Mati Diop’s documentary echoes the restitution of 26 Beninese jewels

Mati Diop invites us on a cultural road trip and for reflection. She has set up her cameras behind the scenes of an emblematic operation to return symbolic art objects by France to Benin.

In November 2021, 26 royal treasures returned to Benin, the land from which they had been torn by French colonial troops in 1892. The country was then called Kingdom of Danxomè and was not yet the colony of Dahomey. The latest feature film by Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop, in theaters September 11, is the result of this return trip filmed between Paris and Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. Dahomey won the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlinale last February.

On the trail of these art objects loaded with history, we travel through places inaccessible to the usual visitors of the Quai Branly museum from where the works leave, the corridors of the Beninese presidential palace, the safest place that can welcome them upon their arrival. The film also takes the spectators to the University of Abomey Calavi where young Beninese analyze the springs of the process of restitution of these pieces after 129 years of exile.

How exactly can we tell the story of the exile of those – the director has relied on personification – plunged into “the night” from the tearing away to their triumphant return? The narrator of this moving return to the sources is none other than the Bird-Man Statue of King Ghézo. On the site dedicated to these art objects, the artifact is described as a possible representation of the Beninese sovereign because of the iron blades visible on the statue, an evocation of the cardinal bird, one of the symbols of the king.

In Fon, a language that the vast majority of Beninese speak, but from another age, the statue expresses the dismay that was hers for more than a century. Spokesperson for these objects that are mute by nature, she expresses the feeling shared by her fellow sufferers and returns to the circumstances of their misfortune. Her voice, also with a timbre from another age, punctuates the journey of the works pampered and examined in the smallest details by the experts, before and after their transport. And this regardless of the means used. The logistics of a restitution are thus revealed on the big screen.

Dahomey later witnesses the wonder of the Beninese, of all ages, who discover their treasures in the presidential palace where they are exhibited in 2022. Mati Diop lingers on this crowd of great days who storm the Marina Palace and the evocative looks of the youngest.

Beyond the discovery stage, the documentary is richly nourished by the debate desired and organized by the director on the issues of this restitution for the youth of Benin. Their exchanges demonstrate their great lucidity. Worthy citizens of this Benin, formerly nicknamed The Latin Quarter of Africa, they dissect the political, societal and cultural tenets of the approach. Some see it as an instrument of political propaganda, both at the level of their country and on the scale of France, which is losing ground on the continent. The young people also question, rightly, the museum practice that could be more similar to a Western tradition. A new import for a youth in search of socio-cultural references of which they have been deprived, in part, by this type of colonial pillage.

Between the narration and this debate, Mati Diop takes up the main challenge of the exercise: giving substance to this highly symbolic logistical operation. The ingenuity of his staging gives all the necessary depth to the illustration of the great debate on the restitution of art objects plundered in Africa during the imperialist conquests of a West that decides everything. Including the best place to preserve the artistic and cultural heritage of the dominated, even after they have won their independence and are demanding the return of what belongs to them. Dahomey is a useful cinematic addition to a cultural and geopolitical reflection which does not only concern Africa.

Gender : documentary
Director: Mati Diop
Actors:
Country : Benin, France, Senegal
Duration : 1h08
Exit : September 11, 2024
Distributer : The Diamond Films

Synopsis: November 2021, 26 royal treasures from Dahomey are preparing to leave Paris to be repatriated to their land of origin, which has become Benin. Along with several thousand others, these works were looted during the invasion of French colonial troops in 1892. But how can we experience the return of these ancestors to a country that had to build itself and deal with their absence? While the soul of the works is being freed, the debate rages among students at the University of Abomey Calavi.