The VII Saliou Traoré Journalism Prize awarded by the EFE Agency and Casa África recognises a choral work on the restitution of African art appropriated by Western countries during the colonial era.
This past Sunday, coinciding with the commemoration of Africa Day, Casa África and the EFE Agency announced the decision of the 7th Saliou Traoré Prize for journalism in Spanish on Africa. This journalistic prize aims to ensure that the media in our country, and in all Spanish-speaking countries, talk more and better about Africa, with new perspectives that avoid the stereotype to which we are unfortunately accustomed: that Africa condemned to hunger, war, misery, unreason or corruption.
The award pays tribute to Saliou Traoré, a Senegalese journalist who was EFE's correspondent in Senegal for almost four decades, the voice of West Africa in our country through the leading news agency. In its six previous editions, the award has recognised excellent work by journalists with a strong Africanist vocation, such as José Naranjo, Xavi Aldekoa, Carla Fibla, Agus Morales and Glòria Pallarés. Last year we awarded a prize for an investigative report on the migration phenomenon by a Brazilian journalist from Associated Press, Renata Brito, and her colleague, also Brazilian and a photojournalist, Felipe Dana.
Just a week ago we gathered the jury of the prize to decide which of the 21 candidates was worthy of the seventh Saliou Traoré. The award deservedly went to the magnificent choral report "Journey to the African origins of stolen objects" by the Planeta Futuro team of the newspaper El País. This recognition not only celebrates an excellent piece of journalistic work coordinated by the director of Planeta Futuro, Ana Carbajosa, but also underlines the urgent relevance of the subject it addresses: the restitution of African art plundered during the colonial period.
I recommend a careful and leisurely reading of this enormous multi-voice work, in which a dozen journalists, photographers and web designers have taken part. Because this journey proposed by Planeta Futuro takes place on board a series of pieces of African art that were stolen and taken to the West during the colonial period.
From a statue of the Cameroonian Goddess Ngoonso (in the Berlin Museum) to the royal treasure of Abomey (which France returned to Benin four years ago), via the famous Rosetta Stone of the Egyptians (star of the British Museum in London) or a talking drum with great historical significance for the Ivory Coast (snatched in blood by the French in the early 20th century and still in the Quai Branly Museum in Paris). These are pieces that were stolen by soldiers, missionaries, scientists and colonial authorities and are now exhibited as works of art in European museums or are directly stored in a museum that considers them insufficiently beautiful or important despite the historical, symbolic, artistic or even mystical value they are given in their country of origin.
This report reminds us that colonialism was a relentless tool of looting and plunder, still present in our lives with famous artefacts, such as the largest dinosaur skeleton in the Natural History Museum in Berlin, but also with tens of thousands of lesser-known artefacts, large and small, that were brought to the West.
To give just one example: the National Museum of Cameroon has a collection of some 6,000 objects. At the same time, some 40,000 Cameroonian objects have been catalogued in Germany alone. What is the point of all this? One exceptional reflection stuck with me from reading the report: the Germans boast that they did not want to profit from the plundering of Jewish art by the Nazis, but they are reluctant to return African artefacts obtained during colonialism, which shows that colonialism is still seen as "a series of adventures, journeys or conquests".
As the authors themselves point out (each object appears as a report, signed by well-known journalists in the Africanist world such as José Naranjo, Lola Hierro, Alejandra Agudo, Chema Caballero and Marc Español, among others), the report is a journey to "get to know the meaning of these objects in their context, the same one they lost when they were moved thousands of kilometres away and interpreted with a foreign gaze".
This journalistic work links the stories of these objects and at the same time reveals why the restitution of their works of art, of their past, is so important for Africans. Because the return of these objects goes beyond a mere legal or diplomatic act; it constitutes a "process of decolonisation and historical justice". It is an ethical recognition that the plundered heritage must be returned to those who give meaning to these pieces. The thirst for restitution is not just to recover objects: it is a reclaiming of their memory, identity and dignity. It is a claim to the cultural sovereignty of African peoples.
The awarding of the Saliou Traoré Prize to a journalistic effort on this theme takes on special significance considering that the African Union designated 2025 as the Year of ''Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations''. In the African Union's justification for this theme at the time, they argued that the restitution of plundered heritage is an integral and visible part of this effort to address the consequences of "historical crimes and mass atrocities" committed against Africans and people of African descent, including colonisation, the transatlantic slave trade, apartheid and genocide.
Planet Future's award-winning reporting facilitates public understanding of restitution, detailing stories, perspectives of affected communities and the challenges in devolution. It humanises the debate and highlights that justice through reparations is crucial to a just and equitable future for Africans and people of African descent. It reminds us that recovering these objects allows the societies that are their original owners to re-appropriate their history, to tell it from their perspective. Each restituted object transcends its artistic or monetary value: it symbolises the resistance, suffering and perseverance of communities who see in its return a vindication of their dignity.
For as one archaeologist rightly points out, "restitution is not only the physical return of objects... but also of the capacity of Africans to produce knowledge about their past". A phrase that brings us back to another that has become a classic: "Until lions have their own historians, hunting stories will continue to glorify the hunter".
Ultimately, restitution is about honouring the identity of these peoples and demonstrating genuine respect for their cultures, bridging historical gaps. It is an essential step towards healing colonial wounds, fostering a more equitable relationship between nations, and ensuring that humanity's heritage is safeguarded by those who gave it life and meaning.
My most sincere congratulations to the entire Planeta Futuro team for this award, which we will present in Casa África's courtyard in October, accompanied by the president of EFE, Miguel Ángel Oliver. Casa África is proud to have promoted and maintained this journalistic award, which aims to be a stimulus for all those journalists who look at Africa to do journalism and to tell us, in Spanish, what is happening in this wonderful continent.