Europe Still Refuses to Return Africa’s Stolen Artifacts, Culture, History
By: Herbert Dyer
Tags: Imperialism, Theft, Colonialism, Racism, Neocolonialism

Europe Still Refuses to Return Africa’s Stolen Artifacts, Culture, History

It’s time for White Europeans and their descendants to pay up

Three Hostages of Benin’s Stolen Legacy Held in British Museum. Photo Credit

“You can’t steal nothin’ from the white man… ‘cause he stole everything he’s got.” – Amiri Baraka “When white folks steal colored folks’ stuff, it stays stolen.” – Ancient Ghetto Proverb

In 1890, modern Guinea, Senegal and Mali constituted the Toucouleur Empire. The royal palace at Segou was attacked, sieged, and captured by the French in a blood bath of historic proportions. And, after the subsequent equally violent, equally bloody capture of the city of Ouossebougou, the Toucouleur Empire collapsed under the relentless rain of French repeating rifle fire. Thus began the transfer of political power and control of the entire region to French colonial rule.

Military and political domination of Toucouleur were only the first steps toward France’s (and by extension, Europe’s) ultimate goals in the rape of Africa. Once they had secured the power centers of the empire, they got down to the real reason Europe has always been “interested” in Africa — wholesale theft.

During the 1890 “incursion,” French officials and their military plundered over a thousand pieces of significant cultural heritage of these people — including the saber of the founder of the empire, El Hadj Omar Tall.

One hundred and thirty years later, that saber still holds deep and abiding symbolic, cultural and spiritual significance for the people. It was finally returned to Senegal in an emotional ceremony that attracted El Hadj Omar Tall’s ancestral family from throughout West Africa.

This was a rare victory for his descendants, though. Indeed, they had been demanding return of his and all other artifacts since 1944. Those other pieces included manuscripts, precious jewels, sculptures, paintings, statuary, clothing, and are, for the most part, still held hostage in three of France’s largest and most famous museums.

According to a French government-commissioned report compiled last year by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian Bénédicte Savoy, as much as ninety percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is located outside of the continent as a direct result of European colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism.

These assets were violently, ruthlessly, and purposely looted by European colonial powers; and ever since the thefts began in earnest in the late 19th century, demands that Europe return them forthwith have never ceased.

And, yes, some pieces were stolen under various nonviolent pretexts, a favorite being “ethnographic missions.” European “scientists” of differing stripes set out to “study” “primitive” man or “natural” man in his “natural habitat,” the “dark continent.” But out-and-out military conquest was the surest way Europeans got and kept what they wanted from Africa, and brute force was the preferred method of dealing with “uncivilized” black “savages” and “monkeys.”

Art, carvings and sculptures have been the main focus of the plundering. But also included are written and pictographic archives, religious and ceremonial objects, natural history specimens (animals, insects, plants, etc.), even human remains. Also missing are intangible cultural heritage items including sound recordings and photographs.

There are, of course, African museums. But they are generally ill equipped compared to European museums. Indeed, most African museums are likely to hold no more than 3,000 artifacts each. Of course, that number pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of pieces stolen and spirited away from the continent over the course of the last 500 years.

How many African artifacts are in Europe’s top museums? From the report, here are just a few notable ones:

Musee Royale de l’Afrique Centrale

Belgium — 180,000

Humboldt Forum, Germany — 75,000

Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac

France — 70,000

British Museum

69,000

Weltmuseum of Vienna, Austria

37,000

None of these objects have been returned since the publication of this report.

Here’s an interesting fact which will surely trigger so-called “conservatives” : A $15 million, four-year initiative sponsored by George Soros’ Open Society will soon begin work to jump-start reparations/restitution of African treasures through legal, financial and technical support to governments, regional bodies, museums, universities and civil societies throughout the continent. This is an important initiative because claims for restitution are mounting as more and more African nations and communities demand return of their looted items. These claims are already being met by significant legal and political obstacles— such as the “inalienability of public French art collections law.” This law declares that all “public” French art collections belong to the state and cannot be returned to their original owners no matter how or when they came into French “custody.”

Benin has been officially asking France to return anthropomorphic (half human-half animal) statues that were looted during the sacking of the Abomey palace in 1892. These statues hold deep spiritual and historic value for Benin and are unique pieces of that nation-state’s cultural property and heritage, and yes, identity.

Still, these are only part of the 5,000 artifacts Benin has requested back from France. France’s response has been to tie Benin’s requests and demands into legal knots and challenges in French courts where the deck is decidedly stacked against the African litigants. In most cases, Benin’s requests have simply been refused because France now claims that these “things” are part of French cultural property and heritage.

As the photograph heading this essay indicates, Britain also has a plethora of stolen Benin artifacts — some of which are slowly being repatriated.

On the other side of the continent, in Ethiopia, Afromet (the Association For the Return Of the Magdala Ethiopian Treasures) has been fighting the British for return of cultural artifacts seized by the British army at Magdala in 1868.

Just last year, England did return a few artifacts to Ethiopia, including a gold crown and a royal wedding dress, which were taken during the battle at Magdala.

England’s world renowned Victoria & Albert Museum agreed to the return of certain artifacts as part of a long-term “loan” agreement, rather than as an outright act of restitution.

The battle of Magdala grew out of a British military expedition’s attempt to release British hostages taken by Emperor Tewodros II. The British victory in that skirmish prompted the emperor’s suicide, which the British capitalized on by the razing of his fortress. Hundreds of artifacts were then looted and plundered from Magdala, including the emptying of the emperor’s treasury. It took fifteen elephants and two hundred mules to transport the stolen goods to the sea.

Felwine Sarr, co-author of the restitution report, allows that restitution and reparations are are necessary part of the decolonization process. Also engaging the African masses in the discussions and debates is also essential. He says,

“People first need to know what was taken from them. Then they will realize that this is not an elite discussion, but one that concerns them — their history, their heritage, their legacy.”

Opinion:

Think of the return of these African artifacts as another kind of reparations and restitution, similar to that being demanded by African Americans vis-a-vis the US government, US corporations, US educational, religious and other institutions — and, yes, against identifiable “private” US citizens whose family fortunes were built upon the backs of enslaved African peoples.

In other words, it is time for “white” Europeans and their “white” North American and “white” Australian cousins to pay up…to pay up for the centuries of slavery, suffering and death that they, and they alone, have wrought upon this earth for at least the last 500 years and counting.

They can start by returning the plundered booty and artifacts stolen during the colonial, imperial, and neo-colonial eras. Then they can “forgive” the many dependence-inducing, usurious “structural adjustment program” loans they have foisted upon the so-called “developing” or “third world” or, in Donald Trump’s parlance, “shit hole” countries.

And they can stop pretending that they had nothing to do with the now always impoverished and desperate condition that most of the global south finds itself in. The contrast between the south and north is unconscionable. But we know why that stark contrast exists and how it came to be: That contrast exists as a direct and proximate result of, as the South African comedian Trevor Noah puts it in the above video, the “O.G.” of racist exploitation, Europe, created it, nurtured it, and maintains it to this day.