The Azande Kingdom wants the UK to return cultural artifacts taken during Sudan colonization.

The British government has been requested to return cultural artifacts taken during the colonization of Sudan between 1821 and 1956 as part of the newly restored Kingdom of Azande.

Azande people (also Zande or Asande) are an agglomeration of ancient warriors and agriculturalists Adamawa-Ubangi speaking people of Bantu extraction residing in North Central Africa.  

Extending across the Nile-Congo drainage divide, they live primarily in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in South Sudan they are found in Maridi, Yambio, and Tambura districts in the tropical rain forest belt of western Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal, and in the southeastern Central African Republic.

The Congolese Azande live in Orientale Province, specifically along the Uele River; and the Central African Azande live in the districts of Rafaï, Zémio, and Obo.

The Azande people recently crowned King Atoroba Peni Rikito Gbudue to mark the re-establishment of the Azande Kingdom, more than 100 years after its last monarch died at the hands of British colonialists during their occupation of the Southern Sudan, now South Sudan.

King Gbudue was killed on the battlefield, so we asked the British government not to compensate us. As part of our national heritage, we demand compensation. Badagbu Daniel Rimbasa, brother of King Atoroba, said that Britain is using our cultural artifacts in its museums for tourism and making a lot of money from them. The kingdom demands compensation.

In addition to participating in internal Zande wars, Gbudue faced incursions from ivory and slave traders, Egyptian Government officials, Mahdia officials, British and Belgian forces.

In February 1905, he was killed during a British patrol led by Major Boulnois.