EDITORIAL: Colonial looting of our culture calls for justice

At a timewhen the media’s attention is riveted by what is happening in Aleppo, terror attacks everywhere and the uncertain prospects of a Trump presidency, an event took place between the Netherlands and the South American nation of Suriname with little fanfare. The Netherlands agreed to return the administrative archives of its former colony after digitizing them. A few years earlier, Italy had returned artifacts and monuments it had looted from Ethiopia, including the famous Obelix of Axum, it had proudly erected in the centre of Rome. Now, it turns out, a German museum is in possession of over 1,000 skulls shipped from Rwanda by German researchers when the latter was part of the German East Africa between 1885 and 1918. The government has called for their prompt return to end a 130-year desecration of our ancestors and redeem their dignity. Similarly, the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren has thousands of historical artifacts and documentation. Vital parts of our history were looted in the name of research, but they turned out to be money minting spectacles for the museums and a continued defilement of our cultures Agreed; it will not wipe away the degrading racial treatment of non-westerners, such as the human zoos that dotted European capitals in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it will turn a painful page. Just last year, the International Criminal Court categorised the looting and desecration of historical monuments by Islamists in Kidal, northern Mali, as a crime against humanity. One person has already been charged. The son of an African president has been indicted by several western countries of allegedly enriching himself to the expense of his country’s resources, now he is in hot water. Germany, Belgium and other countries that are guilty of desecrating national heritages and continue to hold on to looted relics should return them unconditionally. Otherwise, the self proclaimed guardians of financial morality as well as the ICC should also look into their cases.

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EDITORIAL: Colonial looting of our culture calls for justice