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Mail & Guardian
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Confrontation, by Phoka Nyokong. (Photo supplied)
AFRICA

Phoka Nyokong and the fight for Africa’s stolen artefacts

The artist’s exhibition challenges colonial looting and the fight to reclaim Africa’s stolen cultural heritage

  • Kibo Ngowi
7 min read
Visitors look at statues of the ‘Royal treasures of Abomey kingdom’ on display at the Musee du quai Branly in Paris on September 10, 2021, part of 26 artworks set to be restituted to Benin later in the year. (Photo by Christophe Archambault/AFP)
ART

Ghosts of colonial looting haunt Europe’s museums

Here is a recap of disputes over artefacts looted from Europe’s former African colonies.

  • Agence France Presse
2 min read
Stolen heritage: Many cultural treasures from Africa and elsewhere sit in the museums of former colonisers. Photo: Franck Fife/AFP
ACTIVISM

Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza: Liberating Africa from land of liberté

The cultural and political activist is on a quest to bring looted treasures back home

  • Samira Sawlani
4 min read
Archaeology professor Zachary Gundu, who has criticised the work of German researchers during an excavation project in Nigeria
ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED

Inside the illicit trade in West Africa’s oldest artworks

Nok terracottas are proof that an ancient civilisation once existed in Nigeria. Now they are at the centre of a multimillion-dollar, globe-spanning underground industry — and…

  • Lutz Mükke
  • Adie Vanessa Offiong
22 min read