Museum announces return of artefacts to Botswana

Brighton & Hove Museums is set to return 45 cultural artefacts to Botswana as part of a partnership between two museums.

The return is believed to be the first substantial return of its kind from a UK museum and it follows a 2022 repatriation claim by the Khama III Memorial Museum in Serowe.

The objects include a collection of clothing, accessories, hunting implements and domestic items acquired by Rev William Charles Willoughby in the 1890s.

Portia Tremlett, curator at Brighton & Hove Museums, said: “This repatriation represents an important step in reconnecting these artefacts with the communities, histories and knowledge systems that give them meaning.”

The returns are part of a partnership between the two museums, established through the Making African Connections project led by the University of Sussex between 2019 and 2021.

In 2022, Khama III formally requested the return of the items, originally acquired in the late 19th Century from the Gammangwato region of Botswana.

The Brighton museum is set to return the cultural pieces in time for a permanent exhibition opening on 27 May.

“The return [of the items] represents more than just a physical relocation – it is an act of restoration,” said Gase Kediseng, curator at the Khama III Memorial Museum.

“This process affirms dignity, identity, and material culture, empowering [the people of] Batswana to tell their own story on their own terms through objects that represent who we were, and who we continue to be.”

The exhibition’s opening will be also accompanied by a two-day international summit hosted by the Botswana museum in collaboration with the University of Sussex and the University of Botswana.