#17 : Restitution of African Cultural Objects

In this episode of our podcast “Wissen Entgrenzen” Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo and Susann Baller talk about restitution claims on African cultural objects. The “Akpini royal regalia” serve as one example for an ongoing restitution process. These objects were taken from the Volta region in Ghana in the early 20th century and can be found in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin today. Other important themes in this episode are decolonisation and the telling of history from an African perspective. In dieser Folge unseres Podcasts „Wissen entgrenzen“ sprechen Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo und Susann Baller über Restitutions- und Rückgabeforderungen von afrikanischen Kulturgütern. Als Beispiel für einen noch laufenden Restitutionsprozess berichten sie von den „Akpini royal regalia“. Diese wurden Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts aus der Volta-Region in Ghana nach Deutschland gebracht und befinden sich noch heute im Ethnologischen Museum in Berlin. Aber auch Dekolonisierung im Allgemeinen und die afrikanische Erzählung der Geschichte sind wichtige Themen dieser Folge. _____________________________________________________________________ Host und Autorenschaft: Janine Funke: https://www.janinefunke.de/ Gesprächspartner: Dr. Susann Baller: https://cmb.hu-berlin.de/en/team/profil/susann-baller and https://www.dhi-paris.fr/institut/team/wissenschaft/alumni/susann-baller.html Dr. Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo: https://www.ug.edu.gh/archaeology/staff/gertrude-aba-mansah-eyifa-dzidzienyo Redaktion: Lena Rüßing und Johanna Beamish (Max Weber Stiftung) Sprecher: Felix Giese Musik: Traditional Borborbor Musik, bereitgestellt von Kodzo Gavua (Universität Ghana) Postproduktion: https://die-wellenschmiede.de/ Zitateinspielungen: Togbui Opeku VI: “Woʄe teʄe sia vava gana dzideʄo mí be míaʄe kesinↄnuwo mebu o. Nya siwo katã míegblↄ la, onetsↄe de dↄwↄwↄ me eye woalée ɖe agbalẽ dzi be le γleti wuievea mea, ne wogatrↄ va la, agbalẽ siwo míawↄ la nade mía dzi.“ Overvoice: Wazi Apoh “Their coming has given us hope that our treasures are not lost. They should put all that we have said into practice and record it in a book so that when they return in December, the book that they will write would help us.“ In: “Epistemologies of Restitution” produziert von Martin Doll, verfügbar auf “Thinking About Restitution”. Annalena Baerbock, 1. Juli 2022: “This is a story of European colonialism. We should not forget that Germany played an active role in this chapter of history. Today, more than 120 years later, we state clearly: The Head of a King belongs to the people of Nigeria.” In: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/baerbock-benin-bronzes-nigeria/2540458 Weiterführende Ressourcen: Wazi Apoh, “Revelations of Domination and Resilience: Unearthing the Buried Past of the Akpini, Akan, Germans, and British at Kpando, Ghana”, Sub-Saharan Publishers, Ghana, 2019. Wazi, Apoh, “Sankofatizaion and Decolonization: The Rapprochement of German Museums and Government with Colonial Objects and Postcolonialism”, Museum Anthropology, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 29-44, DOI: 10.1111/muan.12218. Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo, Stefanie Michels, Kokou Azamede, Martin Doll, Jakob Zollmann, “Restitution, Return, Repatriation and Reparation (the 4Rs) in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Ahasia?”, MIASA Working Paper No. 2023(2), Edited by the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa, Section Editor: Susann Baller, available in open access: https://www.ug.edu.gh/mias-africa/sites/mias-africa/files/images/MIASA_WP_2023%282%29_IFG5.pdf Dokumentarfilm „Epistemologies of Restitution“ von Martin Doll: http://www.thinking-about-restitution.info/ Podcast des DHI London: https://www.ghil.ac.uk/publications/podcast Bildnachweis: Wikimedia Commons “Photo of the Benin Bronzes display at the British Museum”: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benin_bronzes_british_museum_2023.JPG