In L’Afrique fantôme (Gallimard, 1934), the diary of the Dakar-Djibouti scientific mission led by France in Africa between 1931 and 1933, writer Michel Leiris expressed his bitterness at having participated in a sacrilege, a roundup in due form under the guise of a scientific expedition.
In the words of ethnologist Marcel Griaule, who led the expedition, “the urgent need to safeguard the traces of cultures that are disappearing as a result of contact with colonists and the modern world”, all means were used to extort the 3,200 objects methodically sent at each stage to the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro, the forerunner of the Musée de l’homme in Paris.
The African researchers come from Cameroon, Republic of Benin, Senegal, Mali and Ethiopia.
This loot is now on display at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac, which will be partially open to the public from April 15.
