Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-7mr9c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-22T12:09:15.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Revisiting Natural Law Concepts of Statehood and Property in the Context of Colonial Spoliation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2024

Clemens Danda*
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Researcher in Private and Cultural Property Law, Cologne, Germany

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, Western Powers launched military campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa resulting in the colonization of vast territories and the spoliation of cultural property. To justify the conquest, they asserted the supremacy of Western culture and disregarded principles of international law in their dealings with African states, communities, and individuals. This article examines colonialist legal justifications such as the denial of statehood of pre-colonial sub-Saharan African societies, the notion that conquest and spoliation were justifiable, and the belief that African legal systems lacked concepts of property. The article details why these arguments contradict well-established nineteenth-century legal principles, particularly state sovereignty and private property, which together form the conceptual basis for the prohibition of spoliation. The universal nature of those principles allows for the nondiscriminatory application and interpretation of historical law and consequently the protection of African pre-colonial states and private as well as public cultural property.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Cultural Property Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abel, Carl. 1871. Letters on International Relations before and during the War of 1870, Vol. 2. London: Tinsley brothers.Google Scholar
Agreement between the King of Baol and the French Republic of March 1883.Google Scholar
Allerhöchste, Verordnung, betr. die Rechtsverhältnisse an unbeweglichen Sachen in Deutsch-Ostafrika vom 24. Juli 1894.Google Scholar
Alexandrowicz, C.H. 1973. The European-African Confrontation: A Study in Treaty Making , Volume 1. Leyden: Sijthoff.Google Scholar
Ali Pascha, Mehmed. 2021. Antikenverordnung für Ägypten (1835): Kulturgutschutz nach europäischem Modell – zum Schutz vor Europäern . In Beute. Eine Anthologie zu Kunstraub und Kulturerbe, edited by Dolezalek, Isabelle, Savoy, Bénédicte, and Skwirblies, Robert, 188–94. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz.Google Scholar
Alvik, Ivar. 2018. “Protection of Private Property in the Early Law of Nations.“ Journal of the History of International Law 20, no. 2: 217–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anghie, Antony. 2006. “The Evolution of International Law: Colonial and Postcolonial Realities.” Third World Quarterly 25, no. 5: 739753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, TW 2004. Customary Law in South Africa. Cape Town: Juta.Google Scholar
Beckert, Jens. 2004. Unverdientes Vermögen Soziologie des Erbrechts, Theorie und Gesellschaft. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag.Google Scholar
Bestimmungen über die Ausfuhr und den Verkehr mit Kunstwerken und Seltenheiten von 1818, Hofkanzley-Decret vom 28. December 1818.Google Scholar
Blackstone, William. 1765–1769. Commentaries on the Laws of England , Volume I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Blackstone, William. 1796. Commentaries on the Laws of England , Volume I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1866. Das moderne Völkerrecht der civilisirten Staten als Rechtsbuch dargestellt. Nördlingen: Beck.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1866. Die Bedeutung und die Fortschritte. Berlin: Lüderitzsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1868. Das moderne Völkerrecht der civilisirten Staten als Rechtsbuch dargestellt. Nördlingen: Beck.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1870. Le Droit International Codifié. Paris: Guillaumin.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1872. Das moderne Völkerrecht der zivilisierten Staaten, als Rechtsbuch dargestellt, Nördlingen: Beck.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, Johann Casper. 1874. Das moderne Kriegsrecht der civilisirten Staaten. Nördlingen: Beck’sche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Bodin, Jean. 1592. Respublica (German translation by Oswald, Johann). Mümpelgard: Bassaeus.Google Scholar
Bowdich, Thomas Edward. 1819. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. With a Descriptive Account of That Kingdom. London: Murray.Google Scholar
Bradbury, R.E. 1957. The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-speaking Peoples of South-western Nigeria, Vol. 1. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Catellani, Enrico Levi. 1885. Le colonie e la conferenza di Berlino. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice.Google Scholar
Chechi, Alessandro. 2008. “The Return of Cultural Objects removed in Times of colonial Domination and International Law: The Case of the Venus of Cyrene.” The Italian Yearbook of International Law Online 18, no. 1: 159181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chand, Hukm. 1894. A Treaties on the Law of Res Iudicata: Including The Doctrines of Jurisdiction, Bar by Suit, and Lis Pendens. London: William Clowes & Sons.Google Scholar
Chinwuba, Obi, and Nwankwo, Samuel. 1963. Modern Family Law in Southern Nigeria. London: University of London.Google Scholar
Crawford, James R. 2006. The Creation of States in International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Danquah, Joseph Boakye. 1928. Akan Laws and Customs and the Akim Abuakwa Constitution. London: G. Routledge & Sons.Google Scholar
Dapper, Olfert. 1670. Umständliche und Eigentliche Beschreibung von Africa (Reprint 2012). Saarbrücken: Frölich & Kaufmann.Google Scholar
Draper, G.I.A.D. 1964. The Origins of the Just War Tradition. New Blackfriars 46, no. 533: 8288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edo, Victor. 2010. “The Practice of Democracy in Nigeria: The Pre-Colonial Antecedent.” LUMINA 21, no. 2: 17.Google Scholar
Elias, Taslim Olawale. 1956. The Nature of African Customary Law. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Elias, Taslim Olawale. 1963. The British Commonwealth: Ghana and Sierra Leone. London: Stevens & Sons.Google Scholar
Elliesie, Hatem. 2017 [1889]. Völkerrechtliche Beziehungen zwischen Äthiopien und Italien im Lichte des Vertrages von Uccialli/Wuchale. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Google Scholar
Ellis, Alfred Burton. 1893. A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa. London: Alfred Burton.Google Scholar
Engagement with chiefs holding authority on the South Bank of the River Congo. Slave Trade. Commerce. Humans Sacrifices. Religion, 27.3. 1876.Google Scholar
Erster Schutzvertrag Kamerun 1884, Urkunde vom 12.07. 1884.Google Scholar
Erster Schutzvertrag Togo 1884, Vertrag mit König Mlapa/Togo vom 5.7.1884.Google Scholar
Eslava, Luis, and Sundhya, Pahuja. 2011. “Between Resistance and Reform: TWAIL and the Universality of International Law.” 3(1).Trade L. & Dev 3, no. 1: 103130.Google Scholar
Fenin-Addo, R. 1990. “The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance, Indirect Rule and the Subjects Well-Being: The Abuakwa Experience 1899-1912.” Research Review 6, no. 2: 2944.Google Scholar
Fiore, Pasquale. 1882. Trattato di diritto internazionale pubblico, Vol 2. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice.Google Scholar
Fiore, Pasquale. 1884. Trattato di diritto internazionale pubblico, Vol. 3. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice.Google Scholar
German Museums Association. 2013. Guidelines for German Museums Care of Collections from Colonial Contexts. Berlin: German Museums Association.Google Scholar
Gerstemeyer, Johannes. 1910. Das Schutzgebiet nebst der Verordnung betr. die Rechtsverhältnisse in den Schutzgebieten und dem Gesetz über die Konsulargerichtsbarkeit in Anwendung auf die Schutzgebiete sowie die Ausführungsbestimmungen und ergänzenden Vorschriften. Berlin: J. Guttentag.Google Scholar
Gilks, David. 2013. “Attitudes to the displacement of cultural property in the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon.” The Historical Journal 56, no. 1: 113143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, William. 1991. British Slave Emancipation: The Sugar Colonies and the Great Experiment 1830-1865. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Grotius, Hugo. [1625] 1814. The Rights of War and Peace: Including the Law of Nature and of Nations (Translated by Campbell, A. C.). London: Boothroyd.Google Scholar
Grotius, Hugo. [1625] 1853. The Rights of War and Peace: An abridged Translation (Translated by Whewell, W.). Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Halleck, Henry Wagner. 1874. Elements of International Law and Laws of War. Philadelphia PA: J.B. Lippincott & Co.Google Scholar
Halleck, Henry Wagner. 1861. International Law Or, Rules Regulating the Intercourse of States in Peace and War. New York: D. Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Hartung, Hannes. 2009. “Praeda bellica in bellum justum? The legal development of war-booty from the 16th century to date: A chance of bettering museum practice?“ In War Booty, A Common European Cultural Heritage, edited by Sophia, Nestor. Stockholm: Livrustkammaren.Google Scholar
Hertslet, Edward. 1880. A Complete Collection of the Treaties and Conventions, and Reciprocal Regulations, at Present Subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign Powers. London: Butterworth.Google Scholar
Hertslet, Lewis. 1967. The Map of Africa by Treaty , Vol. I (British Colonies, Protectorates and Possessions in Africa). London: Harrison and Sons.Google Scholar
Hertslet, E. 1967. Map of Africa by Treaty, 3rd edition, Vol. II. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1650. Elements of Law. Paris: Jacob Dupuys.Google Scholar
Holdsworth, William. 1925. History of English Law, Vol. 7. Methuen: Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Huguenin-Bergenat, Yves. 2010. Kulturgüter bei Staatensukzession. Die internationalen Verträge Österreichs nach dem Zerfall der österreichisch- ungarischen Monarchie im Spiegel des aktuellen Völkerrechtsuenin-Bergenat Kulturgüter bei Staatensukzession. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jellinek, Georg. 1882. Die Lehre von den Staatenverbindungen. Vienna: O. Haering.Google Scholar
Jenschke, Christoff. 2006. “In Kriegen erbeutet: Zur Rückgabe geraubter Kulturgüter im Völkerrecht.“ Osteuropa 56: 361370.Google Scholar
Inter-American Convention on the Rights and Duties of States was signed on 26 December 1933 in Montevideo.Google Scholar
Kiwara-Wilson, Salome. 2016. “Restituting Colonial Plunder: The Case for the Benin Bronzes and Ivories.” DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law 23, no. 2: 375425.Google Scholar
Kochakova, Natalia.1996. “The sacred ruler as the ideological centre of an early state: The precolonial states of the Bight of Benin Coast.” In Ideology and the Formation of Early States, edited by Claessen, J.M. and Oosten, J., 4866. Leiden/New York/Köln: E.J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolchin, Peter. 1987. Unfree Labour. American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Korman, Sharon. 1996. The Right of Conquest, The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Koskenniemi, Martii. 2004. The Gentle Civilizer of Nations, The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870–1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuprechta, Karolina. 2020. “Kulturgüter aus der Kolonialzeit und Restitution: Änderungen ohne Änderungen.“ In Raubkunst und Restitution – Zwischen Kolonialzeit und Washington Principles, edited by Weller et alia, 153–65. Zürich: Dike.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Dan. 2021. The Right of Sovereignty: Jean Bodin on the Sovereign State and the Law of Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieber, Francis. 1863. Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field. New York: D. Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Lindley, Mark Frank. 1926. The Acquisition and Government of Backward Territory in International Law: Being a Treatise on the Law and Practice Relating to Colonial Autonomy. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Liversage, Vincent. 1945. Land Tenure in the Colonies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Labadie, Camille. 2021. “Decolonizing collections: A legal perspective on the restitution of cultural artifacts.” In The Decolonisation of Museology: Museums, Mixing, and Myths of Origin, edited by Bergeron, Yves et Rivet, Michèle. COFOM Study Series 49, no. 2: 132146 or online 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, John 1823 [1690]. Second Treaties of Government. London: Thomas Tegg; W. Sharpe and Son.Google Scholar
Lormier, James 1884. The Institutes of the Law of Nations, Vol. II. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.Google Scholar
Lorimer, James. 1884. “La doctrine de la reconnaissance, fondement du droit international.” Revue de droit international et de législation comparée, no. 1: 333395.Google Scholar
Loucaides, Loukis. 2004. “The Protection of the Right to Property in Occupied Territories.” The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 53, no. 3: 677690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, Michael. 2010. “Sklaverei, Knechtschaft und Kolonialismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert” (book review). H-Soz-Kult, 3.9.2010, available from hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-11717.Google Scholar
Martens, Fyodor Fyodorovich. 1883. Völkerrecht: Das internationale Recht der civilisirten Nationen systematisch dargestellt, Vol. 1. Berlin: Weidmann.Google Scholar
Martin, Edward. 2021. The Application of the Doctrine of Intertemporality on Contentious Proceedings. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maugham, Justice. 1932. Report to the Governor of Northern Rhodesia by the Commissioner. London: H.M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 2000. Colonizing Hawai’i: The Cultural Power of Law. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mihatsch, Moritz and Mulligan, Michael. 2022. “Sovereignty in Africa and the specter of Wilson.” In The End of Western Hegemonies?, edited by Lavallée, Marie-Josée, 3562. Wilmington: Vernon Press.Google Scholar
Miles, Margaret. 2017. “War and Passion: Who Keeps the Art?“ Journal of International Law 49, no. 1: 522.Google Scholar
Nahlik, Stanislaw E. 1976. “International Law and the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflicts.” Hastings LJ 27: 1069–987.Google Scholar
Nuzzo, Luigi. 2017. “Territory, Sovereignty, and the Construction of the Colonial Space.” In International Law and Empire: Historical Explorations, edited by Koskenniemi, M., Rech, W., and Fonseca, J.M., 263–92. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nüremberg International Military Tribunal. 1946 [1947]. American Journal of International Law 41: 248249.Google Scholar
O’Keefe, Roger. 2006. The Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ojo, Idahosa, and Ekhator, Eghosa. 2020. “Pre-colonial legal system in Africa: An assessment of indigenous laws of Benin Kingdom before 1897.” Journal of Benin and Edo Studies 5: 3873.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, Lassa. 1905. International Law: A Treatise. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Phillimore, Robert. 1901. “Booty of war.” Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, no. 2: 214230.Google Scholar
Plessis, Elmien du. 2011. “African Indigenous Land Rights in a Private Ownership Paradigm.” Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 14, no. 7: 4569.Google Scholar
Pradier-Fodere, Paul. 1897. Traité de droit international public europeen et americain suivant les progres de la science et de la pratique contemporaines, Vol. 7. Paris: Pedone.Google Scholar
Project of an International Declaration concerning the Laws and Customs of War Brussels, 27 August 1874.Google Scholar
Quynn, Dorothy Mackay. 1945. “The Art Confiscations of the Napoleonic Wars.” The American Historical Review 50, no. 3: 437460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quashigah, Kofi. 2008. “The historical development of the legal system of Ghana: An example of the coexistence of two systems of law.” A Journal of Legal History 14, no. 2: 95114.Google Scholar
Raič, David, 2002. Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddie, James. 1851. Inquiries in International Law, Public and Private. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.Google Scholar
Saksena, Priyasha. 2019. “Jousting Over Jurisdiction: Sovereignty and International Law in Late Nineteenth-Century South Asia.” Law and History Review 28, no. 2: 409457.Google Scholar
Sandholtz, Wayne. 2007. Prohibiting Plunder, How Norms Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandholtz, Wayne. 2010. “Plunder, Restitution, and International Law.” International Journal of Cultural Property 17, no. 2: 147176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarr, Felwine, and Savoy, Bénédicte. 2018. The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics, Ministerial Report No. 2018-26 (Eng. Version). Paris: French Ministry of Culture.Google Scholar
Savoy, Bénédicte. 2010. Kunstraub. Napoleons Konfiszierungen in Deutschland und die europäischen Folgen. Mit einem Katalog der Kunstwerke aus deutschen Sammlungen im Musée Napoléon. Wien: Böhlau.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schöneberg, Sophie. 2021. Was soll zurück? Die Restitution von Kulturgütern im Zeitalter der Nostalgie. München: C.H. Beck.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stahn, Carsten. 2023. Confronting Colonial Objects: Histories, Legalities, and Access to Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schutzgebietsgesetz in der Fassung der Bekanntmachung vom 10. September 1900, Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt 1900, no. 40: 812817.Google Scholar
Simon, Hendrik. 2018. “The myth of liberum ius ad bellum: Justifying war in 19th-century legal theory and political practice.” European Journal of International Law 29, no.1: 113136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinitsina, Irina. 1987. “African Legal Tradition: J. M. Sarbah, J. B. Danquah, N. A. Ollennu.” Journal of African Law 31, no. 1–2: 4457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smets, Maxim. 2020. Le rêve d’un roi: Congo Free State and Its Unlikely Existence in 19th-Century International Law. Leuven: KU Leuven.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert. 1979The Lagos Consulate 1851–1861. Berkely: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southern Rhodesia Order in Council of the 20 October 1898.Google Scholar
Spira, Sebastian. 2020. “Civilisation, Protection, Restitution: A Critical History of International Cultural Heritage Law in the 19th and 20th Century.” JHIL 22: 329354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surun, Isabell (ed.). 2020. La France et l’Afrique 1830–1962. Neuilly: Atlande.Google Scholar
Sylvest, Casper. 2008. “Our Passion for Legality’: International Law and Imperialism in Late Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Review of International Studies 34, no. 3: 403423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thiers, Adolphe. 1848. The Rights of Property: A Refutation of Communism & Socialism. London: R. Groombridge & Sons.Google Scholar
Tomba, Massimiliano. 2019. Insurgent Universality: An Alternative Legacy of Modernity. New York: Oxford Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turton, T.E.M. 1836. “The Appeal-Rescinding Act (To Amicus Curiae).” The Calcutta Monthly Journal 2: 179–81.Google Scholar
Twiss, Travers. 1875. The Law of Nations. Considered as Independent Political Communities. Oxford/London: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tzouvala, Ntina. 2020. Capitalism As Civilisation A History of International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Linden, Mieke. 2017. The Acquisition of Africa (1870–1914) The Nature of International Law. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vattel, Emer de. 2008 [1758]. The Law of Nations: Or, Principles of the Law of Nature Applied to the conduct and affairs of Nations and Sovereigns (translated by Thomas Nugent). Philadelphia: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Vattel, Emer de. 1883. Vattel. 1883. The Law of Nations: Or, Principles of the Law of Nature Applied to the conduct and affairs of Nations and Sovereigns (translated by Chitty, Joseph). Philadelphia: T&J.W. Johnson.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Bermúdez, Marcelo. 2019. First Report on General Principles of Law, UN Doc A/CN.4/732.Google Scholar
Vec, Miloš. 2017. Sources in the 19th Century European Tradition. The Myth of Positivism.“ In Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law, edited by Besson, Samantha and d’Aspremont, Jean, 121145. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Verdross, Alfred. 1955. Völkerrecht. Wien: Springer Verlag CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verfügung des Reichskanzlers, betr. die Ausführung der Allerhöchsten Verordnung vom 26. November 1895, 27.11.1895.Google Scholar
Verri, Pietro. 1985. “The condition of cultural property in armed conflicts – From Antiquity to World War II.” International Review of the Red Cross, no. 246.Google Scholar
Vidari, Ercole. 1865. Del rispetto della proprietà privata dei popoli belligeranti. Milan: Fratelli Borroni.Google Scholar
Visscher, Charles. 1949. International Protection of Works of Art and Historic Monuments. Washington: Dept. of State, 827828.Google Scholar
Wallace-Bruce, Nii Lante. 1985. “Africa and International Law – the Emergence to Statehood.” Journal of Modern African Studies 23, no. 4: 575602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
War declaration of the French National Assembly, 20 April 1792.Google Scholar
Westlake, John. 1894. Chapters on the Principles of International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wheaton, Henry. 1916. Wheaton’s Elements of International Law. London: Stevens and Sons.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yue. 2018. “Customary International Law and the Rule Against Talking Cultural Property as Spoils of War.” Chinese Journal of International Law 17, no. 4: 943989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar