The Restitution Africa Forum, a platform aimed at promoting African culture, indigenous relics, and their importance in enhancing the dignity and pride of indigenous education, has been launched in Accra.
The platform seeks to highlight historical misrepresentations of African facts and history that have long been portrayed by the West to the global community, often failing to fully reflect authentic African identity and value systems.
Speaking at the launch event held on March 5, 2026, at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, the Convener of the Forum, Professor Kwasi Nkrumah Boadi, said it is time for Africans to value the norms and principles that define their unique identity—shaped by indigenous wisdom and traditional systems of governance established by their forebears.
“As Africans, we must be proud of the heritage passed on to us by our illustrious forebears, who, despite limited resources, were able to craft values and ideals that shaped our character and provided structured systems of education and governance,” he said.
“That carefully designed ecosystem played a key role in maintaining organised societies, where power naturally devolved from chiefs to opinion leaders, women matriarchs, and other community actors, with minimal conflict over time—before Western systems were imposed on our forebears,” he added.
Professor Boadi also touched on the core message of his book, launched at the event, which draws inspiration from the ideals of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
“Sankofa, the book we launched today, is a call to reflect on our current political, economic, and social realities—not only in Ghana but across the African continent—several decades after the liberation struggles,” he said.
The Principal Investigator of the Restitution Africa Forum and Executive Director of the AG Leventis Digital Centre at the University of Ghana, Professor Kodzo Gavua, added that reclaiming authentic African identity involves using both political and social channels to recover indigenous relics and artefacts taken from the continent during colonial rule.
“The first step towards reclaiming and restoring our invaluable African identity is to advocate and engage governments across the continent to use diplomatic and social channels to retrieve items looted from Africa decades ago by imperial powers—items that hold significant cultural value and help preserve indigenous ideals and the legacies of our predecessors,” he said.
The event brought together academics, researchers, students, media personnel, development partners, policymakers, as well as representatives from the German Embassy and the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Republic of Ghana.
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Story by Sika Togoh | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Gabriel Tecco Mensah
