Restitution and return of looted royal heritage: the role of Ghanaian chiefs and queens in sustaining heritage traditions

In interrogating this discourse on the restitution and return of looted royal objects, ourrole and input in this conversation as traditional leaders in Ghanaian communities areinevitable. This is in the light of the fact that the source of most of these looted royalart objects unlawfully placed in German and some European museums are from theVolta Basin area of Ghana, formerly part of German Togoland. We argue that factoringin the views of chiefs and queens, being traditional leaders of communities inAfrica, provides a better understanding of the origin and contexts of the use of mostof these pirated cultural objects highlighted in the restitution and repatriation debates.