IN a significant act of restitution, the University of Cambridge has repatriated over three dozen traditional artefacts to Uganda. Local officials, who had been advocating for the return of these items, welcomed the move.
On Saturday, the British university returned 39 items, including tribal regalia and delicate pottery, to Uganda. These artefacts will remain the property of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which is loaning them to Uganda for an initial period of three years, according to Mark Elliott, the museum’s senior curator in anthropology.
Elliott described the arrangement as ‘very much a museum-to-museum collaboration,’ resulting from years of discussions about returning objects that hold significant cultural and emotional value to the communities they originated from.
The returned objects, selected by Ugandan curators, represent a small fraction of approximately 1,500 ethnographic items from Uganda that Cambridge has held for a century. Most of these artefacts were acquired through donations from private collections, including many given by an Anglican missionary active in Uganda in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Uganda was declared a British protectorate in 1894 and gained independence in 1962.
‘It’s about putting these objects back in the hands of the Ugandan people,’ Elliott emphasised. ‘These objects have been away from home for so long.’
The next steps involve researching the contemporary significance of these artefacts and making decisions about their future, he added.
The Uganda Museum in the capital, Kampala, plans to showcase the returned items in a temporary exhibition next year. The agreement with Cambridge is renewable, opening up the possibility of a permanent loan or even local ownership, according to Jackline Nyiracyiza, the Ugandan government commissioner in charge of museums and monuments.
‘Sixty years have passed for us to get 39 objects,’ Nyiracyiza noted. ‘We are now working with the Cambridge team to engage with other museums and aim to repatriate more items next year or in the near future.’
Ugandan officials first travelled to Cambridge in 2022 to seek the restitution of these artefacts, amidst growing demands from African governments for the return of items of cultural and aesthetic value looted during the colonial era.
Elsewhere in Africa, there have been successful restitution events, including in Nigeria. Nelson Abiti, principal curator of the Uganda Museum, hailed the Cambridge deal as a breakthrough that could serve as a model for other museums with ethnographic items from Uganda.
‘This is the biggest single movement of objects returned to the African continent in recent years,’ Abiti asserted.
However, the struggle for restitution continues for many African governments. The African Union has placed the return of looted cultural property on its agenda, aiming to develop a common policy on the issue.
