Game 'reloots' African artefacts from Western museums
The daring heist was not the work of a real-life criminal. Nomali is the protagonist of a new action-packed video game where players "reclaim" artefacts taken from African countries to be displayed in the West.
Developed by Johannesburg studio Nyamakop, "Relooted" is set in an imaginary future but tackles a topical issue: calls for Western institutions to return to Africa the spoils of colonisation.
Players are tasked with taking back 70 artefacts – all of which exist in real life – with a "team of African citizens", said producer Sithe Ncube, one of a team of 30 working on the game.
The items include the "Benin Bronzes" sculptures removed from the former kingdom of Benin more than 120 years ago, and which The Netherlands officially returned to Nigeria on June 21.
Another is the sacred Ngadji drum from Kenya's Pokomo community, which was confiscated by British colonial authorities in 1902.
"Its removal destabilised the community," Ncube said as an animated drawing of the wooden instrument flashed on her computer. Players "can see where it's from... and read about the history," she said, giving a demo.
On the screen a crew of characters in Afrofuturist costumes debated a plan to recover the remains of Tanzanian chiefs hanged by German colonial forces.
One asked: "Is it stealing to take back what was stolen?"
"We are going to do whatever it takes to take back Africa's belongings, and we are going to do it together," said the character Nomali.
"Sometimes the stories behind these (artefacts) are actually very upsetting," Ncube told AFP. "It makes you see how much colonialism has affected... and shaped the world."
Growing up in Zambia, she knew of her country's iconic "Broken Hill Man", a skull about 300,000 years old held in London's Natural History Museum and which is also featured in "Relooted."
But it was only when working on the game that Ncube realised how many African cultural artefacts were held abroad, she said.
In France alone, museums stored about 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the government.
"Africans, to actually see these things that are part of their own culture, have to get a visa, pay for flights and go to a European country," Ncube said. "My whole life, I've never seen 'Broken Hill Man'."
The looting of artefacts over centuries robbed communities of their "archives" and "knowledge systems", said Samba Yonga, co-founder of the digital Museum of Women's History in Zambia.
"Our history predates colonisation by millennia," she told AFP, but many people "don't even realise that we have a skewed sense of self and identity."
Reclaiming these objects would enable "a shift in how the next generation views their culture and identity," she said.
The same hope underpinned "Relooted", which was unveiled this month at Los Angeles' Summer Game Fest where it attracted a lot of interest from the diaspora and other Africans, Ncube said.
"I hope that the game encourages people from other African countries to want to tell their own stories and bring these things to light," she said.
One character felt personal for the producer: Professor Grace, Nomali's grandmother and described as "the brains behind the mission."
"I started seeing my own grandmother in her," Ncube said with emotion. "She represents a connection between our generations, fighting for the same thing we've always been fighting for." - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong
HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court on Wednesday found J-pop artist Kenshin Kamimura guilty of indecent assault after he harassed a woman working as his interpreter at a restaurant earlier this year. Kamimura, 26, is a former member of the boy band ONE N'ONLY, which expelled him shortly after the allegation. Fans queued to get into court for hours before the hearing, and some broke down in tears upon learning Kamimura had been convicted. The court heard Kamimura touched the woman's thighs multiple times despite her objections, and invited her to go to the bathroom with him. Magistrate Peter Yu found he had assaulted her, adding his behaviour "clearly shows disrespect for women." The incident took place in March during a celebratory dinner, after a fan meet for which the woman had been working as an interpreter for Kamimura and others. The Japanese star was fined HK$15,000 (US$1,900). Kamimura, who is also known as an actor in the Japanese drama "Our Youth", hugged his court translator upon hearing he would be fined without facing jail time, media reports said. Kamimura got "what he deserved", Yu said, adding that "had the victim not refused to remain silent and courageously come forward, she would have suffered an unpleasant experience in silence." But ardent fans inside and outside the court were in tears. Chen, a 30-year-old screenwriter and fan who gave only her last name, said she had come from northern China to watch the court session. She told AFP before the verdict that the trial has had a negative impact on Kamimura's image, and had incited "public outbursts of vitriol against the artist."
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong
J-pop performer Kenshin Kamimura leaves the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts after being convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. - Photo: AP HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court on Wednesday (Aug 13) found J-pop artist Kenshin Kamimura guilty of indecent assault after he harassed a woman working as his interpreter at a restaurant earlier this year. Kamimura, 26, is a former member of the boy band ONE N'ONLY, which expelled him shortly after the allegation. Fans queued to get into court for hours before the hearing, and some broke down in tears upon learning Kamimura had been convicted. The court heard Kamimura touched the woman's thighs multiple times despite her objections, and invited her to go to the bathroom with him. Magistrate Peter Yu found he had assaulted her, adding his behaviour "clearly shows disrespect for women". The incident took place in March during a celebratory dinner, after a fan meet for which the woman had been working as an interpreter for Kamimura and others. The Japanese star was fined HK$15,000 (US$1,900). Kamimura, who is also known as an actor in the Japanese drama "Our Youth", hugged his court translator upon hearing he would be fined without facing jail time, media reports said. Kamimura got "what he deserved", Yu said, adding that "had the victim not refused to remain silent and courageously come forward, she would have suffered an unpleasant experience in silence". But ardent fans inside and outside the court were in tears. Chan, a 30-year-old screenwriter and fan who gave only her last name, said she had come from northern China to watch the court session. She told AFP before the verdict that the trial has had a negative impact on Kamimura's image, and had incited "public outbursts of vitriol against the artist". - AFP
New Straits Times
8 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Czech film takes 'conspiracy nuts' on Ukraine war tour
PRAGUE: Two men and a woman driven by disinformation and denying the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the unlikely protagonists of a Czech documentary that will premiere this month. Director Robin Kvapil took Petra, Ivo and Nikola on a two-week tour of Ukraine's war-ravaged cities, shelters and cemeteries last October, equipping them with handheld cameras to capture the experience. Before the shooting, Kvapil, 43, paid two visits to Ukraine to prepare the film and was shocked by the war. "That's an experience you won't get out of your head. It's for life. Seeing these places will simply change you," the bearded, bespectacled director told AFP in an interview. "As a filmmaker, I have no other weapon than film, and I wanted to stand up to the war in some way," he added. He chose Petra, Ivo and Nikola out of 60 Czechs who had answered his ad looking for people nursing doubts about the reality of the war after succumbing to disinformation. A survey by pollsters Ipsos indicated last year that most Czechs think Russia is using disinformation to skew public opinion. One in three respondents also told Ipsos they had believed disinformation on more than one occasion over their lifetime. The Czech intelligence service BIS said in a recent report that "in 2024, society continued to grapple with the spread of disinformation in the public space, originating both directly from Russia and from domestic actors." The film's title, "The Great Patriotic Trip", is a parody of "The Great Patriotic War", the Russian name for the Soviet-German part of World War II. The premiere is scheduled for August 21, the anniversary of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of former communist Czechoslovakia which crushed the Prague Spring movement deemed too liberal by Moscow. The film begins by drawing a parallel between 1968 and the invasion of Ukraine and goes on to say that "Russia is leading a disinformation war against the whole of Europe", before introducing the three protagonists. Petra, whose parents were hardline communists, dismissed the war in Ukraine as "nonsense." Ivo said he believed information he finds on the internet "even if it's not true", admitting he is a "conspiracy nut." And Nikola said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is the only man in the world who can stop the Western ideological madness." All three protagonists' surnames are not divulged. Kvapil, who has won several Czech awards for his documentaries, told AFP his goal was not to change the three but "to capture their contact with reality." He admitted that while he tried hard to stay out of the film, he was stunned on many occasions, like when Petra started to sing the Soviet anthem in a van en route to the war zone. "Everything that appears in the film is there because it's surprising in some way. I was trying to pass on the energy of my own astonishment," he said. Petra got a surprise herself during a visit to mass graves in the eastern Ukrainian town of Izyum, which was occupied for several months at the beginning of the war before it was retaken by Ukrainian forces. Ukraine said in September 2022 it had found more than 440 graves in Izyum. Petra found the pleasant smell of pine trees and fine sand resembling a beach inappropriate for the dreary place. "I know why this place feels so weird! Because it's all fake!" she then exclaimed, calling the graveyard "outstanding material for Ukrainian propaganda and nurturing hatred towards Russia." "I took the shooting as an exercise in inner tolerance which I undergo all my life," Kvapil said. Despite witnessing many horrors of the war, Kvapil's protagonists do not seem to be convinced as they return home. "I still have the same opinion," Ivo said after the trip, while Petra insisted she has "not been reeducated."
