Plundering Africas Past [Paperback]

An important book at a time when the booming illicit trade in African antiquities and the despoiling of some of the continents prime archeological sites generate little concern in the art world. Foreign Affairs

This benchmark publication challenges all of us to be part of the solution. Plundering Africas Past cannot help but raise the level of discourse and consciousness about the looting problem, what needs to be done to stop it and about the relationship between Africa and the West. African Studies Review

Plundering Africas Past should be required reading for all archaeologists, historians, art historians, museum curators, and government officials involved in the cultural heritages of Africa, as well as most countries and continents with a disappearing past. H-Net Book Review

African government and museum officials, members of international agencies, academics, and journalists examine why the African past is disappearing at a rate perhaps unmatched in any other part of the world. Each looks at the international network of looting and trafficking from a different perspective. Here, for the first time, is a frank indictment of African contributions to the problemvoiced by the distinguished African essayists. The book concludes with a discussion of specific steps that could halt the disappearance of Africas art and antiquities.

PETER R. SCHMIDT is the former Director of the Center for African Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. RODERICK J. MCINTOSH is Professor of Anthropology at Rice University.

Preface
The African Past Endangered, by Peter R. Schmidt and Roderick J. McIntosh
The Human Right to a Cultural Heritage: African Applications, by Peter R. Schmidt
Saving the Heritage: UNESCOs Action Against Illicit Traffic in Africa, by Lyndel V. Prott
Just Say Shame: Excising the Rot of Cultural Genocide, by Roderick J. McIntosh
A View Inside the Illicit Trade in African AlÓ'