Blood and Bronze: The British Empire and the Sack of Benin

The book "Blood and Bronze" is a new history that tells the story of the 1897 British invasion of Benin and the plunder of its Bronzes, revealing the extent of African resistance and the Empire's true motives for retaining the Bronzes. It makes a passionate case for their immediate repatriation to Nigeria.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 09 December 2021
Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

The Benin Bronzes are among the most prized possessions of the British Museum, celebrated for their great beauty and embodying the history, myth, and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West Africa's most powerful and today part of Nigeria. However, despite the Bronzes' renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy Docherty's searing new history, "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 Empire's 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.

Weight: 490g
Dimension: 149 x 223 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787384569