Over 90% of Africa’s cultural artefacts remain in European museums and private collections, including sacred regalia, burial items, and ancestral remains taken through colonial conquest. Their theft fractured identity, erased history, and severed spiritual ties.
In this episode, we examine the African Union Commission policy paper Reparations for African Peoples, written by the youth-led MEA Institute, which proposes a blueprint for restorative justice through heritage repatriation. I speak with Genevieve Labuschagne, Co-Director at MEA’s Intelligence Desk and co-coordinator of the project, about why the team approached reparations through art and heritage, how our team's proposed AU Endowment Fund could shift power back to African institutions, and why bridging policy rooms with communities is essential for meaningful restitution.
From countering colonial narratives to centring African perspectives in law and history, we explore what real cultural justice could look like, and why the time for return is now.
