Vive M. Emmanuel Macron

The French President, M. Emmanuel Macron, has proved that it's extremely important for a nation to have an intellectual as its head of state.

An intellectual might entertain the wrong idea(s) about a particular subject. But it's better that he thinks wrong than that he doesn't think at all!

Macron was definitely wrong when he described Africa's problems as “civilisational” in a speech. There certainly is more behind economic and social backwardness in Africa than a lack of civilisation”. M. Macron only has to contemplate what France might have become (had the Nazi occupation of that country in World War Two lasted even a mere 50 years instead of the nearly 150 years that the colonialists ruled Africa.) Even today, don't some French citizens maintain that the mark-dominated “Euro” has “absorbed” the French franc to the disadvantage of the franc? Indeed, is it too fanciful to imagine that “Frexit” may well follow “Brexit”?!

But if he made a mistake about his country's contribution to backwardness in say, the Central African Republic (one only need remind M. Macron only of the scandal that erupted in France — well covered in satirical magazines– when “Emperor” Balassa gifted some diamonds to one of M. Macron's predecessors, who squandered French state funds to underwrite Bokassa's “coronation” as “Emperor”!) M Macron has now redeemed himself by making a fantastic gesture over the return to Africa of art treasures looted by the colonialists.

Macron's enlightened viewpoint is: “I cannot accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France… There are historical explanations for this but there is no valid, lasting and unconditional justification. African heritage cannot be only in private collections and European museums – it must be showcased in Paris but also in Dakar, Lagos and Cotonou. This will be one of my priorities.”

M Macron next commissioned a report which has called for the return to Africa of “thousands of African artworks in French museums, taken without consent, during the colonial period.” Unless it could be proved that such objects were obtained legitimately, they should be returned to Africa permanently, not on long-term loan, said the authors of the report. They are the Senegalese writer and economist, F. Sarr and the French historian Bénédicte Savoy. The two recommended that French law to should be changed to allow the return of cultural works to Africa.

In his speech at Ouagadougou, M. Macron had declared: “I want that within five years, the conditions are met for temporary or final restoration of objects of African inheritance to Africa.” Le Monde commented then that it was “the first time” a President of the French Republic had taken a position on the question of African works of art “preserved in the French museums since the time of colonization.” This position of Macron's was opposite to previous positions, whereby any request come from an African country for the return of such objects was met with a curt: “the national collections are inalienable and no restitution is thus possible.”

Macron's speech caused in France and abroad, concern among conservatives; irritation from the arts merchants; and exchanges of legal and political arguments. But nothing more was heard until 22 March 2018, when an announcement from the Elysee Palace entrusted to two academics, the task of investigating the possibility of returning art objects to Africa. They were the Frenchwoman Bénédicte Savoy, and the Senegalese Felwine Sarr. They were told to report officially on 23 November 2018.

The “Savoy-Sarr” Report is 232 pages long and contains many documentary appendices and illustrations. The first 80 pages endeavour to articulate historical, political and legal arguments in support of the proposal to return the artefacts. Algeria and Egypt are explicitly excluded, because their cases, according to the authors, “concern a context of appropriation and imply the need for very different legislations”.

The authors, who, from their former work, are not specialists in the subject, met various interlocutors who were mainly representatives of museums and cultural institutions, as well as lawyers, but only a few historians, and even less of actors to be deprived of artefacts, such as art dealers and collectors. They went to Senegal, Mali, Cameroun and Benin (former Dahomey.)

The extent to which France, Britain and Germany looted Africa of its artefacts during colonialism is not known, but according to the Report, about 90% of Africa's cultural heritage currently lies outside the continent.

Will the British, the Germans, the Americans and the Belgians, who also hold enormous quantities of African art treasures, emulate the French and begin the process of disgorging their loot? The Independent newspaper in London reported on 24 June 2018 that some British museums may “loan”! To Nigeria, Benin bronzes that were stolen in the looting that occurred during a punitive British expedition into what is now Nigeria. The paper said Nigeria might be willing to let Britain return the Benin Bronzes on just a loan basis rather than giving them back permanently.

While other countries (like Greece over the Elgin Marbles) have refused to accept anything other than a permanent return of treasures seized during the colonial era, some Nigerian officials seem now to be willing to settle for borrowing back what was stolen from them, the paper said. (Nigeria has been seeking the return of the Bronzes ever since the country gained independence from Britain in 1960.)

Ghana has been relatively quiet about the treasures looted from Asante in 1874 and 1896, although the British Museum of Mankind showed an unbelievable collection entitled ASANTE KINGDOM OF GOLD in an exhibition in London in 1981: The British Museum collection

To read further on the subject, go to www.google.com and key in the words: Ghana+artefacts+in+foreign+museums.

cameronduodu.com

By CAMERON DUODU