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Restitution, Return, Repatriation and Reparation (The 4Rs) in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia?, MIASA Working Paper 2023(2)

The topic of restitution of cultural materials in colonial contexts raises historical, political, and moral questions. This working paper summarizes the research findings of IFG 5 at MIASA, which moved the academic and political debates about restitution to more practical and epistemological levels. L’IFG 5 focused on one evolving restitution case study from the Akpini Traditional Area in Kpando (Ghana) demanding the return of their royal regalia from Germany, and it analysed the field within which the case unfolds. This paper, which is based on field research involving meetings and discussions with representatives from the Akpini Traditional Area, multiplies the voices/narratives of interest groups on local, national and international levels; widens the perspectives on the issues; and interrogates the ongoing limited multi-practices of restitution, return, repatriation and reparation (the 4Rs) in the post-colonial African context. The paper identifies a plethora of interest groups in the restitution case in Kpando with varying agendas. It concludes that the field of “restitution” is characterized by interest groups that do not conform to a simplified dichotomous vision and that their agendas go beyond the mere return of cultural materials.

Authors: Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo, Stefanie Michels, Kokou Azamede, Martin Doll and Jakob Zollmann

Prologue

Whenever the term “restitution” is employed, a dichotomy is evoked. Cultural material is present in one location and absent in another (Hauser-Schäublin 2021: 55-56). Attesting to and reflecting this fundamental dichotomy our interdisciplinary research group on “The 4Rs (Restitution, Return, Repatria-tion and Reparation) in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia? (International Fellow Group 5) at the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) hosted at the University of Ghana, hereinafter IFG 5, aimed at opening up the currently dominating dichotomous visions of the restitution debate.

In 2018, MIASA had already initiated a conference on restitution and has expressed its continued interest in the topic reframing it as a field that can contribute to debates on governance. Working together over a four-months period (September–December 2021) at MIASA, IFG 5 focused on one evolving restitution case study from Kpando, Ghana and how it unfolds in the field of restitution. The aim of the IFG 5 was to probe how the fundamental dichotomy produced by the restitution debate plays out in a broader framework. The Fellow Group was co-convened by Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo (Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana) and Stefanie Michels (Department of Historical Sciences, University of Düsseldorf). Further fellows of the group were Kokou Azamede (Department of German Studies, University of Lomé, Togo), Martin Doll (Media and Cultural Studies, University of Düsseldorf) and Jakob Zollmann (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin). Two Principal investigators were supporting the IFG 5: Wazi Apoh (University of Ghana) (Apoh 2019) and Mirjam Brusius (German Historical Institute London).

Apoh, Wazi, Revelations of Domination and Resilience: Unearthing the buried Past of the Akpini, Akan, Germans and British at Kpando, Ghana (Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2019).

Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta, “Provenienzforschung zwischen politisierter Wahrheitsfindung und systemi-schem Ablenkungsmanöver”, in: Thomas Sandkühler, Angelika Epple and Jürgen Zimmerer (eds.), Geschichts-kultur durch Restitution? Ein Kunst-Historikerstreit (Cologne: Böhlau, 2021), pp. 55–78.

How to cite: Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo, Stefanie Michels et al., Restitution, Return, Repatriation and Reparation (The 4Rs) in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia?, MIASA Working Paper No 2023(2), online: https://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/41646.

Further information on IFG 5 via MIASA’s Poster Series and the MIASA webpage.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
teammiasa (August 18, 2023). Restitution, Return, Repatriation and Reparation (The 4Rs) in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia?, MIASA Working Paper 2023(2). Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa - Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2025 from https://miasa.hypotheses.org/3277


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