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

by Paddy Docherty

The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West Africa’s most powerful, and today part of Nigeria. But despite the Bronzes’ renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy Docherty’s searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin.

Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nigeria, Africa, Benin, British Literature

296 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2021

About the author

Paddy Docherty was educated at Oxford University, where he also won a Blue for boxing and was Junior Dean of Brasenose College. Born in Scotland and raised in Gloucestershire in the west of England, Paddy has also lived in Africa and the Middle East, and currently lives in Prague. He has been a ranch hand, chef, oil & gas consultant, internet entrepreneur, shipbroker and investment banker.

Shortlisted for the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award 2008, Paddy's first book, The Khyber Pass: a History of Empire & Invasion , was chosen as a Financial Times Book of the Year 2007.

Click here for Paddy on BBC Radio 4 or here for press reviews.

Reviews

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content warnings: racism, colonialism, death, violence, sexual violence, war

An extremely informative read about the destruction of the Kingdom of Benin (which, somewhat confusingly, was located in what is now central Nigeria) by British forces around the turn of the 20th century. I did wish there was SLIGHTLY more about the Benin bronzes, now housed in the British Museum, at the END of the book to tie things up in a nice neat little bow but I fully understand why there wasn't. Maybe I just wanted pictures of the bronzes? That could be what I wanted tbh.

[Lindsay Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating book is inspired by the presence in the British Museum of the Benin Bronzes - looted in the very late 1800s by British colonisers in (present day) Nigeria and controversial today, with a significant campaign to have them returned to their homeland. Historian Paddy Docherty - who tells a complicated story with verve and dark humour - reveals how the statues came to be in the UK, and through that narrative, paints an unsettling portrait of violent imperialism and the attitudes and interests which fueled it.

Plundered during a mission of conquest to expand the empire, the statues are stunning and valuable examples of craft and culture. The British forces, in their prejudice, didn’t believe the locals capable of having created the artworks. At every turn they flatly denied the sophistication (and the very humanity) of the people they subjugated. Local leaders were lied to and divided (the better to conquer). Bumbling but lethal British expeditionary forces were deployed by commanders marinated in imperial arrogance. Where they found resistance, the British were all too ready to deploy starvation and mass killing of civilians - either covered up or justified back home with lurid tales of black African “savagery” spread by the newspapers.

The book gives a vivid glimpse into the mindset and dysfunction of the imperialists. Propaganda, pomp and highfalutin proclamations provide cover for base thuggery and theft. Leaving death and destruction behind them, officers - sometimes incompetent, sometimes murderous - are quietly moved from post but suffer no sanction or consequence for their actions. For the highest officials of the empire, protecting the image and wealth of Britain was more important than morality or truth. Today, more than a hundred years later, this book helps us see that lies told back then are seeds from which our contemporary self-image grew. It also highlights the lies told to this day, by unscrupulous politicians and journalists who still have a vested interest in British exceptionalism and myth-making. And who, perhaps more than anything, don't wish us to see the parallels between our past and present actions.

[Sam Proietto · Rating 4 out of 5]

(8/10) As far as historical non-fiction goes, this is a very nicely written book. In a classical high-school-essay sense, Docherty is very responsible about tying each point back to an overarching argument, and giving you a sense of why every step of information is important or relevant. He does this while maintaining an efficient pace and sliding in a bit of personality at the same time. Politically, he gives a very solid account of how moral evil arose and continues to arise from colonial plundering practices.

All this combines to make Blood and Bronze and entertaining and highly accessible account of a less commonly told chapter in colonial history, which I'd recommend to any interested reader without requiring an arts degree to get into it.

[Phil Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history book on the destruction of the Kingdom of Benin by the British Empire, in what the historian calls his quest to help counter the “national knowledge deficit”’of what the Empire was really like. Brilliantly researched but also highly readable, it is not a rant, but a calm detailed account on what happened, which makes it all the more powerful. Highly recommended.

[Emmanuel Oset · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and enlightening read. Thoroughly enjoyed it.