Restitution and the ‘missing body’: South Africa and Austria in question

3rd Annual Heritage Lecture 

Professor Ciraj Rassool

University of the Western Cape

This lecture was given on Thursday 26th February 2020 at St Catharine's College

A recording of the lecture can be found on our Resources Page

About the lecture

For the 3rd Annual Heritage Lecture hosted by the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, Professor Ciraj Rassool discussed the history of collecting by the Austrian anthropologist Rudolf Pöch in southern Africa in the first decade of the 20th century that led to the restitution of the remains of Klaas and Trooi Pienaar in 2012. It examines the specific characteristics of this restitution process, such as how it was framed as a project of rehumanisation, how the process got stalled amidst failing diplomacy between Austria and South Africa, and also what the potential is for its resuscitation.

Finally the talk was interested to discuss the meaning of restitution for museums, for questions of memory and memorial in South Africa, especially when it is located within the framework of forensic history and its developing concern with 'missingness' and missing bodies as ways of rethinking South Africa and its contested heritage.

About our speaker

Ciraj Rassool is Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape and has directed UWC's African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies. He was on the boards of the District Six Museum and Iziko Museums of South Africa. He has previously chaired the Scientific Committee of the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM), and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the study of the Physical Anthropology Collection ‘Felix von Luschan’ at the Museum of Ethnology at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany.