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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Rachel Savage in Johannesburg

Relooted: the South African video game where players take back artefacts from western museums

Scene from the Relooted video game.
Relooted, created by Nyamakop, has been developed amid a growing campaign to repatriate culturally and spiritually significant items to their homelands. Illustration: Nyamakop

A new South African video game lets players take back African artefacts held in western museums in a series of heists, amid a growing campaign to repatriate treasures looted by colonial armies.

Players of Relooted become South African sports scientist and parkour expert Nomali, as she leaps and dives through museums to retrieve 70 real objects. They include an Asante gold mask that was taken by the British army when it destroyed the Asante empire’s capital, Kumasi, and is now in the Wallace Collection in London. Another object is the skull of the Tanzanian king Mangi Meli, which was taken to Germany after its colonial regime executed him in 1900.

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