The empire gives back?
A recent Guardian article sparked an intense debate about the repatriation of colonial artefacts to their countries of origin. ANNA WHITELOCK took to Twitter for the historians’ view
The hashtag #TheEmpireGivesBack has recently been shared on Twitter following a Guardian article by Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, which asked: “Should museums return their colonial artefacts?”
It comes in the midst of an ongoing debate about colonial repatriation and demands for the restitution of historic objects taken from Africa during the 19th century. Hunt made the case that “for a museum like the V&A, to decolonise is to decontextualise... for alongside colonial violence, empire was also a story of cosmopolitanism and hybridity.”
Many disagreed, with Danielle Thom (@Danielle_J_Thom) tweeting “I’m still angry about this… mainly the disingenuous ‘misunderstanding’ of the concept of museum decolonisation.” Other historians, such as Katherine Cook (@KatherineRCook), rejected Hunt’s assertion that empire was also a “story of cosmopolitanism and hybridity”, implying that this view was a sign of “neo-colonial privileged voices dominating museum discourse”.
Meanwhile, Haidy Geismar (@haidygeismar) said: “It’s not just about restitution, it’s also about who represents whom, and acknowledging the consequences of colonialism on lives and cultures.”
However, the most detailed response came in a series of tweets from Museum
Detox (@MuseumDetox), a network for black and ethnic minority museum and gallery workers: “To not decolonise is to use the same language that compounds ignorance and continues the practice of exclusion. Decolonisation in museums isn’t purely about restitution and repatriation. It is decolonising the culture, disrupting the norms, the status quo – being radical rather than being grateful.”
This somewhat differed from the opinion of the collections manager and archivist behind the Otautau Museum account (@OtautauT) in New Zealand, who tweeted: “My view is that our attitudes, labelling and associated information can be changed without removing or relinquishing the questionable historical objects themselves, unless of course they were stolen.”
But perhaps Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) most effectively summed up the general views being voiced on social media: “Decolonisation = reparative history = better history.” A perfectly crafted tweet, but unlikely to be the last word on this highly contentious topic.
It comes in the midst of a debate about colonial repatriation and restitution