Uganda, Cambridge and the Afterlives of Return

Following the return of objects and human remains from Cambridge University to Uganda, curator Eva Namusoke asks: what happens when artefacts return home?

Abstract

Despite the many public calls for restitution and repatriation, there have been relatively few permanent returns of African cultural heritage or ancestral remains from the UK. 

‘Afterlives of Return’ is a research project within the African Collections Futures project focused on the June 2024 return of 33 artefacts and the sacred remains of six people from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge to the Uganda Museum, on a renewable three-year-loan. Despite this being a loan, the Ugandan government has made public that they are approaching this as a pathway to repatriation. While public discourse focuses on repatriation, this project is bringing together communities inside and outside academia and museums to ask: what happens after artefacts return home? 

In the earlier stages of the project, this talk will focus on the background to this return, its current context, and the larger questions it poses.

Speaker

Dr Eva Namusoke is Senior Curator, African Collections Futures, working across collections from and about the African continent in the University of Cambridge’s museums, garden, libraries, archives, and departments. Eva published a report on these collections in December 2024. She was the curator of Bound Together: Leather from Northern Nigeria (2025-2026) at The Fitzwilliam Museum. 

Eva’s history PhD from the University of Cambridge focused on the development of the Anglican church in Uganda post-independence. She obtained an MA in African Studies from Yale University. After her PhD, Eva worked on the Commonwealth Oral History Project at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) in London, followed by roles in academia, public health, and policy research in Mauritius and Kampala.

Image: June 2024 return of 33 artefacts and the sacred remains of six people from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge to the Uganda Museum.