A US museum has returned a batch of royal regalia to Ghana that was looted by British colonial soldiers 150 years ago, marking the first major return of stolen artifacts to the West African nation.
The Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles said that the items, all royal objects from the Asante Kingdom, were purchased by a US collector and donated to the museum after his death.
Representatives of the museum handed them over to Asante king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the city of Kumasi on Thursday.
Photo: AP
The move comes amid growing demand for the repatriation of priceless objects appropriated in colonial times. Nigeria and Ethiopia are among a number of countries seeking repatriation.
The items returned by the Fowler Museum include an elephant tail whisk, two royal stool ornaments, a royal necklace, two strands of beads and an ornamental chair.
Four of them were taking during the 1874 sacking of Kumasi, and three were part of an indemnity payment later made by the Asante Kingdom to the British, the museum said.
Photo: AP
“These are objects that connect the present to the past ... the very essence of a civilization,” said Ivor Agyemang Duah, director of the Asante royal museum.
University of Ghana historian Kwaku Darko Ankrah said the return was important for Ghana, but expressed hope that it would also trigger a conversation about how the Asantes came by the items.
“Looting was also one major trait of the Asantes at the height of their supremacy and there is historical evidence of things they looted from other tribes they fought” across Ghana, he said.
Ankrah wants returned items to be identified and the original owners found.
“They [the original owners] also have equitable rights to those items. If they are not identifiable but the Asantes agree they are looted treasures, then the artifacts should become national treasures of Ghana,” he said.
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