The roundtable will shed new light on the lives and afterlives of objects, their itineraries, transformations, and responses to them, including their role in local communities, museums, and other contexts today.
Transcultural connectivity, complex entanglements of long- and short-distance relationships, and migrations of people, objects, materials, knowledge, and ideas have been central research foci in the humanities and social sciences in the past decades. So have been complex intersections between connectivity and resistance. This roundtable contributes to these discussions by interrogating the role of objects, museums, and matters of restitution in a transcultural perspective with a special focus on West Africa.
Photo: Nupe brass smiths of Bida, A bowl with elaborate floral designs, 2022, photograph during field visit by Abubakar Muhammad