’Europe would have done better to tolerate the non-European civilizations at its side, leaving them alive, dynamic, and prosperous, whole and not mutilated; that it would have been better to let them develop and fulfil themselves than to present for our admiration, duly labelled, their dead and scattered parts; that anyway, the museum by itself is nothing; that it means nothing, vanity, can say nothing, when smug self-satisfaction rots the eyes, when a secret contempt for others withers the heart, when racism, admitted or not, dries up sympathy; that it means nothing if its only purpose is to feed the delights of vanity.’ - Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. (1955)
As most readers will recall, ’On every Restitution Day, 10 November, we shall take stock of what has been done since the last celebration to bring us nearer to achieving reparative justice for the African peoples who have been deprived of their artefacts and other resources for more than hundred years. We shall also examine whether Western States have done anything about returning the human remains of our forebears kept in their institutions. We want to bury our forebears so we can retain contact between the dead and the living intact. For many of us, the dead are not yet gone.’
Undoubtedly, the most spectacular event of the year for restitution was the royal lecture of the Asantehene, Nana Osei Tutu II, delivered on 19 July 2024 at the British Museum London. (1) The Asantehene made it clear to his hosts that Asante expected full restitution from the British for the artefacts the British Army stole from Kumase in 1874. Loans were only accepted as opportunities to further explore means of full restitution.
Earlier in the year, the Fowler Museum returned seven Asante artefacts from the British Loot of 1874. Stanley Museum returned two Benin artefacts with an apology for using the pieces for teaching purposes without the consent of the Oba of Benin, Nigeria. The correct procedure of the American museums contrasted remarkably with the shameless attitude of the British Museum, which still refuses to restitute the golden Asante treasures and the Benin bronzes, some of which the venerable museum sold in the past. The standard explanation of the British Museum for not restoring treasures to their owners because legislation prevented such action has worn thin.
A noticeable event of the year was the French legislator's refusal to pass a general law to facilitate the restitution of looted African artefacts. France seems determined to retain its illegal detention of looted African artefacts such as the statue of Gou, God of War, and the Ifa divining plate of Guédègbe from the Republic of Benin despite several requests from President Talon.
With a shamelessness akin to that of the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, returned to Uganda on loan thirty-nine cultural objects taken from Uganda by a priest who was also an anthropologist during the colonial period. Some people entertained the idea of ‘local ownership’ in this context, while Cambridge retained international ownership. Cambridge Museum’s officials encouraged thinking that would continue the colonial relationship while thousands of Uganda artefacts remained in Britain.
Although the former Austrian Secretary for Culture, Andrea Meyer, promised on 20 June,2023, during the presentation of a committee report on restitution, to introduce in 2024 new legislation on artefacts looted during the colonial period, we have so far not seen any new legislation on this matter. According to Der Standard, a leading newspaper in Austria, in its edition of 24 October 2024, the Secretary for Culture had submitted a draft law text to the coalition partner in March which delayed the matter till the general election was near and so nothing could be discussed. Will the new governing coalition government take this matter up again?
Among the groups fighting to change the untenable position of the United Kingdom on restitution, is the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations, which held its 2024 conference on 27 October entitled, ‘From Acknowledgement to Action’ seeking acknowledgment of historical wrongs and the enactment of reparatory justice on local, national and international levels. We hope that now that Labour is in power in the United Kingdom, a new law will be passed to facilitate the restitution of looted artefacts. The Chairperson of the APPG, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, is a Labour Member of Parliament.
The British King Charles refused to apologize for British colonial crimes when he visited Kenya this year even though he expressed regrets for the horrible colonial atrocities. At the Samoa meeting for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government, 25 and 26 October, Britian opposed any discussion on her role in the transatlantic trade. A communique issued on Saturday referred to possible future discussions about ‘reparatory justice with regard to the Transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not issued an apology said in an interview with the BBC, “None of us can change the past, but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons, and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”
After such non-committal statements, one may wonder whether the British Government under the Labour Party will revert to the old ping-pong game where the government responds to restitution demands that it is up to the British Museum to decide and the museum replies that it depends on the government.
After all these years of discussing slavery and reparation, It has become clear that the ruling class in Britain does not intend to solve the issue. What do the African, Asian and Caribbean members intend to do? Would they think of leaving an organisation such as the Commonwealth where wealth is clearly not common and where one member holds thousands of looted artefacts of some members, their wealth, and refuses to return them? Some of think that countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and others should have left the Commonwealth long ago.
Among noticeable publications in 2024 on restitution are Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall(eds.) Fifteen Colonial Thefts, Jos van Beurden, The Empty Showcase Syndrome and Françoise Vergès, Programme de désordre absolu, available in English, A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonzing the Museum. (2)
Fifteen Colonial Thefts is undoubtedly a masterpiece that should be part of the library of restitution scholars. Reviewing this book, Françoise Vergès wrote,
‘European colonisation of Africa was not only about armed conquest, massacres, and the exploitation of resources. It was also about the appropriation of spiritual and political symbols. It led to the erasure of a social, cultural, and symbolic world.
Fifteen Colonial Thefts should be required reading for anyone who wishes to participate in any conversation about the looting of the African continent. It is a powerful argument for including African experts and communities in the process of re-appropriation. It is rigorously researched and does not focus on exemplary cases like the Benin Bronzes. More importantly, it conveys the perspectives of descendants of the dispossessed.
Reading each chapter is to penetrate the perverse world of colonial collecting. It is to be made aware of the lies, the arrogant ignorance, the imbecilic certainty of the colonial officer, the collector, the explorer. Each demonstrates that colonisation was about the humiliation and degradation of the human spirit.’ (3)
The Empty Showcase Syndrome offers a general view on restitution questions about cultural heritage from colonial regions. Jos van Beurden, a European specialist, concludes that: ‘Demands for restitution will continue to reverberate for decades to come, and the time when all parties involved will have shaken of the empty showcase syndrome is still a long way off. Governments and major museums in some European countries are working on it. However, other heritage institutions, private collections, and art dealers in these same countries hardly make positive moves, or even resist. Many former colonies have already lost confidence that they would ever regain their missing treasures. Because some former colonizers are now moving, however, confidence is returning in some countries seeking restitution.’ (4)
Françoise Vergès, A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonzing the Museum, is my choice for the best book on decolonization of the museum.
The author shows the great dimensions of the task ahead of those who want to change the institution of the universal museum. It would not be enough to return a few looted artefacts or employ a few persons from Asia and Africa, the so-called diversity policy. Vergès’ view on the museum is based largely on the atrocious and criminal modes of acquisition of objects now in the Western museums:
‘Colonizers, soldiers, missionaries, merchants, explores and sailors seized and robbed Africa, the Americas, the Pacific, and Asia. European museums were filled with looted objects from Beijing, Delhi, Angkor, Antananarivo, and Benin City; they grew rich from destructions and systematic theft of the palace treasures of the African, Asian, and Malagasy kingdoms and empires. Judging by the sheer extent of the seizures in Africa, it is as if nothing were to remain on a continent the Europeans nonetheless said had no history and no arts. The ‘racist and colonialist vision of an entire continent, to borrow historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo’s words, facilitated trafficking and the creation of a market. Art objects were put on the same level as rubber or groundnuts; that of a raw material to be extracted and exploited. (5)
AFRIMUHERE, the Pan-African organization for cultural heritage and restitution, held an online seminar on 29 August 2024 on the Future of African Restitution: Role of Youth in its Acceleration. Onyekachi Wambu, AFFORD projects director, sent a supporting message outlining the restitution process so far, whilst Silvie Memel, President of AFRIMUHERE, sent an inspirational message to the African youth emphasizing their pivotal role in the quest for restitution.
Chao Tayiana Maina, co-founder of African Digital Heritage, and Mahoutondji Kinmagbo, a creative technologist and African futurist from Benin, showed ways in which African youth can play significant roles in restitution and in relation to their Western counterparts to correct the negative narratives found in Western museums. https://www.afrimuhere.org/ The online seminar was well-attended and instructive. In future discussions, we must emphasize the danger African youth face in their fascination with digital technology and its possibilities. Strong resistance is required given the
arguments tending to consider the digitization of looted African artefacts as a substitute for the physical return of looted artefacts. We have even heard of digital restitution. We should look out for digital colonialism since the former colonial powers are interested in promoting digitization and have the necessary resources for this advanced technology. They may reproduce the same or similar inequalities as the colonial system left us.
A remarkable event of 2024 was the award of the film prize, Golden Bear, to Mati Diop, Senegalese filmmaker, at the Berlinale for her documentary film Dahomey which deals with the restitution and the return of twenty-six looted artefacts that the French stole from Dahomey, now part of the Republic of Benin, in 1892. The film includes discussions of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi on the issue of restitution. The students were most angry that France was returning only twenty-six out of the seven thousand artefacts they stole from the palace of King Behanzin in Abomey in 1892. (6)
Readers should also know that in Fifteen Colonial Thefts, there is an article by Nii Kwate Owoo, the Ghanaian filmmaker, on his film You Hide Me (1970), which recounts his experience in filming the considerable number of looted African artefacts that the British Museum keeps in its basement depots in London. The film met threats and sabotage in Ghana. We also recall the movie, Les statues meurent aussi (Statues Also Die) by Alain Resnais, Chris Maker, and Ghislain Cloquet, made for Présence Africaine in 1953 but was censored in France until November 1968 because of its criticism of colonialism and its effects on African culture. Even those with little interest in poetry cannot miss the poetic charge in Les Statues meurent aussi: Quand les hommes sont morts, ils entrent dans l’histoire. Quand les statues sont mortes, elles entrent dans l’art. Cette botanique de la mort, c’est ce que nous appelons la culture. C’est que le peuple des statues est mortel. (When men die, they enter into history. When statues die, they enter art. This botany of death is what we call culture. It is that the people of statues are mortal). (7)
We hear the urgent clarion call for the liberation of African statues from the suffocating glass showcases in museums of the Western world.
A most interesting judicial decision in 2024 was the decision of the United States Supreme Court to decline hearing a case challenging the Smithsonian's restitution of Benin bronzes to Nigeria A group of African Americans had contested the right of the Smithsonian to return 29 Benin bronzes to Nigeria. The Restitution Study Group had argued as representative of US citizens, descendants of enslaved persons from Benin with DNA from Benin, whose enslavement gained for Benin the manilas used for the famous sculptures; they argued that the bronzes should remain in the US so that they could learn about their culture. This is surely not the end of the contestation. Readers will recall that the Benin treasures are not all made in bronze. Wood, textile materials, animal skin, and ivory were also used. Indeed, the most famous Benin object, the hip-mask with the image of the Queen-Mother Idia now in British Museum,is made of ivory.
A noticeable event of the year 2024 was the announcement of the Louvre lectures, Louvre : quels universels ? starting on 25 November, by Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a leading Senegalese philosopher and well-known scholar, now teaching at Columbia University, USA. (8) It will be interesting to know whether Bachir Diagne repeats his controversial theory of ‘objets mutants’, mutating objects, which would allow the French to keep African artefacts such as the statue of Gou, God of War and Metallurgy, Benin, which is still in the Palais des sessions in Paris, despite several demands for its return to Benin. Many may find it shocking that a leading African scholar proposes a theory that would enable the French to keep looted African artefacts in France. The notion of universal museum does not appear to have disappeared completely in some circles despite the heavy criticism of the notorious Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums (2002) Anyway, the interview Bachir Diagne gave to the newspaper La Croix International is disturbing. (9)
Should philosophers and other scholars not consider the implications and practical effects of their writings and speeches? We have the President of Republic of Benin and his people requesting France to return their looted statue, Gou, God of War and Metallurgy. On the other hand, is a famous Senegalese philosopher, presenting a theory which would justify the retention of Gou by France. Should we not be concerned by the moral and practical implications of the doctrines espoused by our leading scholars? The theory of ‘objets mutants’ sounds like an ode to French imperialism, in opposition to Les statues meurent aussi. The genocides, massacres of Africans under French colonialism that enabled violent looting of religious objects and artefacts from Africa end with a verdict that the French looters can keep what they stole. What about the rights of the owners from whom the objects were wrenched with violence, have they lost their rights? Are looters now free of any moral or legal obligation to return looted objects once they put them in impressive buildings such as the Palais des sessions?
Several issues need to be addressed concerning this of the theory of mutation. Does it apply also to African artefacts outside the Francophone sphere? Does it apply to Egyptian artefacts such as Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone? What about the Benin bronzes or the Ethiopian treasures from Magdala and the 40,000 Cameroonian artefacts in Germany? Who determines the conditions of mutation and who decides that there has been mutation? How do we explain that 26 Benin artefacts, including the Royal Dahomeyan statutes, looted by the French at the same time as Gou in 1832 were returned on10 November 21 to Benin but not Gou? Can politics intervene in the conditions and process of mutation? Is there a test for differentiating potential mutation objects from other looted artefacts?
Will the Nigerian Nok statues that the French bought in auction in Brussels, knowing they were looted items, and are now in the Palais des sessions ,Louvre, with post factum Nigerian agreement be subject to mutation? The late Professor Folarin Shyllon described the shameful agreement as an unrighteous conclusion. (10)
How compatible is this new doctrine with resolutions of the UN/UNESCO? Would the various efforts by the African Union and other bodies to recover looted African artefacts have to cede in the face of the doctrine of mutations? What about the few recent restitutions of looted artefacts from France and from institutions such as Jesus College, Cambridge and University of Dundee?
Are there any European objects that mutated? Will European States with restitution claims against France be told that their artworks looted by Napoleon and still in the Louvre have mutated? Is African philosophy supporting Napoleonic cupidity and aggression?
Many Africans would subscribe to the idea of our common humanity and the need for cooperation between all peoples, but can we subscribe to a universalism, of whatever form, that justifies the keeping of our looted icons in the Louvre, Musée du Quai Branly, British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum ,in addition to our minerals and other resources that the West has for hundred years monopolized?
The concept of universalism has been the underlying justification for many genocides, massacres, violence, and dispossession of peoples in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Many of us become allergic when the word ‘universal’ is used in connection with relations between Africa and Europe. Immanuel Wallerstein, has rightly written:
‘The rhetoric of the leaders of the pan-European world-in particular, but not only, the United States and Great Britain- and the mainstream media and Establishment intellectuals is filled with appeals to universalism as the basic justification of their policies This is especially so when they talk about their policies relating to the’ others’ – the countries of the non- European world, the populations of the poorer and ‘less developed’ nations. The ton is often righteous, hectoring, and arrogant, but the policies are always presented as reflecting universal values and truths.’(11)
Those who stole African artefacts and have refused to return them since 150 years, despite United Nations and UNESCO resolutions urging the return of the artefacts to their countries of origin, receive now absolution and acquittal from all wrongdoing from a leading African scholar and a philosopher. Where does this leave jurists and art historians who have been arguing for decades that the looted artefacts must be returned to those who produced them, as requested by the unforgettable Senegalese son of Africa, Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, former UNESCO Director-General in his famous declaration entitled A plea for the return of an irreplaceable cultural heritage to those who created it. ?
We have never heard anybody suggest that by reclaiming their cultural objects looted by the Nazis, the victims of fascist spoliations were denying our common humanity nor that the Chinese were becoming tribalists or nationalists by reclaiming their artefacts looted by French and British troops from the Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860. Such arguments only seem to surface when Africans demand the restitution of artefacts looted under colonial rule.
Having followed and participated in the last twenty years in the debates on African restitutions, I would submit that at this juncture in the history of restitutions, where some Western holders of looted artefacts seem to be taking us back, a doctrine of mutation that keeps our artefacts in the Western world does not serve Africa’s interest. Moreover, I feel confirmed in my stance when I hear that the Director, Museum of Black Civilisations, Dakar, is not in a hurry to demand the restitution of Senegalese artefacts from France. (12) Is there an understanding between France and Senegal that there would be no demand for the early restitution of Senegalese artifacts in France? We recall that on 10 November 2021 when France returned twenty-six artefacts to the Republic of Benin, only one artefact, a sword was returned to Senegal. There are, according to Sarr-Savoy report 2275 Senegal artefacts in the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac alone.
Most African scholars are in favour of sending some African artefacts to Western States and working with Western institutions but on mutually agreed terms such as Nigeria has done with Germany even if some points of the arrangements may be criticised. Any theory or doctrine that seeks to allow looted African objects to remain with the looters in the Western world, not taking account of our experience with slavery and colonial violence and thus denying our history and experience, must be rejected.
What does it tell us about the respect the French have for the people of Benin when twenty-six items are returned without a statute so much admired by French artists and scholars and considered by Guillaume Apollinaire as exceptional and graceful among sculptures in Paris? The statue of Gou is considered by the people of Benin as well by the President of Benin as absolutely necessary for his people. The return of Gou has been requested several times but to no avail. (13) Gabin Djimassé, undoubtedly the master of the history of Voudon and Dahomey, Conservator of the Royal Palaces of Abomey, Director of Office of Tourism in Abomey, and grandson of Gédégbé, the famous diviner at the court of King Béhanzin, has stated that the statue of Gou is the most important object among the precious Benin artefacts in France, a view also confirmed by Marie-Cécile Zinsou, President of the Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, and President of the Administrative Council of the French Academy in Rome who said that some might say that France is keeping the best of the artefacts from Benin. Felwine Sarr has declared that there are texts which advise that when you conquer a people you should seize their spiritual heritage to prevent them from reconstituting their society.
When Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy published their Report on the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage, Towards a New Relational Ethics ,(2018) the sub-title related not to the objects themselves but to the relationship between France and her former colonies. The report exposed the violence involved in the acquisition of artefacts under the colonial regime and was proposing new bases for new relationship between France and the African countries that would be based on mutual respect and benefit, free from colonial violence. Hence the adjective ‘ethical’. There was here no suggestion of a mutation of looted treasures that would have allowed France to keep the looted objects and hence the hostility of certain circles against the authors and the report.
The real question then is whether France will give preference to French aesthetics and artistic taste of a few French citizens over the religious and historical needs of the people of Benin who see in Gou a divinity and part of their identity and their history.
We note that Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum and Chair of the Louvre, and defender of the universal museum as well as James Cuno, fervent defender of the universal museum, did not argue that the long imprisonment of African artefacts in Western museums established a right to keep them. Indeed, in his latest book, À monde nouveau, nouveaux musées, based on his Louvre lectures, the former director of the British Museum pleads for a new attitude of the museums in a changed world. (14)
The year 2024 did not bring as many restitutions as one could have expected. We still have too many stolen African artefacts in the museums of the former colonial rulers. The crosses, chalices, tabots of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the many precious historical manuscripts and paintings looted at Magdala in the 1868 invasion by the British Army are still in Western museums. Ethiopia has probably experienced one of history's most brutal invasions and lootings. (15)
Some Benin artefacts have been brought back, but the bulk remains in Western institutions. A few Asante golden objects have been returned on loan by the British Museum and the Victoria &Albert Museum. Britain's obstinance and reluctance to return looted African treasures are noticeable. It constitutes a challenge to humanity and remains an arrogant inheritance from colonialism, which many of us thought should have disappeared with Independence in 1960.
Many African treasures are still in the Western world. The bust of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is in the Neues Museum, Berlin, which is in no hurry to return her to Egypt despite several demands from the famous dynamic archaeologist, Zahi Hawass and the Egyptian government. The Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum, and some wonder why we even asked for her return to her homeland. The Egyptians are not asking for the return of all looted Egyptian artefacts but only for the well-known treasures. One is surprised at the attitude of the Western institutions toward the Egyptian authorities when one considers that there are thousands of Egyptian artefacts in the Western world. Moreover, Egyptian museums in the West are filled with looted artefacts.
What astonishes me, above all, is the remarkable calm and unruffled self-assurance of Westerners as regards stolen religious treasures from Africa. The disdain and arrogance of Westerners towards Africans and their beliefs cannot be more visible anywhere else than in this area. Most Africans will be hesitant in dealing with the religious objects of religions other their own.
How can Christian nations steal and keep for over a hundred years the Christian crosses, chalices, and other religious artefacts such as the tabots? Is respect for the religions of others not a necessary complement to the observance of the human right to free exercise and development of their faith? How can nations that spend millions on their churches and other religious places be deaf to the demands of others for their religious artefacts? The withholding of religious artefacts and symbols obviously violates the right to the free exercise of religion as proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Can anyone explain why the French hold on illegally to the divination plate of Guédègbé from the Republic of Benin that General Amédée Dodds and his invasion soldiers stole from Abomey in 1892? Do the French now believe in Ifa divination? Why do the French keep so many looted kotas and other African religious reliquary figures in their museums? Do they now believe in ancestor worship or veneration?
The West's determination to destroy African religions impelled the colonizers to destroy anything related to reverence of ancestors, rituals, and divination. By doing so, they destroyed many traditions relating to healing, protection, and medicines in our societies. The ensuing social disruption and confusion offered opportunities for charlatans to prey on the weaknesses of African societies generally.
Why does the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac keep thousands of drums and other musical instruments tightly packed in a tower which are not played while their African and Asian owners would be happy to play them at cultural festivals? What qualities push Westerners to wrench with violence from other peoples’ cultural and religious treasures that Westerners do not need or use?
What more can one say about African human remains that Westerners looted under the colonial regime and keep in their museums and other institutions? Do Westerners have an urgent need to communicate with our African ancestors, killed in colonial aggressions? And why are there so many human remains in Europe, including African human remains from their many colonial wars that are not separately classified? (16)
The disrespect here of the African human person is complete and incredible, coming from nations that set out ostensibly to bring Christianity and civilization to the African peoples. The colonialists opened graves of ancestors buried long ago and often insisted that relatives of the deceased or persons from the areas where the burial places were found should open the graves. They took not only objects found in the graves but also human remains, which were then transported to European institutions for experiments intended to demonstrate the inferiority of the Africans. The German scientist Dr Fischer was well-known for his experiments on Africans in Namibia. The notorious ethnologist Felix Luschan was known for collecting African skulls. When he died, his widow sold five thousand skulls from his collection to the American National History Museum. With so many wars and massacres, the colonialists did not have great problems in amassing vast numbers of human remains that are still in Europe, in London, Paris, and Berlin.
A more perverse practice is the systematic collection of skulls of African leaders who resisted colonialist hegemony. Mnyaka Sururu Mboro is still looking for the skull of Maji Maji leader Mangi Meli and other leaders of the resistance who were hanged and their skulls taken to Germany.
The Belgians were not far from other colonialists and still keep today the skull of Chief Lusinga, who refused to submit to Belgian colonial rule and was decapitated on 4 December 1884 by Emile Storm, Belgian commander. The skull is still in Belgium, and it is part of an anatomic anthropology collection that includes 289 skulls, twelve foetuses and eight skeletons, and other human remains that were transferred in 1964 to the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles (IRSNB) in Brussels that, has many other human remains.
It is clear to us that Western institutions have no intention of returning looted African artefacts in substantial numbers. Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, and Archaeological and Anthropology Museum, Cambridge University have refused to sign projected restitution agreements with Nigeria using as a pretext a decree by the President of Nigeria, affirming the ownership and guardian rights of the Oba of Benin from whose palace the British Army stole the artefacts in 1897.
Germany transferred legal ownership in 1130 Benin artefacts. Still, it ensured that it had a favourable loan agreement with Nigeria that has left many of the artefacts in Germany on a 10-year automatically renewable agreement and left the best of the Benin bronzes, such as the bust of Queen-mother Idia in Berlin as a loan or waiting to be returned in future to Nigeria. Sweden has promised to return Benin artefacts but has not returned anything. The Netherlands has often declared an intention to return Benin artefacts but has not returned any objects. Portugal has not returned any looted treasures. A few USA institutions, such as the Smithsonian, have restituted Benin artefacts. Western institutions are silent about other African artefacts such as Baule, Songye, Ibo, Ife, and Dogon.
Given the glaring failure of African States and peoples, after more than sixty years of Independence, to recover our looted artefacts, one must ask whether we have used the right strategy and correct methods in our dealings with the West. Specific approaches have failed; as reasonable people, should we not consider other ways that may finally oblige the West to respond to our requests?
The proposed Kumase International Conference on Restitution may offer the occasion to do some rethinking. The Egyptians have experience in dealing with the West in such matters. We must invite Zahi Hawass to participate in the planning and execution of the conference. Hawass organized a similar meeting in Cairo in 2010. Hawass is asking for the restitution of the Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, London; the bust of Nefertiti, now in Neues Museum, Berlin; and the Dendera Zodiac, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
Egypt and Ghana have a long history of cooperation. The brave sons of Africa, Kwame Nkrumah, and Abdel Gamal Nasser would surely have approved this venture which should also have the support of the Oba of Benin. The Asante Kingdom and the Benin Kingdom have similar experience regarding resistance to British hegemony, invasion by the British Army by way of the so-called Punitive Expedition and the looting of precious treasures that the looting power still refuses to return after more than hundred years of illegal detention.
The Kumase Conference should also involve the participation of China, as a country with experience of military interventions by colonialist and imperialist powers that looted the precious artefacts of the Asian country. Readers will no doubt recall the joint Anglo-French attack on the Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan, Beijing, in 1860 that resulted in the looting of thousands of precious articles that are still in Western museums today despite frequent demands by the Chinese people. So thorough was the looting that they even stole the Pekinese dog of the Empress of China, which was sent to Queen Victoria and christened, with peculiar humour, as Looty.
The looting in the Summer Palace, Beijing was under the leadership of the Eight Earl of Elgin, son of the Seventh Lord Elgin - the man who removed the Parthenon Marbles from Athens, Greece. Looted Chinese artefacts are to be found in, among other places, the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museums, Wallace Collection, the usual suspects as it were, but also in the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent, Royal Engineers at Chatham, Royal Marines in Portsmouth, Wardrobe Museum in Salsbury, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge the Oriental Museum of University of Durham and other institutions. Objects from the Summer Palace loot are also found in Louvre, Musée de l’Armée, Paris, Musée Guimet, and in the Musée du château de Fontainebleau.
Victor Hugo, the French poet, wrote about this shameful aggression:
One day, two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned. Victory can be a thieving woman, or so it seems. The devastation of the Summer Palace was accomplished by the two victors acting jointly. Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which inevitably calls to mind the Parthenon. What was done to the Parthenon was done to the Summer Palace, more thoroughly and better, so that nothing of it should be left. All the treasures of all our cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient. It contained not only masterpieces of art, but masses of jewellery. What a great exploit, what a windfall! One of the two victors filled his pockets, when the other saw this he filled his coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away. Such is the story of the two bandits. (17)
Greece has a rich experience in trying to recover national artefacts either looted or acquired under dubious circumstances from an imperialist power. Most readers know about the dispute between Britain and Greece over the Parthenon Marbles which Lord Elgin as British Ambassador managed to persuade the Ottoman officials then occupying Greece, to take to Great Britain. All attempts by Athens to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles have failed in what is probably the oldest restitution dispute. We could learn from the Greek experience as this dispute is often advanced by the British as the reason, they cannot modify their negative restitution policy.
Restitution, fully implemented without the imposition of irrelevant conditions, but followed with compensation as reparation for damage done to owners of cultural artefacts, should lead to reconciliation between subjugated peoples and their former oppressors. But how is this necessary reconciliation possible when former colonial rulers deny historical facts of crimes against humanity and other violations of human rights, duly documented by their own historians, and often by participants in these horrific violent destructions that characterized colonial hegemony? Reactions of Belgium, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and other former colonial rulers over the last decades do not display any conviction of the necessity to create conditions for reconciliation.
Those resisting restitution will hopefully reconsider their position as more of their people come to know and understand the violent and oppressive nature of the colonial enterprise. Unwillingness to accept restitution is a clear indication of a refusal to abandon colonialist ideologies that justified the wholesale stealing of artefacts in the subjugated parts of the world. Those unable to condemn acts of violence and dispossession of hundred years ago against races and peoples regarded by the West as inferior are not likely to condemn violence and dispossession against the same people today. All rhetoric to the contrary pales in the face of concrete actions or their absence.
Contemporary Westerners appear, in many ways, as regards restitution of looted artefacts, to create an impression as terrible as that of their predecessors. The predators of previous centuries seemed to believe in what they were doing; they considered Africans as inferior beings needing supervision and control for development. They believed in what they were doing according to the beliefs of those dark days. Contemporary Westerners largely condemn slavery, and colonialism. However, they refuse to give up any of the fruits of colonialism and imperialism. Some even repeat old arguments such as ‘shared heritage.’ Some would even express regret for the violence and destruction that accompanied colonial looting and yet refuse to return any of the objects looted in the dark days of colonialism. They must either condemn colonialism and consequently return its fruits in their museums or openly declare their support for the oppressive system with its genocides and crimes against humanity.
On this 10 November 2024, Restitution Day 2024, we urge Western governments and institutions to return African human remains, looted African artefacts, especially the religious, spiritual, and reverential objects.
·The French government, the Louvre, and Musée du quai Branly must return the Vodun god, Gou to its home in the Republic of Benin in addition to other looted artefacts.
·The British Government, the British Museum, Victoria &Albert Museum, and The Church of England must return to Ethiopia the looted Ethiopian crosses and the tabots as well as the Asante, Benin artefacts they are detaining, and the skulls of freedom fighters including those from Zimbabwe.
·The Germany Government, The Ethnology Museum, Berlin and Humboldt Forum must return more Benin and Cameroonian artefacts, return more human remains, including the remains of leaders of African resistance movements, and provide reparation for the genocide of the Herero and Nama, separate from development assistance to Namibia
·The Belgian Government and the Africa Museum at Tervuren must restitute looted artefacts to Democratic Republic of Congo and make reparations for the 12 million Congolese who were killed during the cruel reign of King Leopold II as well as for the children who were forcibly taken away from their parents.
·There is no valid justification for detaining religious and reverential treasures that were looted with violence.
‘At this time when the museum is opening its doors to the public, I keep wondering to what extent the mighty and powerful will go in their arrogance and violation of our imagination. We are being invited today to celebrate with the former colonial power an uncontestably magnificent architectural monument as well as our own decline and the complicity of those, African political and institutional authorities who consider that our cultural objects are better kept in the beautiful edifices of the North than under our own skies.
In our opinion, the Musée du Quai Branly is built on a deep and painful paradox since almost the totality of the Africans, Amerindians, the Australian Aborigines whose talents and creativity are being celebrated, will never cross the doorstep of the museum in view of the so-called selective immigration. It is true that measures have been taken to ensure that we can consult the archives via internet. Thus, our works of art have a right of residence at a place where we are forbidden to stay.’
Aminata Dramane Traoré, former Minister of Culture, Mali. (18)
NOTES
1. K. Opoku, The Asantehene has spoken: Bring back the Treasures the British Army stole from Kumase in 1874
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1337025/the-asantehene-has-spoken-bring-back-the-treasure.html
2. Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall (eds.) Fifteen Colonial Thefts; A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums,2024, Pluto Press, London.
Jos van Beurden, The Empty Showcase Syndrome, Tough Questions about Cultural Heritage from Colonial Regions ,2024, Amsterdam University Press Françoise Vergès, A Programme of Absolute Disorder.Decolonizing the Museum, Pluto Press, 2024.3. Françoise Vergès,
4. Jos van Beurden, op.cit. p.140.
5. Françoise Verges, op.cit. p. 95.
6. DAHOMEY de Mati Diop - Bande-annonce officielle
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118149-011-A/dahomey- interview-mit-mati-diop/ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mati+diop%2Cdahomey
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1903019545/?playlistId=tt31015216&ref_=tt_ov_vi
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcEbW9j1N8
https://www.chrismarker.ch/co-realisation-de-chris-marker.html#FE5fyKr4
8. https://www.louvre.fr/expositions-et-evenements/evenements-activites/louvre-quels-universels
https://presse.louvre.fr/souleymane-bachir-diagne-louvre-quels-universels/
9. Restitutions d’œuvres : « Les objets venus d’Afrique sont chez eux au Louvre » Entretien Pour le philosophe Souleymane Bachir Diagne, les objets Restitutions d’œuvres : « Les objets venus d’Afrique sont chez eux au Louvre » (la-croix.com) See the text of the interview in Annex II below. See also Souleymane Bachir Diagne - Le musée des mutants
https://youtu.be/QmL6ggHxUyY?si=v1O93RGKpQ_D-IsR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTyJ73AKac8
Extremely useful information and analyses on the god Gou can be found in
Maureen Murphy, « Du champ de bataille au musée : les tribulations d’une sculpture fon », Les actes de colloques du musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac [En ligne], 1 | 2009, mis en ligne le 28 juillet 2009, consulté le 06 novembre 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/actesbranly/213 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/actesbranly.213
Du champ de bataille au musée : les tribulations d’une sculpture fon
The best book on the Benin Royal Artefacts in Paris is Gaëlle Beaujean, L’Art de Cour d’Abomey-Le sens des objets, les presses du réel-Œuvres en sociétés, Dijon,2019. See also Beaujean-Baltzer, Gaëlle, (2007), « Du trophée à l’œuvre : parcours de cinq artefacts du royaume d’Abomey », Gradhiva. Revue d’anthropologie et d’histoire des arts, n° 6, p. 70‑85.
Very detailed analysis of the Dahomeyan bas-reliefs can be found in
The publications of Marlène-Michèle Biton,
L’Art des bas-reliefs d’Abomey, L’Harmattan,2000
Arts, politiques et pouvoirs, Les productions artistiques du Dahomey : fonctions et devenirs L’Harmattan, 2010.
See also Suzanne Preston Blier, The History of African Art,
Thames and Hudson,2023.
I found in my readings for this article, a statement from an article by Biton on French loans of artefacts to the Republic of Benin in 1989 which could be of interest to readers:
‘The Waterlot’s moulds I found some sixty or seventy years later enabled, in 1989, while celebrating the « Centenial of King Glélé’s death » (King of Dahomey from 1858 to 1889), the reproduction of new workpieces that ran the opposite way this time, and enriched the collections of Beninese museums. This operation had a double appeal as it offered, on the one hand, copies of artworks in their early 20th century condition – that is to say shortly after the conquest – and on the other hand, it resurrected others that had disappeared long ago, thus restoring to this region’s cultural heritage what could not have been saved on the spot’.https://journals.openedition.org/insitu/12900
In Situ,the journal from which this quotation is taken, is published by the French Ministry of Culture.
Could some of the recent restitutions be mere copies?
10. Folarin Shyllon, “Negotiations for the Return of Nok Sculptures from France to Nigeria – An Unrighteous Conclusion,” Art, Antiquity and Law 8 (2003): 142 https://plone.unige.ch/art-adr/cases-affaires/three-nok-and-sokoto-sculptures-2013-nigeria-and-france/case-note-2013-three-nok-and-sokoto-sculptures-2013-nigeria-and-france
11. Immanuel Wallerstein, European Universalism, The Rhetoric of Power, The New Press, 2006, p. [xi]
12. Restituer l’art africain : le statue du dieu Gou, https://www.facebook.com/francetvarts/videos/restituer-lart-africain-la-statue-du-dieu-gou/275789877365340/
Didier Houénoudé, Maureen Murphy (eds.) Création contemporaine et patrimoine royal au Bénin : autour de la figure du dieu Gou, proceedings of the colloquium held in Porto-Novo, 2016, HiCSA website, online February 2018,
13. K. Opoku, Are We Receiving The Restitution We Seek?
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1123962/are-we-receiving-the-restitution-we-seek.html
14. Neil McGregor, À monde nouveau, nouveaux musées : Les musées, les monuments, et la communauté réinventée, Editions Hazan, Paris,2021
See also. K. Opoku, MacGregor and Cuno – in harmony over opposition to restitution https://www.elginism.com/elgin-marbles/macgregor-cuno-harmony-opposition-restitution/20141114/7569/
Kwame Opoku, Dr. Cuno Again: Reviving Discredited Arguments To Prevent Future Repatriation Of Museum Artefacts.
https://www.modernghana.com/news/578495/1/dr-cuno-again-reviving-discredited-arguments.html
15. Emmauel Admassu and Eyob Derillo, Degodding Maqdala, in Fifteen Colonial Thefts, pp.151-160.
16. See Annex I. See also K. Opoku, Why Do European Museums Have So Much Trouble With African Bones? https://www.modernghana.com/news/159140/1/why-do-european-museums-have-so-much-trouble-with-.html
K. Opoku, Bones Do Not Die: Germans To Return Namibian Skulls.https://www.modernghana.com/news/179122/bones-do-not-die-germans-to-return-namibian-skulls.html
17 . K. Opoku, Is it not time to fulfil Victor Hugo's wish? Comments on Chinese claim to looted Chinese artefacts on sale at Christie's , https://www.modernghana.com/news/203909/is-it-not-time-to-fulfil-victor-hugos-wish-comments-on-chi.html
18. Aminata Traoré, ‘Ainsi nos œuvres d’art ont droit de cité là où nous sommes, dans l’ensemble interdits de séjour’
https://shs.cairn.info/revue-africultures-2007-1-page-132?lang=fr&ref=doi
ANNEXE I
MAP OF FRANCE SHOWING LOCATIONS OF INSTITUTIONS WITH HUMAN REMAINS IN THEIR COLLECTIONS.
Vade-Mecum-Les restes humains dans les collections publics, Michael Van Praët and Claire Chastanier, 2019.
ANNEX II
LA CROIX INTERNATIONAL
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Restitution of artifacts challenges colonial narratives, embraces cultural dialogue
Interview: For philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne, objects taken from former colonies have been incorporated into collections. They express universality, which should be valued, without ignoring the need to trace their journey and restore their ownership.
October 15th, 2024, at 05:00 am (Europe\Rome). Updated October 15th, 2024 at 11:22 am (Europe\Rome Souleymane Bachir Diagne, on October 3 at the Pavilion of Sessions at the Louvre Museum. (Photo by Capucine Barat-Gendrot)
ShareLa Croix: We are at the Louvre, where you are about to give five lectures on the museum's connection to the artworks from around the world exhibited here. Do you feel confronted with a colonial narrative that celebrates France as the center of the world, as some critics suggest?
Souleymane Bachir Diagne: I had that perception of the Louvre until the inauguration of the Pavilion of Sessions (dedicated to African, Asian, Oceanic, and American arts, Ed.) in 2000. From then on, I started reconsidering the idea of an overarching narrative wrapped in its universality. I began to think that, in some way, this Pavilion of Sessions was welcoming these objects as if they were at home.
How can some of these objects be “at home” here when they were taken during the colonial era?
Essentially, my position aligns with the late Senegalese Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, former Director-General of UNESCO. In the late 1970s, he made a powerful appeal for the return of heritage from former colonies, but at the same time, he acknowledged that this heritage had taken root on borrowed soil. Gradually, this idea became central to my thinking, and I began to see these objects not merely as exiles waiting to return but as having created something here.
Further reading: Should missionary orders return their African art?
My conviction grew stronger that by welcoming them, the Louvre was fulfilling its purpose: to decenter itself and open up to challenges to the idea of a purely European, self-contained universalism.
What have these objects created in Europe?
They contributed significantly to 20th-century contemporary art. Picasso is the best example. More broadly, they led to an "Africanization” of the world during the colonial period while a form of “Europeanization” occurred. Taken by force to Europe, they generated a dynamic that reflected their vitality. We can’t emphasize this enough. Their presence in a museum is not only explained by the hand that snatched them from their original land but also by the meaning they now give to the museum. These objects are not victims; they are agents.
How can this role be highlighted in the museum space?
Here at the Louvre, two projects are underway. First, the architectural opening of the Pavilion of Sessions which breaks its isolation. Currently, visitors only go there if they intend to. Renovations (scheduled until fall 2025, Ed.) aim to integrate it into the museum’s overall layout. Secondly, there's what I call “kinship,” thinking of objects together and making them speak to one another.
Further reading: Exploring Togo's fusion of religion and spirituality in art galleries
After the renovations, the "Blue Man" (an anthropomorphic sculpture from Vanuatu, Ed.) will be placed next to an ancient statue. For an object to "be at home" here means to converse with other objects. This will be the theme of one of my lectures: "When the Mona Lisa Smiles at the Dimpleless Masks."
Hearing you, it sounds like the ongoing restitution efforts are not necessary…
Many approaches are possible. The way Germany negotiated with Nigeria over the Benin Bronzes, which were clearly war spoils, is interesting. Some will return to Nigeria, while others will remain in Germany. To me, the violent, decolonial stance that says everything African must be returned is absurd. It erases the narrative of how these objects found their place elsewhere and nullifies the relationship that has been established.
“The violent, decolonial stance that says everything African must be returned is absurd. It erases the narrative of how these objects found their place elsewhere and nullifies the relationship that has been established.”
Restoring ownership of objects is important as an act of repair and recognition. However, this process is simpler for objects that are true war spoils than for others. Some were acquired through exchanges, as colonization was not only an arena of pure violence but also one of trade. The provenance of objects is crucial. It must be established, which takes time, and then displayed. This helps to understand the nature of these objects, which are to be shared.
This is also how we preserve the universal—a “lateral” universalism, one that steps outside itself and embraces the idea that cultures communicate. Even when they clash in violence, they eventually engage in dialogue and create a common language.
“We must not abandon the concept of the universal,” you write. Can you remind us of the importance of preserving it?
Destroying universalism means destroying the idea of humanity. This is the result when we believe cultures are separate humanities that should remain distinct. As I point out in my book, it’s no coincidence that a thinker from the far-right (Alain de Benoist, Ed.) believes there are only separate humanities and that “humanity” in the singular is, at best, a zoological notion.
“Destroying universalism means destroying the idea of humanity. This is the result when we believe cultures are separate humanities that should remain distinct.”
This is essentially the definition of apartheid: separate development based on the belief that human cultures are not meant to mix. But because a culture is human, it speaks to humanity. In other words, every culture signals to the whole of humanity. Nothing illustrates this better than artistic creations.
You mention “identity performances” that contribute to the fragmentation of cultures. Where do these occur?
Particularly in the idea that I can’t speak about a culture unless I belong to it. This extends to the novelist wondering if they have the right to give voice to a character who doesn’t share their identity. This obsessive policing of identities denies the old humanist saying, “I am human, and nothing human is alien to me.” The fragmentation of cultures contradicts the idea of the world’s pluralities converging toward a horizon of universality, as Jean Jaurès said. Humanity must be our compass. We need to build a politics of humanity that doesn’t deny the world’s pluralities. A museum like the Louvre can contribute to this.
Fang Mask, 19th century, Gabon, from the Ngil secret society, made of wood, kaolin, and brass nails
“This mask illustrates the Africanization of modern art. It is known that African objects influenced Picasso’s creations. He discovered them through the painter André Derain, a collector who owned a Fang mask that deeply impressed him. It is also a good illustration of what Senghor wrote about the geometric significance of objects. Look at the play of convex and concave lines. They do not adhere to a concern for proportion but for the transposition of rhythm. They represent, in a way, a 'rhythmic series,' as Senghor would say. What is depicted here is not the thing itself, but the essence of the thing.”
Fon Sculpture, attributed to Akati Ekplékendo, before 1858, Benin, statue dedicated to Gou, the god of iron and war, made of iron and wood
“This 'god of iron,' which comes from Benin, brings to mind the issue of restitution. In Dahomey, Franco-Senegalese Mati Diope's film that won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival this year, Beninese students lament its absence among the twenty-six objects France returned to their country. As for me, I can see it remaining here. This object is at home in the Louvre. Of course, we could imagine a loan or even a transfer of ownership to the state of Benin. However, ownership must be separated from location. The objects in the Louvre are meant to be nomadic. This 'god of iron' also shows the diversity of African art. It is not limited to masks and can incorporate European materials.”
Monumental Moai Head, made of basaltic tuff, Easter Island
“This object fascinates me. We don’t know much about the sculptures of Easter Island or its cosmology. It is believed that they represent protective deities. However, this head, carved from rock, with its monumental size and closed eyes, enthralls me. Like the 'god of iron' from Benin that I just mentioned, it points toward transcendence, but in a different way. It is, in a sense, the union of transcendence and absence. Since this object is not African, a relationship has been built between the two of us. This is clear evidence of its universal dimension. I tell myself that by taking up this position at the Louvre, I am placing myself under its protection.”
Restitutions d’œuvres : « Les objets venus d’Afrique sont chez eux au Louvre » Entretien Pour le philosophe Souleymane Bachir Diagne, les objets Restitutions d’œuvres : « Les objets venus d’Afrique sont chez eux au Louvre » (la-croix.com)
IMAGES
Orthodox Christian Crosses, Magdala, Ethiopia, now in British Museum, London, United Kingdom.
The eighth commandment ’Thou shall not steal’ seems not to apply, in the opinion of some, to religious and precious objects of others. How else can one interpret the British attitude and treatment of Ethiopian religious artefacts, including many Christian crosses and manuscripts that were looted at Magdala in 1868 and the less than respectful, some would say blasphemous and sacrilegious way of managing the issues of the restitution of looted Ethiopian artefacts in the British Museum and in the Victoria &Albert Museum?
Gou, God of War and Metallurgy. Akati Ekplékendo, produced this remarkable statue around 1858, Benin, now in Musée du Quai-Branly-Jacques Chirac at the Pavillon des Sessions, Paris, France. Among the impressive African objects in the Pavillon des Sessions is the sculpture of Gou, God of War and Metallurgy that the French looted in 1892 from the former French colony, Dahomey, now Republic of Benin. This statue was not among the twenty-six artefacts returned to Benin on 10 November 2021. President Talon pointed out the absence of Gou at the signing of the transfer agreement between France and Benin .Benin quested several times for the restitution of Gou.
Is the Palais des sessions a universal temple of looted artefacts or an ode to colonial violence and expropriations?
See K. Opoku, Do French Museums Still Need To Study Looted African Treasures?https://www.modernghana.com/news/1315012/do-french-museums-still-need-to-study-looted-afric.html
IFA Divination Plate of Guédègbé, now in Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France. Guédègbe. Born in 1850 and died in March 1936 at Abomey, Dahomey, was a Fon Ifa diviner attached to the Dahomeyan Royal Court of King Behanzin.
Mice divination box, Baule, Côte-d’Ivoire, now in musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France.
Reliquary figure, Kota, Gabon, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France.
Post card of German soldiers loading human skulls and bones of massacred Herero in Namibia into a casket for shipping to Germany, especially Berlin. .
The skull of Chief Lusinga who refused to submit to Belgian colonial rule. and was decapitated on 4 December 1884 by Emile Storm, Belgian commander.
Statue of anti-colonial hero Mbuya Nehanda
in Harare, Zimbabwe.
.
Dendera Zodiac, Egypt, now in Louvre Museum, Paris, France. The Dendera Zodiac was part of the ceiling of a temple at Hathor, Egypt and was first seen in 1799 by French scientists during the invasion expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798 with four hundred ships and 54,000 men and taken to Paris in 1822,ostensibly with authority of officials of the Ottoman Empire, then controlling Egypt as colonial rulers.
Bust of Nefertiti, Egypt, now in Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.
There is a recent petition to bring Nefertiti home in Egypt.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nefertiti-bust-return-egypt-petition-berlin-museum-rcna170171
Rosetta stone, Egypt, now in British Museum, London, United Kingdom.
There is a current petition for the restitution of the Rosetta stone to Egypt. https://www.hawasszahi.com/repatriation
Looting of the Old Summer Palace, Yuan Ming Yuan, Beijing, Gardens of Perfect Brightness by Anglo-French armies in 1860.
Imperial ceremonial wine-cup, Gold Cups of Stability looted from the Summer Palace, Beijing, in 1860 now in Wallace Collection, London,United Kingdom.
Wallace Collection bought the two cups at an aution if Paris in 1872.
Incense burners,China,now in Wallace Collection,London,United Kingdom.
Headless statue of the Greek river god Ilissos, Athens, Greece, taken to British Museum, London, which was loaned to Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Queen-mother Idia, Benin, Nigeria, now in the British Museum, London, United Kingdom. Will the great Benin heroine return home to her people in Benin or remain in continued 127 years of illegal and illegitimate detention in the colonialist and imperialist capital, London where she was sent after the notorious invasion of 1897? The other queen-mother Idia mask that Sotheby’s was prevented in 2011 from auctioning by student protest has eventually been sold to Qatar. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/04/qatari-sheikhs-rare-ivory-mask-stolen-from-benin-city-by-the-british-is-one-of-five-on-public-displaynone-in-nigeria
Terracotta piece with figures in low relief. One of the three looted Nigerian Nok sculptures bought by France knowing they were stolen objects. Now in the Palais des Sessions, Paris, with post factum consent of Nigeria.
Bernie Grant, Labour Member of British Parliament ,from 1987 to his death in 2000. Benin Bronzes Campaign Files/The Bernie Grant Archives.2020: Bernie Grant 20th Anniversary Lecture https://berniegrantarchive.org.uk/memorial-lecture/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm3oTjmP-v4
Aminata Traoré, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mali 1997 -2000,is one of the most formidable intellectuals of our times. Traoré’s statement made in 2006 when the Musée du quai Branly was opened, is still the most powerful statement made on behalf of the African peoples in their quest to recover their artefacts looted/stolen during the colonial period. Traoré is author, politician and political activist. She appears in several video presentations on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNAuvtcSHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfXPL4zofzM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1arvD5y00ZQ
Bernard Gabin Djimassé, Benin, always dresses in African cloth in order to avoid disguising himself as a European. https://www.globe-reporters.couleurmonde.com/Tous-les-jours-nous-nous-deguisons-en-Europeens-Bernard-Gabin-DJIMASSE.html
See the article by Djimassé , Vodun et Culture Fon in Vodun, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Hirmer Publishers, München,2011,pp.201-209.
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