Stolen Identity: How Europe Built Itself by Erasing Others

I used to look at Europe and admire its order. The marble streets. The paintings. The architecture. The libraries with their golden shelves. And then I began to ask: Where did all of this come from? Not just physically — but morally, historically, and spiritually. And the answer, if we’re honest, is this: Europe’s identity was built on theft.

Europe’s Glory, Someone Else’s Grief

From the looting of African kingdoms to the destruction of Indigenous civilizations, much of what is called "Western culture" was never truly Western in the first place. It was acquired — through colonialism, slavery, and erasure.

The British Museum alone holds over 8 million artifacts, many of which were taken during colonial expeditions. That includes sacred items from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, India, and Egypt — often without consent, and without return.

According to UNESCO, over 90% of Africa’s cultural heritage is housed outside the continent. France holds nearly 90,000 African cultural items in its museums, many of them looted during colonial rule. Europe didn’t just take gold and diamonds. It took stories. It took symbols. It took identity — and then polished it into a myth of superiority.

Economic Theft Disguised as “Development”

The economic legacy is even harder to ignore.

• The Transatlantic Slave Trade transported an estimated 12.5 million Africans, enriching European empires for generations.

• A 2020 study by the Brookings Institution found that the profits from slavery helped fund Britain’s industrial revolution, laying the foundation for its global economic dominance.

• Even after colonization, African nations were forced into debt traps, paying “independence debts” to their colonizers — a practice that France enforced on 14 of its former colonies until as late as the 2000s.

In short: Europe’s wealth wasn’t self-made. It was extracted — violently, systematically, and shamelessly.

Cultural Identity Built on Borrowing

Even Europe’s high culture — art, fashion, language — is soaked in appropriation.

• Ancient Greece, often seen as the "cradle of Western civilization," drew heavily from Egyptian science, Ethiopian mathematics, and Mesopotamian philosophy.

• Gothic architecture owes much to Islamic design influences brought back during the Crusades.

• Many European cuisines, fabrics, spices, and musical traditions were introduced via colonized cultures — then branded as European.

Yet history books often skip over this. We’re taught that Europe "discovered" the world. But in truth, it interrupted it — and rewrote the credits afterward.

As a South African, I’ve admired European cities and their museums — only to realize I was staring at my ancestors’ stolen memories. I’ve heard people say, “Africa has no history,” while their universities teach stolen African knowledge under Latin terms. I’ve been told, “Be civilized,” by those who built empires on enslavement and exploitation.

I say this not out of bitterness, but out of clarity: Europe’s stolen identity is not just a past issue. It’s a living lie.

The Psychological Cost of Erasure

Colonial theft wasn’t just physical. It was psychological.

• It convinced colonized people that their languages were backward.

• It criminalized indigenous beliefs while promoting foreign religions as “civilized.”

• It painted whiteness as moral, logical, and pure — while blackness became associated with chaos, instinct, and lack.

This wasn’t accidental. It was intentional. And today, many African and Indigenous people are still unlearning the shame they were taught.

But here’s the bitter irony: in the process of conquest, Europe didn’t just steal gold or land — it absorbed entire ways of being. The very culture it now calls its own — its philosophies, spiritual systems, even its moral codes — are stitched together with threads taken from the people it conquered. And in return, the colonized were made to wear the garments of Europe: its languages, its god, its logic — until they forgot what their own once felt like. What we now call African is often a response to Europe, and what Europe calls its legacy is often borrowed brilliance, stripped of origin. A grand cultural exchange where no one truly mastered what they took. The colonizer and the colonized — both living inside foreign skins. We are not just haunted by what was stolen. We are shaped by it. And Europe must ask itself: when your identity is made of stolen things, who are you, really?

What Now? Restitution and Reckoning

We cannot reverse history. But we can stop repeating its lies. Here’s what I believe needs to happen:

• Return of Stolen Artifacts . Museums must return looted items to their rightful cultural homes — not as charity, but as justice.

• Reparations Conversations . Europe must engage seriously with economic reparations, not just apology tours. This includes debt cancellation and investment in post-colonial economies.

• Rewriting History Curriculums . Western education must stop pretending it invented the world. Teach history as it happened — with complexity, humility, and global honesty.

• Restoration of Local Knowledge Systems . African and Indigenous knowledge must be restored to the center of science, philosophy, and governance conversations — not treated as folklore.

This article isn’t an attack. It’s a question. If Europe were to return what it took — the gold, the art, the credit, the land, the labour — what would be left? The answer isn’t nothing.

But it might be something more honest. Something that could finally make space for healing, for truth, and for shared humanity. Because identity built on theft can only hold so long before it begins to crack. And maybe — just maybe — it’s time for Europe to find out who it really is.

[David Thusi] is a South African writer exploring ethics, history, and the hidden legacies of power. They write to unearth what’s been buried — and to remind the world that the truth, no matter how uncomfortable, is a path to dignity.