Ghana secures return of looted artifacts from EU states
Germany and the Netherlands will return around 2,000 looted cultural artifacts to Ghana, the African nation’s foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said on Saturday.
The pledge was unveiled during the Next Steps Conference, where the Dutch and German ambassadors presented Ghanaian President John Mahama with a catalogue of the items set to be repatriated. The catalogue, however, has not yet been made publicly available.
In a post on X, Ablakwa welcomed the move, describing it as “the positive conduct of restitution we are beginning to witness from our international partners in Europe since the adoption of the historic Ghana-led UN Resolution”.
The conference also saw Denmark acknowledge its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen apologized for the country’s involvement and pledged support for preserving the forts and castles built by Denmark in present-day Ghana, saying the effort would help safeguard historical memory, promote truth-telling, and prevent similar injustices from being repeated.
Speaking at the conference, Ghana’s president also announced the creation of three international bodies aimed at advancing reparatory justice: the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, the Expert Panel on the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts, and the Global Legal Panel on Reparatory Justice.
According to Mahama, the groups will help develop practical pathways for restitution, historical accountability, and legal redress.
“We do not seek to reopen old wounds. We seek to heal those wounds,” he said. “We do not seek division. We seek justice, understanding, and reconciliation grounded in truth”.
The initiative follows a Ghana-sponsored UN General Assembly resolution adopted in March that recognized the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”.
The push for restitution has gained momentum in recent years. In February, Cambridge University formally transferred ownership of 116 Benin Bronzes and other artifacts to Nigeria. The physical return of most of the objects is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The same month, Paris returned the sacred Djidji Ayokwe talking drum to Cote d’Ivoire. The drum had been taken during the colonial period in 1916 and held in France for more than a century.
