Partner Since
7+ YearsPublisher | Pluto Press |
ISBN 13 | 9780745349527 |
ISBN 10 | 745349528 |
Book Description | Debates around restitution and decolonising museums continue to rage across the world. Artefacts, effigies and ancestral remains are finally being accurately contextualised and repatriated to their homelands. Fifteen Colonial Thefts amplifies and adds to these discussions, exploring the history of colonial violence in Africa through the prism of fifteen African belongings - all looted at the height of the imperial era and brought to European museums. The book is structured around three arenas—the battlefield, the royal palace, and the realm of the sacred—in which colonial officers violently plundered Africa. It explores the meaning of those cultural assets at the time of their appropriation, but also today, in an era of restitution. Each chapter is accompanied by an original illustration, commissioned especially for the book, from both established and emerging African artists, bringing these stories to life for the reader. With contributors from across the continents of Europe and Africa, including scientists, museum professionals, artists and activists, the book illuminates the collective trauma and loss of cultural, historical and spiritual knowledge that colonial theft engendered. |
About the Author | Sela Adjei is a multidisciplinary artist with degrees in Communication Design, and African Art and Culture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He received his PhD in African Studies from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a lecturer at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (NAFTI). |
Language | English |
Publication Date | 20240820 |
Number of Pages | 320 |
Fifteen Colonial Thefts