Some British legislators, non -governmental organizations (NGOs) and investigators have asked the government to fix what they have described as a “legislative emptiness” that allows museums and other institutions to maintain and show African ancestral remains taken during the colonial era.
For centuries, the African ancestral remains, such as mummified bodies, skulls and other parts of the body, were taken to Great Britain and other ancient colonial powers, often as “trophies” or as products to be merchants and exhibited.
There are growing calls worldwide for such remains, as well as the looted art, to be repatriated to their communities or countries of origin.
Although some efforts have been made to face the issue of long data, African remains are still carried out in several institutions throughout the country, such as museums and universities.
“We cannot allow the dehumanization of our ancestors,” said Connie Bell, of the ‘Decolonising The Archive’ project, at an event on Wednesday organized by a parliamentary repair group, chaired by Labor Parliamentary Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
In November 2024, Ribeiro-Addy brought the issue to Parliament, saying that the remains of the colonial era were being listed for sale by auction houses, on electronic commerce and social networks platforms.
A month before Ribeiro-Addy’s comments, a auction house in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, withdrew a sale of such remains, including the skulls of the Ekoi people of Western Africa, after the criticisms of the native communities and defenders.
The Vice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Angela Rayner, said it was horrible to hear Ribeiro-Addy’s account, and agreed to discuss the issue more thoroughly. Soon a meeting will be held with the Minister of Culture, said Ribeiro-Addy on Wednesday.
The cross group will be presented to the Government 14 policy recommendations, including the realization of all sales of illegal remains “based on the fact that they are not commercial objects but human beings.”
The policy summary, produced by the African Development Foundation (Support), said that the Government should close lagoons in the 2004 Human Fabric Law, which covers the elimination, storage, use and elimination of the human fabric.
However, the law does not cover the activities related to the remains of people who died more than a century ago, which excludes most of the ancestral remains in the hands of museums and other institutions, he said.
Thinking said that the law must be modified to make the public exhibition of human remains a crime if it is done without consent. He also said that a national restitution policy must be adopted, a body must be created to handle repatriation claims and human remains collections must be assigned.
