African Heritage in Ireland: Connecting with the African Spirit

Pictured: Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo standing in front of his exhibition at Blanchardstown Library.

Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo

Dedicated to Oluyemisi 'Ronke Adebisi' Cole

(19/07/1972 - 4/07/2024)

I met the legend, Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo, when he had his exhibition, African Heritage in Ireland: Connecting with the African Spirit, at Blanchardstown Library. He passionately told me about an ongoing discussion to retrieve the African artifacts that had been housed in numerous museums scattered throughout Europe. I greatly share his enthusiasm.

Pictured: Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo and Yinka Parm.

Collection once constituted under imperial conditions, and that for all of Ireland's 20th-century post-colonial good intentions, retained the status of subaltern, neo-imperialist marginalia, can now be represented for an audience of 'new Irish', containing a living representation of the very culture from which these objects connotes their actual history.1 

This exhibition is curated against the background of the global debate on the restitution, repatriation, and reparation of objects of African cultural heritage in European museums from which Ireland has been largely absent despite the presence of extensive collections of objects of African cultural heritage in both the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, and National Museum of Northern Ireland Belfast. This omission is understandable given the unique geo-cultural political history of Ireland as a post-colonial country in Europe.

This exhibition, featuring 10 objects selected from the collections of both national museums on the island of Ireland, aims to spark interest in African cultural heritage objects in Irish museums, especially among Africans whose identity is tied to these objects. The exhibition draws attention to African communities to the significance of reconnecting with African heritage, which these objects represent in the projection of Africanness in Ireland.

The research for this exhibition received support from the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, and the Ulster Museum, Belfast, the Trinity, Long Room Hub and History Department, Trinity College Dublin, and the school of History, Anthropology, Philosopy and Politics, Queens University Belfast, Belfast Northern Ireland, as well as the History Department, UNISA, South Africa.

Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo

Dr. Olusegun Morakinyo is a distinguished Afrocentric scholar and Research Associate at the University of South Africa. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. His research focuses on the provenance and curatorial history of African collections in Irish museums, supported by a Royal Irish Academy grant.

A former Writer-in-Residence at Stellenbosch Museum and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Fort Hare, he has completed postdoctoral studies across multiple South African universities. From 2007-2014, he coordinated the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of the Western Cape and Robben Island Museum.

His publications address African philosophy, museum ethics, and heritage studies, including "Afrocentric Turn in African Heritage Studies" and "Transformation of Archives and Heritage Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa." He holds a B.A. in Philosophy (OAU, Nigeria), M.Sc. in Equality Studies (UCD), and a Ph.D. in History (UWC, South Africa).

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1Cooke, P, 'Imperious post-colonialism: dealing with the National Museum of Ireland's non-European collections in a Free State'. In: Exhibit Ireland: Ethnographic Collections in Irish Museums. Dublin: Wordwell, 2012, pp.171-186.182.p.182.