Kigango returned

A sacred memorial post stolen from a Kenyan family in the 1980s that ended up at the Illinois State Museum was returned to its rightful owners last week.

The prized artifact, called a kigango, had been retrieved from the museum in September 2006 by a delegation from Kenya. On June 20, the roughly 4-foot-tall, carved wooden statue along with a second stolen post was presented to the family of the late Kalume Mwakiru, who had erected the statues to memorialize deceased relatives, during a ceremony at the family’s homestead in Chalani village. . .

The museum’s kigango was one of two carved in the 1960s for the Mwakiru family. In 1985, these vigango (plural for kigango) were stolen. They were sold to an art dealer and actor Powers Boothe later bought them. He eventually donated one kigango to Illinois State University and the other to Hampton University in Virginia, Reyman said.

Posted by David on June 29, 2007 12:19 PM