It is estimated that over 100 thousand African cultural objects are in Europe. Other estimates say over 90% of African artifacts are stuck in European museums. Some of these objects were looted during the era of European colonization of the continent. Some believe that these African objects should be brought back to the land of origin, in a process called repatriation. The Quai Branly Museum in Paris alone has over 70 000 African objects.
The topic of repatriation has been heavily debated in the decolonization discourse. One of the people who have supported the initiative to repatriate is French President Emmanuel Macron who once said;
“African heritage can’t just be in European private collections and museums. The conditions [are] to be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa.”
So deep has been the issue of repatriation to the extent that an activist Mwazulu Diyabanza got arrested more than once in European museums for trying to confiscate African cultural objects demanding them back to Africa. Popular comedian Trevor Noah has even at one point got hooked up in the debate.
Although some museums have agreed to return the artefacts to places of origin, some have resisted this and suggested loaning; a measure that has been rejected by Africans. Some of the museums that have made millions of dollars from exhibiting the artefacts argue that Africa does not have the security to keep the artefacts hence they do the job for the dark continent.
Repatriation of African cultural objects will be the main theme of the third International Conference of African Cultures (ICAC) to be hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ). The ICAC 2021 that will take place from 17 to 19 November 2021 is expected to engage the public, governments, historians, visual arts, curators, archivists, musicians, and other cultural actors in knowledge sharing and contribution to how Africa can deal with repatriation and restitution in the future. Through discussions, ICAC 2021 seeks to bring home (African continent) the dialogue and debate on repatriation and restitution. The conference also seeks to explore the discussions around restitution and repatriation of African art, objects, archives and human remains. Following this, ICAC 2021 invites abstracts that address the following thematic areas:
- Repatriation and restitution of archives, human remains, or objects/artefacts
- Dealing with Legal issues, permanent loans, and ownership of the objects, archives, and human remains
- What does Digital Repatriation mean to the African continent and its institutions?
- What is the future of repatriation and restitution?
- Questioning Curatorship of Human Remains and religious objects from an African point of view
- Unpacking the myths around Museums of Humankind in the West
- African experiences of colonial trauma, memory amnesia, and cultural imperialism (individual, family, society, national and continental level)
- Enabling processes of repatriation and restitution through Public and Private Partnerships
- Role of art in inspiring dialogue on repatriation and restitution
- The Africa we want – how do we get there
