Maher Habbob, Nubian Proverbs (Fadijja/Mahas). Goleta CA: Dotawo (pb US$21 – 978 1 68571 018 7). 2022, xiii + 146 pp.

Abstract

war’ (as discussed in a 1978 letter Savoy references) are evidence that the rhetoric and tactics employed to undermine restitution efforts a half-century ago do not simply remain with us but were formative in the production of today’s contentious cultural property landscape, an ongoing and enduring haunting. As such, Africa’s Struggle for Its Art is both a warning sign and a roadmap that helps clarify the mechanisms through which postcolonial defeat is reproduced across generations. While the book ostensibly examines the spectre of decades-old European restitution debates, its richness lies in its pertinence to the multiple intersecting ‘crises’ through which we are living and, perhaps optimistically, a parable for ways to navigate the pitfalls and failures of our forebears as we move through this current moment of institutional decolonization.