STEVE JOHNSON recommends that you catch an unforgettable tribute to Woody Guthrie
The looting of African heritage
FRANCOISE VERGES introduces a powerful new book that explores the damage done by colonial theft

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.
More from this author

The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.

ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership

A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview

ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
Similar stories

ROGER McKENZIE recommends an exhibition that explores the colonial plunder hidden in the collection, and the questions it raises

MARJORIE MAYO recommends an exhibition that asserts Palestinian history, culture and creativity in the face of strategies to erase them

HENRY BELL steps warily through the collection of a Glaswegian war profiteer to experience his collection of Degas’ remarkable images of working people

ANGUS REID speaks to historian Siphokazi Magadla about the women who fought apartheid and their impact on South African society