By Steve Bishop
Imagine a history of the 19th century in which African armies swept across Europe, plundering artworks, looting cities and desecrating sacred symbols. Imagine those armies proudly shipping those cultural artefacts, as war trophies, back to their home countries to be displayed as examples of exotic ‘primitive’ cultures.
Imagine too that these armies, faced with resistance from the local population, massacred whole villages, destroyed architecture and executed local leaders for having the temerity to oppose the incoming invaders. Imagine, though it may be difficult, that the decapitated heads of local leaders were amongst some of the ‘war trophies’ sent back to the home countries for display.
Finally, imagine a scenario in which museums, stuffed with so many plundered cultural assets, did not even deign to display them but locked them away in basement store rooms for more than a century, paying no heed to their significance for the communities from which they had been wrenched.
The reality of course is that all of the above happened in reverse. This is the history of the European invasion of Africa throughout the 19th century when the armies of Britain, France, Germany and Belgium ripped through the continent.
Editors Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall have brought together a team of experts and intellectuals from across Africa in this volume, appropriately subtitled A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums, to highlight fifteen examples of colonial plunder , exposing the role and collusion of museums across Europe in this cultural genocide and to argue the case for restitution.
The editors summarise the aim of the book in their introduction as follows:-
“Addressing fifteen contexts of asymmetrical wars and foregrounding the expertise of African and Afro-diasporic historians, curators, artists and activists, the present volume takes debates on colonial looting and restitution of African cultural heritage to another level.” (p.3)
Divided into three sections (The Battlefield, The Royal Palace, The Sacred) we are taken on a journey which covers the blood stained circumstances in which these cultural assets were looted, as the European powers carved up Africa and fought for control of its rich natural resources, through to the growing campaign for restitution by African nations today.
Like the initial resistance to European invaders, the case being made for restitution is an ongoing struggle, as many museums in the United States and Europe remain unwilling to part with the cultural assets stolen from African communities. In spite of this, the appeal for transnational cooperation comes through from many of the authors, with Prof Koko Azamede from Togo putting it most succinctly, stating,
“It is therefore essential that these institutions recognise that, if they want to learn or discuss the status of these cultural assets, only the original communities to which they belong can decide on their fate or inform on the appropriate ways to look, gaze at, display, care for, or, simply treat this heritage. Allow me to repeat that these cultural assets are not just mere aesthetic ‘objects’ but are intimately linked to people’s souls, destinies and identities.” (p80)
The picture in Western Museums is uneven, with some being more willing than others to engage in dialogue about the origins of their collections and how they are managed going forward. The Field Museum in Chicago, for example, is cited as one of those looking at ways to de-colonise its collections and engage with communities of origin.
However, in many Western museums artefacts are mislabelled, due to a poor understanding of their significance and original cultural context. Interpretation is usually through a strictly Eurocentric prism without any reference to the original cultural purpose. Many assets are not viewed at all, being stored in basements. Others are objects deemed sacred by their communities of origin and never intended for public display.
In his chapter Hiding and Returning Asante Regalia, Ghanian filmmaker Nii Kwate Owoo recalls how, as a young film student in 1970, he managed to gain access to the British Museum and its basement collection of plundered African artefacts, which led to the making of his acclaimed documentary You Hide Me, the title reflecting the invisibility of African culture due to colonial plunder. In 2020 the film had a second life, winning Best Short Documentary at the Paris Short Film Festival, and sparking a further round of discussion around the demands for restitution of plundered cultural assets.
Fifteen Colonial Thefts gives a compelling insight into the debate around restitution and, as Adjei and LeGall acknowledge, represents only a small sample of the looted African heritage spread across Western museums, while still illuminating the collective trauma and loss of cultural heritage that colonial theft engendered.
Fifteen Colonial Thefts – A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums is edited by Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall and published by Pluto Press. £25.00 (hard cover)
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