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Global Voices
Global Voices
“African Artifacts, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois” by Ken Lund is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. A recent conference stirred up an often overlooked aspect of the debate on returning Africa’s stolen cultural artifacts: the importance of audio and visual material. Over 90 percent of the material cultural legacy of sub-Saharan Africa remains preserved and housed outside of the African continent, experts believe. Since as far back as 1944 when descendants of the former Toucouleur Empire began demanding the return of thousands of pieces of significant cultural heritage to their community i…