Harare (New Ziana) –President Emerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday rallied African countries to amplify the demand for the return of African cultural treasures that Western countries spirited away from the continent decades ago.
Estimates suggest that 80 to 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s cultural heritage items are currently held outside the continent.
The cultural items which include human remains of African icons were looted during the periods of slavery and colonialism and are of great artistic, cultural, religious, sacred and economic value.
Officially opening the Third International Conference on African Cultures in the capital on Tuesday, President Mnangagwa said Western countries should unconditionally return the looted African cultural heritage items.
He said Zimbabwe along with several African countries including Ghana, Benin, Egypt and Tanzania were victims of the looting.
“On its part, Zimbabwe stands ready to receive its cultural heritages estranged to the West. The urgent repatriation of expropriated archives, museum objects and human remains is our unequivocal demand,” he said.
“These include national artifacts and materials which relate to our heroes such as Chief Chinengundu Mashayamombe, Chief Chingaira and Chief Chiwashira among others. These are sacred and feed into our broader national collective heritage.”
President Mnangagwa urged the conference to examine the contentious issue thoroughly and with renewed resolve.
He said the conference should proffer bold solutions and modalities for common action.
“Our people’s heritage must be freed from the hostage of western museums, public spaces and private institutions,” he said.
“The international conference on African cultures is an important and strategic forum through which the return of our cultural artifacts, archives and human remains estranged in foreign lands and jurisdictions must be vigorously pursued.”
President Mnangagwa outlined the importance of remembering the reasons for the wars of liberation fought against settler colonial regimes across the continent.
He said these included political and economic independence but most importantly socio-cultural emancipation and ownership of the means of production.
“These must propel the restoration and preservation of our rich heritage as well as advance the modernisation, industrialisation and prosperity of our great continent. To this effect, my administration remains committed to strengthen, bolster and entrench the shared ideology and values of the armed protracted liberation struggles that swept across the breadth and length of Africa. As we do so, we are building on this rich foundation and playing our role towards realisation of Agenda 2063,” he said.
“African traditional leaders and institutions must be wary of some so called civic society organisations that are bent on capturing our traditional systems to enable perpetual pilferage of our rich heritage while curtailing the economic growth prospect of our communities.”
President Mnangagwa added; “I exhort the peoples of Africa and the Diaspora to remain vigilant and to dismantle neo-colonial interference in its various subtle guises often designed to deny, expropriate and denigrate.
“In every circumstance, protecting and safeguarding our continent’s collective memory and common vision must remain an area of high priority and concern.”
The conference is running under the theme; “Africa speaks: Confronting restitution and repatriation of cultural objects from an African perspective.”
New Ziana
