Itohan I. Osayimwese

Itohan I. Osayimwese, a professor of architectural and urban history who studies colonialism and African architecture. She traces the violent removal of African building parts and how museums recast them as ornament. She examines case studies from Dendera to Great Zimbabwe and Benin, discusses chains of removal and memory loss, and calls for proper naming, restitution, and new museum practices.

Itohan Osayimwese, Professor at Brown and author of Africa's Buildings, explores how colonial powers dismantled African architecture and reframed fragments as curiosities. She traces the practice from Roman Egypt to Benin 1897. Conversations cover ornament versus structure, museum alienation, teaching decolonial history, and creative approaches to restitution and reintegration of displaced architectural elements.

Itohan I. Osayimwese, a Brown professor of architectural and urban history focused on African built environments, recounts how colonial agents dismantled African buildings and rebranded architectural parts as art. She traces violent 'dismemberment' across the continent. The conversation covers museum mislabeling, restitution debates, case studies like Benin and Great Zimbabwe, and how repatriation could restore cultural memory.