A Night at the Museum with Ian Sergeant and Sipho Eric Ndlovu

What does it mean for European institutions to house and exhibit African collections in a “post-colonial” world?

Restitution, reparation, and repatriation are the central themes we explore in this short film programme.

Featuring a poetic response to a Yusuf Grillo painting in Sipho Eric Ndlovu’s Musicians in Procession (After Yusuf Grillo), the reclamation of looted artefacts in Festus Toll’s The Story of Ne Kuko, and a midnight break-in to the British Museum in Nii Kwate Owoo’s You Hide Me, this programme is both demanding and reprimanding in its call for institutional change.

Following the films, Ian Sergeant (Curator of Global Majority Collections at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and Sipho Eric Ndlovu (Africanize Artist-in-Residence) will be in conversation, reflecting on their approaches to reimagining the work involved when engaging with African collections.

This event is part of a wider collaboration with the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive.

JGPACA recognises the potential that exists to serve a larger and wider community of users, extending beyond its London-centred location and linking its PanAfrican networks regionally and to Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe. Importantly, JGPACA seeks to enable audiences and participants (communities) in the project to develop their cultural awareness, with a recognition of the complexities of Black identities.

This project is created with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.