Date of document publication: 2024-01-30

The National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM) is one of the Ministry’s Department and Agency under the Federal Ministry of Communication, Arts and Tourism of the Federal Government of Nigeria with the sole responsibility of managing the nation’s antiquities. Hence, the NCMM is the sole regulatory agency for cultural heritage and monuments in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and has over fifty stations located in different cities across Nigeria. The NCMM is one of the collaborators/partners in the Digital Benin (DB) project. During the first phase of the project (2020-2022), the team worked at the Lagos and Benin City stations: National Museum, Lagos and National Museum, Benin City. Both of these museums have royal historic objects from the Kingdom of Benin in their collections.

Previously, the NCMM had opened its doors for the digitisation of historic objects from the Benin Kingdom using information from catalogue cards in their storage. During the first phase of the project, photographs from these catalogue cards were used for the object records in the DB Catalogue. Aware of current restitution moves after the launch of DB in November 2022, there was the need to update the information collected from NCMM and bring up-to-date images of the objects onto the platform. With the generous support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, DB successfully digitised 137 historic Benin objects at the National Museum, Lagos and 188 at the National Museum, Benin City.

At the time of the launch of Digital Benin in November 2022, the NCMM did not have object documentation in a digital format, thus they had made available catalogue cards that the Digital Benin team transcribed. The team relied on photographs from the earlier individual research of Prof. Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner and a short research visit to the National Museum, Lagos by Prof. Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner and Osaisonor Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie in May 2022. However, the photographs from these research trips did not suffice as lots of objects still did not have images when compared with the catalogue cards images. Hence, it was imperative to digitise and provide high resolution images for Digital Benin and, most importantly, for the NCMM’s future use.

Digitisation Process at the National Museum, Lagos

On 3 June 2023 the Digital Benin team members arrived Lagos to commence work at the National Museum, Lagos. These team members comprised Professor Barbara Plankensteiner, Dr. Anne Luther (https://digitalbenin.org/team/dr-anne-luther), Ekhator-Obogie Godfrey, Eiloghosa Obobaifo (https://digitalbenin.org/team/eiloghosa-obobaifo).Tolulope Sanusi, the photographer contracted to photograph and edit the photographs in a high resolution quality, met the team in Lagos.

The team commenced work by identifying the historic Benin objects from the collections in the museum storages and galleries, which were carefully sorted by the dedicated staff of the National Museum, Lagos prior to our arrival at the museum. Our task was laid out in a systematic process which involved the verification and confirmation of the objects IDs by Barbara Plankensteiner and Ekhator-Obogie Godfrey; the museum staff assisted by signing and moving every object in and out of either the storage or from the gallery displays. Eiloghosa Obobaifo was assisted by another member of museum staff to collect the height, length and width for each item. The objects were then moved to a platform with a backdrop where they were photographed by Tolulope Sanusi.

The Digital Benin team provided a museum-standard grey backdrop which, alongside the digital cameras and lighting, ensured the production of high resolution images as required for NCMM’s internal usage and the DB catalogue. Each object was photographed from different angles; while some had three images, others had up to five depending on the form of the object as well as iconography and decoration visible. Tolulope Sanusi is a trained photographer in architecture and 3D objects and she was guided by Barbara Plankensteiner to take photographs that met the current international standard in museums. As some of the objects were heavy or fragile, the lighting equipment was set up in an outside area close to the storage so that objects were not carried for long distances. The outside set-up was due to the fact that the lighting outside was better than inside any gallery. As an experienced photographer, Tolulope Sanusi made it possible to document the objects in an open space outside the storage, with high quality lighting equipment.

Finally, Anne Luther recorded the metadata collected by Eiloghosa and image numbers from Tolulope as a means of documentation and confirmation. Together, this process enabled the team to achieve the overall objective of digitising 137 historic objects from the National Museum, Lagos.

NCMM staff and Digital Benin team members in front of the National Museum, Benin. Credit: Digital Benin.

Digitisation Process at the National Museum, Benin City

After completing the work in Lagos, on 7 June 2023, the team proceeded to the National Museum, Benin City. A similar process was also followed for the digitisation of the historic objects in the storage and gallery of the National Museum, Benin. At the museum, Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie worked with curators, Mr. Boniface Ojiemon and Mr Patrick Ijeh, to identify the objects within the scope of the Digital Benin project. The photography setup used the same grey background and professional lighting as used at Lagos. There were challenges when identifying some of the objects in the storage due to their size, for example some were very small rings meanwhile others were large doors panels). The time constraints that the team faced also posed a challenge. Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie came back to the museum the following week to photograph all the previously unidentified objects with the support of Mr. Patrick Ijeh.

Following these trips, Tolulope spent two weeks editing over 600 photographs to museum-quality standard and with the highest resolution possible. She made the images available as unedited raw files and edited files in print quality. These photographs were also prepared and stored in a hard disk for the National Museum, Lagos and National Museum, Benin City. Digital Benin received permission from the NCMM to update the images on the platform and to make them accessible online.

Tolulope Sanusi photographing the historic objects at the National Museum, Benin.

Digitisation of Audio Archive of Joseph Nevadomsky

The Institute for Benin Studies (IBS) received in custody twenty-two audio cassettes and two VHS tapes from the generous donation of the family of late Professor Joseph Nevadomsky. Nevadomsky was a renowned cultural anthropologist; visiting Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and one time Director of the Centre for Social Economic Research (CENSER), University of Benin, Benin City. These cassettes contain recordings of oral traditions collected by Nevadomsky during his fieldwork and research in Benin City between 1979 and 1980. Amongst those interviewed were Chief Jacob Egharevba, Chief Oliha, Chief Isekhure Ohen n’Ukoni of Evbiekoi, Urhonigbe Elders,many other members of the Royal Court, leaders and members of Royal Guilds, as well as village and family heads. Therefore, these cassettes contain historical traditions about aspects of Benin history and culture collected from very knowledgeable informants and so the IBS felt it was necessary to preserve these for posterity and future scholars. As an organisation concerned about the documentation and preservation of Benin history and culture, the IBS proceeded to preserve them as part of the collaboration with the DB project.

The digitisation of the audio and VHS cassettes was delayed because the IBS and DB wanted to ensure the digitisation was to the highest quality possible. Three different audio studios in Benin City, Lagos and Abuja were asked for quotes and samples. Ultimately only one studio, the Busayo Toyin studio in Abuja, could clean the tapes and produce samples to a high sound-quality. This delay in finding a studio was unexpected, however neither the IBS nor DB wanted to compromise on the quality of the digitised archival materials

The entire process for the digitisation was supervised by Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie, who also vetted each of the digital records before the transcription of their metadata by Eiloghosa Obobaifo. The Busayo Toyin studio was tasked with the extraction, improvement, and digital conversion of the audio to mp3 files and VHS video to mp4 files. Eiloghosa Obobaifo undertook a 10-day trip to Abuja to supervise the process of media digitisation and ensure safety of the archival material during their transport. During her visit, the studio treated and cleaned the tapes, extracted audio and video recordings from the audio and VHS cassettes, and finally digitised and improved/enhanced the quality of the video and audio files.

The studio rendered the archival records usable and accessible in digital format which were compatible with modern devices. The mp3 and mp4 formats were transferred as zipped folders to Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie via email for vetting of the audio quality and to ensure that the content corresponds with the labels. They were stored on external hard drives and compact discs which were transported to the IBS in Benin City.

During this process, Eiloghosa created a spreadsheet to catalogue the titles and names of the cassettes which were identified by the serial numbers labelled on each cassette and the original titles written by Joseph Nevadomsky. When the studio began the extraction process, resulting in the initial digitisation and data documented in the spreadsheet, it was observed that some of the outputs were either unclear or inaudible, while others were of acceptable quality. These observations on the sound quality were noted by Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie as he reviewed the files. This feedback regarding the sound and video quality issues were returned to the studio for further improvement.

Additionally, the initial studio labelling of the tapes had been inconsistent, making it challenging to match the output files with their corresponding original cassettes. The correction of the file labelling was addressed by Eiloghosa, who used the comments and reviews to rectify these issues. Ultimately, seventeen out of the twenty-two audio cassettes and VHS were digitised successfully. The IBS will give free access to researchers who visit their office to consult these digitised materials.

After Imogen Coulson created an entry for the IBS in the DB database, the metadata for the seventeen digitised Joseph Nevadomsky archival records were then added for the IBS. In addition to the metadata produced by Eiloghosa Obobaifo, Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie photographed each cassette to create an image for each of the physical cassettes. These images were then used to represent the digital audio and video files in the Digital Benin source guide in the Archives space. The metadata used for the Digital Benin platform is the same as that recorded at the IBS to ensure that the information on the DB platform corresponds with the physical archive of the old and new formats at the IBS.

Conclusion

The digitisation of objects at the NCMM and archival material at the IBS took place between May and October 2023. This documentation records the processes involved, the challenges faced by the DB team, the task accomplished and the result of the entire digitisation project for these two Nigerian institutions that have collaborated with Digital Benin since 2019. Through this process DB has filled the gap on the digitisation of historical Benin objects at the NCMM, as well as improving the accessibility of the Joseph Nevadomsky audio archives at the IBS.