Martin Mugarra, Uganda’s minister of tourism, said that while many important artifacts remain overseas, it was still a significant return of cultural objects. The process to get the pieces back started in 2016 under the “rethinking Uganda Museum” project, in collaboration with the University of Michigan.
“These invaluable pieces were taken from Uganda during the 1890s and early 1900s by British colonial administrators, anthropologists, missionaries and soldiers,” he said.
The pieces had been kept at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge for more than 100 years. The collection includes human remains taken from the Wamala tombs, a headdress made of human hair and a traditional Bunyoro drum.
The objects that contain human remains (there are seven ‘balongo’, ritual objects that contain the embalmed remains of the ancient rulers of the Buganda kingdom) will be returned to the custody of the tombs from which they were stolen. The Ministry of Tourism will—soon, I hope—file a request with the Cambridge museum to secure the title to these objects.
The remaining objects are hoped to be cleared through the Charities Commission, a process which will likely take a considerable time.
