Africa: Why African Cultural Restitution Matters

opinion

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe recently presented an antique sabre to Senegalese President Macky Sall at the presidential palace in Dakar. But it was not a gift. The sabre was coming home, more than a century after it had been stolen.

The repatriation of an item with deep historical, spiritual and cultural significance might seem like a mere gesture of colonial redress. But this ceremony was different, and it was about much more than a single physical object. In fact, it was a watershed moment in the West's recognition of the cultural damage inflicted by colonialism.

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