Sunday, May 21, 2017

The Nigerian-Biafran War and the making of "Igbo art" collections in the West

If you have had the chance to read my Opinion essay in today's  NYT, Sunday Review, you will notice that it includes a personal note, about the discussion I had with my mother about the effect of the Nigerian-Biafran War on art and culture in my hometown: This is the passage:

"Recently, my 72-year-old mother was looking at a glossy catalog of Igbo sculptures from major European collections, most of which were acquired during the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s. She told me that the disappearance of similar sculptures from our hometown shrines in southeastern Nigeria, and the end of the associated festivals, was one of her most painful memories of that war."

I am sure some want to know more, about what appears to be a link between the disappearance of these sculptures in time of war and their simultaneous emergence in the major European collections. I too want to know. And that is a topic for another day. Stay tuned; for how long, I am not sure!

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