Sally Weale Education correspondent
A controversial bronze cockerel that was looted from Africa in the 19th century and has long stood in the hall of a Cambridge college has been removed following calls from students for it to be repatriated.
The university agreed on Tuesday that the statue, one of the Benin bronzes, should be taken down from the hall in Jesus College and that discussions should get under way to decide its future, including possible repatriation to Nigeria.
Last month, in a move that echoed the Rhodes Must Fall campaign in Oxford to remove a statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes, the Jesus College student union (JCSU) passed a motion saying that the sculpture, which is properly known as the okukor, should be returned.
While Oriel College in Oxford, site of the Rhodes statue, turned down student demands to remove it, Cambridge announced, following a meeting of the council at Jesus College, that the cockerel would be removed permanently.
In a statement of support for students, a university spokesperson said: “Jesus College acknowledges the contribution made by students in raising the important but complex question of the rightful location of its Benin bronze, in response to which it has permanently removed the okukor from its hall.”
A statement said the college would now work with the wider university and commit resources to develop new initiatives with Nigerian heritage and museum authorities “to discuss and determine the best future for the okukor, including the question of repatriation”. The spokesperson added: “The college strongly endorses the inclusion of students from all relevant communities in such discussion.”
The cockerel was among hundreds of artworks plundered from the Benin empire, now part of Nigeria, after a punitive British naval expedition in 1897 that destroyed the kingdom. Nigeria has repeatedly called for all the Benin bronzes – which it says are part of its cultural heritage – to be repatriated in the same way that Greece has demanded the return of the Parthenon marbles.
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