Europeans long portrayed Africans as lacking culture. And yet they couldn’t resist stealing our cultural treasures in their thousands and putting them in museums around the world – if private collectors didn’t snap them up for a small fortune first.
Experts reckon over 80% of plundered African artefacts remain in European museums. The British Museum, for example, holds over 70,000; Belgium’s Royal Museum nearly 200,000; another 75,000 are in Germany’s Ethnological Museum; and France’s Quai Branly Museum keeps almost 70,000. The list goes on.
In this clip, pan-African academic PLO Lumumba argues that one reason Europeans stripped us of our culture was to erase our identity – and thereby make the task of subjugating our people easier.
Video Credit: Kabalega Foundation (YouTube)
Sources:
https://amp.dw.com/en/africas-lost-heritage-and-europes-restitution-policies/a-59763966