The Department of History invites you to join their talk about African Arts, Western Museums, and the debate over restitution.

This lecture examines restitution as an ethical and epistemic process that goes beyond the physical return of objects from Western museums to African institutions. While repatriation often functions as a diplomatic practice, restitution is framed here as historical repair that requires transforming the narratives, classifications, and meanings assigned to museum objects. Drawing on case studies, the lecture analyzes how sacred African objects were historically renamed as “fetishes” through colonial vocabularies. It argues that museums bear an ongoing responsibility to revise these narratives, making restitution a process of reinterpretation, accountability, and public education.

Prof. Vanicleia Silva-Santos is the curator of the African Collection at Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD in History from the University of São Paulo and teaches at the Department of Africana Studies at UPenn.