Documentary on looted artefacts in British Museum to be translated into local languages

By Kwabia Owusu-Mensah

Kumasi Feb. 6, GNA – A documentary film, depicting the looted African artefacts, kept at the basement of the British Museum, is to be translated into various Ghanaian languages.

That would enable many people to watch and appreciate the theft of African creativity by the colonialist.

The film – ‘You Hide Me’ the colonization of African Art, which was shot in 1970 by a renowned Ghanaian film maker and director, Nii Kwate Owoo, is to expose the hidden place of artefacts and arts of Africans, which were stolen by the British colonialist.

The collections, kept in huge boxes at the basement of the British Museum, included African arts, artefacts, musical instruments, gold ornaments, drawings and paintings.

Nii Owoo, speaking to journalists in Kumasi, said the film, which had won many international awards, was the first to advocate the return of the artefacts to their original owners.

He said though the film had been shown in Europe and America and won international awards, many people in Ghana were unaware of it.

The aim of producing its local versions was to position it as the pioneering advocate for the return of looted artefacts of Africans and people of African descent, he said.

“It is amazing to see the massive loot of creativity and creative ideas of Africans and people of African descent in the basement of the British Museum.”

He said it was important that Africans made a collective decision to demand the immediate and unconditional return of every single artefact stolen from them during the colonization period.

GNA