Post #1711633
2026-04-21 06:28 UTC
"You express the views of a civilian, who misunderstands one of the main purposes of military trophy, and that is to maintain the memory of past conflicts and of our forebears who fought and died in it". Present-day British army officer replying to a request for restitution of war booty. Quoted in The African Kingdom of Gold: Britain and the Asante Treasure by Barnaby Phillips
1/2
Replies (1)
-
@MrPDaniel@mastodon.green 2026-04-21 06:30
'This sense of the "legitimate looting" of war is set against other statements by African scholars that the Asante treasures weren't mere objects prior to their theft, but "entities" with souls. Phillips doesn't just track how interpretations of the objects have changed. He shows how repatriation itself emerges as a competing claim about what these objects mean.' 2/2 From Delinda Collier's review of the same book, TLS 6403