The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations (APPG-AR) has published a summary report on the restitution of stolen African artefacts and ancestral remains.
The report makes seven recommendations including one outlining that parliamentarians should consider proposing new legislation that applies similar provisions of the 2009 Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) to stolen African artefacts and ancestral remains in UK collections.
Publication of the report is part of a number of reparations-themed events and activities organised by APPG-AR launched by Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Streatham MP and Chair of APPG-AR.
They include:
An Early day Motion (EDM) and lobby in Parliament on the restitution of stolen African artefacts and ancestral remains, and
the Inaugural UK Reparations Conference 2023 on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd October 2023 at Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
Background
The APPG-AR brings together parliamentarians, campaigners, communities and other stakeholders to examine issues of African reparations and the restitution of cultural artefacts and ancestral remains.
APPG-AR explores policy proposals on reparations and development and how best to redress the legacies of African enslavement and colonialism.
The African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) is an international organisation established in 1994, with a mission ‘to expand and enhance the contributions Africans in the diaspora make to African development’.
AFFORD acts as a co-secretariat for the APPG-Afrikan Reparations through its Return of the Icons programme. The programme focuses on restitution of looted African artefacts and human remains to their country of heritage.
AFFORD's mission is achieved through programmes and projects within the following overlapping themes: enterprise and employment, diaspora remittances and investments, diaspora engagement and capacity and action research, policy and practice.
Transfer of ownership
You can also watch our summary from the transfer of ownership 72 religious and cultural items, stolen from Benin City during 1897 at The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill on Monday 28 November 2022.