
As restitution of African artefacts becomes more visible in the public eye, it might be easy to assume that Africans are finally being listened to. A just released report by ANF Academic Fellow, Molemo Moiloa, shows that this is not the case.
A detailed analysis of data points from Google and Twitter, including academic publishing, indicates that while news, tweets and publishing about African restitution has grown
between 300% and 600%, African participation in this narrative has only grown by half of that.
Returns of objects themselves are increasing – most visible in the popular media through the recent Benin Bronze returns to Nigeria. But who defines how they happen, and what their impact should be, is being dominated by people from the west, instead of Africans and the African diaspora.
From the most re-tweeted influencers, to the people most often quoted by news journalists, Africans are not telling their own stories. This is particularly dire because African have been the main voices and writers on the subject for many decades.
This report is a wake-up call to journalists and academics around the world working on African restitution to address these glaring imbalances and rectify the historical imbalances of whether Africans are considered experts on their own history.
The report is accompanied by a short explainer video and social media campaign to raise awareness about this issue. The report was made possible through the Africa No Filter Academic Fellows programme. Africa No Filter’s academic Fellows have undertaken research exploring the current African narrative, both within in Africa and in China and the Middle East.
The Academic Fellows Program was inaugurated because previous analyses of the prevailing narratives about Africa – good and bad – have mostly looked at the narrative in Western countries. The Program therefore seeks to widen the analytical lens by supporting the Academic Fellows to undertake further research on the African narrative in African creative and media work, as well as from the Middle East and China.