By Dr Tony Monda

SINCE the colonial conquests of the 19th century, the encounters and embroilments advanced by colonialism in Africa have produced complex issues of appropriation, ownership and commodification of African visual expression and heritage.
These acts of cultural vandalism and illicit cultural imperialism have denied African people the right to a cultural identity and a cultural past.
Works of art and visual cultural material and the contextualisation of one’s history should reside in its country of origin.
The restitution of our cultural heirlooms from colonial hands allows formerly colonised indigenous people the recovery of their memory and identity.
In post-independent Africa, the issue of restitution of cultural property as a result of legacies of conquest, colonisation and commerce of colonial plunder has become a discourse of concern from as early as 1970.
The critical and contentious issue of post-colonial repatriation of heritage and the restitution of Africa’s looted art, antiques and cultural heritage in the custodianship of Euro-American museums is one that requires urgent attention and the intervention of every African nation’s government.
According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM): “The looting of archaeological items and the destruction of archaeological sites in Africa are a cause of irreparable damage to African history and hence to the history of humankind.
“Whole sections of our history have been wiped out by colonialism and can never be reconstituted.”
For many enlightened Africans, the issue of restitution and its lack of resolution are indicative of the unequal relations between the West and Africa.
I therefore wish to share some of my encounters with our cultural heirlooms in Europe and America.
In 2010, this writer was privy to an exhibition of African antiques at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), belonging to the McDermott family.
The oldest work of African art at the DMA Collection included those of ancient Egypt dating from the Eighth Millennium BC; while art of Sub-Saharan Africa dated from the First Millennium BC.
The objects in this collection included zoomorphic terracotta figures from the Nok Civilisation in Nigeria, terracotta heads from Lydenburg, in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa.
Rare terracotta fertility dolls from Wedza and Nyanga areas of Zimbabwe.
This collection also included rare double-headed royal headrests (mitsago) from the Munhumutapa Dynasty, latticed in gold leaf and dating back to the 11th century AD.
Earlier in the mid 1990s as a student in England, I conducted several visits and spent many a week-end researching the British Museums, Africa, Oceana and American section; I realised that a huge section of this collection were works of art that were pilfered from Africa.
In another development, an exhibition of over 600 pieces of art and antiquity from Africa, especially from the traditional culture of Nigeria was held in London in May and June of 2010, planned to coincide with Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary which fell on October 1 that year.
The works which were exhibited in London were later shown in Spain and travelled to North America until April 2012, at the Huston Museum of Fine Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Fine Art and the Museum of African Art in New York.
I was appalled that nowhere in the schedule of the travelling exhibitions was there any African destination included, including Nigeria, the main producer of the cultural material on exhibit.
For Africans to progress, we must be aware of the various legal instruments and structured forums for dialogue and arbitration to facilitate the issue of the restitution of our cultural heritage.
In the 2007 14th session of the UNESCO Inter-Governmental Committee for the promotion of the return of cultural property to their respective countries of origin held a meeting.
Representatives from Greece, Turkey and Mozambique joined the committee, but sadly no one representing the Zimbabwean Government was present during this momentous session – why?
I was there as an invited scholar!
Here, Greece pressed for the return of the Parthenon’s Elgin Marbles from Britain, while Turkey wanted the return of the Bogazkoy Sphinx from Germany and Mozambique directed statements pertaining for the return of the Makonde Masks from Switzerland.
Zimbabwean cultural artefacts of antiquity looted and seized during raids by the covetous imperial colony during colonial times were drums, spears, wooden utensils, hides, hakata, snuff boxes, mitsago, mbira dzevadzimu, tsvimbo dzava sekuru nemasvikiro, etc.
The inventory of indigenous heritage of significance and aesthetic value further included:
Over 60 pieces dating circa 13-15th century comprising copper ingot crosses from Hurungwe and Mhangura.
17 golden-plated wooden serving bowls, 100 sceptres and numerous royal ornamentation from Mapungubwe.
Copper coinage of Sultan Al Hassan Bin Suleiman of KIlwa, Southern Tanzania which were found at Great Zimbabwe.
The set of 10 golden rhinoceri from Mapela, Mapungubwe, near the Limpopo River, which have not been located since their discovery during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland’s colonial explorations in 1953.
Lastly the Zimbabwean birds reputedly 10 in number (according to oral archaeological history) are still to be returned.
It is known that some of the sculpted birds are in the private collection in Grooteschur – Rhodes’ Estate in Cape Town.
Others are thought to be in a museum warehouse in Hackney, United Kingdom.
For the sake of our indigenous heritage, it is worth establishing the location of these national heirlooms.
While we are aware of the existence of five soapstone birds at Great Zimbabwe, early researchers have alluded to the fact that there were more, in fact 10.
In Shona ethno-numerical etymology, the number 10 is a numerical, symbolic figure of completeness– gumi (10) is derived from kuguma a term meaning completeness, and wholeness in the numerical system of the Shona.
African art and antiquity ranks among the most technically sophisticated and aesthetically resonant art in the history of the world.
In the context of heritage studies, objects cannot be understood once they have been removed from their archaeological context and divorced from the whole in which they belong.
The British Museum is a huge repository of impressive collections, appropriated from former colonised societies and in that sense the museum mirrors the trail of the extent of damage wrought by the empire and their colonialists of their plundering of spoils from Africa.
It is our national duty and more so, given our indigenous empowerment drive, to return our iconic treasures to post-colonial Africa – Zimbabwe must take the lead.
Laws pertaining to internationalism and cultural property need to be taken into account by those authorities in the offices of culture in this country whose eyes have not yet crossed their village boundaries.
Our reclamation and restitution process should rightly begin by making forays into the British Museum.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, musician, art critic, practising artist and Corporate Image Consultant. He is also a specialist Art Consultant, Post-Colonial Scholar, Zimbabwean Socio-Economic analyst and researcher.
E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com