The trove is spread across several French museums and the national library and includes nearly 500 manuscripts containing Tall’s writings and those of contemporaries documenting the region’s history and culture, plus jewelery, weapons, and other artifacts.
1890 Military map Ségou region
Omar Saïdou Tall was born in Senegal between 1794 and 1797. In 1890, French troops led by General Louis Archinard snatched them from Tall’s family palace, located in the town of Ségou, in today’s Mali.
Excerpt from a mystical treatise by Omar Saïdou Tall. Photo Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Now, thanks to a new French law facilitating the restitution of looted colonial-era artifacts, Tall’s heirs in Senegal are hoping the Ségou treasure will finally come home, according to a report by Le Monde.
Cultural artifacts were not the only things taken during the French raid of Ségou. In 1995, France repatriated the remains of Tall’s grandson, Abdoulaye Tall, who was kidnapped during the same 1890 attack. The boy was 10 years old at the time and was brought back to France, where he was forced to assimilate and live with a wealthy family in Paris. He later became the first African student accepted into the prestigious Saint-Cyr French military school. His life was cut short at age 20, however, when he died of an illness.
In 2019, France also returned Tall’s sword, which had been part of the Ségou treasure.
