President John Dramani Mahama has called for a permanent international system to facilitate the return of African cultural artefacts held outside the continent, saying restitution must move beyond individual agreements to a structured global process.
He said the system should establish clear legal and diplomatic procedures for tracing, recovering and returning cultural properties, sacred artefacts and national archives taken from Africa.
President Mahama made the call at a high-level side event on reparatory justice on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He said the proposal formed part of the “Next Steps” agreed at Ghana’s High-Level Consultative Conference on Reparatory Justice in Accra in June, following the UN General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 80/250 in March.
The resolution, spearheaded by Ghana, declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans the “gravest crime against humanity”. It was adopted by 123 member states, with three voting against and 52 abstaining.
President Mahama said the next phase should focus on translating that recognition into practical measures.
He identified three pillars for the “Next Steps”.
The first is the establishment of clear and standardised legal and diplomatic mechanisms for restitution, including improved provenance research and access to historical archives.
President Mahama cited steps already taken by some countries, including the Netherlands’ cataloguing of 2,000 Ghanaian artefacts for possible return, Germany’s engagement with the Kpando traditional area and France’s legislative efforts relating to restitution.
He also acknowledged the return of the Gigi Ayokui talking drums to Côte d’Ivoire and the acknowledgement and apology by church institutions, including the Catholic Church, over their historical role in slavery.
The second pillar focuses on ensuring that Africa has the capacity to receive, preserve and research returned cultural heritage.
President Mahama said the African Union’s Agenda 2063 initiatives included plans for the Great African Museum, while Ghana was also constructing a national and traditional institution to preserve, research and exhibit returning treasures.
He argued that inadequate infrastructure should not become a reason to delay restitution, saying Africa should develop its capacity alongside the return of its cultural property.
The third pillar seeks to position cultural heritage as an economic and social asset rather than an issue to be addressed only after economic development.
“Heritage itself is an engine of development,” President Mahama said, arguing that properly preserved cultural assets could support education, national identity, tourism and the creative economy.
He therefore called on multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, foundations and private-sector partners to invest in Africa’s cultural infrastructure.
Such investment, he said, should support regional archives, conservation laboratories, digitisation programmes and professional training for African curators and historians.
President Mahama said the objective was to ensure that the return of Africa’s cultural heritage was matched by the infrastructure and expertise required to preserve and make productive use of it.
“We cannot rewrite the history of conquests, but we can possess the absolute power to write how we heal from it,” he said.
He added that Africa’s cultural heritage should not remain a story of removal, but should continue through its return and preservation on the continent.
