Throughout the 1980s, the sacred wooden memorial statue of Vigango was stolen from Kenya, sold to art dealers, and eventually to tourist shops and museums.
Now, as part of an ongoing effort to repatriate these looted cultural treasures, officials from the Illinois State Museum and other museums and universities will travel to Nairobi this week for a ceremony recognizing Vigango’s return to the National Museum of Kenya. is scheduled to take place.
Sometimes as tall as seven feet, bigangos were often erected in front of farms in memory of deceased male elders of the Mijikenda community. The memorial was not meant to be moved.
“These items are sacred and cannot be transferred from the people who created them,” Brooke Morgan, the museum’s curator of anthropology, said in a statement. “Turning vigango away from its rightful owner undermines the spiritual well-being of the entire community.”
According to Linda Giles, a former professor of anthropology at Illinois State University who has studied coastal areas such as Mijikenda, members of the community worship the statues and pray for misfortunes such as disease, drought and crop failure. It is often associated with the absence of statues.
Nevertheless, museums around the world still store and display stolen goods. 1970 UNESCO Convention Growing awareness of repatriation to stop illegal trade in cultural artifacts and assist in the return of artifacts to their home countries.
However, as a return still debatable And as we face increased scrutiny of institutions that don’t do this, more institutions are beginning what can be a lengthy process to return items.
The removal of artifacts marks the beginning of the erasure of a country’s religion and culture, says archaeologist Veronica Wawel, a lecturer in African studies at Yale University who does fieldwork in Kenya.
“If you don’t see something, you are likely to forget it,” says Dr. Wawell. “Culture must be maintained. If it is created and not maintained, it is lost.”
Because of this sacred connection, curators like Dr. Morgan at the Illinois State Museum believe that these artefacts kept in the museum should be returned.
“We just don’t have rights over them,” said Dr. Morgan, who was part of the team that returned Vigango. “They represent the spirit.”
Dr. Morgan said even after the museum decides to repatriate the artifact, it will have to save a lot of paperwork to do so. When Dr. Morgan began working at the Illinois State Museum in her 2018, she was told returning the statue was a priority.
But the museum put it on hold for a while, as recipients would have to pay exorbitant fees. These handicrafts are considered works of art and will be taxed upon entry.
The museum turned to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for guidance, but the museum had already spent several years in the process of returning about 30 bigangos to its collection, Morgan said. This leaves the recipient with an import duty of $40,000. Colorado NPR agency KUNC reported in 2020..
In June 2022, after two years of planning and coordination, the Illinois State Museum awarded 37 Vigangos because it was able to secure significantly lower fees for monuments that had been taxed as cultural artifacts rather than works of art. returned.
The National Museum of Kenya will hold the statues for the time being, as it is unclear who exactly owns the statues, Dr Morgan said. The National Museum of Kenya did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Giles says it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly who an artifact belongs to before it is removed.
In 2003, Dr. Giles and University of Kentucky researcher Monica Udvardi tracked more than 300 bigangos to American museums, Dr. Giles said. Since then, many more have been discovered.
Dr Giles said he was encouraged to see more museums returning the artifacts to their home countries.
“It will take time, but the wind is blowing,” she said. “The museum is deciding that these should not be exhibited.”
