Queen Idia was a prominent figure in the Edo State of Nigeria who played an important role in Oba Esigie’s rise to power. Esigie had brass sculptures of her head made in order to recognize her military influence and achievements, and placed these heads in her alter after her death. In 1897, during the period in which Africa was under colonial rule by the British, British men “ransacked the Benin Empire” and forcefully took the heads away to display them as a representation of their imperial grandeur. The brass head of Queen Idia, donated to the British Museum by Sir William Ingram, relates to colonialism and is a painful reminder to the African peoples of their loss of “artworks… of national significance… and of extraordinary aesthetic value” because it was taken and dispersed without their consent.
The sculpture …show more content…
Although these objects are still considered irreplaceable and as sources of national pride for the African, the “commodity status of aesthetic objects has been part of the mantra of postmodernism and at the same time has complicated postcolonial African art (Appiah 1991; Kasfir 1999)” After colonialism, the significance of the objects such as the brass sculpture of Queen Idia’s head, did not change. However, the significance engendered issues in postcolonial African art. These issues include “the commercially replicated and a
The sculpture …show more content…
Although these objects are still considered irreplaceable and as sources of national pride for the African, the “commodity status of aesthetic objects has been part of the mantra of postmodernism and at the same time has complicated postcolonial African art (Appiah 1991; Kasfir 1999)” After colonialism, the significance of the objects such as the brass sculpture of Queen Idia’s head, did not change. However, the significance engendered issues in postcolonial African art. These issues include “the commercially replicated and a