colonialism

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55 Countries Say the World Map Is All Wrong

African Union backs Equal Earth projection that reflects land's true scale

(Newser) - For centuries, the familiar Mercator world map has quietly distorted Africa's size and significance. Now, a coalition of African nations is leading a campaign to set the record straight with a new, more accurate map. Designed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator for nautical navigation, the Mercator...

Conquistador's Stolen 500-Year-Old Receipt Returns to Mexico

A Hernan Cortes-signed document, dated 1527, is back in Mexico

(Newser) - A 500-year-old document bearing the signature of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes has made its way back to Mexico after decades missing, according to the FBI. The manuscript, dated February 20, 1527, offers a rare look at the financial workings of New Spain's early government, detailing gold payments for...

Aussie Senator Censured After Telling Charles, 'You Are Not My King'

Lidia Thorpe is censured in a 46-12 vote

(Newser) - Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month, the AP reports. The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues' disapproval of her conduct during the first visit...

Belgium Steps Closer to Returning Colonial-Era Remains

Critics, however, say law draft didn't include input from countries of origin

(Newser) - More than 500 sets of human remains taken from ex-Belgian colonies are currently housed at the Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, including the skull of 19th-century Congolese leader Lusinga Iwa Ng'ombe, who was decapitated in a battle with Belgian troops in 1884. Now, draft legislation is vying to...

DNA Links Africa's Stolen Skulls With Living Descendants

Germany to return skulls tied to Chagga people of Tanzania, stolen under colonial rule

(Newser) - Scientists have for the first time identified living descendants of people whose skulls were pillaged from Africa under German colonial rule. Since 2017, Berlin's Museum of Prehistory and Early History has been working to trace at least 1,100 of 7,700 skulls it acquired from a local hospital...

Buckingham Palace Will Not Repatriate Prince's Remains

Captured Ethiopian Prince Alemayehu died in 1879

(Newser) - Buckingham Palace has declined requests to repatriate the remains of Prince Dejatch Alemayehu of Abyssinia, the region now largely made up of Ethiopia. NBC News reports the prince was forcibly taken from his homeland at the age of six in 1868, after British forces defeated his father, Emperor Tewodros II,...

London Museum to Return Looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

It's 'very clear that these objects were acquired through force,' Horniman says

(Newser) - Update: With cultural institutions under pressure to repatriate artifacts taken during the colonial era, a museum in London agreed Sunday to return Benin Bronzes looted in the late 19th century from what is now Nigeria. The Horniman Museum and Gardens said a Nigerian commission asked earlier this year that it...

School Decides to Drop 'Colonials' Name

George Washington students had campaigned for a moniker change

(Newser) - "A moniker must unify our community, draw people together and serve as a source of pride," a committee at George Washington University has written. The school's board of trustees has decided that "Colonials" flunks that test, the Hill reports, so a new nickname will be chosen....

Dutch Royals Won't Use Controversial Golden Coach

At least for the time being, due to its ties to Netherlands' colonial past, slave trade

(Newser) - On Thursday the Dutch king ruled out using, for now at least, the royal family's "Golden Carriage." One side of the carriage bears a painting that critics say glorifies the Netherlands' colonial past, including its role in the global slave trade. The announcement was an acknowledgement of...

Ambassador's Mustache That Irked a Nation Is No More

Harry Harris' facial hair was too harsh a reminder of Japanese colonialism for some

(Newser) - To most Americans, Harry Harris' mustache likely wouldn't cause a second glance. But to South Koreans, the US ambassador's facial hair became a lightning rod —and over the weekend, he finally shaved it off. The envoy headed to a barbershop in Seoul on Saturday to go under...

Colonial History Adds to French Guiana's Pain

Pandemic recalls illnesses first brought by Europeans

(Newser) - When white doctors walked into Camopi, a majority Indigenous town near the border with Brazil, townspeople felt worry instead of relief. With French Guiana facing a wave of coronavirus infections, the AP reports, doctors from the French mainland were there to administer tests and treat the sick. But for residents...

A First From a Belgian Monarch: 'Deepest Regrets'

King Philippe offers remorse for colonial abuses in DRC under reign of ancestor King Leopold II

(Newser) - Under the brutal colonial rule of Belgium's King Leopold II, the Democratic Republic of Congo saw millions of its citizens perish at the turn of the 20th century. Now King Philippe, the current royal ruler of Belgium and a direct descendant of Leopold, has offered what's just short...

Belgium: Sorry for What We Did to Mixed-Race Babies

Prime Minister Charles Michel issues an apology

(Newser) - The Belgian government has apologized for the country's role in kidnapping thousands of mixed-race babies from their African mothers during colonial times, the AP reports. Thousands of children in what are now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi were taken away and raised in Belgium in Catholic-run...

UK Must Give Up Its 'Last Colony in Africa': UN Court

It wants UK to end control of the Chagos Islands 'as rapidly as possible'

(Newser) - Britain must end its control of the Chagos islands "as rapidly as possible," according to the UN's highest court. The International Court of Justice said Monday that Britain had unlawfully carved up Mauritius, which the Chagos were a part of, when it agreed to end colonial rule...

Nobel-Winning Author Who Tackled Colonialism Dead at 85

VS Naipaul divided readers with his stories of Caribbean and African peoples

(Newser) - The family of Trinidad-born British author VS Naipaul says the Nobel Literature laureate has died at the age of 85, the AP reports. The family said in a statement late Saturday that the novelist had died at his London home. The writer's wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he "died...

Barcelona Officials Want to Rip Down Columbus Statue

Barcelona council members say it glorifies colonialism, explorer's 'conquest of America'

(Newser) - Just a couple of years after the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor, a statue of Christopher Columbus was erected to grace Barcelona's skyline—and while the former represents freedom and friendship, local council members say the latter should be torn down for symbolizing the worst...

Native American Fans Hurt Over Portrayal in New Harry Potter Story

'I'm broken hearted…my beliefs are not fantasy'

(Newser) - Native American Harry Potter fans are feeling hurt, betrayed, and angry over JK Rowling's newest entry to her magical universe. History of Magic in North America: Fourteenth Century-Seventeenth Century was published online this week and focuses on Native American wizards, the Guardian reports. According to Mashable , the short story...

400-Year-Old Church Emerges in Reservoir

The Temple of Santiago gets a breath of air

(Newser) - Huh, this wasn't there last year—a 16th-century church emerging from the waters of a Mexican reservoir. But it actually makes sense, because drought has caused the water level to fall 82 feet in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir, revealing a church that was flooded during construction of a dam nearly...

Zimbabwe Tells Britain: Give Us Our Skulls Back

Robert Mugabe says Brits are keeping human skulls as war trophies

(Newser) - Zimbabwe's president is demanding the return of "decapitated heads" of warriors killed during "the first chimurenga," an uprising against British colonizers at the end of the 19th century, reports the Telegraph . The skulls serve as "war trophies," and keeping them "must rank among...

Look Out, World: Brits Have Invaded 90% of Nations

Only 22 countries have been exempt: book

(Newser) - If you're part of planet Earth, there's a really great chance that British forces have invaded your homeland at one time or another: Some nine out of 10 countries have suffered such a fate throughout history, a new book finds. Indeed, just 22 countries haven't seen a...

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