The proposed return of two West African musical instruments from Los Angeles to Ghana has been framed, predictably, as another step in the broader restitution movement.
The objects – a drum and an ivory trumpet held by the Fowler Museum at UCLA – were reportedly taken by British troops in Kumasi during the late nineteenth-century Anglo-Asante campaigns. On paper, the case appears to fit a now-familiar template: colonial seizure, Western custody, then eventual return.
But that narrative is complicated by the objects’ sometimes uncertain history and by the fact that each of the instruments have human skulls attached. The trumpet has a male skull attached, with injuries indicating he died violently. The drum has a cranium identified as that of a woman attached. She may have been fifty years old and have died of old age. These human elements have been integral to the objects for at least a century, and possibly longer.
In this case, restitution is a not a straightforward matter or an obvious moral ‘correction’ to the past. The key questions are what exactly is being returned – and to whom.
If the skulls belonged to individuals from communities conquered or fought by the Asante, then returning them to Asante custody places the remains of possible victims with the people historically associated with their defeat. Some Ghanaian observers have already noted that displaying such remains in Kumasi could be seen as insensitive or provocative, particularly if the individuals were from neighboring Akan groups.
Alternately, if the remains are of Asante individuals, the question then becomes – how should such remains be treated? Should they be displayed, concealed, buried or otherwise handled? Who has the authority to decide?
If the skulls were added after the objects left Africa, the remains may have no direct connection to the instruments’ original cultural context. This would complicate any claim based on cultural patrimony, while strengthening the case for treating the remains as human remains requiring separate ethical consideration.
In some cases, restitution may simply relocate an object without clarifying its status. The suggestion that the Fowler instruments could move from storage in Los Angeles to storage in Accra illustrates this possibility. The geographical location changes, but the object remains inaccessible and its meaning unresolved.
