Benin’s bronzes: The long road to returning looted colonial art

As Western cities see statues of slaveholders and colonialists toppled, Benin's coastal town of Ouidah is going the other way, by restoring monuments from the slave trade era. During the 17th and 18th centuries, European slavers held more than one million African men, women and children in Ouidah's Portuguese Fort before shipping them across the Atlantic in abominable conditions.

Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II met with political parties and leaders where he urged them to embrace peace ahead of the Edo governorship election.

The Edo State Government imposed a 24-hour curfew across the state until further notice. The decision was taken after incidents of vandalism and attacks carried out by hoodlums who high jacked the #EndSARS protest.

Benin fire: Section of Oregbeni market road, goods worth millions of Naira destroyed

On a small island surrounded by hundreds of wooden huts on stilts, in the middle of Lake Nokoue in southeast Benin, a giant painting is taking shape. French artist 'Saype' is busy transforming a playground in the floating village of Ganvie, the latest site in his "Beyond Walls" project, featuring interlaced hands.

Germany's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation will oversee the return of the statues to Nigeria, but it's going to be a complicated process.

More than five centuries after his reign, Oba Ewuare’s legacy is still alive in Benin City. He is remembered for his mystical powers, promoting arts and the bronze figures that have stood the test of time.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.⁣ ⁣

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday⁣. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.⁣

The Hlanzoun riparian swamp forest in southern Benin, one of the last of its kind in the country, is home to unparallelled flora and fauna. Yet according to ecologists its unique biodiversity is under threat from poaching, agriculture and ever-increasing human exploitation.

Valentina Alexandre is a history teacher and tour guide in the United States. The young woman was born in Haiti and traveled to Benin to learn more about her ancestry.

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.