Dr. Erica Jones

Dr. Erica P. Jones is the Senior Curator of African Arts and Manager of Curatorial Affairs at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Since joining the Fowler, she has curated or co-curated many exhibitions including Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power (2018), Inheritance: Recent Video Art from Africa (2019), and The House Was Too Small: Yoruba Sacred Arts from Nigeria and Beyond (2023). Jones is on the board of African Arts Journal and is co-chair of the Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices for North American Museums Holding African Objects Working Group. Her publishing centers on colonial-era provenance and the arts of the Cameroon Grassfields.

Restoring Our Soul: Fowler Museum’s Restitution to the Asante Kingdom in Ghana

Abstract

Early in February 2024, the Fowler Museum at UCLA became the first American institution to permanently return seven objects to the Asante Kingdom in Ghana. The objects were among many taken or extorted by the British Army during the 1874 Sagranti War (Sir Garnet Wolsley’s War) when households and the King’s Palace in Kumase were looted and burnt down. The return of the seven objects coincided with the 150^th Anniversary of the Sagranti War and on Thursday, February 8, the objects were presented to the Asante King, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the people of Asanteman during a commemoration event on the palace grounds. In this joint presentation, Jones and Ampene will discuss how the objects got to the Fowler Museum, the process of restitution, institutional bottlenecks at UCLA and in the US, negotiating international laws, tensions, shipping and clearing at Air Cargo in Accra-Ghana, and the final presentation in Kumase.