The Ugandan government has welcomed the return of 39 significant artifacts from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology-Cambridge, which were stolen from the country in the 1890s and early 1900s by British colonial administrators and missionaries. The artifacts, including a historic drum from Bunyoro and a collection of sacred twins, are considered priceless treasures that hold great cultural significance for Uganda.
The repatriation was made possible through a $100,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and was led by Professor Derek Peterson from the University of Michigan. The project, codenamed “Repositioning the Uganda Museum,” aimed to research and repatriate the objects from the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to the Uganda Museum in Kampala.
The return of these artifacts is seen as a small step towards undoing the legacy of collecting during the colonial era. The team’s goal is to put the objects back into the hands of the people who made them meaningful, sparking dialogues about family, clan, and professional histories.
The artifacts will be curated at the Uganda Museum, East Africa’s oldest museum, established in 1908 to preserve and present Uganda’s cultural and natural heritage. The team is also working with the Buganda Kingdom to return some of the artifacts to their original tombs, which hold deep ritual significance in Buganda.
This development marks just the beginning of a journey to repatriate many more artifacts scattered across the globe. The Ugandan government has hailed this moment as an exhilarating achievement and a step towards reclaiming its cultural heritage.