Manchester Museum to host Restitution and African Archaeology discussion
04 Oct 2021
Join our online discussion across continents on Wednesday, 13 October
Manchester Museum has been engaging in debates on restitution for several decades and proactively looks for and examines contested items in its collections.
In 2019-20, in partnership with AIATSIS, the museum returned 43 secret, sacred and ceremonial objects to Indigenous communities in Australia.
The museum holds more than 4.5 million objects and specimens, including a significant quantity of cultural material from Africa, with antiquities from Egypt and Sudan being a particular attraction for visitors.
Manchester Museum is inviting discussion across continents on how African heritage might be better understood, interpreted and treated in the future. Taking place on Wednesday 13 October, this discussion will examine questions of ownership and learn from those most closely connected to the museum’s collections.
Manchester Museum’s newly appointed Curator of Living Cultures, Dr Njabulo Chipangura is one of the speakers in this discussion. Dr Chipangura, who holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, was previously employed by the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe. As Curator of Living Cultures he will be responsible for the care of more than 20,000 objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, as well as building new research and forming relationships and collaborations. This appointment highlights the museum’s commitment to restitution as Dr Chipangura is tasked with proactive identification of contested materials within the collection.
Speakers also include Professor Erinma Bell MBE DL, Manchester-based community activist, and Dr Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum.
This is the second in a series of events for the Devolving Restitution project, funded by Open Society Foundations and is hosted by AFFORD. You can find out more about this initiative at:
The Restitution and African Archaeology event is free and open to the public. Staff and students are warmly invited to attend. You can book at: