A senior lecturer at the Department of Archaeology of the University of Ghana, Dr Wazi Apoh, has joined the people of the Akpini Traditional Area at Kpando to call for the repatriation of artefacts seized by the Germans during the colonial days, which are being kept in a museum in Berlin, Germany.
The artefacts include drums, smocks, amulets, headdress, ceramic vessels and two ivory horns built with human jaws and bones.
Significant artefacts
The two notable artefacts that the Germans took from the Akpini people in the beginning of the 20th century were the ivory horns built with human jaws and a war horn created by the reigning King of the Akpini Traditional Area, Togbe Dagadu III. The Germans also arrested the king and exiled him to Douala in Cameroon on March 11, 1914.
Dr Apoh said the horns were unique and served as an important heritage of the Akpini people because they were used ritually to bring the people of the community together.
He, therefore, said keeping the artefacts in a German museum was unethical because they were unfairly seized and exported to Germany to serve the needs of the colonial agents instead of using the artefacts to promote tourism at Kpando.
Discovery of the artefacts in Germany
Dr Apoh, who visited Germany on a research trip to discover the artefacts, said if the artefacts were returned, they could be held temporarily in the palace of the paramount chief of Kpando, pending the construction of a memory centre or museum at Kpando to promote heritage education or the rehabilitation of the German colonial building at Kpando Todzi for the preservation of the artefacts.
Relevance of the artefacts
He said the repatriation of the artefacts to Kpando would attract curious tourists and contribute to the revival of the local economy at Kpando.
In another development, Dr Apoh has called for the enactment of a Heritage Impact Assessment law to guide real estate development, mining, exploration, road construction and allied constructional industries in order to protect the heritage of the nation.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a field study by Level 400 students of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Ghana at the Galenkui Hills in Ho to investigate the lifestyles of the German colonialists who settled there from 1880 to 1914.
Dr Apoh suggested that the discoveries from excavations by the students could be used to establish the German/Asogli cultural heritage site to promote tourism.
