Blood and Bronze

An incisive history revealing BritainΓÇÖs conquest of the Kingdom of Benin and the plunder of its fabled Bronzes.
The Benin Bronzes are among the British MuseumΓÇÖs most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West AfricaΓÇÖs most powerful, and today part of Nigeria. But despite the BronzesΓÇÖ renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy DochertyΓÇÖs searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin.
Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, Blood and Bronze sets this assault in its late Victorian context. As British power faced new commercial and strategic pressures elsewhere, it ruthlessly expanded in West Africa. Revealing both the extent of African resistance and previously concealed British outrages, this is a definitive account of the destruction of Benin. Laying bare the EmpireΓÇÖs true motives and violent means, including the official coverup of grotesque sexual crimes, Docherty demolishes any moral argument for Britain retaining the Bronzes, making a passionate case for their immediate repatriation to Nigeria.