It is the latest in a series of stolen treasured items to be repatriated to African countries

Seven royal artefacts looted 150 years ago by British colonial forces from Ghana’s ancient Asante kingdom and kept by a US museum have been returned.

It is the latest in a series of stolen treasured items to be repatriated to African countries.

Looted from British-colonised Ghana in the 19th century before being transferred to the Fowler Museum at the University of California in the 1960s, the artefacts included an elephant tail whisk, an ornamental chair made of wood, leather and iron, two gold stool ornaments, a gold necklace and two bracelets.

“We are here … (because) the white man came into Asanteman to loot and destroy it,” Otumfuo Osei Tutu, the king of the Assante kingdom in Ghana’s largest city of Kumasi, said at a presentation ceremony.

After decades of resistance from European and Western governments and museums, the efforts of African countries to repatriate stolen artefacts are paying off with the increasing return of treasured pieces. Activists, though, say thousands more are still out of reach.

The royal items were first received by the kingdom on Monday, which marked the 150th anniversary of when British colonial forces sacked the Asante city in 1874. That was when four of the items were looted while the other three were part of an indemnity payment made by the Asante kingdom to the British, the museum said.

The repatriation of the artefacts to Ghana “signifies the return of our souls”, said Kwasi Ampene, a lecturer who helped negotiate their return.