Looking to the Past to Create the Future
By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani A group of African Americans has filed a lawsuit to stop the return of some Benin Bronzes from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC to Nigeria. They claim that the bronzes - looted by British colonialists in the 19th Century from the kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria - …
Continue reading "Why slave descendants want the Benin Bronzes to stay in US — BBC"
EMAIL THE VICE PRESIDENT & THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BOARD OF REGENTS: To: wilkinsonp@si.edu Cc: rsgincorp1@gmail.com Dear Vice President Harris & Smithsonian Board of Regents, Don't transfer Benin bronzes to Nigeria and slave trader heirs. Most were made with manilla currency paid in exchange for enslaved people! Save them for heirs of the enslaved! THEY BELONG TO ALL …
Continue reading "CALL TO ACTION! STOP THE BENIN BRONZE TRANSFERS"
Human Rights Group Succeeds at First Step In Fight to Block Transfer of Bronzes to Heirs of Slave Traders On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, counsel for the Restitution Study Group (RSG), a New York non-profit concerned with slavery justice, and the Smithsonian Institution appeared before Judge Christopher R. Cooper in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia …
Human Rights Advocates Oppose Transfer of 16th-19th Century Slave Trade Bronzes Washington, D.C. Benin bronze photo by Kamm Howard The Restitution Study Group (RSG), a New York-metro area non-profit concerned with slavery justice, and its Executive Director, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, are Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Friday, October 7, 2022, against the Smithsonian Institution in the …
Continue reading "SMITHSONIAN HIT WITH LAWSUIT TO STOP BENIN BRONZE TRANSFER TO NIGERIA"
August 15, 2022 Re: Charity Number 802725 To Charitable Commissions Representative, We are the Restitution Study Group, a United States based non-profit organization concerned with slavery justice. This letter is submitted on behalf of UK, Caribbean Commonwealth nation, and USA citizens whose ancestors were enslaved in exchange for metal manillas that were melted and cast into the Benin bronzes. Slave …
Continue reading "RESTITUTION STUDY GROUP – CLAIM IN OPPOSITION TO TRANSFER OF BENIN BRONZES"
World Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2021 Honorable President Joseph R. Biden, we applaud your recognition of the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, where over 1.5 million people were killed in mass and forced to erase their religious identity in 1915. Who better to make this acknowledgement than the United States under your …
Attorney Deadria Farmer-Paellmann talked about her work as the Founder and Executive Director of the Restitution Study Group, dedicated to researching and exposing corporate complicity in slavery, and as Co-Chair of the Organization of Tribal Unity – OTU that unites families separated by the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Check out the conversation here.
New York, NY September 14, 2021 --(PR.com)-- Today, Liberated Capital, Decolonizing Wealth Project’s donor community and funding vehicle focused on providing resources to Black, Indigenous and other communities of color, officially announced the Restitution Study Group (RSG) as part of the inaugural cohort who will receive funding to support local, regional and national movement-building and …
The woman who took on big companies with links to slavery “I really wanted to know who I was” Deadria Farmer-Paellmann grew up in Brooklyn, never knowing where in Africa her family were from. She found the term African-American troubling: Africa is a whole continent, with many countries and people within it. “I really wanted …
In 2002, descendants of African slaves filed a historic class-action lawsuit in U.S. federal court demanding reparations from financial, railroad, tobacco, insurance and textile companies that had benefited from their predecessors. Reparations lawyer Deadria Farmer-Paellmann was tasked with proving direct links between the plaintiffs and the slave trade, so she submitted to the court DNA …
Restitution Study Group 