World War Zero

Stanley - Thursday

Last December I wrote a blog about a quandary I have with respect to the disposition of some of my African art when I die.  I am particularly worried about one piece - a 500-yer-old terracotta head from the Kingdom of Ife in the country now known as Nigeria.

It concerns me because there is a reasonable likelihood is that it was stolen from Ife - even though I have formal documentation that it was legally exported from Nigeria. It was not given to me by the Nigerian government, but rather I bought it from a gallery in Johannesburg.

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to repatriate such works of art to their countries of origin. The modern movement was probably started by the famous actress Melina Mercouri, who became Greece's first female Minister of Culture of Sports. 

Melina Mercouri

In that capacity, she told the world that the Elgin Marbles (or Parthenon Marbles, as the Greeks call them) had no right to be in the British Museum because they had been stolen. 

Parthenon Selene horse

A Centaur and a Lapith fighting

In a famous 1983 television debate, the Museum director, David Wilson, responded that they had been a gift to Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. "A gift from the occupying Turks," Mercouri responded, "who had no right to them in the first place." In a talk to the Oxford Union debating society she explained what they meant to Greeks: "They are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are our noblest symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness."

To this day, the Marbles are still in the British Museum.

You may wonder how this is connected to the title of the blog: World War Zero.

When I think of the First World War, I think of a Bosnian-Serb nationalist, by the name of Pricep, assassinating the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. (I remember the date only because June 28 is my brother's birthday.) Five weeks later, the situation had escalated into a war in which almost all European nations were involved, drawing into the fray their territorial possessions around the world, including Africa. The United States eventually joined in April, 1917. 

The toll was horrendous, far surpassing any conflict that had gone before: an estimated 9 million combatants and 13 million civilians. It also changed the world politically and financially.

Trenches

When I think of World War II, what comes to mind is the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1938 and the subsequent declaration of war against Germany by the United Kingdom and France two days later. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 brought the United States into the mess. WWII became the costliest war in history in terms of loss of life: a total of between 70 million and 85 million dead, once again with more civilians killed than military personnel. Of course, it also had. profound impact on the world politically.

German troops advancing

Both WWI and WWII had dramatic and memorable events that kicked them off.

What about World War Zero?

Towards the end of the Nineteenth Century, a British army officer, Major General Sir Charles Callwell, wrote a sort of how-to book titled Small Wars: Principles and Practice. 

For the flavour of the book, here are some quotes:

Small wars are 'campaigns to punish and wipe out an insult or avenge a wrong.'

Small wars are fought 'to chastise a people who have inflicted some injury.'

Small wars are undertaken 'for some ulterior political purpose or to establish order in some foreign land - wars of expediency, in fact.' (Think trade, money, territory; don't think charity or philanthropy!)

The history of small wars has been obscured by the big conflicts of WWI and WWII - to such an extent that they barely warrant mention in the history books and are often not thought of as wars at all. 

On Wednesday, September 23, 1986, Queen Victoria became the longest reigning monarch in English history. The Western Gazette reported 'The Victorian Age has been one of peace.'

Queen Victoria

 The Western Gazette then went on to detail what that peace looked like:

Afgan war 1838-1840,

first Chinese war 1841,

Sikh war 1845-46,

Kaffir war 1846,

second war with China 1849,

second Afgan war 1849, 

second Sikh war 1848-49,

Burmese war 1850,

second Kaffir war 1851-52,

second Burmese war 1852-53,

Crimea 1854,

third war with China 1856-58,

Indian Mutiny 1857,

Maori war 1860-61,

more wars with China 1860 and 1861,

second Maori war 1863-65,

Ashantee war 1864,

war in Bhootan 1864,

Abyssinian war 1867-68,

war with the Bazotees 1868,

third Maori war 1868-69,

war with the Looshais 1871,

second Ashantee war 1873-74,

third Kaffir war 1877,

Zulu war, 1878-79

third Afghan war 1878-80,

war in Basutoland 1879-80,

Transvaal war 1879-81,

Egyptian war 1882,

Soudan 1885-89,

third Burma war 1885-92,

Zanzibar 1890,

India 1890,

Matabele wars 1894 nand 1896,

Chitral campaign 1895,

third Ashantee campaign 1895,

second Soudan campaign 1896.'

In fact, there was a small war in every year of Victoria's peaceful reign.

British Press: 'Valiant British soldiers repelling vicious attack by local savages.'

Reality Press: 'Outgunned citizens attempting to repel hordes of plunderers.'

And that was only the Brits. Think also of the Germans, French, Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, etc., etc.

It is this mass of punitive expeditions, reprisal raids, campaigns, peace excursions, etc. that Dan Hicks, author of The Brutish Museums, calls World War Zero. There are two major reasons for it being much less well known than its two successors. First, in almost every case, the history of what happened was written by the victors (since most victims had no access or ability to write and publicise what happened). And second, in almost every case, the one-sided historical record indicated that the victims were to blame. Not surprisingly, as time passed, history books and newspaper reports pumped up the justification and heroism of the victors and showed the behaviour of the victims to have been increasingly barbaric.

One other fact invariably holds true: the victors were white, and the victims not.

In addition to the tens or hundreds of thousands of people killed by the white powers in these small wars, communities were destroyed, belief systems shattered, and families separated.

As horrific as these outcomes were, the worst and longest lasting, were the lies told by the perpetrators of the wars about the people they destroyed. It was these accounts that built the foundation of contemporary racism.

And now to circle back to the beginning of this blog. It was during these small wars that almost all of the artefacts in Western museums were looted. And many of these museums continue to weave a tale around the artefacts that only reflects the popular view of what happened. Dan Hicks suggests that at least the museums should 'fess up and place what they show into a realistic context, whether they come from Greece or Ife.