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Lunch Talk: Restitution: a recent phenomenon? Colonial human remains violations, traditions of protest and histories of restitution claims in late 19th century Namibia
February 28, 2019 @ 12:30 - 14:00
This lunch talk with Dag Henrichsen is part of the African History Research Seminar.
Current demands by Namibian families and communities for restitution of so-called ethnographic objects or human remains in European collections are rooted in much longer traditions of claims for restitution than is generally anticipated. In this paper I discuss pre- and early colonial claims and show how these emerged out of a critique of colonial scientific practices and at the same time were, at times at least, embedded in contemporary (local/regional) political conflicts. The recent restitution debate in Namibia and elsewhere continues to be informed by such early critique as well as these legacies of past political conflicts.