'Eloquent and powerful' - Françoise Vergès
Debates around restitution and decolonising museums continue to rage across the world. Artefacts, effigies and ancestral remains are finally being accurately contextualised and repatriated to their homelands.
Fifteen Colonial Thefts amplifies these discussions, exploring the history of colonial violence in Africa through the prism of fifteen African belongings - all looted at the height of the imperial era and brought to European museums.
Structured around three arenas - the battlefield, the royal palace, and the realm of the sacred - the book displays how colonial officers violently plundered Africa. It explores the meaning of those cultural artefacts at the time of their appropriation and today in an era of restitution.
With writers from Europe and Africa, including scientists, museum professionals, artists and activists, the book illuminates the collective trauma and loss of cultural, historical and spiritual knowledge that colonial theft engendered.
Foreword by:
Peju Layiwola
Contributions by:
Felwine Sarr,
Bénédicte Savoy
Edited by:
Sela K. Adjei,
Yann LeGall
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 220mm,
Width: 170mm,
ISBN: 9780745349527
ISBN 10: 0745349528
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 20 August 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword by Peju Layiwola Introduction: Fifteen in a Thousand: How to Tell the History of Colonial Conquest, Anti-Colonial Resistance, and Looted African Heritage by Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall Part I: The Battlefield 1. The Treasure of Samori Touré - by Felwine Sarr & Bénédicte Savoy 2. The Manifesto of the Sudanese Mahdī: Banners as Artefacts of Empire - by Fergus Nicoll & Osman Nusairi 3. Conversation: IsiHlangu from the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879: 'We need to infuse African-ness in museum' - by Mwelela Cele & Yann LeGall 4. The Plunder from 'Adibo Dali', and Why Looted Cultural Goods Need to Return to Dagbon - by Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan Iddi, Elias Aguigah, Marlena Barnstorf-Brandes, Michael A. Gyimah, Jan König & Ricarda Rivoir 5. A War Coat of the Anufo/Tchokossi: From Northern Togo to the Field Museum in Chicago - by Julia Kennedy, Foreman Bandama, Christopher J. Philipp, and Kokou Azamede Part II: The Royal Palace 6. Hiding and Returning Asante Regalia (1970–2024): The Journey of an Ancestral Messenger - by Nii Kwate Owoo 7. A Plaque from an Ngolo etana: The Looting of Architectural Heritage as a Token of Colonial Violence - by Richard Tsogang Fossi & Jeanne-Ange Wagne 8. Conversation: Subverting Firepower: A German Cartridge Upcycled as Snuffbox, a Symbol of Chagga Resistance - by Konradin Kunze, Sarita Lydia Mamseri, Gabriel Mzei Orio & Mnyaka Sururu Mboro 9. In Defence of Theft? On the Theft and Restitution of Ngonsso' and Punitive Exhibitions - by Godfrey B. Tangwa and Fogha MC Cornilius Refem, alias Wan wo Layir 10. The Long Journey of the bocio of Three Danxomè Kings - by Didier Houénoudé & Gaëlle Beaujean Part III: The Sacred 10. The Tabots from Maqdala - by Emanuel Admassu & Eyob Derillo 11. Nkisi nkonde of Chief Ne Kuko of Boma: The Tragic Spoliation of an Object of Power - by Placide Mumbembele Sanger 12. Conversation: The Ngadji of the Pokomo: On Revolutionary Responses, Release and Relationships - by Njoki Ngumi & Adé lá Naomi Adérè mí 13. Where are Mbuya Nehanda's Remains? A Zimbabwean Search in the Context of Shifting Museum Politics - by Njabulo Chipangura, Farai Chabata & Lennon Mhishi 14. Byéri: Ancestor Guardian Figures of the Kwasio people in Southern Cameroon - by Yrine Matchinda & Sebastian-Manès Sprute Abbreviations Appendix: List of Museums and Collections
Sela K. Adjei is a multidisciplinary artist with degrees in Communication Design, and African Art and Culture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He received his PhD in African Studies from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a lecturer at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (NAFTI). Yann LeGall is a postdoctoral researcher on the project 'The Restitution of Knowledge: Artefacts as Archives in the (Post)Colonial Museum' at the Institute for Art History of the Technical University in Berlin. He was previously a fellow at the Research Training Group Minor Cosmopolitanisms at the University of Potsdam. As a member of the initiatives Berlin Postkolonial and Postcolonial Potsdam, he leads guided tours for university seminars and conferences in both cities and developed a digital audio guide on traces of colonial history in Potsdam. Peju Layiwola is an art historian and visual artist from Nigeria. She is Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Lagos. Her works can be found in Yemisi Shyllon Museum, Lagos, and in the homes of many private collectors. Her maternal grandfather was Oba Akenzua II, King of Benin, who reigned from 1933 until 1978. Layiwola has led public advocacy for the return of art works stolen from Benin during the Punitive Expedition of 1897.
Reviews for Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums
'An eloquent and powerful book! The editors, Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall, have brought together an invaluable collection of forgotten histories around fifteen colonial thefts. The authors show with rigour and depth that colonial conquest was not only about erasing, expropriating, dispossessing, extracting, exploiting, but also looting and trafficking. They make the case for unconditional restitutions and returns.' -- Françoise Vergès, author of <i>A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum</i>
