Inspired by her journey to reconnect to her roots after realizing the toxicity of colonial legacies in 2018, Sylvie Njobati launched a global campaign, #BringBackNgonnso, successfully demanding the return of the Ngonnso statue from the Ethnological Museum in Berlin to its rightful owners. Looted from the Nso people over 120 years ago by a German army commander, now is the time for its return home.
This discussion about the restitution of Ngonnso to the Nso community, hosted by the Open Society Foundations Global Initiative for the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage and Open Society grantee SySy House of Fame, features African cultural heritage activist Sylvie Njobati and researcher María Leonor Pérez Ramírez discussing the power of civil society empowerment and the work which led to this historic event.
Speakers
-
Anne Marie Befoune
Moderator
Anne Marie Befoune is a Cameroonian author and blogger and a communications officer for Open Society Foundations–Africa in Dakar.
-
Veronika Chatelain
Speaker (introductory remarks)
Veronika Chatelain is a program officer of Expression for Global Programs at the Open Society Foundations, where she co-leads the Global Initiative for Restitution of African Cultural Heritage.
-
Sylvie Njobati
Speaker
Sylvie Njobati is a restitution activist and the founder of Sysy House of Fame, an arts and culture organization in Cameroon.
-
María Leonor Pérez Ramírez
Speaker
María Leonor Pérez Ramírez is a research associate for the German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts.
Read more
Bring Them Home
Q&A: Racial Justice and Restitution
During a moment of reckoning with the legacies of racism, the African Foundation for Development is working to return objects to Africa that were looted during the eras of colonialism and imperialism.
Art for Healing In Depth
Land, Memory, and the Power of Art
![Two figures stand on a bridge dressed in hand-made Indigenous regalia.](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/159b6b06-17fa-4b0f-9528-715a3f62f17d/20231102-cannupa-hanska-luger-futureancestraltechnologies-welive-still1-3000.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C125%2C3000%2C1875 "This still from Cannupa Hanska Luger's "Future Ancestral Technologies - We Live" (2021) illustrates the artist’s blending of Indigenous futurism, place, storytelling and documentation of living practice as two figures pledge accountability to the land and waters through their physical presence. Like many projects from this year’s art fellows, the work incorporates knowledge and practice from native communities that live in harmony with nature to imagine how the whole world can improve our relationship with the Earth. Photo credit: © Cannupa Hanska Luger")
How can communities use art to imagine a better tomorrow that protects and celebrates nature—and the people that live within it? The 2023 Soros Arts Fellows will pursue projects that reckon with the role of socially engaged art in a time of crisis.
Art and Activism
Reimagining January 6th
The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol left him in a cold sweat. Creating a comic book seemed like one way to reach people not obsessively following the news and spark activism to help defend a multicultural democracy.