These African artifacts being in a British museum is one part of the legacy of colonialism.  Modern Africans do not have many of their cultural and historical artifacts in their museums, because they were taken from their countries during the colonial period.  This can create a lack of understanding of their culture and history, because their learning materials are thousands of miles away.

Fred Wilson’s work was often created to draw attention to a marginalized group of people and give them more representation.  It could be argued that having these African artifacts in a British museum gives African cultures and nations more representation in Britain and the rest of the Western World, it takes away from the nation’s heritage and history at home.

This trend of having foreign artifacts in museums far from the artifacts’ origin could be a contributing factor to the disparity in museum quality across the world.  The world’s best museums are full of pieces from across the globe, yet the walls in many museums in areas with celebrated cultures and long histories are bare.  This is because much of these areas’ artifacts have been taken and spread across the globe.  This results in the British Museum having millions of visitors per year and occupying a palatial complex, while many countries in Africa have museums which in no way represent their complete culture or history.

The topic of returning illegally acquired items is a complex one.  First of all, I would hesitate to call them illegally acquired.  Unjustly and  unethically? Certainly.  But under the laws created and enforced by the rulers of these areas at the time, despite being the colonists they were, taking these items back to Europe was allowed.

I do think that in an ideal world, artifacts would be presented in the places they were created, by the people whose ancestors created them.  But this is not an ideal world.  Many Western museums take excellent care of these artifacts, and if they were returned to the areas in which they were created, they may not be shown the same respect or care they are shown in their current abode.  I do think we should aim to return them though.

To this end, a good start would be Western museums establishing partnerships with museums in Africa, providing training and investment to make them better places to present their cultures.  Then items can be loaned to these museums, who will work with their Western partners to improve their exhibits to attract visitors.  This will also help the countries economically, with more visitors coming to see the artifacts they are sure to spend their money elsewhere in the area as well.

We will get there eventually.