably and successfully

11. chiwara a chawora is a ritual object representing an antelope used by the Bambara ethnic group in Mali the chawora initiation Society uses chiwara masks as well as dances and rituals Associated primarily with agriculture to teach young banana men social values as well as agricultural techniques which is now part of the British Museum's collection

10. Ben an ivory mask being an ivory mask of the Queen Mother idea a 16th century Ivory iron and copper one of four related Ivory pendant masks among the prized regalia of the Oba of Benin taken by the British during the Benin expedition of 1897.

9. adopt of King Mishi presently at Brooklyn Museums are royal Memorial portraits carved by the Cuba people of central Africa they are not naturalistic portrayals but are intended as representations of the king's spirit and as an encapsulation of the principle of kingship

8. sakenka statue the statue of sakanka caused uproar in 2016 after leaving Britain to an unknown destination that later turned out to be America and according to British documents the British Museum of Northampton sold it to an unknown buyer in July 2014. the museum sold the 4 500 year old Limestone statue at an auction for GBP 16 million allegedly to develop the museum with the Uproar that accompanied the sale of the statue and the Egyptian and British campaigns against its sale the buyer decided not to reveal his or her Identity or the place where the statue would be moved

7. Kardash of Kane amanhotep the first originally exhibited at the open Museum of the Ancient Temple of Karnak in the city of Luxor it was stolen and smuggled out of the country to the United Kingdom the Egyptian government fought so hard and finally recovered this item from Britain

6. brass Cockerel during the British expedition to Benin city of Edo in 1897 objects made of brass Ivory coral and wood were looted by British soldiers from the Royal Palace its storerooms and compounds some of these objects were sold or exchanged on the coast however many were brought to the UK where they were sold through private auction

5. 12 brass plaques the hornaman Museum's collection from the ancient Kingdom of Benin includes 12 brass plaques ceremonial objects and a key to the king's Palace a British museum says it will return dozens of artifacts to the Nigerian government that were taken forcibly more than a century ago where the 12 brass plaques happens to be one of them

4. head of an Oba sculpted in bronze this bronze head is as controversial as it is magnificent it was a trophy of Empire taken from a royal Shrine by Ralph Locke during the raid of Benin in 1897 by the British the Edo people of Benin now part of modern Nigeria ruled much of West Africa when the Portuguese arrived there in the 15th century the bronze head would have been owned by an Oba or king of Benin they were traditionally made in the Royal fountry to commemorate a king's predecessor three giant tusks of Benin Benin ancestral altar tusks were carved with registers of relief figures animals and motives in the center of this Tusk are the Oba also known as the cane and his attendance the obot is shown with the legs of a mudfish emphasizing his Divine powers of transformation and survival these kinds of images conveyed a coded message that was intended more for the ancestors than for the relatively few living people who were allowed to view the altars some altered tusks were supported by cast copper alloy heads representing an Oba all this was taken by British soldiers two that you got the pocomo people of Kenya's Tana River Valley once worshiped a god represented on Earth by an awe-inspiring drum whose was named gaji the theft of then ganji by British colonial officers is a story well known among the eldest pokomo the British museum too acknowledges then gaji was confiscated before beingdonated to its collections in 1908. the museum also acknowledges a request by the pokomo community for its return

1. asanta gold a Santa's golden trophy head and swords which are displayed in the Wallace collection this spectacular piece of the Asante regalia looted by the British from Ghana has been described by facts as the largest gold work known for Ashanti or indeed from anywhere in Africa outside Egypt all these Treasures are properties owned by African countries which were stolen by British soldiers during colonization and conflict and taken to Britain museums