Objectives:
As a museum-to-museum framework, this loan agreement builds on years of discussions about returning belongings deemed exceptionally significant to communities in Uganda. The agreement put measures in placce to support provenance research.
Restitution Measures:
39 out of approximately 1500 belongings were returned and funding support was acquired for the ‘Repositioning Uganda Museum’ project. An initial temporary loan remains in place for a period of three years.
Framework Limitations:
The agreement is renewable, allowing possibility of permanent loan and “perhaps local ownership”. This is not true restitution (loan, not ownership transfer). Asymmetric power dynamics apply (shorter loan terms than African museums grant to Western institutions). There is no economic justice (no compensation for colonial theft).There are bureaucratic barriers to eventual ownership transfer. This is an incomplete recovery (2.6% of Cambridge’s Uganda collection)
