Print I: Ancestral Heads, 1984

In the first print, Tony depicts commemorative brass heads of deceased Obas and of the Queen Mother. Each is surmounted by an ivory tusk carved with representations of former kings, warrior chiefs, animals, and soldiers, all of which carry symbolic power.

These objects function as a visual record, a form of writing, for the Kingdom of Benin. They preserve the kingdom’s rich culture, history, and exceptional technical skill. To lose these artefacts is, in many ways, to lose the history they embody.

Print II: Divine Kingship, 1984

In the second print, Tony depicts the head of an Oba accompanied by two leopards. Leopards held deep spiritual significance within the Kingdom of Benin, a theme also explored by Enotie Ogbebor.

Print III: Shrine of Sacrifice, 1984

The third print in the series offers a glimpse into the vibrant daily life of Benin City. Intricately crafted bronze statues and masks occupy the foreground, showcasing the city’s artistic skill, while scenes of bustling activity unfold behind them.

Print IV: The Oba's Palace, 1984

The fourth print takes us deeper into life in Benin City, presenting the ornate interior of the Oba’s palace. Cast brass plaques and members of the royal court occupy the foreground, conveying the richness of the palace environment.

One British reporter covering the 1897 invasion described the Royal Palace as “full of valuable antiquities, and [a] splendid field for antiquarians.” His account aligns with Tony’s depiction and reinforces the fact that Benin City was a wealthy and technologically sophisticated kingdom long before the British invasion.

Print V: Ododua Dance, 1984

The fifth print in the series depicts a ritual dance of the Kingdom of Benin. The dancers wear stylised masks and perform before an onlooking crowd visible in the background.

Masks of this kind have since entered collections around the world. MAA, for example, cares for an egbo, a carved wooden face mask, donated by Thomas Northcote Whiteridge in 1914.

Print VI: Punitive Expedition 1897, 1984

The sixth print in the series offers the first clear example of Tony’s distinctive printmaking method, in which he reworks an existing plate to create a new image that still bears traces of the original.

The peaceful scene of the Oduada Dance in Print V is violently disrupted by the arrival of British soldiers armed with heavy weapons. In contrast to the intricate detailing of the Benin dancers, the soldiers appear as stark white silhouettes, intrusive presences in the space. Smoke rises in the background as troops begin to loot and burn the city, while in the foreground an ominous pair of white hands reaches out to seize the mask from the leading dancer.

Print VII: Punitive Expedition (II), 1984

The seventh print in the series returns us to the Oba’s Palace. Elements from the fourth print remain, yet the scene is transformed: stark white flames now lick up the cast brass plaques lining the palace walls. In the middle ground, five white figures pose calmly before a selection of Benin Bronzes laid out on the ground. They sit untroubled amid the devastation, guarding their spoils.

No members of the Oba’s court appear in the foreground, an ominous absence that gestures toward the unknown casualties of the Punitive Expedition.

Print VIII: The Auction, 1984

In the eighth print, we once again see the brass plaques that originally adorned the Oba’s Palace. This was the first version of the plate Tony produced, before reworking it to create Print IV and later Print VIII. Faint traces of the auctioneer’s gavel can still be detected across these iterations.

Here, the plaques are no longer shown in their original context. Divorced from their culture, they sit starkly against a blank white background. Whereas Tony depicted life in Benin City with dense etching and rich detail, the Western setting is rendered with strikingly abbreviated lines. The intricacy of the plaques becomes even more pronounced, as does the violent unnaturalness of their removal.

An attendee raises a hand to bid, while the auctioneer’s gavel hovers, poised to strike. White Europeans compete for ownership of the Benin Bronzes, a startling display of civility when set against the previous prints that reveal the violence through which these objects were taken.

Print IX: The Lecture, 1984

Print Nine was produced from the original plate before Tony reworked it to create Print Two. In this version, the Oba’s head is replaced by that of a white lecturer who now, perhaps unwittingly, occupies the same symbolic position of authority once held by the Oba, flanked by the two leopards.

As the purveyor of knowledge to his audience, the lecturer wields considerable power. In a period when scholarly understanding of these objects was minimal, he is positioned to shape European and American perceptions and to determine their supposed “worth.”

By making the lecturer the focal point of the scene, Tony also highlights the hypocrisy inherent in this dynamic: the material culture of Benin is treated with scholarly reverence, while the creators of these works were contemporaneously dismissed as “savages.”

Print X: The Gallery, 1984

In this scene, we return to the ceremonial brass heads from the first print. The head in the foreground has been dismantled and is no longer crowned with its ivory tusks. Reduced to a fragment, it is stripped of much of its spiritual and historical significance.

Tony uses this to highlight the often arbitrary nature of museum displays of the Benin Bronzes. Objects are separated from their contexts, fragmented, and placed behind glass. While visitors may admire their aesthetic qualities, as the two onlookers do here, they cannot grasp the cultural meaning these pieces held within Benin City.

Tony also observes that the enduring value of these artefacts, even when detached from their original context, testifies to the independence and extraordinary artistic skill embodied in the works themselves.

Print XI: The Lounge, 1984

The bronze figure from Print Three reappears here, now reduced to a decorative object within a European or American domestic interior. The vibrant bustle of Benin City has been replaced by a striking stillness, and the object is visible only to a privileged few granted access to the private home.

Print XII: Face to Face, 1984

Tony concludes the series by revealing the fate of the dancer’s mask from the Oduada Dance. Now confined behind glass, it can no longer be worn and, like the commemorative head in Print Ten, it is stripped of its cultural imperative. The act of looking becomes a form of violent subjugation, forcing the mask to remain exposed beneath a piercing white light.

Tony observed that his etching technique imbues his prints with a spectral quality, as though ghosts emerge from either the past or the future.

A sense of inevitability pervades his scenes of Benin City prior to British intervention. A quiet foreboding lingers in the background, making it impossible to view these prints without an awareness of the looting and violence the city would later endure.