{UAH} British university holds onto Bunyoro cultural artifacts

British university holds onto Bunyoro cultural artifactsPublish Date: Jul 28, 2013

The Omukama of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom Solomon Gafabusa Iguru 1 with the Queen, Margret Karunga

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 By Pascal Kwesiga

The University of Oxford in UK has confirmed it is keeping 279 cultural artifacts that were taken from Bunyoro during the colonial period. The university, however, says it has no plans to send back the items since nobody has asked for them officially.

 

The curator and joint head of collections at Pitt Rivers Museum at the university, Jeremy Coote, confirmed in an email that they were keeping 279 items from Bunyoro. They include: Omukama Kabalega's throne, vessels, ornaments, medical equipment and baskets. These items are in the "most important" category of collections at the museum.

 

"One of the most important areas of the museum's collections from Uganda are materials from the kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara, numbering 279 objects. The museum holds an eight-legged wooden stool (throne) that is said to have been used by Omukama Kabalega," Coote said.

 

Bunyoro Kingdom has maintained that Omukama Kabalega's throne was "stolen" by Col. Henry Colville in 1894 when he was the commissioner and consul general of the Queen of Great Britain in Uganda. Kabalega was captured in 1899 following nine years of fighting the colonial government. He insisted that his throne had nine legs, not eight.

 

"The throne has nine legs and that is why the subjects are referred as Emyeenda ya Bunyoro Kitara," said Apollo Rwamparo, the Kingdom's minister for tourism, conservation, trade and cooperatives.

 

Coote explained that a possible return of the artefacts would only be considered after receiving a formal request from Bunyoro. However, there is no guarantee that such a request would be followed by a return of the artifacts. The university board would have to sit and make a decision based on the legal position and ethical considerations.

 

The university says 30 of the artifacts from Bunyoro were donated to the university by Dr. Akiki Kanyarusoke Nyabongo, a prince from the breakaway kingdom of Toro, who wrote his doctorate on Ugandan religion at the University in the 1930s. Others were collected by the Rev. John Roscoe between 1919 and 1920 in collaboration with the then king and donated to the institution in 1922. Roscoe reportedly worked in the king's court.

 

Coote stated that the collections from Bunyoro have been on permanent exhibition on the lower gallery of the museum in a display entitled 'Rank and Status in Bunyoro' since 1999.

 

"The collections are used for teaching and research by staff and students of the university and by visiting researchers from all over the world. The public galleries are visited by more than 350,000 people a year," he added.

 

However, Rwamparo disputed Coote's explanations, saying there is no way a Bunyoro king could have given his throne to the British voluntarily. "It (the throne) is a symbol of authority and it is where the king derives the power. One who takes it has dethroned you," he explained.

 

The Omukama of Bunyoro, Solomon Iguru, recently demanded that Britain returns the artifacts. Coote explained that they discussed with the Omukama and his entourage the potential collaborations between Bunyoro and the museum during his visit to the university in 2011.

 

"There was a discussion about the plans to develop a museum in Bunyoro and how, if that happened, the Bunyoro museum and the Pitt Rivers museum might be able to work on joint projects relating to the collections," he said.

 

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Gwokto La'Kitgum