Lower thirds:

0:03  Report by / Jonathan Crane
0:15  Ebere Chukwudi / Artist
0:47  Kelly Omodamwen / Bronze caster
1:35  West Ihama / Bronze caster

Script:

00:01
Ebere Chukwudi's work is like going back in a time machine.

She practices the ancient craft of bronze casting.

The 23-year-old says she is committed to her passion.

00:14
SOT Ebere Chukwudi, Artist
It is a way I express myself and yes definitely I see myself like taking it like further.

00:25
This is a craft handed down from generation to generation.

But young bronze casters like Chukwudi and Kelly Omodamwen are few and far between.

From his workshop in Benin, Omodamwen says the rising cost of raw materials doesn't make the craft profitable any more.

00:46
SOT Kelly Omodamwen, Bronze caster
If you see that your predecessors made a very very good standard living of their practice, of course you would want to do it. So that hasn't been in place and causing low interest with the next generation.

01:05
The craft's plight has been brought into the spotlight with the return of the Benin Bronzes, which were taken from what's now Nigeria by British troops in 1897. 

They're some of Africa's finest heritage objects, as West Ihama knows.

He learned bronze casting from his father; he's one of the few master casters left.

But Ihama sees the pipeline of young casters drying up, as they leave in search of better paid jobs.

01:34
SOT West Ihama, Bronze caster
Many of our children are travelling, or many of them are going out to…to any neighbouring country to look for their greener pasture because there is no funding.

01:46
And so, a craft that requires a lot of time and dedication is slowly dying out.

And an area, once filled with the smell of molten metal, is now filled with shops and bars.