Jamaica has joined a long list of nations seeking to repatriate items taken by the UK during its colonial days of ‘glory’.

The Jamaican culture minister, Olivia Grange, said that artefacts taken by the Britain when the island was a colony “belong to the people of Jamaica.”

Grange said, during a session of the Jamaican parliament, that the British Museum must return numerous items, including a 500-year-old carved wooden figure, thought to represent Boiyanel, a rain god; and a carved figure of a bird-man spirit found in a cave in 1792.

The Jamaican pieces were taken during early archeological digs when the island was still a British colony. The minister said the artefacts were made by the Taíno, the indigenous people of the Caribbean encountered by the 15th-century western explorers.

“They are not even on display,” Grange said, adding that, “They are priceless, they are significant to the story of Jamaica and they belong to the people of Jamaica.”

The issue of repatriating objects is one of the most pressing debates in the museum world, with British and French governments under the spotlight to correct many crimes committed during their colonial days.

As stated in a report by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in late 2018, museums are obliged to return items taken by oppressive governments during their criminal past.

As well as Jamaica’s request, Greece wants the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles and Ethiopia wants objects taken during the Battle of Maqdala. India, Iran and Nigeria have also asked for their cultural items to be repatriated.

It is estimated that the nearly two centuries of British colonialism drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938.

Most recently, the Western invasion and subsequent presence of British troops in Iraq and Syria have witnessed an exodus of millions of pounds worth of looted antiquities from the Arab states.

Despite Britain’s long-standing policy of failing to cease ownership over its looted treasures, a large number of artefacts held in British museums and libraries are known to have been appropriated over the ages through conquest and colonialism.

By remaining the custodians of the stolen items, the UK says, implicitly, that other nations cannot be trusted to preserve their own heritage and, thereby, the remnants of colonialism continue to live on in British policy today.