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A Postcolonial Critique of African Cultural Heritage Laws Using Notions of Communitarianism and Relationality under the Concept of African Renaissance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2025

A.W. Ngurumi Open the ORCID record for A.W. Ngurumi [Opens in a new window]  and
F. Kariuki
A.W. Ngurumi*
Affiliation:
Strathmore University Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, 00200, Kenya
F. Kariuki
Affiliation:
Strathmore University Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, 00200, Kenya
*
Corresponding author: Andrew Ngurumi; Email: andrew.ngurumi@strathmore.edu
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Abstract

This article aims to explain the strains and paradoxes of how African communities have been unable to obtain legal access and control to expropriated or stolen cultural heritage held in foreign museums despite their increased participation in international cultural heritage law. Further, it outlines the strained relationship between communities’ participation in cultural heritage governance under international cultural heritage law and cultural heritage law in Kenya. Using a postcolonial critique, this article examines these cultural heritage laws using notions of communitarianism and relationality in relation to the African Renaissance. It is demonstrated that communities should have increased participation in cultural heritage governance and, as a result, access to and control over their appropriated cultural heritage held in foreign museums. The purpose of a post-colonial critique of cultural heritage laws seeks to allow states and communities to listen to each other as opposed to one replacing the other in matters of cultural heritage.

Keywords

postcolonial critiqueAfrican cultural heritage lawscommunitarianismrelationalityAfrican Renaissance

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Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 31 , Special Issue 4: The African Renaissance and International Cultural Heritage Law , November 2024 , pp. 496 - 509
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Cultural Property Society

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