The Reclaimers
A Radio Film production for the BBC World Service | Presented by Kema Sikazwe | Produced by Andy Jones and Will Sadler
As Western museums grapple with their colonial legacies and encounter ongoing pressure to repatriate artefacts, they face a fundamental question: how do they tell the uncomfortable stories behind the items in their collections?
As the Commonwealth Games begin in Birmingham, actor and musician Kema Sikazwe explores how the intensifying debate around the return of stolen museum objects is leading to a shift in the way that complex historical stories are told in public.
Returning to Zambia for the first time since he left as a 3 year old, he meets people living in places where objects were either ‘stolen’ or ‘collected’. Navigating his own family ties and journeys, Kema connects the dots between fresh perspectives on hidden histories, and meets curators and artists representing a new generation of storytellers.