Brighton & Hove Museums in southern England will return 45 items to Botswana. The objects, acquired by the English reverend William Charles Willoughby in the 1890s, include clothing, accessories and hunting implements. They will be housed at the Khama III Memorial Museum in Serowe where they will form part of a permanent display.
“The artefacts are due to be returned [this] April. A team from Brighton & Hove Museums is working with curators at Khama III Memorial Museum to develop a permanent exhibition to open 27 May,” says a statement from Brighton & Hove Museums. “The return [of the items] represents more than just a physical relocation; it is an act of restoration,” says Gase Kediseng, the curator of the Khama III Memorial Museum, in a statement.
In a LinkedIn post, Sandra Bauzá Santos, assistant curator at Brighton & Hove Museums (World Art Collection), says she will be travelling to Serowe with her colleague Hannah Mortell. “Together we’ll be supporting the installation—a real privilege, and a wonderful moment to see these objects going back to where they belong.” The move comes as arguments around decolonisation and repatriation in relation to UK museums are gaining momentum.
From 2019 to 2021, Brighton & Hove Museums established a partnership with the Khama III Memorial Museum through the Making African Connections project led by the University of Sussex. The Botswanian museum subsequently requested the repatriation of the objects in question.
The reverend likely collected the items as discards from African Christian families or purchased them from locals, artisans or storekeepers during a “period of significant social and political change”, before giving them to Brighton Museum in 1899, says the museums website.
