African countries have been colonized for a long time in the past, and their early artifacts were scattered, resulting in a lack of collections in African museums. On November 23 this year, France announced that it would return 26 African artifacts to the West African country, the Republic of Benin. The news was released to the public by the French Presidential Palace, after 90 minutes of talks between French President Emmanuel Macron, art historian Bénédicte Savoy and the Republic of Senegal economist Felwine Sarr.
France’s concern about the return of African artifacts has been traceable in recent years. In November last year, in a speech by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, he pointed out the topic of African artifacts that he valued, and promised that the African artifacts will be returned to Africa temporarily or permanently in 5 years time.
In March of this year, Emmanuel Macron commissioned Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy to conduct an investigation and visited African countries such as Mali, Senegal, Cameroon and Benin to write a report. The results of the survey made an uproar, showing that 80% to 90% of the African artifacts, including statues, thrones and manuscripts were long-term loss outside of Africa. The countries that have owned the African cultural relics include France, Britain, Germany and Belgium. For France itself has more than 90,000 African artifacts, and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris has a collection of more than 70,000 pieces. Since its opening in 2006, the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac has exhibited artifacts from outside Europe. Most of the artifacts are from French colonies.
The survey results also show that the time record of most African artifacts in the French Museum is between 1885 and 1960, which is the French colonial period of Africa. Before the report was submitted to Emmanuel Macron, this report caused the controversy and criticism of the "colonial violence" and "permanent return" of the European countries in the media. The report pointed out that the French authorities need to prove that these artifacts were obtained from legal sources, otherwise they should be returned to Africa instead of being presented to the African people in a long-term loan. The experts believe that it is necessary to return African artifacts and allow African people to own their own cultural relics and help them to examine their past history.
However, some African experts worry that the repatriation action will trigger internal conflicts between African countries and ethnic groups. They suggested that the authorities concerned should carefully screen artifacts that would not cause controversy between France and African countries. Therefore, the first cultural relics returned by France were from the 19th century African Dharma dynasty. These artifacts come from the Royal Places of Abomey in the Kingdom of Dahomey, the colony of France.
The Benin government officially submitted a request for the return of cultural relics to France in 2016, but it was rejected by the French authorities. Today, France has played a leading role in not only demonstrating its determination to return to its original owners, as well as invites African and European partners to gather in Paris in the first quarter of 2019 to discuss and formulate exchange policies on this topic. At present, the Belgian government and the German government have begun preparations for the reorganization of African cultural relics. The United Kingdom still has reservations about this issue.
Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy also suggested that France should amend the law on this issue and develop a basis for how to return African artifacts.
For the issue of returning the cultural relics, the director of the Brown Riverbank Museum, Stéphane Martin expressed optimism about the prospect of returning these objects to the original place, and considered this to be an important step in the development of communication. European conservatives believe that the return of cultural relics to the original place also involves the maturity of the conditions for the preservation of cultural relics in African countries, including the security of cultural relics and the consideration of the hardware facilities such as preservation and maintenance. Therefore, the process of returning cultural relics must take several years.
Figure 1：Mask of Nigeria (Africa), Yoruba population, 20th century, Wood and painting. Inv. 73.1969.7.1 © Museum of Quai Branly, Photo Patrick Gries, Bruno descoings.
Figure 2：On the plateau of collections, view of the Oceania area in December 2015 © Museum of Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Photo Cyril Zannettacci.
