The Narrative Space brings together the core ideas and research behind Digital Benin, developed from extensive fieldwork and multi-year collaboration. It offers an integrated, interactive reading experience that connects historical scholarship, provenance research, oral histories, archival documents and Edo perspectives on Benin objects dispersed across global institutions. Rather than a linear account, it presents a layered narrative shaped by multiple voices and knowledge systems, linking the history of the Benin Kingdom, the 1897 invasion and the global circulation of its cultural heritage.
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Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here