2024-05-08 18:22:12
Gold neck discs, a sword, a royal chair and dozens of other treasures looted during British colonial rule were put on public display in Ghana this week for the first time since their historic return. People came from all over the West African country to see the recovered loot in the city of Kumasi, the seat of Asante King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, known as the Asantehene.
As Day.Az reports with reference to foreign media, the golden regalia were looted during the British colonization of the territory of modern Ghana in 1821-1957, most of them were taken out during fierce battles with the Asante kingdom and placed in museums.
The British Museum in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Fowler Museum at the University of California returned the artefacts earlier this year – part of a growing push by Western institutions to reconsider colonial legacies.
“The returned objects are, in essence, the soul of the Asante people,” the monarch said at an exhibition marking his silver jubilee. According to him, negotiations for the return of the items took more than half a century.
Other museums in the United States and Europe have agreed to return treasures taken from the Kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria, and have received requests for return from other countries on the continent, including Egypt and Ethiopia.
Note that some of the UK’s main national museums are prohibited by law from transferring or disposing of most of their collections. Thus, 32 exhibits from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) are on loan in Ghana.
“We acknowledge the deeply painful history behind the acquisition of these objects, marred by the scars of imperial conflict and colonialism,” Victoria and Albert Museum director Tristram Hunt said at the exhibition’s opening.
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