Practice Test

Question 11 • English IV

Which quotation from A History of the World in 100 Objects best reveals the cultural significance of the Benin plaque?

Answer

They and their Dutch and English competitors, who followed later in the sixteenth century, carried gold and ivory to Europe and in return brought commodities from all over the world.

All European visitors were struck by the Oba’s position as both the spiritual and the secular head of the kingdom, and the Benin brass plaques are principally concerned with praising him.

A British delegation seeking to enter Benin City during an important religious ceremony had been attacked and some of its members killed. The details of what actually happened are far from clear.

It is a bewildering fact that by the end of the nineteenth century the broadly equal and harmonious contacts between Europeans and West Africans established in the sixteenth century had disappeared from European memory.

Explanation

The plaque’s cultural significance is best shown by what it depicts and honors. The quotation explains that the Oba held both spiritual and secular authority, and that Benin brass plaques chiefly praised him. The other quotations focus on trade, a later British delegation, or changing European memories rather than the plaques’ meaning in Benin culture.

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