This historic return is in all the conversations of the Beninese.
Posted
Reading time : 1 min.
Twenty-six works from the royal treasures of Abomey, kept at the Quai Branly museum in Paris will join Benin on Wednesday 10 November. A historic comeback, insists Florentin Nangbe, professor of sociology at the University of Abomey-Calavi, near Cotonou, in Benin. “It is a great pride for me because when we talk to young people about colonization, they hardly understand anything, he explains. And now they are trying to understand better what happened. “
This restitution is at the heart of all conversations in Benin. “You should know that this is a subject that is really everywhere in Cotonou, highlighted Marie-Cécile Zinsou, president of the foundation that bears her name. People talk about this a lot lately because it was impossible. French heritage is inalienable. So when an object enters French heritage collections, it never comes out again. ” And then, there was this exceptional law passed in May 2020 and this “total paradigm shift”, continues Marie-Cécile Zinsou. “And suddenly, of course, today, to say that people will finally be able to have free access to it whenever they want, it’s wonderful”, she adds.
According to several experts, thousands of works are found outside the African continent and are claimed by many countries such as Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire or Mali.