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  "path": "/news/brighton-woke-museum-treasures-africa",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-28T05:54:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Fears Thames shipwreck could be targeted by drones - sparking 'mass loss of life' and even tsunami",
    "Council threatens to prosecute flag-raisers subjected to 'violent physical attacks by left-wing mob'",
    "Britain's oldest theme park forced to move rides away as it teeters on the edge of a cliff",
    "the Benin Bronzes",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nA museum will send treasures back to Africa to \"give them meaning\" - despite the artefacts being bought legally.\n\nBrighton and Hove Museums will send its historic jewellery and accessories to Botswana, their country of origin.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nMuseums have faced demands to \"return\" artefacts before, but bosses offered a new explanation for why these ones deserved to be shipped abroad.\n\nCurators said returning them to their original African \"context\" would give them a significance they lacked in Britain.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\nPortia Tremlett, the curator of world cultures at Brighton and Hove Museums, said: \"This repatriation represents an important step in reconnecting these artefacts with the communities, histories and knowledge systems that give them meaning.\"\n\nShe said the return of the artefacts could be the \"start of something\" and hoped other museums would \"follow the example\".\n\nThe 45 objects were collected in the 19th century by missionary Rev William Charles Willoughby, who was respected in Botswana and legally acquired all of the artefacts.\n\nThe missionary was a friend and adviser to Khama III, the leader of the Bamangwato people, in the area which would eventually become Botswana.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nHe accompanied Khama III to Britain in 1895 when the Christian leader had an audience with Queen Victoria.\n\nMr Willougby's collection includes charms, necklaces, bracelets, hats, a walking stick, sandals, and porridge spoons.\n\nIt was donated to museum collections in Brighton where the reverend served as a minister before his move to Africa.\n\nBrighton and Hove Museums received a request for the collection's return in 2022.\n\n### READ MORE FROM THE SOUTH EAST:\n\n\n\n\n  * Fears Thames shipwreck could be targeted by drones - sparking 'mass loss of life' and even tsunami\n  * Council threatens to prosecute flag-raisers subjected to 'violent physical attacks by left-wing mob'\n  * Britain's oldest theme park forced to move rides away as it teeters on the edge of a cliff\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe request was made at a time when Nigeria had pushed for the Benin Bronzes, acquired in 1897, to be returned.\n\nIn February, The University of Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology announced it will return more than 116 of the artefacts to Nigeria.\n\nDespite the Bamangwato collection not being stolen, curators in both Africa and Brighton believe it would have greater value in Botswana to teach younger generations about their disappearing traditional culture.\n\nGase Kediseng, curator at the Khama III Memorial Museum, said: \"The return represents more than just a physical relocation, it is an act of restoration.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"Repatriation reconnects objects to living knowledge, memory and cultural practices, reflecting similar efforts worldwide in which communities reclaim their heritage.\n\n\"Rooted in botho, this process affirms dignity, identity, and material culture, empowering Botswana to tell their own story on their own terms through objects that represent who we were, and who we continue to be.\"\n\nThe British Museum, however, is bound by law to keep collections intact, making following in the footsteps of the Brighton group much more difficult.\n\nIn December, the museum sent 80 treasures to India in a move to \"decolonise\" and establish \"cultural diplomacy\" with the former British colony.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "British museum to send treasures back to Africa to 'give them meaning' - even though they were bought legally"
}