By Maggie Brew

Nothing has shaken the art world in the last few years quite like discourse surrounding the restitution debate—a re-examination of whether culturally valuable arts and artifacts from imperial subjects belong encased in Western museums and institutions. And if not, where they should go instead. In fact, the average person has likely engaged in related media and conversations, whether in having watched the museum heist scene of the 2018 blockbuster film ‘Black Panther’, or in rethinking the vast collections of objects questionably held in the British Museum, an institution with a rapidly sinking reputation largely due to these restitution debates. Art historians, anthropologists, curators, and government officials are all involved in works today to decide the fate of such objects, which have been obtained in a range of circumstances and within complex power imbalances that complicate solutions to modern possessions of centuries-old acquisitions. This is not just a problem for the British Museum to solve - artifacts from imperial endeavors are sitting in galleries across the United Kingdom, including in our own backyard.

Art History students at St Andrews are grappling with the real-world implications of ethnographic collections through research into historic African art and ritual objects held at the McManus Gallery in Dundee. The presence of such artifacts in our neighbouring Scottish city is tied to dark histories of British Imperial pursuit that prompt questions of ethical possession and possible cases for restitution. This year, Dr Kate Cowcher of the School of Art History has introduced a new module titled ‘Scotland and the Arts of Africa’, in which students are learning about artistic and cultural practices and traditions spread across diverse populations of the African continent. These histories are then examined in tandem with colonial British presence in the 19th and 20th Centuries to develop holistic understandings of the complex relationships that emerged between native Africans and European explorers, traders, and settlers.

Our class made an excursion this week to study an assortment of masks, figures, and textiles from all over Africa showcased with minimal context in the ‘Dundee and the World’ collection at the McManus Gallery. Students will each research one object extensively, using what little information is provided to begin to learn about its cultural origins and the circumstances that brought it to Dundee, and then make a case for its future—whether that’s restitution to its creators, or to leave it as is, on display in the gallery.

So what is restitution? Simply put, it is the return of an object to its original or rightful owner, be that an individual or an ethnic community. A related term to know is repatriation, the legal return of such objects to national and government institutions. Without tapping too deeply into the complexities of these debates, it’s easy to conclude that foreign objects should simply be returned to the nations, communities, and individuals who produced and used them. But, as these research projects will uncover, there are several considerations to be had when examining the colonial relations that landed these objects in British hands. In some situations, African agency cannot be left out of the equation—many African artists were active participants in trade networks with Europeans and produced works specifically for Western consumers. There are, of course, situations as well in which British looting and massacring of African settlements provide inarguable cases for the return of pillaged objects.

Such is the case with the remnants of the notorious British Punitive Expedition of 1897, during which British troops committed atrocities against Benin City, bringing an end to the Kingdom of Benin in modern-day Nigeria. Benin Bronzes are displayed in several Western institutions and for such objects, the question is not should they be returned, but who they should be returned to. The Kingdom that produced them is no longer active in the way that it was when the bronzes were made, but modern Nigerian government heads have few connections themselves to the Kingdom either, and so who they truly belong with today is frequently debated.

The reality of most historic African art objects in British collections today is that not much at all is known about their histories—missionary and military collectors did little to record accurate and honourable information about the artifacts they took back North with them. Dr Cowcher’s goal is that her students will find meaningful answers to fill in for the lack of information and appreciation that has been dedicated to these objects taken far away from their native cultures and makers. St Andrews students’ research projects on the collection of African works in the McManus Gallery will, by the end of the semester, become important contributions to conversations in restitution debates and shine a spotlight on historically overlooked works of art.

St. Art Magazine does not own the rights to any images used in this article.