why restitutions are being made slowly in France

Celebrated last week by Paris and Abidjan, the repatriation of the Djidji Ayokwe drum, currently kept at the Quai Branly museum, will therefore take the form of a long-term loan and not a full restitution, a default choice which does not not unanimous.

“This solution does not appear (not) satisfactory in view of the commitments made by France”, estimate eight senators, right and left combined, in support of a bill linked to this Ivorian drum.

When he went to Ouagadougou in October 2017, Emmanuel Macron aimed to write a “new history” with the African continent by restoring cultural property dating from colonization.

“I cannot accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France,” declared the president, who pledged to bring together, within five years, “the conditions” to carry out restitutions. temporary or permanent.

Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a new law to regulate the restitution of works of art to Africa.

Legal-political puzzle

According to a 2018 report, some 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa are kept in French public museums, including 79,000 at Quai Branly.

Several countries have since made requests for restitution but a legal obstacle stands before them. In France, public collections are inalienable under a principle formalized after the Revolution to prevent the Crown's assets from being squandered by monarchs.

For each request and after examination of the provenance of the works, a law is therefore necessary to “declassify” the goods and allow their removal from the collections.

At the end of 2020, Parliament adopted a law authorizing the definitive return to Benin of 26 works from the Abomey treasure, taken from French war in 1892.

Currently, ten countries have sent requests to France, the Ministry of Culture tells AFP, which distinguishes between “targeted” requests for specific goods (Senegal, Mali, Algeria, etc.) and those too general to be educated (Chad or Ethiopia).

But the process is slipping and no restitution has been carried out from the treasures of Abomey.

The French authorities, on the other hand, have granted loans, such as that of the Ivorian drum. This solution was also chosen to return to Madagascar at the end of 2020 the crown of Queen Ranavalona III, which was kept at the Army Museum in Paris.

“This path does not allow us to settle the past because we are saying to the country: 'we are lending you this object but it does not belong to you'”, lawyer Pierre Noual, author of a book on restitutions.

France returns 26 works of art to Benin

Framework law

Along the same lines, Laurent Lafon, centrist president of the Senate culture committee, co-signed a bill to transform the loan of the Ivorian drum into restitution in order to “satisfy as quickly as possible the legitimate demand” of Côte d'Ivoire.

In order to avoid these specific laws, Mr. Macron committed to having a framework law adopted allowing the return of cultural property without going through Parliament.

“There is a need to define a general framework on the principle of restitutions and their methodology, and all this cannot be done based on specific laws,” Senator Lafon explains to AFP.

This framework law method, adopted for property plundered by the Nazis and human remains, is however at a standstill for colonial objects. “The difference is partly linked to the fact that colonization is considered by some as a positive period,” believes Me Noual.

Last week, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati assured that she would not give up tabling a draft framework law but such a text, on the explosive subject of colonization, would have little chance of prospering in Parliament, according to Ms. . Lafon.

“There is a reservation among some parliamentarians about the very fact of moving towards a framework law which sets conditions but also amounts to moving up a gear in terms of restitution,” he assures.

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