Restitution efforts that should be the foundation for undoing harmful hierarchies, end up enforcing the colonial dynamics they are purporting to undo.
I have been working with the current Asante King Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II on restitution and was there when the director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, visited him at his palace.
The King spoke of seeing Asante items at Windsor Castle on a visit to the British Queen Elizabeth II, recalling his pain at seeing items there, and at the curator’s lack of understanding of them.
