Netherlands and Germany Move to Return More Than 2,000 Ghanaian Cultural Objects
The Netherlands and Germany are preparing to return more than 2,000 cultural objects to Ghana, a significant step in the long-running effort to address colonial-era looting and the uneven afterlife of museum collections. Ghanaian foreign minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced the plan after the three-day Next Steps Conference in Accra, held June 17-19, where restitution and reparatory justice were central themes.
At the conference, Jeroen Verheul, the Netherlands’ ambassador, formally presented President John Dramani Mahama with a catalogue of 2,000 objects that the Dutch government intends to restitute. Germany, meanwhile, has identified items connected to the Kpando traditional area for return. Officials have not yet released a full inventory of the objects involved, and further details are still pending.
Verheul framed the move as part of a broader reckoning with the colonial past. “The government [of the Netherlands] considers such requests part and parcel of a much needed process of addressing historical injustices,” he said. He added that returns can strengthen institutional ties: “Returning objects often provide a positive boost to cultural and museum cooperation allowing us to tell these important stories together.”
He also said Dutch restitution policy is “demand driven,” beginning when a country requests the return of an object it considers its own. “We regard it as our duty to make our collections transparent through digitisation and publication including available provenance information,” Verheul said.
The conference was convened in response to a landmark United Nations resolution passed on March 26, which described the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.” Ghana led the UN vote and has positioned the issue of restitution within a wider international framework for reparatory justice.
Speakers included Mia Amor Mottely, the prime minister of Barbados, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the president of Senegal, and a recorded message from French president Emmanuel Macron. Among the issues discussed was the creation of a global strategic framework for reparatory justice, including an expert panel on the restitution of cultural artefacts.
The final day of the conference marked Juneteenth and included a re-enactment of the slave trade at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, once a major slave-trading center. Ablakwa also said Denmark has agreed to help preserve the 1661 fortress so that it “withstands as enduring evidence of the atrocities that occurred.”
In recent years, France, Germany, and the Netherlands have all introduced policies intended to make restitution easier, leading to returns to countries including Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. The latest announcements suggest that the pace of those returns may continue to accelerate, even as the full scope of the objects remains to be disclosed.
