The University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) became one of the first museums in the UK to return artefacts to a source country when it returned a group of sacred relics to Uganda in 1961.

The relics were associated with Kibuuka, a deity in the religion of the Baganda people that reside in present-day Uganda. After the Ugandan government requested their repatriation, the relics were transferred to the Uganda Museum in Kampala, the oldest museum in East Africa.

Since then, relations between the MMA and Uganda have remained strong, although Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director of the MMA, has acknowledged they were slow to follow up on this important 1961 initiative. But relations were re-energised in 2021 when a project called ‘Repositioning the Uganda Museum’ was launched on the back of a grant of $100,000 from the arts and humanities organisation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

With University of Michigan Professor Derek Peterson serving as principal investigator, the project has become an important step in undoing the legacy of collecting during Uganda’s colonial era, allowing for a renewed academic dialogue and the return of items of exceptional significance. Professor Thomas hopes this carefully conceived programme may also provide a model for similar initiatives elsewhere in Africa, “and indeed elsewhere in the world.” 

The process for researching and selecting objects from Cambridge collections began in 2022 and included a visit to the MAA in November by Uganda’s Commissioner for Monuments and Museums, Rose Mwanja Nkaale, Uganda Museum’s Curator, Nelson Abiti, and Professor Peterson.

“We want to put these objects back into the hands of people who made them meaningful,” said Peterson. “We want them to live again, not only as museum pieces but as part of Uganda’s public culture.”

Among the objects likely to be transferred are some of those collected and donated to the MAA by Rev. John Roscoe (1861-1932), an Anglican missionary who spent twenty-five years travelling in East Africa conducting anthropological research, partly under the direction of the MAA. Highlights of the objects he subsequently donated to the Museum, but not kept on exhibition, include a Bugandan royal drum and a musical instrument.

Musical Instrument. Bagesu people. Courtesy of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The MAA says it is fully aware of the significance of the Roscoe collection as well as other material to the Uganda Museum and fully support this repatriation initiative. Meanwhile, explaining the significance of this project to Uganda, Rose Mwanja Nkaale said: “Bringing these items back - and attracting those from around the diaspora to see them on the continent - will also help people come to terms with their own collective memory, celebrate their rich histories and identities, and be able to pass this on to future generations.”

The transfer of ownership of the selected objects and their repatriation for community liaison, study and exhibition at the Uganda Museum is scheduled for completion in 2023.

Photo: Uganda Museum, Kampala

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons