Restitution Beyond Repatriation: Rethinking African Tangible Heritage in Twenty-First Century Museums

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decade, the calls for ethnographic museums to confront their colonial histories and collections, particularly regarding African tangible heritage has intensified. However, the narrow focus on repatriation—the physical return of objects to their societies of origin—has reduced Africa’s demands into aimless diplomatic politics. Many Euro-American and African experts advocating wholistic object repartition as ethical restitution fail to recognize that relocating a few contested pieces, such as the Benin non-bronzes, Bangwa Queen, or Ngonso, will not eliminate ongoing museum violence against Africa through decontextualization, epistualicide, and profanation. 

Kenyan cultural commentator Christine Mungai estimates that Quai Branly holds approximately 70,000 African objects, the British Museum 69,000, the Weltmuseum in Vienna 37,000, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin 75,000, and the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Belgium 180,000. A further 66,000 are believed to be housed in the Netherlands' National Museum of World Cultures and 50,000 in museums across the United States. Most of these objects, acquired through less controversial means, will not be returned to Africa. Their continued display within colonial taxonomies will sustain the fetishization, fossilization, and inferiorization of African cultures, which repatriation alone cannot resolve.

Anthropologist Erica Lehrer warns, “If we focus only on returning objects, we leave museums off the hook; they will fill themselves with objects again and apply the same faulty colonial interpretative framework.” Similarly, Brazilian museologist Bruno Brulon Soares argues that returning heritage without rethinking the colonial knowledge systems in which it is preserved merely reinforces those hegemonic systems. The persistence of colonial museology in debasing Africa in the 21st century demonstrates that repatriation cannot undo coloniality. This does not mean repatriation is irrelevant. Instead, it has become an appeasement strategy, deflecting from the urgent need for deeper reforms and ethical stewardship of African heritage in so-called universal museums.

This Special Issue invites curators, art historians, and cultural experts to explore strategies for ethical restitution beyond repatriation through museum taxonomy, curation, collecting, narration, and public programming.

Interested authors should submit a proposed title and an abstract (200 words) summarizing their intended contribution to the Guest Editor at akpangclement001@gmail.com or the Arts editorial office at arts@mdpi.com for consideration. The Guest Editor will review abstracts to ensure they align with the scope of the Special Issue. Full articles (maximum of 6000 words) from authors whose abstracts are selected will be due by June 30, 2025, and will undergo a double-blind peer review.

Dr. Clement Akpang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• restitution
• African art
• museum
• repatriation
• decolonization