MOWAA Institute — Museum of West African Art

The building is the real thing. Four and a half thousand square meters of locally sourced rammed earth under an in-situ concrete roof, with conservation labs, material science labs and a hundred-seat auditorium, laid out from the spatial logic of Benin City's own earthworks. Adjaye calls it Nigerian modernism and for once the phrase earns itself. Then the politics: protesters broke into the preview on November 9, 2025, the Edo State governor revoked the certificate of occupancy, and the palace disputed the museum's account of its own name. Roughly £40m, with the Getty Foundation, Open Society and the British Museum among the funders. It opens by appointment. Come back when the Oba, the state and the trustees have signed the same piece of paper.