New Ghana team to pursue artifact repatriation, reparations

Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts has reconstituted a ten-member National Focal Team to lead Ghana’s restitution and reparation efforts for stolen cultural artifacts.

The team would identify, document, negotiate and secure the return of Ghana’s cultural treasures, while advocating for reparative justice.

“For far too long, Ghana, like many other African nations, has watched from afar as priceless cultural artifacts, sacred objects and historic regalia have remained housed in foreign institutions acquired through acts of colonial plunder, deceit or exploitation,” she said at the ceremony in Accra.

The Minister described the artifacts as vessels of identity, memory and pride, noting that their absence had left a painful void in the nation’s historical narrative.

“We do not seek vengeance, we seek justice; we do not seek conflict, we seek collaboration…we seek that what rightfully belongs to the Ghanaian people becomes theirs once again,” she added.

Madam Gomashie urged the team to pursue the mandate with integrity, diplomacy, historical rigour and patriotism.

“In my capacity as the vice chair of the ECOWAS subcommittee on restitution and reparations and as a Ministry, we stand ready to support your efforts with all the institutional backing, inter-ministerial coordination and international engagement necessary to fulfill this mandate,” she stated.

The team, led strategically by Madam Gomashie, has Professor Kodzo Gavua, a renowned archaeologist and heritage expert, as Chairperson.

Other members include Mr. Mohammed Seidu, a seasoned diplomat and legal adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mrs. Daphne Akonor, Senior Legal Officer at the Attorney General’s Department; Mr Richard Obeng Boafo, representative of the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development; and Dr Aba Mansa Eyifa-Dzidzienyo, a cultural historian at the University of Ghana.

The rest are Mr Edmond Moukala, Country Director of UNESCO Ghana; Mr Kwesi Essel Blankson, Acting Executive Director of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB); Professor Wazi Apoh, Dean of the School of Arts at the University of Ghana; and Mr Divine Kwame Owusu-Ansah, Director of Culture and Creative Arts at the Ministry of Tourism.

The team continues the mandate initiated by their predecessors, who were first inaugurated on April 12, 2020, by then Deputy Minister of Tourism, Mr Mark Okraku-Mantey.

Prof. Gavua, Chairperson of the National Focal Team—who also chaired the 2020 team—said Ghana had made significant progress following overtures from international museums.

He noted that the Derby Museum in the United Kingdom had since 2022 expressed its intention to return two valuable artifacts of Asante origin—a stool and a shrine figure.

Prof. Gavua disclosed that the Fowler Museum in the United States had recently returned some gold items to the Ashanti Kingdom and had pledged to return additional pieces from its collections.

“The head of the Netherlands Public Museum has sent a long list of collections that are of this origin, that is to say from our part of the world. And we are to select those which we would want to be returned. The negotiation process will begin,” he said.

Professor Gavua emphasised that restitution involves far more than the physical return of cultural artifacts.

It seeks to restore the dignity of Ghanaians and bridge the historical divide by addressing the knowledge gaps between the past and the present, allowing citizens to reconnect with their heritage in meaningful ways.

Source: GNA 

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