The Problem of Ownership in the Return of African Cultural Artifacts: Critical Reflections on Kwame A. Appiah's "Whose Culture Is It?"

Abstract: In this essay, I argue that among the problems that the return of African cultural artifacts portends is the issue of ownership, involving who the legitimate owners of artifacts are and what consequence this has concerning the repatriation or restoration or return of African artifacts to African communities. In the cosmopolitanism of artifacts proposed by Kwame A. Appiah, ownership ought not to supersede the possibility of universal or wider aesthetic appreciation. Appiah argues that such artifacts are individuals' contributions to the world's cultural heritage, which are to be aesthetically appreciated and lived with as works of art and not an exclusive entitlement of a particular culture. What this implies is that the West has no moral obligation to return the cultural artifacts wrongfully taken from Africa, since the question of ownership is still unclear. I critically reflect on Appiah's cosmopolitanism of African cultural artifacts in this essay. I do so by reconstructing the idea of ownership using Ifeanyi Menkiti's Afro-communitarian ideal, which recognizes communal ownership, and by introducing the notion of the African phenomenological aesthetic experience. I demonstrate that the idea of communal ownership necessarily answers the question of ownership, and the notion of African phenomenological aesthetic experience establishes descendants' interest in experiencing and living with cultural artifacts. In turn, I argue that both communal ownership and African phenomenological aesthetic experience show that the West has a moral obligation to return those cultural artifacts belonging to Africa.