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Babatunde E. Adebiyi, PhD, is Legal Adviser and Director of Legal Services at the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) of Nigeria. He has represented Nigeria at UNESCO’s General Assembly and meetings of States Parties to its Cultural Heritage Conventions, and acts as Nigeria’s legal counsel in international forums concerning heritage return claims and negotiations. He is a resource person for ECOWAS and the African Union, and a member of the Benin Dialogue Group, the Benin Initiative Switzerland/The Restitution Forum, the Global Action for Restitution of African Artefacts, ICOMOS, and the ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group in Nigeria. His publications include ‘Legal and Other Issues in Repatriating Nigeria’s Looted Artefacts’, ‘Towards the Perfect Law’, ‘Return or Recirculation?’, and ‘The Fault Is Not in Our Stars’.
Affiliation(s): National Commission for Museums and Monuments
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Published Work: Legal and other Issues in Repatriating Nigeria's Looted Artefacts
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Geoffrey Onyeama began his career as a research officer in the Nigerian Law Reform Commission Lagos from 1983 to 1984. He then worked as a lawyer with Mogboh and Associates in Enugu, Nigeria from 1984 to 1985. In 1985, he joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as an assistant programme officer for development cooperation and external relations, Bureau for Africa and Western Asia. He rose through the ranks at the WIPO to become deputy director general for the development sector in 2009. In November 2015 he was appointed Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs by President Muhammadu Buhari. In this role, he has been central to the diplomatic dimensions of Nigeria's global scale restitution efforts.
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Brigitte Sylvia Mabandla is a South African politician, lawyer and former anti-apartheid activist. After a decade studying and teaching law in Botswana and Zambia, she was a legal adviser to the ANC in Lusaka from 1986 to 1990. Thereafter she joined the party's delegation to the negotiations to end apartheid. She was appointed to the Government of National Unity by President Nelson Mandela, who named her as Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in 1995. Her leadership in this position was central to one of the first human ancestor repatriations to Africa, this being the return of Sara Baartman to South Africa from France's Musée de l'Homme, and her subsequent reburial and memorialisation in her homeland in the Eastern Cape. She currently serves as South Africa's ambassador to Sweden.
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Mansell George Upham is a researcher, writer, historian and jurist specializing in South African colonial history. He read French and English at the University of Stellenbosch (1977-1980). Thereafter he graduated with an LL.B (Stellenbosch 1984). Admitted as advocate (1988), he represented South Africa as diplomat in Tokyo, Japan (1991-1994). A champion of indigenous rights and Khoe/San renaissance, he spearheaded the campaign to repatriate the unburied Saartje Baartman (1995) becoming legal advisor and representative in South Africa and the UN (Geneva) for the Griqua National Conference of SA and other Khoe/San representative groups (1995-2000).
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Alhaji Lai Raufu Mohammed is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as the Minister of Information and Culture for an unprecedented eight years (2015–2023) under President Muhammadu Buhari. He studied at Obafemi Awolowo University graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor’s degree in French with second class (upper) Honours. He also holds law degrees with second class (upper) Honours from the University of Lagos and the Nigeria Law School, Lagos. He worked as a graduate assistant with the University of Ilorin in 1978 and joined the Nigeria Ports Authority as Senior Public Relations Officer in 1978 rising to the position of Corporate Secretary in 1988. He co-founded the legal firm of Edu & Mohammed in 1989, serving as Senior Partner between 1989 and 1999. In 1999 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 1999. He later served for several years as the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria and later the All Progressive Congress. He is a member of the Nigeria Bar Association and a Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations. As the Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammed was instrumental in making restitution efforts visible, by documenting and entering repatriated and return belongings into the public imaginary and sphere as a matter of policy.
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Prof Morongwa N Mosothwane is a Forensic Anthropologist and Archaeologist who received her PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (2010) and completed a post-doc at the University of Pretoria (2011). She has worked in Southern Africa, North America and Europe and is interested in the ethics and management of human remains and sacred objects in institutional collections and in related international legislation. She is a member of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists, Pan African Archaeology, World Archaeology Congress, and ICOM. She is a member of the editorial board of Museum International, a member of the IZIKO Human Remains Advisory Board and a member of the Commonwealth Association of Museums.
Affiliation(s): University of Botswana IZIKO Human Remains Advisory Board Commonwealth Association of Museums
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Published Work: Who were they? Repatriation and the rehumanisation of human remains in museums in southern Africa (In Museums and Communities: Diversity, Dialogue and Collaboration in an Age of Migrations; Human Remains Management in Southern Africa, a regional attempt at addressing unethical collections made in the colonial period.
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Joudia Hassar-Benslimane (1943 – 22 May 2018) was a Moroccan historian and archeologist who specialized in Islamic archaeology, history and architecture. She was one of the first Moroccan female experts in archaeology, and made important contributions to advancing archeological research in Morocco, over her 30 years of career. She is generally considered as one of the most important figures in Moroccan archaeology. Hassar-Benslimane invested much effort in training the next generation of Moroccan archeologists, and in preserving the cultural heritage of the country. She was a professor of archeology and art history at Mohammed V University in Rabat, from 1978 to 1983; and was instrumental in founding the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP), and became its first director in 1986. The role of the institute includes the education and training of archeology students and research and excavation of sites in Morocco, in collaboration with the international community. Hassar-Benslimane played a critical role in emancipating Moroccan archaeology from colonialist hypotheses and interpretations which dominated during the French and Spanish protectorates, and led to the creation of a ""Moroccan school of archeology"". Furthermore, the number of archeological programs in Morocco went from 4 in 1975, to around 40 when she retired from her position as director of INSAP in 2005, overseeing the training of more than 200 young specialists in various areas of archeology up to that point.
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Dr. Purity Kiura is currently a Chief Research Scientist in archaeology and heritage. She is a former Director of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments (2014 - 2021) at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Her academic records include an undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Geology at the University of Nairobi (1997), a graduate in Masters of Arts (2002) and Doctorate Degree in Anthropology specializing in Archaeology (2006) from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. In her capacity as a senior administrator at NMK, in the Directorate of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments between 2014-2021, she was in-charge of the day-to-day operations, personnel, and management of the directorate and reported directly to the Director General. Her responsibilities included the overall management and conservation of all the cultural and natural heritage resources within Kenya. This included overseeing the surveying, mapping and gazzettment of these sites, development of exhibitions, and directing and producing educational and public programs in all the museums in Kenya. She was also responsible of all the revenue streams, budgeting and monitoring within the museum’s public spaces. Moreover, she was responsible in fostering partnerships and collaborations as well as ensuring good relations within and outside Kenya. She oversaw continuous achievement of the institution through international conventions in matters heritage particularly those that Kenya has signed with UNESCO. In this role, she was also responsible for overseeing the restitution of Kenyan cultural heritage. As a Senior Research Scientist in the Archaeology Section, Dr. Kiura’s research interests and ongoing works include projects in the study of human origins, the evolution of technology as well as human subsistence and settlement patterns. In addition, she has continued to conduct research in the study of modern peoples and their usage of the landscapes and environments in East Africa.
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Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes is a Senior Lecturer, multidisciplinary researcher and writer. His research focuses on the critical study of development, education and law, and the importance of lived experience and epistemic diversity for decolonial and sustainable futures. His teaching practice is informed by the importance of indigenous knowledges, diverse epistemologies, cultures and critical theories. He also researches on African experiences and Ethiopian traditions, and writes creatively on belonging and diasporic lives.
Affiliation(s): Curtin University
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Published Work: Repatriation: Why Western Museums should Return African Artefacts
Babatunde E. Adebiyi, PhD, is Legal Adviser and Director of Legal Services at the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) of Nigeria. He has represented Nigeria at UNESCO’s General Assembly and meetings of States Parties to its Cultural Heritage Conventions, and acts as Nigeria’s legal counsel in international forums concerning heritage return claims and negotiations. He is a resource person for ECOWAS and the African Union, and a member of the Benin Dialogue Group, the Benin Initiative Switzerland/The Restitution Forum, the Global Action for Restitution of African Artefacts, ICOMOS, and the ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group in Nigeria. His publications include ‘Legal and Other Issues in Repatriating Nigeria’s Looted Artefacts’, ‘Towards the Perfect Law’, ‘Return or Recirculation?’, and ‘The Fault Is Not in Our Stars’.
Legal and other Issues in Repatriating Nigeria's Looted Artefacts
