Selective Memory and the Steindorff Case: What We Choose to Forget

Between 2019 - 2026, Open Restitution Africa (ORA) set out to map and document the processes that underpin the restitution of African heritage material from the perspective of Africans actively engaged in restitution work. 

Data gathered from 2023 - 2025 yielded a first-of-its-kind qualitative dataset comprising 25 in-depth restitution case studies from 13 African countries. Collated through a bespoke research methodology that prioritised oral history and the lived experiences of African communities, ORA worked with case study researchers from various countries to document how restitution happens and who or what is involved in moving restitution forward at a grassroots level. 

The result is a data set that encompasses 200 years of African restitution efforts structured into a series of ‘events’ - consolidated moments, occurrences, and/or activities related to the restitution of a belonging or human ancestor within each case study. It is designed to offer a comparative and synthesized analysis of the processes that underpin the restitution of African material cultural heritage. It also serves as evidence-based that can influence future decision-making around restitution structures, policies, and governance frameworks.

The case studies are drawn from Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

This dataset focuses on the little-known dispute over the Ownership Rights of the Steindorff Egyptian Belongings. The Georg Steindorff Collection, comprising 163 Egyptian belongings, is a central, yet complex, component of the Egyptian Museum-Georg Steindorff at Leipzig University in Germany. In the 1910s loose colonial regulations of archaeological expeditions enabled Georg Steindorff, a Jewish-German Egyptologist, to extract belongings from multiple sites in Egypt, including Giza, Qua and Aniba (Nubia). During the 1940s, at the height of the Holocaust, Steindorff was assumedly coerced into selling the collection to Leipzig University before fleeing to the United States. 

This case study applies a critical lens to the restitution journey that led to the legal ownership of this Egyptian collection being awarded to the Claims Conference, despite demands to have the collection repatriated to Egypt, and reflects on the double-standards in German museums' restitution agenda. 

Guidelines:

As you engage with this data, please keep in mind that the case studies represent independent, grassroots research. They aren’t intended to be definitive or final accounts; rather, they reflect the specific perspectives and evidence each researcher prioritised at the time of their investigation. Because these stories are part of an evolving conversation, details may shift as new research comes to light.

We encourage you to approach this data with an appreciation for the multiplicity of perspectives involved. We further encourage you to triangulate these findings with other sources—such as oral histories, community records, and academic publications—to form your own view. 

Ultimately, the heart of Open Restitution Africa’s work is to center African voices and empower all stakeholders to make better-informed decisions, helping us collectively enrich the knowledge base needed for the holistic repair of the harms caused by the loss of African material heritage.