In mid-June 2024 the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Cambridge returned 39 historical relics to the custody of the Uganda Museum in Kampala. The objects had been taken away from Uganda in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century by British missionaries, collectors, and conquistadores. Their return was a cause for celebration: the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, received the objects at a ceremony at State House; and the minister of tourism, wildlife and antiquities called it a “great milestone” in the recovery of Africa’s lost cultural heritage.
For Professor Derek Peterson (History, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies), though, the return of these objects was a prelude to the more important work that lies ahead. Peterson is the principal investigator for Repositioning the Uganda Museum, a project funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation and housed in the History Department. He worked with Ugandan and British colleagues to select the 39 objects and organize their transfer to Kampala; and in the coming months he will coordinate a team of scholars and students to conduct research about the “biographies” of the objects that have been returned to Ugandan custody. They’ll go through old government archives, read the papers of some of Uganda’s most important early politicians, and interview shrine priests, elders, musicians and artists about the objects. Their goal is to understand the historical and political dynamics by which these important, beautiful, consequential objects were made into collectibles.
For Peterson and his colleagues, the artifacts are evidence of the cultural and political violence of colonial rule. They were collected at a time of cultural and political dislocation, as older professions, religions, and communities were undermined by the ascendance of Christianity and colonial rule. Researching their biographies will involve reconstructing the historical circumstances by which professionals gave up the instruments of their trade, priests disavowed their religious traditions, and political brokers divested their people from older instruments of power.
The research program will culminate in 2026, when Peterson will work with Uganda Museum colleagues and Cambridge curators to develop a special exhibition in Kampala where the objects will be showcased. The organizers will convene an academic conference around the opening of the exhibition, where scholars from around the world will discuss this and other ongoing efforts to restore Africa’s stolen artistic and cultural heritage.
All of this is part of a collaborative effort to expand the range of the Uganda Museum’s collections. Like many museums in Africa, the Uganda Museum does not presently have a permanent exhibition concerning the country’s colonial or post-colonial history. In 2019 Peterson worked with colleagues from Kampala and Australia to open The Unseen Archive of Idi Amin, a photographic exhibition featuring previously unpublished government photos depicting President Idi Amin and his regime at work. In 2022 Peterson and colleagues opened Uganda at 60, a multi-media exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of Uganda’s independence.
The return of these 39 historical relics is a further installment in an ongoing effort to fortify the Uganda Museum’s public role as broker and custodian of a complicated, necessary historical legacy.
