A collection of historic debts
The importance of restoring cultural heritage in the context of anti-colonial movements and for racial equality
In May of 2020, the director of the British Museum spoke up about the assassination of George Floyd and expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The reaction from members of the movement and the general public was extremely negative.
Critics viewed with great skepticism the director’s statement that the museum would be “in line with the spirit and soul” of the movement. They pointed the huge incompatibility between the museum’s expression of solidarity “with the black community around the world” and its notorious posture of resistance to anti-colonial movements that affect its collection.
The British Museum, like most museums in Europe, features a vast collection of “acquired” African objects. “Acquired” is the museum’s preferred term for summarizing episodes that include looting, robbery, coercion, and other forms of oppression, during the colonial period.
As an example, the museum has more than 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa. The inventories of ethnographic museums in the African region rarely exceed 3,000 objects.
