Stolen African Artifacts Return Home

In the most recent repatriation of African culture, France has returned 5 Nok Terracotta statuettes to Nigeria.  Found by French customs officials in the luggage of a traveler in Paris, 2010, they were deemed stolen, seized and studied by several French museums.  My question has to be; "why did it take France 3 years to return these precious artifacts and where did the unknown traveler steal them from?"

 Conducting a brief research of Nok terracotta, one is introduced to the ancient world of West Africa.  The village of Nok, in north central Nigeria, opened up her previously secreted artifacts beginning in 1928 courtesy of the mining operation of Col. J. Dent Young, Englishman.  The terracotta artifacts that were discovered at Nok and surrounding areas in Central Nigeria are over 3,000 years old.  These artifacts are considered the very earliest on the African continent.  The Nok people of 3 millenia ago did not disappear after the Iron Age as some maintain, but are indeed still found in the dusty little village of Nok. 

 

The Nok Culture of the Ham Nation

Location of Nok Village

Visit Nok Village, copyright Nigeria-direct.com

 The Nok are members of the Ham tribe who are led by a hereditary monarch.  The Ham language is struggling not to die out as the nation added the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria to the Ham language.

Tuk-Ham Dancers of Central Nigeria

Bangwa Queen, the most valuable African artifact known to man.

 The ancient artifacts of Africa have been stolen and removed from the continent for hundreds of years.  According the writer and documentary filmmaker, Juliet Torome in her article, "African's Stolen History", Africans do not seem to have the pride in their culture as other cultures do and this has allowed the expatriation of cultural artifacts to go unchecked until recent years.  Thankfully there is a growing movement to reclaim Africa's  cultural heritage, I sincerely wish them best of luck!