Africa wants its culture back
Museum of Black Civilizations in Senegal focuses on Black cultural contributions across the world.
The 19th-century sword rests in a glass case alongside a frail Qur’an in a spacious gallery where scrolls hang from the wall and soft religious chanting is piped in. The sabre’s etched copper handle is shaped like a swan’s beak, with a ring at the end. Its leather sheath rests nearby.
The sword belonged to Omar Saidou Tall, a prominent Muslim spiritual leader in the 1800s in what is now modern-day Senegal. His quest to conquer nearby territories put him in armed conflict with France, which had its own takeover ambitions.
The French colonialists eventually won and seized not just large swaths of West Africa but also the region’s treasures, including the sword. Like most artifacts from France’s African colonies, it wound up in a French museum.
But the sword is now back in Senegal — and the Senegalese would like to keep it here. It is one of the most important pieces on display at Senegal’s new Museum of Black Civilizations, which has opened its doors amid a heated discussion about Africa reclaiming art that was looted during the colonial era.
The scale of artifacts in question is staggering. Up to 95 per cent of Africa’s cultural heritage is held outside Africa by major museums. France alone holds 90,000 sub-Saharan African objects in its museums.
The 19th-century sword here is on loan to Senegal, which in 1960 gained independence from France. At the end of the loan period, it is due to return to the Musée de l’Armée in Paris.
“Or maybe this will be back forever,” said Hamady Bocoum, director general of the museum, with a laugh as he passed by the display inside the museum on a recent morning.
A report on African restitution delivered to French President Emmanuel Macron in November recommended that all objects that were removed from sub-Saharan Africa without the consent of their countries of origin and sent to mainland France be permanently returned, provided the country of origin asked for them.
Senegal, for one, is asking, said Abdou Latif Coulibaly, this country’s minister of culture.
In November, Macron announced that he was giving back 26 African treasures plundered by French colonial forces in the late 19th century.
In building exhibits for the new museum, Bocoum wants to set aside the ethnographic approach, reinventing displays, discourse and design to create a new kind of space for self-representation.
“We should not forget that Africa existed before that and how Africa has contributed to the globalization of Blackness,” he said. “What is important to us is to retrace the history of Africa until now.”
The museum aims to celebrate Black civilizations’ contributions worldwide.