To: Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, The British Museum
Return the Shabaka Stone to Africa
Return the Shabaka Stone, presently held in The British Museum, to Africa – first to Egypt, and ultimately, through a gift from Egypt, to the African Union’s Peace and Security Building in Addis Ababa.
Why is this important?
The Shabaka Stone embodies Africa’s profound traditions of peace and mediation. Its return to Africa would give it a renewed and extraordinary purpose.
There, the Stone would become far more than an artefact of the past: but a living symbol of Africa’s commitment to peace, a source of inspiration and a permanent witness alongside those entrusted with resolving the continent’s conflicts. Its return would thus be not merely an act of restitution, but an investment in Africa’s peaceful future.
We therefore propose an act of restoration. The Shabaka Stone, presently held in London’s British Museum, should return to Africa: first to Egypt, and ultimately, through an act of gifting by Egypt, to the African Union’s Peace and Security Building in Addis Ababa. There it might cease to be only an artefact of the past and become an instrument for the future.
We therefore propose an act of restoration. The Shabaka Stone, presently held in London’s British Museum, should return to Africa: first to Egypt, and ultimately, through an act of gifting by Egypt, to the African Union’s Peace and Security Building in Addis Ababa. There it might cease to be only an artefact of the past and become an instrument for the future.
A stone once created to preserve memory becomes a stone for imagining peace: dialogue over destruction, restoration over retribution, balance over victory.
The history of the Shabaka Stone
More than 2,700 years ago, the Nubian Pharaoh Shabaka encountered sacred texts that were disappearing with time. He ordered their wisdom carved into stone so that what mattered would not be forgotten. Among the ideas preserved in the Memphite Theology is the dispute between Horus and his uncle Seth over land, legitimacy and power. Rather than allowing the conflict to be decided through violence, the Ennead, the ruling council, comprising 9 creation energies, convened a court. They listened to evidence, judged and restored order. They ruled in favour of right, not might! Horus received the land, but Seth was not annihilated: justice required restoration rather than revenge, and peace required a place for both.
We ask what wisdom Africa chooses to carve into stone today that will be remembered 2,700 years hence. At a moment when conflicts over sovereignty, land, identity and resources continue to invite violence and outside intervention, the Shabaka Stone offers an older political imagination: that sovereignty begins with the capacity to resolve our own disputes, and that justice without peace is hollow, while peace without justice and accommodation cannot endure.
Sources:
Scholars Archive: The Shabaka Stone: An Introduction
Afford UK: Shabaka Stone – Centring African Peace
Sources:
Scholars Archive: The Shabaka Stone: An Introduction
Afford UK: Shabaka Stone – Centring African Peace
