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Aztec-style logo for Virtual Gatherings in blue, yellow and green© Eno Inyangete

Event Series
 Virtual Gatherings

What are the ongoing effects of colonialism and the extraction of cultural heritage on African societies? How have African-led initiatives and research been advancing restitution work in the past and present? How can restitution address and redress historical violence? What happens after cultural heritage has been recovered? The complex process of restitution and its multiple possible meanings - repatriation, rematriation, remembering, restoration and reparation - are laid bare in our new four-part online event series, Lives of Objects: Virtual Gatherings curated by Sofia Lovegrove. The events will trigger open dialogues around these topics, with participants invited to join online from anywhere in the world. 

For gathering #1, On Reorienting Restitution, five speakers from five African countries will gather to explore the historical and current African-led work on restitution. Meanwhile, gathering #2, On Building Caring Relations, invites one Mancube community member from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and museum curators from Manchester and Pretoria to consider the changing role of the museum and the ways in which they can help forge more equitable relationships. Next, we’ll consider the role of digitality and the digital world in the ongoing debates about restitution with gathering #3, On Digital Access and Ownership, before wrapping things up with our final discussion, gathering #4 On Rematriation. Here, we will explore what restitution signifies from the perspective of women, their knowledge, spiritual worlds and lived experiences.

These Virtual Gatherings are part of the wider Lives of Objects programme.

A project by the Goethe-Institut.
Curated by Sofia Lovegrove. 
Digital strategy and Production by Digital & Nomad.
Visual design by Eno Inyangete.

A graphical visual in Blue © Eno Inyangete

Event #1
 On Reorienting Restitution

The first gathering will take stock of restitution from multiple African perspectives, looking at both historical and present-day work on restitution.

graphical image in orange © Eno Inyangete

Event #2
 On Building Caring Relations

Museums have the potential to help societies navigate the painful legacies of colonialism in the present day. But how can museums become caring, socially engaged spaces that focus on people and that view collections as living cultures? 

graphical image in green © Eno Inyangete

Event #3
 On Digital Access and Ownership

Lives of Objects: Online Gathering #3 will illuminate the contrast between African-led and European approaches to digital accessibility and transparency, giving attention to important initiatives such as the Ghana Restitution Inventory Project and Digital Benin.

graphical image in white © Eno Inyangete

Event #4
 On Rematriation

Rematriation is a powerful word used by Indigenous women to describe a “process of recovery and return that helps to restore the intimate relationship between Indigenous lands, bodies and heritage”*. For our final Lives of Objects: Online Gathering #4, Robin Gray will present this concept and tell us about its importance and impact within the context it originated from.

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