11 Feb 2014

In an endeavour to combat illicit trafficking of cultural property, the Department of National Museum and Monument is reviewing the laws of Botswana to ratify the first and second protocols of the UNESCO convention.

Deliberating on the draft final report of the review, UNESCO consultant, Prof. Folarin Shyllon, said the provisions of Botswana National Museum and Art Gallery Act of 1967 did not have any policies or guiding principles for any fundamental museum functions such as security of objects in the collection of the museum and inventories.

Prof. Shyllon said this during the process of ratification of the 1954, 1970 and 1995 conventions, which was held in Gaborone on Monday. He said the 1967 Act did not define what antiquity object or cultural property was and the conditions under which they can be traded or exported. “There are no controls of export and import of cultural property,” he said.

He said the act did not have any provision on ownership or transfer of ownership of cultural goods and it did not say anything about security of museums, whether in the public spaces or storerooms.

He also said the act did not have provisions on institutional cooperation between cultural heritage authorities nor did it say anything about measures to be taken against illicit traffickers.

Therefore, Prof. Shyllon said it was necessary to enact a new law for the protection and management of cultural heritage as envisaged by the 1970 convention in order to give the new law efficacy. He advocated for a clear legislation defining cultural property and establishing state ownership of cultural heritage.

He said it was critical to establish Botswana Heritage Resources Agency, or by any other name, as the supreme coordinating body for the protection and preservation of Botswana cultural heritage.

He added that provisions that should be emphasised include prohibiting exportation of cultural objects without the state’s licence, compilation of inventories of cultural property in and out of museums, and registration of antiquities owned by private individuals.

Prof Shyllon said legislation alone could not safeguard the cultural heritage nor prevent trafficking of cultural objects.

Administrative measures must also be deployed to strengthen legislative and regulatory measures. He recommended the establishment of a national data base of cultural property in national and regional museums,  the drawing up of a strategy for preventing and combating illicit traffic, improvement and strengthening of controls at frontier posts and airports, as well as establishment of antiquities police squad.

The new legislation, he said, must regulate both local sale and export of cultural goods, noting that it must control their management, their movements across state boundaries and rights of state pre-emption in their respect.

The objectives of the seminar was to curb illicit trafficking of cultural property since the colonial times, create awareness of the problem and the intent to local communities, prohibit and fight against import, export and transfer of cultural property.

A museum chief curator,  Winani Kgwatalala said if the conventions were ratified, Botswana could use its many bilateral agreements with other countries to lobby for the restitution and access to its collections in the diaspora. ENDS