Round Table: The 4Rs in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia?

Virtual via Zoom, 19th October 2021

Moderators: Dr. Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo and Dr. Stefanie Michels

Abstract
“Scholars and a Filmmaker from Ghana will discuss the question of cultural goods from Ghana in Western museums in light of ongoing debates on issues of restitution. With the screening of the 1970 film “You Hide Me” on the colonization of African Art in the British Museum, London, the long history of engagement by African intellectuals will be addressed and connected to the active case of restitution demands by the people of Kpando in the Volta Region to the German Ethnological Museum of Berlin.”

Discussants:

Professor Kodzo Gavua is a Ghanaian Archaeologist and Ethnographer at the University of Ghana. His research focus is on relationships that may be found between cross-cultural interactions and Africa’s cultural heritage and economic development. He engages in Public Archaeology in Ghana. His academic interests include Ethnoarchaeology, Visual Anthropology, Anthropology of Tourism, Economic Anthropology, and the History of Art.

Mr. Nii Kwate Owoo is a Ghanaian Film Writer, Producer and Director with over 40 years of feature and documentary film experience. He wrote, produced and directed the remarkable and outstanding documentary film entitled “You Hide Me” in 1970. He has a long and distinguished track record in academia, having founded the Media Research Unite of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana in 1978.

Mr. Isah Ishaq Ishaq is a Nigerian and an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is currently a PhD candidate offering the Museum and Heritage Studies Programme in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana. His research interest is in Museum Collection Management.