Chimamanda Adichie asks us to think about what should happen when an important object was taken from a person or community without permission. What do you think would be fair to do? Can you think of 3 reasons why an important object should be returned? What reasons can you imagine someone might use to justify keeping the objects? Adichie explains that while some institutions and nations have agreed to return looted items, others have argued that Africans will not take good care of the items and the items therefore shouldn’t be returned. Until very recently, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston had a large collection of items from the Benin Kingdom that were loaned to it by a private collector. According to the museum’s website, careful research revealed that many of these items were acquired through the British looting of Benin City in the late 1800s. Given this, the MFA decided to give almost the entire collection back to the person who loaned the items to the museum (the museum couldn’t return it directly to Nigeria since they didn’t own the items). https://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance/colonial-era-provenance Do you think this was the right thing for the museum to do? Why or why not? Once he received the items back, the donor chose to keep them in his private collection instead of returning them to Nigeria. What would you have done if you were him?

Secondly, her speech made me think of a unit that kindergarten students at my students do at the beginning of the school year that focuses on heirlooms and traditions as a way to introduce themselves to their class and as a way to appreciate the unique backgrounds and families that they represent.  I am thinking about how the Ikenga ties in with that idea and how this unit that the students do could be expanded to include other grades and even faculty and staff as a way of introduction, connection, and sharing.

I appreciate how thought-provoking this speech is. It is one that I want to sit with for a while and revisit again.

Question we can ask our students: Have you been in a situation where only one side of the story was shared?  How do we decide which story to believe?  An exercise would be to ask each student to think about something precious in their family - an heirloom, a gift, something of value and to write a story about it.  If they can't bring in the item, take a photo to send in or draw a picture of it.

After all have had a chance to share, let them know ahead of time that something is going to happen to their objects.  (You might need to tell them they will eventually be returned depending on your students).  Stage a heist after school one day and take all the objects and arrange them "museum style" in another space.  You could leave foot prints for younger students to set the scene.  Invite the students to enter that space to view these precious objects someone found.  You could even make up labels describing a story about the item, where it was found, how much it was worth, etc. 

I wouldn't spend a lot of time in that space as emotions could rise quite quickly.  Return to class and scribe for the students what that felt like.  How did it feel to have your precious object displayed in a different place?  How did it feel to read a different "story" of your object.  (You might consider writing some descriptions exactly how the student described it so they don't leave the experience thinking all descriptions of objects are disingenuine.) 

Make the connection to items in museums and co-create critical questions to ask when viewing objects.  You might create a slide show of specific African artifacts and their published "story."  Generate what other questions we could ask when reading a "story."

She asks us to think about what should happen when an important object is taken from a person or community without permission. I would ask my students "What would be fair to do? How can listening to the people connected to an object help us make respectful decisions? I am curious of how they will respond as we are learning about Justice and Injustice through the Children Discovering Justice Curriculum, which will eventually lead into Justice and Native Peoples in third grade.

As an activity, I'd consider having students draw one important item of their choosing to be displayed in a museum. I would ask them to write a short story or poem that shares its story.

I really appreciated when she said "we cannot be dismissive of a history because we are uncomfortable with it" and truly believe that children rise to the occasion of speaking about "hard" history. I love that the majority of her speech here was told in stories. I think it is so valuable for students to hear and connect with people stories. Years ago, during a lesson about reconstruction, one of my 4th grade students raise his hand in complete disgust that once all enslaved people were no longer enslaved, that they were not honorable paid back for all the work they had previously done. He had never heard the work reparations, and just genuinely believed in his heart that monatary reparations should have been the starting point. 

In our conversations about slavery we talk so much about the material things that were taken from people, but we also bring up the emotional things that were taken from people. My students often speak about powerful ideas of resistance and how someone can take away your belongings but they cannot take away your joy or intellect. I would love to show them parts of this video and ask them the following question: 

The speaker asks us to think about what should happen when an important object was taken from a person or community without permission.
Questions you can ask your students: What would be fair to do? How can listening to the people connected to an object help us make respectful decisions?

This question helps students talk about cultures and traditions. Something that is low stress and easily relatable to students.

A follow up question to connect to my curriculum can be: Think about your routine every morning, what type of invention would you create to help your life at home or in school?

This brave woman stood in front of Germany's leaders and the British museum director and told them, while "standing ten toes down", that they should return the art that was stolen during Colonialism. She lists several reasons why these historical objects should be returned to Africa.

One critique is that Africans will not take care of these works of art. This objection is so patronizing! She said that the current policy is "retain and explain". This is evidence of persistent colonialism.

The speaker also says that Europe continues to view their dealings with Africa as if it needs charity. What it needs is for the art and artifacts to be returned.

She began with the story of someone giving up their spirit stick, and later says that not all wounds are visible. Yet, she opens the metaphorical eyes of the audience members to the wound and reminds them to do the right thing and restore the objects to their homes.

What forms of repair do they propose? The development of prosperous economies and the return of stollen artifacts. There are also proposals for the preservation of sacred sites and community development.

Who are the key actors (perpetrators, victims, advocates for justice)? The European colonial powers are the primary perpetrators.  The descendants of people from Africa who were forced into slavery are the victims of the intergenerational harm and they are also advocates for justice. 

What results do they hope to achieve? What connections emerge between demands coming from Africa for justice for historical crimes and the demands coming from Afro-descendants in the US and beyond? How do the demands seem to converge? Do they diverge? If so, how?  

I think there are common threads in terms of the desire for accountability through acknowledgment and active repair work.  There is an acknowledgment aspect that is connected to the historical wrongs perpetrated by the colonial powers--and the need to make public space for learning about these historical wrongs.  

Work around climate repair is particular case where there is a need to recognize that Africa has emitted little relative to the total historical emission, yet is disproportionately effected by the harms of climate change.  Climate justice means pursuing long-term solutions that are responsive to repairing historical wrongs.

Listening to the stories that connect people and objects helps us to understand the meaning of the objects.  In an earlier module, we were asked to consider questions of what something means to "us" and what something might mean to those who are "unlike us".  These kind of questions look at meaning from a point of view of social construction.  With students, we can try to explore the multiple meanings of objects and then think about the values behind those meanings.   In terms of reparations, one must consider the meaning and importance of objects to the original owners and the rightful heirs. Otherwise, there is no repair.