A South African Video Game Where Players Can Take Back African Artefacts From Western Museums Is Now Gaining Traction

A new video game which allows players to reclaim artifacts from Western museums that colonialists plundered from Africa is now gaining traction.

RELOOTED, created by South African gaming studio Nyamakop, is described as a heist game set in “an African Futurism-inspired 21st century, in the wake of a treaty that promised to repatriate African artifacts from Western museums.

Set in a near-future where an international treaty stipulates that African artifacts must be returned to their countries of origin, players join a crew of Robin Hood-style thieves when museums fail to comply.

In Relooted‘s near-future setting, Africans don’t wait for Western institutions to do the right thing, they take action themselves.

Players seek to reclaim real African artifacts from Western museums by recruiting crew members, planning escape routes, and executing daring museum break-ins.

But beneath its slick gameplay mechanics lies a profound question: can interactive media succeed where decades of diplomatic efforts have struggled?