They Stole Our Art. So We Built Our Own Museum

There’s a lie we’ve been living with for over a century now. That African art lives over there. Behind museum glass. Labeled, catalogued, mispronounced.

In 1897, British soldiers looted the Kingdom of Benin and stole over 4,000 bronze sculptures. African art was removed from everyday life and placed elsewhere. Forcing us to encounter our own history inside European museums.

They didn’t just take objects. They took memory. They took reference. That wasn’t theft. That was cognitive colonization.

This week on the Afropolitan Podcast, we sat down with Anthony Azekwoh—visual artist and sculptor—to talk about what it means to stop begging for restitution and start resurrecting what was never lost.

“I Left School in the Rain at 5AM”

Anthony didn’t take the safe path.

He walked away from an institution that punished him for missing church, for writing essays that questioned authority, for existing outside obedience. He got suspended during exams and was forced to repeat years. Five years in—with two more left—for a degree he didn’t want.

One morning, during exams, it clicked: “This place is killing me.”

So he packed his things. Called a driver. Left in the rain at 5AM. No plan B. Just alignment.

The Part People Don't Romanticize

Anthony doesn’t romanticize the work. He breaks down the real cost of building as an African creator—not just creatively, but financially:

He tried everything. Prints. Paintings. Sculptures. Licensing deals. Commissions. Agency work.

And even when the work sold, the systems fought back. Banks froze his accounts because success looked “suspicious.” International payments arrived late, and lost value immediately they were sent.

Then came the collapse. Sculptures stuck at ports. Production costs spiraling. Millions in debt with no clear way out.

At his lowest point, he told his father everything. Two days later, the money came through. No lecture. No punishment. Just belief.

By the end of the following year, the deficit was cleared. Momentum returned. And the work didn’t just survive—it scaled.

Why AUNTY’s Exists

Before there were archives, there were aunties.
Before institutions, there were women holding culture together quietly. They preserved our food, our hair, our stories. They were abundance before the word "abundance" became aesthetic.

AUNTY’s—Afropolitan's first physical product release in collaboration with Anthony Azekwoh—is not décor. It's infrastructure. A sculpture you live with. A memory you own. A museum that exists wherever Africans and the diaspora exist.

Because we are our own museums now.
200 sculptures. Application only. Intentional placement.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

→ Why walking away can be an act of self-preservation
→ How African art functions as memory, power, infrastructure and inheritance
→ What it really takes to build without permission or validation
→ The cost of misalignment and the relief of choosing yourself
→ How to carry pressure, debt and responsibility without collapsing
→ Why culture survives when it’s lived

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_{This episode is brought to you in partnership with Vban, the borderless banking app built for Africa’s digital workforce. Use the code AFROPOLITAN to sign up: https://vban.com so they know you came from us}

What This Episode Taught Us

1. Art is not decoration. It's memory.
When you erase a people's art, you erase their reference point.
2. Alignment has a price—but misalignment costs more.
Institutions will punish you for refusing to disappear inside them.
3. Abundance requires structure, not vibes.
Creativity without systems collapses under its own weight.
4. We don't need permission to preserve ourselves.
Culture that lives in our homes can't be stolen again.
5. The future African nation will be built on shared meaning.
Not borders. Not passports. Meaning.

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What piece of African memory are you trying to keep alive?

We didn't record this episode to inspire hustle. We recorded it to tell the truth. Because abundance without memory is hollow. And culture that isn't lived will always be taken.

Warmly,
Chika & Eche
Co-Hosts, Afropolitan Podcast