Seven years after President Emmanuel Macron’s famous call for restitution of African heritage to Africa, how have France and other Western countries measured up?
But France has relatively little to show. French public collections are considered “inalienable” by law: a museum cannot agree to the slightest thing going back permanently without the French parliament passing a new law each time.
The irony is that Macron’s call for change has been heeded well beyond France, and to far greater success.
The Dutch, unburdened by the inalienability restrictions, have adopted a report on colonial looting and installed an advisory panel that has been working away over the past two years. Their operating principle is “involuntary loss of possession”.
Even the UK has taken a pragmatic approach to restitution.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has been a leader on this: along with the British Museum, it sent back looted objects last year to Ghana on the anniversary of a British punitive raid in 1874. The 32 objects are being exhibited in Kumasi on a three-year loan, which can then be extended.
See also UNESCO’s Ernesto Ottone on this, speaking about the pressure by young Africans at a UNESCO conference in Addis Ababa.
