Open Restitution Africa

The Open Restitution Project is an Africa-led project seeking to open up access to information on restitution of African material culture and human ancestors, to empower all stakeholders involved to make knowledge-based decisions.

The Open Restitution Project will gather data on current restitution processes across the African continent,  serve as a portal of case studies and best practice examples, and encourage a data-informed, in-depth and challenging debate on the complexities, responsibilities and ethical imperatives of restitution.

Why is this Necessary?

There is currently very little information available to practitioners, interested parties and the general public alike, on the current international status of restitution – debates, policy and practice. Because of this we are unable to observe objective trends, shifts and impacts, and enable more people to operate from a place of knowledge. What do we need to know?

Long term project overview

OpenResitution is driven by the need to make central and accessible the breadth of knowledge being built around restitution debates, but also to aid the need for an Africa-centric approach that is driven by Africans ourselves.

This includes:

  • Encouraging a culture of transparency and  accountability in restitution issues.
  • Making existing knowledge, often being developed in Euro-American institutions, more accessible to Africans.
  • Mainstreaming debates and knowledge being developed in Africa.
  • Developing open, data-driven resources to enable more informed positions and debates

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