The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: A Step Towards Decolonization

There is a year that is internationally recognized in African history as extremely important and is defined as “the Year of Africa,” 1960. It was then that many African colonies began a long and complex process of decolonization by declaring their independence from European powers. Independence movements and liberation struggles played a fundamental role in achieving independence. Thanks to them, a wind of change spread, leading to the formation of national consciousness and contributing actively to the progressive decolonization of the African continent.

Despite the passage of time, the need to continue along the path of decolonization is more evident than ever, addressing numerous issues ranging from international policies to decolonial thought, to matters concerning African art and culture. In this regard, there is an increasingly active international mobilization unanimously demanding the resolution of an issue dating back to the colonial period, which still represents its legacy: the looting of African works and artifacts, housed in museums, research institutes, and universities in Europe, suffered by Africa during European colonialism. Restitution is, in fact, being loudly demanded by both Africans and Europeans as a remedy to the improper cultural and identity expropriation that occurred during the colonial centuries and as a gesture that can positively impact the intimate awareness of a past that seems distant in time and space.

Today, the debate is more alive than ever, even though the roots of the fight against the expropriation of artistic and cultural heritage date back to the early period of decolonization. It is indeed between the 1950s and 1970s that, with the Hague Convention and the UNESCO Convention, efforts were made to protect works and artifacts from illicit transfer. However, with no retroactive validity, restitutions have been rare and sporadic.

Nevertheless, there are increasing examples of activism and restitution that show how decolonial awareness regarding the stolen artistic and cultural heritage is growing. GROUP50:50, for example, is a collective of artists (actors and musicians) from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Switzerland, and Germany who bring to international stages The Ghosts are Returning. This multimedia and musical theater show denounces (neo)colonial crimes and addresses the issue of cultural property restitution, specifically concerning seven pygmy skeletons brought by a Swiss doctor to the University of Geneva in 1952 for research purposes.

Another noteworthy initiative is the Looty project by a collective of Nigerian artists. The idea is to digitally recover artifacts, specifically the Benin Bronzes, looted from African communities through a legal process of photography and 3D rendering to create NFTs for sale. By doing so, the collective not only bypasses the cumbersome restitution process, which, even though it has already started in many cases, remains slow and uncertain but also allocates a portion of the proceeds to fund emerging African artists.

In Dakar, in December 2024, during the inauguration of the exhibition Demoon Dikkaat – The Returned, dedicated to the sword of El Hadji Oumar Tall, which was returned by France to Senegal in 2019, the director-general of the Musée Des Civilisations Noires expressed the need to recover Africa’s cultural heritage held in Western museums. This pan-African commitment is essential and must gain even more strength and importance in negotiations with Western states for the re-establishment of Senegal’s cultural sovereignty.

One could continue citing numerous other initiatives actively addressing the issue of African artwork restitution. There are also concrete examples of restitution, such as 26 works that were taken by France from the Palace of Abomey at the end of the 19th century and have now been returned to the Republic of Benin, or the agreement between the Ethnologisches Museum and Nigeria for the transfer of ownership of 512 objects taken during a British expedition in 1897 to the Kingdom of Benin. It is important to note that although these initiatives represent significant steps towards the restitution of African cultural heritage, the total number of works returned so far is relatively small compared to the tens of thousands of African artifacts present in European collections. There is still much work to be done.

However, the restitution of African cultural heritage should not be seen as a point of arrival but as a fundamental piece in a broader process of reconciliation and cooperation between Africa and the West. Restoring stolen works and artifacts represents a cultural and political challenge that requires the involvement not only of states and institutions but also of civil society and artistic communities.

Therefore, looking at the past with a critical eye is not only a historical duty but a necessary premise for building a decolonized future.