Relooted: Steal Back Stolen African Artefacts

A new South African video game called Relooted empowers players to embark on virtual heists, retrieving 70 real African artefacts looted by colonial armies and now housed in Western museums. Players embody Nomali, a sports scientist and parkour expert, navigating museums to reclaim treasures such as the Asante gold mask and the skull of King Mangi Meli.

The game was developed by a team hailing from more than 10 African nations, with voice actors sourced from the home countries of the heist crew characters. This collaborative approach underscores the creators' commitment to authentic representation and an "Africanfuturist" vision of the continent.

Creators aim to provide players with a "hopeful, utopian feeling" of repatriation, acknowledging the immense complexities and decades-long efforts involved in real-life artifact restitution. The game deliberately parodies Western portrayals of Africa by rendering Europe and the US generically as "The Old World" and "The Shiny Place."

Relooted features virtual museums, with the exception of the Museum of Black Civilisations in Dakar, where looted objects are returned before their symbolic journey home. Key artefacts like the Kabwe Skull, discovered in Zambia and currently in London's Natural History Museum, are highlighted to underscore the scale of artifact looting.