Cultural researcher and activist Dr Shey Bulami Edward has called for a renewed African approach to the restitution of cultural heritage, stressing that the return of Africa’s possessions must go beyond artefacts to embrace spiritual, intellectual, and moral restoration.
Speaking during a public lecture and film premiere titled “Restitution 101: A History of Excuses” in Bamenda on Saturday 8 November 2025, Dr Bulami said the initiative seeks to deepen understanding of what restitution means for African societies and to reposition Africans as narrators of their own heritage stories.
The event, convened by Dr Bulami himself, was part of the Open Restitution Africa project, a continental digital platform documenting African-led restitution cases. The project was co-founded by Molemo Moiloa (South Africa) and Chao Tayiana (Kenya) to create a repository of research, advocacy materials and films that retell Africa’s heritage encounters with Europe from African perspectives.
In his presentation, Dr Edward Bulami argued that what Western institutions call artefacts should rightly be seen as possessions which are objects imbued with ancestral energy, not mere items for display.
“When they took our possessions, they also took the spirits that lived within them,” he said, explaining that removing sacred items such as Ngonnso, royal thrones or ritual cups from their natural setting broke the bond between communities and their ancestors.
He described Western museums as “foreign spaces of containment” and proposed that Africans reimagine preservation through their own cultural systems or shrines, palaces and sanctuaries that carried both material and spiritual value.
“We did not have museums. Our ancestors had living archives protected by ritual and respect.” he noted.
Dr Bulami criticised the conditional return of African heritage by Western governments, especially Germany’s proposal to offer stolen items as loans.
“It is hypocrisy to return what was stolen only to dictate how it should be used,” he said.
He revealed that Germany holds over 40,000 Cameroonian cultural possessions, though that figure comes from only a fraction of its museums. Cameroon, he added, is still struggling to establish a coherent national restitution policy, only beginning formal drafting in 2023 after the Ngonnso case had already been decided in 2022.
The researcher, who holds a PhD in Oral Literature and serves with the Ministry of Secondary Education, urged universities to take the lead by developing interdisciplinary programmes in restitution and heritage studies. He cited the Accra Declaration (2023) and the Dakar Conference as milestones in building a continental position that combines repatriation, repair and reparations.
“Restitution is not a moment, it’s a movement,” Dr Bulami told the audience of scholars, students, journalists and cultural promoters. “It’s about reclaiming our narrative, reconnecting with our spirits, and restoring our future.” he emphasised
The event concluded with the premiere of the Ngonnso documentary, one of a five-part film series on African restitution stories produced under the Open Restitution Africa project.
By Bakah Derick for Hilltopvoices Online
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