Available since Tuesday, February 10 on major platforms, the video game Relooted tackles an eminently political and memorial subject: the restitution of African art.
Its title, which can be translated as "taken back" or "reclaimed," clearly sets the tone. Here, history and commitment are at the heart of the gaming experience.
The player takes on the role of a member of an unusual group of robbers. At their head is Grace, a professor specializing in African art, who orchestrates daring operations in major Western museums. Their objective: to recover works of art looted during the colonial period and return them to the African continent.
The moral question is posed from the trailer: can we speak of theft when it comes to recovering stolen property? The tone, deliberately so, is reminiscent of a modern-day Robin Hood.
A fictional story rooted in historical facts
The story takes place at the end of the 21st century. Faced with the continued non-compliance with restitution agreements, Grace's team decides to take action. The players must assemble a collection of 70 objects destined for the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, a very real institution.
All the artifacts featured in the game also exist: bronzes from Benin seized by the British army, a sacred drum confiscated in Kenya, or the famous skull of Broken Hill Man, nearly 300,000 years old, discovered in Zambia but kept in London.
A debate that remains relevant today
Relooted does not seek to promote the looting of museums, but to draw attention to a major historical issue. Today, more than 80% of African heritage is located outside the continent. In France, a report published in 2018 estimated that approximately 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa were held in public collections.
These debates remain highly relevant. In the summer of 2025, for example, the issue of returning looted objects from Niger was the subject of discussions between Paris and Niamey. Aware of this cultural battle, the studio placed great importance on authenticity: accents, languages, characters, and soundtrack were all carefully crafted to reflect African diversity and respect the specificities of each country.
Another step forward for the African video game industry
Beyond its message, Relooted also symbolizes the rise of a still-emerging industry on the continent. Demand for games rooted in African realities is growing rapidly, but studios remain few in number. The ambition is clear: to offer narratives, cultural codes, and representations that are still largely absent from the global video game scene.
Ten years after the creation of Africa Games Week in South Africa, the Johannesburg-based studio Nyamakop has reached a significant milestone. With Relooted , they have released the first African game available on a Nintendo console, demonstrating the continent's creators' ambition to establish themselves alongside the major players in the industry.
