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The looting of African heritage
FRANCOISE VERGES introduces a powerful new book that explores the damage done by colonial theft
ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE: Group of six European men sitting, surrounded by Looted objects from the Benin Punative Raid, 18 February 1897
[British Museum/Public Domain]
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Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums
Edited by Sela Adjei and Yann LeGall, Pluto, £25
EUROPEAN colonisation of Africa was not only about armed conquest, massacres and the exploitation of resources. It was also about the appropriation of spiritual and political symbols. It led to the erasure of a social, cultural, and symbolic world.
The book, Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums, adds to the growing literature on the history of the colonial looting of African art and heritage and the issue of restitution, reappropriation and return. Published by Pluto, the book is edited by Ghanaian-born multidisciplinary artist Sela K Adjei and Berlin-based postdoctoral researcher Yann Le Gall.
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