Blood and Bronze: unveiling the British Empire's brutality in Nigeria

The famed "Benin Bronzes"-- the placques looted by the British Empire during the sack of Benin in 1897, that are now at the British Museum. © public domain

In his book Blood and Bronze: the British Empire and the Sack of Benin, historian Paddy Docherty reveals the brutality of high-ranking British officials in destroying the Kingdom of Benin in 1897. Justified by Whitehall at the time, the wrongdoings would now be considered crimes against humanity.

“To understand the way the Kingdom of Benin came to be destroyed and plundered by the British Empire, I felt it was necessary to really understand the context of why Britain was in West Africa in those days,” says Paddy Docherty, a historian of empire.