White backlash against the restitution of cultural heritage: an African video game as a site of contestation

What do ordinary people think about the restitution of African cultural heritage? While the arguments of museums, governments, and academics are well documented, public attitudes remain little studied. We address this gap through an analysis of online reactions to Relooted, a South African video game in which players reclaim looted African artefacts from Western museums. A reflexive thematic analysis of more than 6,000 posts from the game’s Steam forum reveals a backlash against restitution organised around four recurring strategies: obfuscation, elevation, universalisation, and invalidation. These rhetorical strategies go beyond technical and legal objections, seeking instead to insulate the West from responsibility for colonial dispossession. Drawing on social identity theory, we interpret them as motivated reasoning in defence of a positive white identity. Our findings carry implications for heritage politics: as right-wing populists defending white identity and culture gain electoral strength across Europe and North America, restitution will likely become increasingly contentious.