. Directory | Open Restitution Africa

DIrectory

African Voices in Restitution

"Knowledge for Africans by Africans"

Africans are involved in numerous activities that seek to advance the restitution of our belongings and human ancestors. The region in which these activities are undertaken influences what outcome is pursued, the frameworks that apply, who is involved...

We have curated a growing list of African scholars and cultural practitioners actively engaged in restitution. This dynamic directory highlights individuals contributing to the research, advocacy, and practice of restituting cultural heritage to its rightful communities.

We have curated a growing list of African scholars and cultural practitioners actively engaged in restitution. This dynamic directory highlights individuals contributing to the research, advocacy, and practice of restituting cultural heritage to its rightful communities.

Our list is continuously updated to reflect new voices, ongoing projects, and emerging perspectives in the field. If you know of scholars or practitioners who should be included, we welcome your recommendations. Get In Touch

Field of Practice
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Freda Nkirote

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Patrick Abungu

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Community Activism & Advocacy Icon
Rose Miyonga

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Nomawethu Hlazo

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Wilson Jilala

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Godfrey Sang

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Sarah Nyanath

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Angela Kabiru

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David Mbuthia

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Eva Namusoke

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Philip Maligisu

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Philemon Nyamanga

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Nancy Rushohora

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Koehun Aziz

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Syokau Mutonga

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Community Activism & Advocacy Icon
Artistic Practice Icon
Karen Ijumba

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Phumzile Nombuso Twala

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Suzana Sousa

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Dr Valence Silayo

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Troy Phili

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Nelson Abiti

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Patrick Mudekereza

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Dr Kiprop Lagat

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Annelize Kotze

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Jinty Jackson

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Robyn Humphreys

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Tuuda Haitula

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Dr Goodman Gwasira

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Raphael Chikukwa

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Dr Wendy Black

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Hileni Ameinge

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Professor Francis B. Musonda

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Adelaide Sallema

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Professor Albert Gouaffo

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Professor Forget Chaterera

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Dr Babatunde Adebiyi

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Professor Kimani Njogu

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Dr Njabulo Chipangura

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Ndapewoshali Ilunga

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Dr Lennon Mhishi

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  • Academia
  • Museums

Freda Nkirote

Dr Freda Nkirote M’Mbogori is a senior Kenyan archaeologist with considerable experience in leadership roles and with an impressive international profile. She has spent the last seven years as Deputy Director and then Country Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa where she has been a close collaborator of multiple staff within the Department of Archaeology and McDonald Institute. She has held CoI and PI roles with Cambridge staff and has previously been a visiting scholar. Dr M’Mbogori is currently the Senior Research Scientist National Museums of Kenya having previously held the position of Director of the BIEA, president of the Pan-African Archaeological Association and was previously a department head at the National Museums of Kenya.

Affiliation(s): British Institute in Eastern Africa

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Ochungo, P., Khalaf, N., Merlo, S., Beldados, A., M'Mbogori, F. N., Tiki, W., & Lane, P. J. (2022). Remote sensing for biocultural heritage preservation in an African semi-arid region: A case study of indigenous wells in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Remote Sensing, 14(2), Article 314

Publication Link

Field:

  • Heritage
  • Museums

Patrick Abungu

Patrick Abungu is Senior Curator at Kisumu Museum, National Museums of Kenya. He holds a Master's degree in Museology, a Postgraduate Diploma in Museums and Heritage Studies, and an Advanced Certificate in Information Technology. He has worked in the heritage sector, particularly with the National Museums of Kenya, since 1988, beginning as a volunteer archaeology laboratory assistant before progressing to roles as a collections documentation assistant, data processor, and curatorial assistant in the Department of Coastal Archaeology at Fort Jesus Museum, Mombasa. He previously served as Senior Curator in charge of the Shimoni Slavery Museum and Heritage Site, where he led efforts to establish a museum dedicated to the theme of slavery and the slave trade; a practice once rampant in the region owing to its proximity to Zanzibar, a major slave auction market on the Trans-Indian Ocean slave route. Shimoni played a significant role in this trade due to its extensive caves, which were used as slave pens to hold captives before their shipment to the Zanzibar market in neighbouring Tanzania. His specialities include the conservation and management of heritage resources in partnership with diverse communities for development purposes.

Affiliation(s): National Museums of Kenya

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Abungu, P., & Lafleur, J.-F. (2023). Slave trade, slavery and the politics of heritage representation in Africa: Examples from Kenya and Mauritius. In G. O. Abungu & W. Ndoro (Eds.), Cultural heritage management in Africa: The heritage of the colonized (Chapter 9). Routledge.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Archives
  • History

Rose Miyonga

Rose Miyonga is a Kenyan-British writer and historian and a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick, where her research focuses on the dynamics of memories of the Mau Mau War in post-independence Kenya. Her current work looks at grassroots histories and memories of Mau Mau in post-colonial Kenya, focusing on the lived experiences of survivors. She argues that survivors have found ways to remember despite and sometimes because of wider processes of suppression and exclusion within public history-making. These central questions, of what Mau Mau memories look like at the margins and how survivors have preserved and made sense of their pasts amid wider political forgetting, have led her to a methodological intervention within the field of Mau Mau studies. Research interests: Kenyan history; legacies of empire and violence; public history; memory studies; history of emotions; post-colonial studies; land justice; archival justice.

Affiliation(s): University of Warwick

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Miyonga, R. (2026). Old wounds: Embodying the Mau Mau war in post-colonial Kenya. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 19(4), 693–710.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Research

Nomawethu Hlazo

Nomawethu Hlazo is a researcher based at the Evolutionary Studies Institute and Rising Star, Cradle of Humankind. She is also a doctoral student at the University of Cape Town, having completed her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Archaeology, followed by a BSc (Hons) and a Master's degree (with distinction). Her research concentrates on geometric morphometrics, and she intends to apply new techniques such as palaeoproteomics to investigate shape change as well as the evolutionary processes and ecological niches occupied by the genus Paranthropus and other species. She has worked at several sites, both in the Cradle of Humankind and in Kenya, and her research has demonstrated that fossil hominins are more diverse and variable than previously expected.

Affiliation(s): University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand

Country:

  • South Africa

Info:

Published Work: Hlazo, N. P., Schroeder, L., Ritzman, T., & Ackermann, R. R. (2026). The role of selection in shaping the craniomandibular morphology of Paranthropus. In P. J. Constantino, K. E. Reed, & B. A. Wood (Eds.), The forgotten lineage(s): The palaeobiology of Paranthropus (pp. 45–65). Springer.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Forensic anthropology

Wilson Jilala

Wilson Jilala is a prominent Tanzanian forensic anthropologist, bioarchaeologist, and crime scene investigator, known for his work with the Tanzania Police Force's Forensic Bureau and the National Museum of Tanzania. His contributions span forensic education, disaster victim identification, and the discovery of rare human skeletal variations. His research addresses gaps between Tanzania's legal inquest frameworks and medico-legal training, co-authored findings on unusual femoral anatomy, and explored the traditional handling and storage of human remains alongside the illicit trade in cultural belongings. His recent work examines premarital genetic screening for albinism to prevent discrimination and abuse.

Affiliation(s): University of Dar es Salaam

Country:

  • Tanzania

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Published Work: Jilala, W., & Lwoga, N. (2025). Perspectives on the handling and storage of human remains in Tanzania: A due diligence to restitution plan. Journal of the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, 5(1).

Publication Link

Field:

  • Research

Godfrey Sang

Godfrey K. Sang is a historical researcher and writer with interests in Kalenjin biographies and Adventist history, and is also a political pundit analysing the Kenyan political scene. He holds a BA in History from the University of Eastern Africa Baraton, along with several qualifications from other universities. He is a published author and co-authored 'On the Wings of a Sparrow: How the Seventh-day Adventist Church Came to Western Kenya'.

Affiliation(s): University of Eastern Africa

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Sang, G. K., & Kili, H. K. (2016). On the wings of a sparrow: How the Seventh-day Adventist Church came to Western Kenya. Gapman Publications Limited.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Heritage
  • Museums

Sarah Nyanath

Honourable Sarah Nyanath Elijah Yong is the Minister of Culture, Museums, and National Heritage for the Republic of South Sudan, having taken office in early 2026 from her predecessor, Dr Nadia Arop Dudi. Under her leadership, the Ministry has focused on preserving South Sudan's history and elevating its natural landmarks internationally. Notable achievements include signing and submitting the country's first Emergency World Heritage Nomination dossier to UNESCO for the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, and representing South Sudan at African Union events advocating for reparations, memory, and sovereignty over African heritage resources. She has also championed national identity through cultural events and community engagement, including marking Independence Anniversary celebrations.

Affiliation(s): South Sudan Minister of Culture, Museums and National Heritage

Country:

  • South Sudan

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Published Work: Elijah, S. N., & Huggins, C. (2003, February). The missing link: Identifying and addressing linkages between local conflicts and macro-conflicts in Southern Sudan [Paper presentation]. IRG and IDRC Regional Consultations Towards a Regional Security Architecture: Assessing Issues and Developing Capacity in the Horn of Africa. Sudan Open Archive.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums

Angela Kabiru

Angela Kabiru is a Postgraduate Research Fellow at the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA). She has a BA in Archaeology (University of Nairobi), an MSc in Tourism Management (University of Surrey) and an MSc in Geographical Information Sciences (Lund University). Angela has worked at the National Museums of Kenya all her professional life, starting off as a Research Intern, Research Assistant, and now as a Research Scientist. She is an archaeologist specialising in cultural heritage research, tourism development and management, and GIS. Her work focuses on landscape archaeology, settlement pattern analysis, and GIS-based reconstruction of past landscapes. She has experience in archaeological survey, heritage impact assessment, and heritage management within national and international frameworks. Her interests include digital archaeology, remote sensing, and policy-relevant heritage research.

Affiliation(s): British institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA)

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Kabiru, A., Ndiaye, A., Michaut, E., Merlo, S., & Lane, P. (2025). "Shoreline dynamics and cultural heritage sites in Kenya, Tanzania, and Senegal: integrating remote sensing and archaeological knowledge." Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, published online 22 April 2025.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Museums

David Mbuthia

Dr David Mbuthia has worked in the heritage field for 24 years, spending 21 years at the National Museums of Kenya and two years at the National Heroes Council. For over a decade, his role has centred on coordinating and preserving the nation's legacy, ensuring that national history is researched, documented, and disseminated with diligence. He has helped operationalise the Council into a thriving State Corporation, forging research collaborations and partnerships that have supported museums, sites, and monuments honouring national heroes with inclusivity and diversity.

Affiliation(s): National Heroes Council

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Kiura, P. & Mbuthia, D. (2024). "Historical dynamics of heritage definition and management in Kenya." Presentation, September 2024. Explores how perceptions, definitions, and management of heritage in Kenya have evolved from the pre-colonial period to the post-devolution era.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums

Eva Namusoke

Dr Eva Namusoke is Senior Curator, African Collections Futures, working across collections from and about the African continent in the University of Cambridge’s museums, garden, libraries, archives, and departments. Eva published a report on these collections in December 2024. She was the curator of Bound Together: Leather from Northern Nigeria (2025-2026) at The Fitzwilliam Museum. Eva’s history PhD from the University of Cambridge focused on the development of the Anglican church in Uganda post-independence. She obtained an MA in African Studies from Yale University. After her PhD, Eva worked on the Commonwealth Oral History Project at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) in London, followed by roles in academia, public health, and policy research in Mauritius and Kampala.

Affiliation(s): University of Cambridge

Country:

  • Uganda

Info:

Published Work: Namusoke, Eva, African Collections Futures, Apollo - University of Cambridge Repositor, 2024

Publication Link

Field:

  • Heritage
  • Museums

Philip Maligisu

Dr Philip Maligisu's career is heavily focused on decolonising the African museum narrative . He has extensively researched how museums in Tanzania were initially utilized as Western propaganda tools and how these institutions can be repurposed to foster a sense of true Pan-African national identity in the post-colonial period. He curated the "Cultural Violence" exhibition for the National Museum of Tanzania, examining belongings looted by German troops during the Majimaji War. He has spent years researching the origins and journeys of Tanzanian belongings held in German museums, helping decentre colonial narratives in favour of emic perspectives. He has also documented the Swahili Coast's intangible maritime heritage, including traditional boatbuilding and the archaeology of sites such as Kilwa Kisiwani.

Affiliation(s): UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Tanzania; University of Dar es Salaam; National Museum of Tanzania

Country:

  • Tanzania

Info:

Published Work: Cooper, J.P., Ichumbaki, E.B., Blue, L.K., Maligisu, P.C.M., & Mark, S.R. (2022). "When the 'Asset' Is Livelihood: Making Heritage with the Maritime Practitioners of Bagamoyo, Tanzania." Heritage, 5(2), 1160-1198.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Heritage
  • Museums

Philemon Nyamanga

Philemon Nyamanga has a background in anthropology, heritage conservation and risk management. He is a research scientist working for the National Museums of Kenya in the Cultural Heritage department. He has been involved in developing several exhibitions including “Kanga Stories: The Cloth That Reveals” (2011), “Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Exhibition” (2016), “Abasuba Pictorial Exhibition” (2017), “Omieri Exhibition” (2018), “Central Bank of Kenya Numismatic Exhibition” (2018), “Biennale NMK Science Expos” (2010–2019) and “Nelson Mandela: A Centenary Celebration” (2018). Philemon has been a member of the exhibitions committee at Nairobi National Museum since 2012.

Affiliation(s): National Museums of Kenya

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: The role of digital humanities in the preservation of indigenous knowledge at the National Museums of Kenya.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Advocacy
  • Heritage

Nancy Rushohora

Dr Nancy Rushohora is a Tanzanian archaeologist and heritage scholar whose work deeply engages with memory, colonial history, and cultural heritage. She is a Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies staff member and an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter (UK) and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). Her research more specifically focuses on the archaeology of resistance, heritage, trauma, collective memory, and the politics of photographs and memorialization.

Affiliation(s): University of Dar es Salaam

Country:

  • Tanzania

Info:

Published Work: Rushohora, N. (2024). Tanzania and the Apparent Lack of Restitution Activism. Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 50(1), 168-181.

Publication Link

Field:

  • Arts
  • Digital Heritage

Koehun Aziz

Koehun Aziz-Kamara is a writer, historian and archivist whose work addresses epistemological violence and archival silence born out of slavery and colonialism in West Africa and the broader Atlantic diaspora. She studied History at the University of Warwick and Caribbean and Latin American Studies at University College London. As Communications Associate at Open Restitution Africa, she leads the organisation's communications strategy, working to open up access to restitution knowledge and centre African communities and civil society in driving their own heritage narratives and restitution efforts. She is co-founder of Kol Pot, a digital-first platform dedicated to preserving Sierra Leonean (hi)stories, reducing barriers to archival access, and contributing to the reconstitution of identity in a postwar context. Her prior work as Programme Assistant at Reform Initiatives supported reparatory justice capacity-building across West Africa. Koehun's scholarship and practice sit at the intersection of historical justice, Black geographies, and the politics of belonging.

Country:

  • Sierra Leone
  • UK

Field:

  • Academia
  • Arts
  • Digital Heritage

Syokau Mutonga

Syokau Mutonga is a Research and Operations Associate at Open Restitution Africa, an open-data platform seeking to make visible African voices in the restitution debate. For the past decade, she has worked in the cultural heritage sector as an academic, writer, activist and curator, seeking to amplify community voices. Her work explores what it might look like to practice an articulation of Kenya’s painful and problematic past while also leaving it as multiple, unfinished and present. At Open Restitution Africa, she leads the operational side of the work while supporting the research department. Her research work includes putting together databases of key restitution issues, creating research frameworks and carrying out case studies that support the open data platform and empower all stakeholders to make knowledge-based decisions.

Country:

  • Kenya

Field:

  • Academia
  • Archives
  • Digital Heritage

Karen Ijumba

"Karen Byera Ijumba has worked at the intersection of research, culture, creativity and digital knowledge management for over 10 years; interchangeably serving as a trained physical and digital archivist, researcher and academic research project manager. She holds an LLB and BA (Hons) in Heritage and Public Culture from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and an MA in Arts and Culture Management from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). She enjoys encountering different ways of being, looking at things as puzzles and maps, and thinking through how bits come together under one nuanced conceptual umbrella. Her work focuses on combining marginalised and fugitive knowledge with creative and digital tools, to address knowledge gaps and issues of power and perspective in knowledge production. She was awarded the NRF Innovation Masters Scholarship in 2016, and jointly received the (NI)HSS Creative Collections - Best Public Performance Award in 2023, for her co-curation of the hybrid 26th Poetry Africa Festival. She also led the development of the Poetry Africa Digital Map. As Senior Researcher at Open Restitution Africa her core responsibilities included working in collaboration with the project's co-founders / Digital and Research leads to conceptualise, develop and evaluate methodologies that embrace the complexities of building an Africa-centred restitution knowledge base and datasets, supporting the design and content population of the open data platform, and overseeing the work of the core and seasonal research team members."

Country:

  • South Africa
  • Tanzania

Field:

  • Advocacy
  • Arts
  • Digital Heritage

Phumzile Nombuso Twala

Phumzile Nombuso Twala is a cultural and creative industries practitioner, writer, researcher, convenor and public engagement curator based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently developing an interdisciplinary heritage, research and development praxis, informed by public engagement curating models. To this end, she is exploring arts, culture and heritage institutions, community engagement and development models through research and practice-led inquiry. She is a Senior Researcher at Andani.Africa, a cultural and creative economies research strategic advisory agency, where she contributes to a wide variety of research studies and projects. She is also Research Associate at Open Restitution Africa, a project focusing on centering Africa-centered restitution processes. ORA’s work is informed by the intersectionality of cultural heritage, research methodology and tech. She holds BCom Industrial and Organisational Psychology (UNISA), BA (Honours) Media Studies and Journalism (Wits University) and BA (Honours) History of Art (Wits University) degrees. Phumzile was on the Wits University Humanities 2021 Dean’s List and was awarded the Standard Bank Group Foundation of African Art Postgraduate Prize (2021) for Outstanding Achievement in Postgraduate African Art Studies. She has been appointed as a Board Member of the Funda Community College, where she leads on heritage research and alumni programming development at the institution.

Country:

  • South Africa

Field:

  • Academia
  • Advocacy
  • Arts

Suzana Sousa

Suzana Sousa is an art curator and researcher focused on developing narratives and producing knowledge from the Global South through collaboration and experimentation. Over the past decade, her work has explored themes related to contemporary African art, cultural politics, and the construction of nationalisms and national discourses through culture and the visual arts. More recently, she has engaged with feminist curatorial practices and conducted research on the works of African women artists. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, focusing on nation-building processes in Angola within the context of museums and the visual arts since 1975. She serves as a research fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape.

Affiliation(s): University of the Western Cape

Country:

  • Angola

Info:

Published Work: Fighting over the Archive: Politics and Practice of the Art World in Angola

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Indigenous Community Leadership

Dr Valence Silayo

Dr. Valence Valerian Silayo is a lecturer in history, archaeology and heritage conservation at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His research interests include various aspects of African archaeology, pre-colonial defence systems, socio-political structures, social complexity, the analysis of pre-colonial material culture, restitution and reparation, and the management of communal heritage. For many years, his research has illuminated the rich history, complexity and heritage of African societies, placing the knowledge of communities of origin at the centre of his research. His research in the archaeology and the management of cultural heritage in the Kilimanjaro region represents an important contribution to understanding the past and the present of its inhabitants. He was a Gerda Henkel Fellow at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart for two years (2023–2025).

Country:

  • Germany
  • Tanzania

Info:

Published Work: Cults, Crosses, and Crescents: Religion and Healing from Colonial Violence in Tanzania

Field:

  • Diplomacy
  • Policy

Troy Phili

Troy Phili is the Manager of the Repatriation and Restitution Office at the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). He plays a key role in managing the return of cultural heritage, including ancestral human remains and cultural artifacts, to South Africa. He has been involved in projects like the return of Royal Nkuna artifacts and the documentation of repatriation processes.

Country:

  • South Africa

Field:

  • Arts
  • Museums
  • Policy

Nelson Abiti

Abiti Adebo Nelson is the co-investigator on the Un-archived horrors of slavery at Fort Patiko: Rethinking the historical narratives of slavery and slave trade in post-conflict northern Uganda project. He is also a curator for Ethnography and History at the Uganda National Museum. He is currently a PhD Candidate of History at the University of Western Cape in South Africa. Abiti has co-curated exhibitions on ‘Road to Reconciliation’, the Milk exhibition project in Uganda and Switzerland; and the recent ‘Unseen Archive of Idi Amin’ that opened at Uganda Museum 18th May 2019. Abiti’s research focuses on community memorials, restitution, ethnographic museums and transitional justice.

Affiliation(s): Uganda National Museum

Country:

  • Uganda

Info:

Published Work: Handling collections in the museum against cultural ethics; The Uganda Museum’s Tribal Representation: Colonial Repositories and Community Reconciliation in Uganda

Publication Link

Field:

  • Advocacy
  • Arts

Patrick Mudekereza

Patrick Mudekereza is a writer and cultural producer from in Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo. He is currently director of Waza, Centre d’art de Lubumbashi, previously known as Picha Art Centre. He co-founded and run the first three editions of Rencontres Picha, Lubumbashi Biennial. He was involved in several art projects, including the collective Vicanos Club, was editor of the cultural magazine Nzenze organised and participated in several exhibitions in Congo and abroad such as Congo Far West. He coordinated and edited publications such as Les Chroniques du Congo and exhibitions catalogues. His critical articles were published, among others, in African Art and Contemporary And. His last curatorial project Revolution Room/Chumba cha Mapinduzi, in collaboration with Visual Arts Network South Africa, explores the potentials of collaboration between artists and communities from the mining industries in Southern Congo and Johannesburg.

Country:

  • DRC

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums
  • Policy

Dr Kiprop Lagat

Dr. Kiprop Lagat is the Director of Culture in the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and a master’s degree in Museology from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. His PhD thesis was on the memorialization of the 1998 Nairobi terror attack on the United States of America Embassy in Nairobi. Dr. Lagat has over 20 years of experience in the heritage sector and has participated in numerous projects focused on the research, documentation, preservation and curation of cultural practices and their associated heritage collections. He has previously worked as the Assistant Director in charge of the Nairobi National Museum and as a Principal Research Scientist in the Department of Cultural Heritage at the National Museums of Kenya. As Director of Culture, his responsibility is mainly to coordinate policies and programmes aimed at the preservation, promotion, and revitalization of Kenya’s rich and diverse cultural heritage resources for nationhood and sustainable development.

Affiliation(s): Director of Culture in the Ministry of Gender, Culture, The Arts and Heritage, National Museums of Kenya

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Representations of Nationhood in the Displays of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK): The Nairobi National Museum

Publication Link

Field:

  • Arts
  • Museums

Annelize Kotze

Annelize Kotze is a Social History Curator at Iziko Museums and a powerful voice for decolonising heritage spaces. With a Master's degree in Archaeology from UCT, her work centres on the cultural identity of Khoe, San, and Coloured women. She serves as president of the Commonwealth Association of Museums (CAM) and chair of SAMA Western Cape. She sits on multiple commissions within UCT's A/Xarra Restorative Justice Forum. Annelize passionately advocates for the return of ancestral remains and artifacts and amplifies previously marginalised communities' voices in museum narratives.

Affiliation(s): Iziko Museums of South Africa

Country:

  • South Africa

Info:

Published Work: The bones are speaking: community engagement, Ancestral Remains and restoration

Publication Link

Field:

  • Advocacy
  • Arts
  • Journalism

Jinty Jackson

Jinty Jackson is a researcher, writer, and communications consultant who works at the intersection of storytelling, justice, and urban change. She has worked with think tanks, international media, and grassroots organisations. Jinty worked with Open Restitution Africa to develop on insight on Inventories that was drawn from a study undertaken by ORA on behalf of the South African Cultural Observatory & the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in South Africa (2024).

Affiliation(s): Independent

Country:

  • South Africa

Info:

Published Work: Rethinking Inventories for African-led Restitution Processes

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Arts

Robyn Humphreys

Robyn Humphreys is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of History, at the University of the Western Cape. She is completing her PhD in archaeology. Her research focuses the impact of archaeological practice on the relationship between communities and human remains from archaeological sites. She advocates for an accountable archaeology that acknowledges communities and community institutions as important stakeholders in managing human remains.

Affiliation(s): University of the Western Cape

Country:

  • South Africa

Info:

Published Work: Recalling Indigenous Knowledge in Cape Town

Publication Link

Field:

  • Arts
  • Museums

Tuuda Haitula

Tuuda Haitula highlights the role of museums in the restitution process, viewing it as an opportunity for healing and reconnecting with cultural heritage. Until 2025, Tuuda worked as a Museum Development Officer at the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN), dedicated to nurturing the growth and resilience of museums across the country. Haitula plays a key role in supporting the development of Namibian heritage institutions, ensuring they remain sustainable and relevant.

Country:

  • Namibia

Field:

  • Academia
  • Advocacy
  • Museums

Dr Goodman Gwasira

Goodman Gwasira is a historian of colonial archaeology and an expert on colonial cultural heritages, museum studies, prehistoric art and community engagement in Namibia and South Africa. He is an alumnus of the Culture and Environment in Africa (CEA) study programme at the University of Cologne and the Universities of Namibia and Cape Town. He worked as a curator of archaeology at the National Museum of Namibia. Currently he is a senior lecturer and coordinator of Archaeology and Heritage Studies in the Department of History at the University of Namibia. He also is part of the international cooperation / project Confronting Colonial Pasts, Envisioning Creative Futures – Collaborative Conservation and Knowledge Production of the Historical Collections from Namibia. His PhD investigated the History and critical analysis of Namibia’s archaeologies (2020). Goodman Gwasira also published, among many other texts, Rethinking the archaeology of the Dâures Mountain in a post-colonial context (2018).

Affiliation(s): University of Namibia

Country:

  • Namibia

Info:

Published Work: Towards a Decolonization of the Ethnographic Displays at the National Museum of Namibia

Publication Link

Field:

  • Arts
  • Museums

Raphael Chikukwa

Raphael Chikukwa is a Zimbabwean curator and the Executive Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe since 2020. Prior to this, he was Chief Curator at the same institution and before that he has worked for a decade as an independent curator. He has also contributed in a number of Publications that includes Mowonero: Insights in Zimbabwean Contemporary Art, Zimbabwe Pavilion Catalogues (Seeing Ourselves 2011, Dudziro 2013, Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu 2015, Deconstructing Boundaries 2017 and Soko Risina Musoro – A Tale Without. Head 2019) Kaboo Ka Muwala: Migration and Mobility Exhibition 2016

Country:

  • Zimbabwe

Field:

  • Academia
  • Activism
  • Museums

Dr Wendy Black

Dr Wendy Black is currently the Chief Curator of Art & Social History and the Curator of Archaeology at Iziko Museums of South Africa. She specialises in the population history and bioarchaeology of the indigenous hunter-gatherer people of southern Africa, the Khoesan. Her research interests are broadly related to population dynamics and genetics, but more recently she has become involved with indigenous rights and transformation issues as they relate to human remains collections and group representations within South African institutions. She also participates in exhibition development and supervises postgraduate students.

Affiliation(s): Iziko Museums of South Africa

Country:

  • South Africa

Info:

Published Work: Hominin heritage: How institutional repositories are managing collections, collaboration and repatriation; The Southern African Human Remains Management Project: Making (p)reparations in year one ; 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)

Publication Link

Field:

  • Museums

Hileni Ameinge

Hileni Ameinge is a young heritage professional with a background in Heritage Conservation and Management and Education, specialising in Arts and History, from the University of Namibia. Since 2023, she has been actively involved in cultural heritage, history, and decolonisation initiatives.

Country:

  • Namibia

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums

Professor Francis B. Musonda

Professor Francis Musonda teaches at the University of Zambia. Previously, he was employed by the Zambia National Museums Board at the Livingstone Museum, where he was the head of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department comprising Archaeology, History, Ethnography and Art. This department plays a central role in documenting and interpreting the country's development. His research interests are in African prehistory, concentrating on the transition from hunting/gathering to food production and on ethnoarchaeology.

Affiliation(s): University of Zambia

Country:

  • Zambia

Info:

Published Work: Decolonising the Broken Hill Skull: Cultural Loss and a Pathway to Zambian Archaeological Sovereignty

Publication Link

Field:

  • Museums

Adelaide Sallema

Adelaide Sallema is a Tanzanian researcher and curator. She holds an MSc in Environmental Science with a focus on ecology and ecosystem restoration. She is the Director of Museums, Monuments and Sites at the National Museum of Tanzania, where she has focused on preserving and showcasing Tanzanian history and art.

Country:

  • Tanzania

Field:

  • Academia
  • Advocacy

Professor Albert Gouaffo

Albert Gouaffo is a literary and cultural scholar at the University of Dschang in western Cameroon and researches the culture of remembrance, post-colonialism and German-African literature. He completed his doctorate in 1997 at Saarland University on the experience of being an outsider, as examined in francophone African literature in the German-language and cultural context. He was also a Georg Forster Fellow at Saarland University from 2004 to 2006, where he subsequently completed his Habilitation. With a wide range of publications in German, French and English, he promotes intercultural German studies and the examination of the German colonial period in Cameroon. As the founder of a German studies journal and Vice President of the association "German Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa", he is also committed to networking German studies on the continent. In 2025, he was awarded the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize.

Affiliation(s): University of Dschang

Country:

  • Cameroon

Info:

Published Work: Similarities and differences: An interim assessment of the debate on the looting and restitution of Cameroonian cultural property in Germany; Décentrer la question des restitutions : l’exemple des biens culturels issus de contextes coloniaux en Afrique face aux micro-histoires régionales; Whose Voices? On Power, Terminology and the Definition of Community : A Postscript

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Archives
  • Arts

Professor Forget Chaterera

Prof. Forget Chaterera-Zambuko is an Assistant Professor at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi with over 15 years of experience in teaching, research, and academic leadership in archival science, records management, and museum studies. Her research explores digital curation, sustainable digital records management, blockchain and AI in records management systems, and the politics of displaced and migrated archives. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Comma, the journal of the International Council on Archives (ICA), and a member of the ICA’s Advocacy Expert Group. Her work has received multiple international recognitions, including the 2020 Digital Preservation Award by the Dutch Digital Heritage Network for Teaching and Communications, the 2020 United States National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Award (Category: Educators), and a Y2 researcher rating from South Africa’s National Research Foundation. Her leadership extends to serving as Programme Chair for the 2024 Archival Education and Research Institute and contributing to SUAD’s initiative on Electronic Document and Records System. Dr Chaterera-Zambuko has an interdisciplinary lens to heritage and information governance and is committed to fostering inclusive, technologically resilient archival futures

Affiliation(s): Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi

Country:

  • Zimbabwe

Info:

Published Work: Real and Imagined Archives: The Emotional Impact of Zimbabwe’s Displaced Rhodesian Army Archives; Lost Unities: An Exhibition for Archival Repatriation ; Lost Unities

Publication Link

Field:

  • Advocacy
  • Law
  • Museums

Dr Babatunde Adebiyi

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

Country:

  • Nigeria

Info:

Published Work: Legal and other Issues in Repatriating Nigeria's Looted Artefacts

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Advocacy
  • Arts

Professor Kimani Njogu

Professor Kimani Njogu is a linguist, literary critic and cultural scholar. He is the Director of Twaweza Communications and Executive Director of Africa Health and Development International (AHADI). Until 2003, he was an Associate Professor of Kiswahili and African Languages at Kenyatta University. Between 1998 – 2007, he was Council Member of the International African Institute, University of London. In 2004, Kimani was appointed a Member of the three-person Task Force for the East African Kiswahili Council in the East African Community, drafting the Kiswahili protocol for the Council of Ministers. He is a recipient of the 2000 pan-African Noma Award for Publishing in Africa for a Kiswahili book. For over a decade, he has served as Chairman of CHAKITA-Kenya (The National Kiswahili Committee) and Chair of the Board at the Legal Resources Foundation and CODE-IP Trust. He is also a member of the Kiswahili Cross Border Commission at the Academy of African Languages and a member of the Working Group on Safety and Security of Journalists in Kenya. His Kiswahili book on the teaching of literature won the 2000 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Prof. Kimani Njogu was recently awarded the Order of the Golden Warrior by H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya, for his work in media, culture and the arts. He holds a PhD from Yale University (1993)

Affiliation(s): Twaweza Communications

Country:

  • Kenya

Info:

Published Work: Getting Heard: [Re]claiming Performance Space in Kenya; Reclaiming our Heritage

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums

Dr Njabulo Chipangura

Dr Njabulo Chipangura is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology with an interest in the empirical ways in which museum practices can be decolonised through epistemic and aesthetic disobedience, benchmarked by undoing earlier ways of knowledge production, particularly by examining African collections and their representations. Njabulo has published several research papers that examine ongoing debates about the coloniality of museums and associated knowledge production and representation practices, with the aim of imagining a decolonised museum in Africa. He is also a managing editor for the Museum and Society, published by the University of Leicester Open Journals. Njabu is currently working on a co-edited volume entitled The Museologies of Africa: Rethinking African Museums, Community Inclusion, Living Cultures and Decolonisation which will be published by Routledge in 2026.

Affiliation(s): National University of Ireland

Country:

  • Ireland
  • Zimbabwe

Info:

Published Work: Provenance Research in Museums: Principles, Practices and Possibilities, Volume 1; Truth-telling as a form of decolonial care: stories from a collaborative object biography research with the Ndau community of Eastern Zimbabwe; Community Collaborations and Social Biographies of Museum Collections from Colonial Contexts: Meanings of Zulu Beadwork; Where are Nehanda's remains?: A Zimbabwean Search in the Context of Shifting Museum Politics (In Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums); “Bring the Objects out of the Basement!”: The Wellcome African Collection at Manchester Museum

Publication Link

Field:

  • Digital Heritage
  • Journalism
  • Museums

Ndapewoshali Ilunga

Ndapewoshali Ndahafa Ilunga is a historian, trained accountant, project manager and specialist in Namibian labour law. She has worked in the field of cultural heritage, art and culture since 2014. She is vehemently committed to the preservation, documentation and decolonisation of Namibia's historical landscape and cultural heritage. Between 2014 and 2024, Ndapewoshali worked at the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN) in various capacities, ultimately becoming its Director. She has more recently joined the FinNamKnow Project - a collaborative project between Finnish and Namibian scholar. The project seeks to explore ways to decolonise the history of the Finnish-Namibian relations, and to produce historical knowledge that is increasingly inclusive and multivocal, in a manner that overturns the epistemological legacies of European colonial projects. Here she is also exploring and growing in her identity as a Decolonial Christian Historian.

Affiliation(s): Henry Nxumalo Foundation Museums Association of Namibia FinNamKnow Project (Decolonizing History-Writing: Transcultural Production, Mobilization and Transformations of Knowledge in Finnish-Namibian Relations 1870–1990)

Country:

  • Namibia

Info:

Published Work: Confronting Colonial Pasts, Envisioning Creative Futures Documentary

Publication Link

Field:

  • Academia
  • Museums

Dr Lennon Mhishi

Lennon Mhishi is an anthropologist whose interdisciplinary work spans interests in Africa and its diasporas; museums; material culture and art practices; the afterlives of slavery and colonialism; and approaches to contemporary forms of exploitation, forced labour and human rights in different African countries. He has experience in migration and diaspora, heritage, music, and other arts-based, creative approaches to knowledge-making and engagement. Before joining UBC, Lennon worked at the University of Oxford, based at the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was part of the project, “Reconnecting Objects”, funded by the VW Stiftung. He collaborated with partners in Oxford (UK), Cape Town (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal), Dschang (Cameroon) and Berlin (Germany). The project, among other things, explored colonial collections—as well as art practices—and the possibilities of mobilising African and diasporic communities in rethinking these collections.

Affiliation(s): University of British Columbia

Country:

  • Canada
  • Zimbabwe

Info:

Published Work: Where are Nehanda's remains?: A Zimbabwean Search in the Context of Shifting Museum Politics (In Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums); Chimurenga epistemologies: diasporic entanglements, colonial afterlives and the struggle of thinking other worlds

Publication Link

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