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The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, has called for unity, solidarity and collaboration among African nations and those in the diaspora in demanding for Africa’s lost cultural properties.
She said the struggle for the restitution of Africa’s cultural properties must not solely be the burden of one country or a group of people, but the responsibility of all across the continent’s borders.
The minister explained that the restoration of Africa’s lost cultural heritage was not only about objects behind glass cases in foreign museums, but about memory, justice and the right of African children and generations after them to know who they were, their being and identity.
“So much of Africa’s cultural treasures, including our sacred artefacts, royal regalia, sculptures and plethora of ancestral symbols were taken, traded, confiscated and displayed in western and private museums abroad far from the continent, often under the shadow of colonialism and exploitation.
‘These expedient objects are not mere artefacts; they are vessels of memory, carriers of our collective spirit, and testaments to civilisations that flourished long before borders were even drawn,” she said.
Ms Gomashie was speaking at the opening of a four-day advocacy workshop of ECOWAS regional committee on the return of cultural properties to their countries of origin in Accra yesterday.
The return of African cultural properties to its countries of origin is a fundamental issue for the reconstitution, enhancement and transmission of the heritage of ECOWAS member states.
Six years ago, the first action plan was developed for the return of African cultural artifacts.
Since then, some countries have received some of the artifacts.
The workshop is, therefore, aimed at looking at how far countries had gone with getting the artifacts back and the development of a plan for a new phase.
Ms Gomashie said the lost artefacts were about memories and roots of a people, drawing a parallel line of a child in Timbuktu who had never seen the ancient manuscripts that birthed African scholarship and a chief in Benin City who could not trace the bronze faces of his ancestors.
She said Africans were not just asking for compensation for those lost cultural properties, but demanding recognition that the world saw and acknowledged kin order to make right the wrongs of the past.
“As we of the West African block take the lead on this issue, it is imperative that we stay focused and organised.
“As we stand at this pivotal moment, let us be guided by the words of our forebears; the visionaries, the freedom fighters and the leaders who have long advocated justice. Let us remember that this struggle is not just for us but for future generations,” she said.
The acting Director, Education, Science and Culture Department of ECOWAS, Dr Roland Kouakou, mentioned one of the challenges affecting the retrieval of Africa’s lost artifacts to include politics, for which he called for diplomacy and negotiations.
He said there was the need for Africa to develop its culture and also teach its children to embrace it since the system was long developed before the colonialists arrived on the continent.
