Mahama calls for global system to return African artefacts and human remains
The Ghanaian president wants clearer rules for tracing and returning cultural heritage, with human remains returned immediately and unconditionally.
President John Dramani Mahama has called for a permanent international system to return African cultural heritage, saying the process should begin with the unconditional return of human remains.
Speaking at a reparatory justice event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, he urged the United Nations and countries holding African heritage to establish standard legal and diplomatic procedures for restitution.
He said the proposed system should make archives more transparent, improve research into where objects came from and reduce legal barriers to their return.
His remarks set out a proposed next step after a UN resolution and a conference on reparatory justice held in Accra in June.
“Human remains are not collectibles. They are not specimens. They are our ancestors,” Mahama said.
The president cited the case of King Badu Bonsu II of Ahanta, whose head was taken to the Netherlands after his execution by Dutch colonial authorities in 1838. It was returned to Ghana in 2009. Mahama described the return of such remains as a test of human dignity.
He also pointed to objects taken during the British destruction of Kumasi in 1874. Some Asante heritage returned in 2024, he said, showing why restitution matters to communities whose traditions and institutions continue today.
Mahama acknowledged steps taken by countries holding African heritage, including what he described as the Netherlands’ cataloguing of 2,000 Ghanaian artefacts for return. But he argued that individual agreements and acts of goodwill could not provide a lasting solution.
He rejected the argument that objects should remain abroad until African countries have more facilities to preserve them. Where conservation or digitisation resources are needed, he said, international partners should help build them alongside the return process.
The president called on development banks, foundations and private investors to support African archives, conservation laboratories and training for curators and historians. He argued that returned heritage could strengthen education, tourism and creative industries.
The event was co-hosted by Ghana, Germany and France. The supplied account does not say whether the UN or countries holding the objects agreed to Mahama’s proposed system, or give a timetable for establishing it.