Sarah Djos-Raph

Sarah Djos-Raph (she/her/elle) is Ph.D candidate in Francophone Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette where she also teaches introductory French classes to undergraduate students. She is currently writing a thesis titled “Beninese Women Writers of the 21st Century: Contemporary Images of Modern Feminine Figures in Postcolonial Beninese Women’s Writings from 2000-2021”, and has recently self-published a book of poems in French and English titled “Mon Trentament.” As a scholar-activist, Sarah created and runs a 501c3 non-profit organization called Youth Education Prosperity Pour Tous, which is dedicated to general education and well-being of youth. Sarah is a past Peace Corps Volunteer and current Rotarian. In her spare time, she can usually be found snapping pictures/reading for her “Bookstagram” page (@litbenin) or dancing to Afro-beats with her husband and two young children.

Objectifying and Objecting Objects: Looting to Rooting? How the American Black Lives Matter Movement influences French Restitution in Benin

INTRODUCTION

According to an Associated Press poll conducted in 2019, 74% of Black Americans favor reparations for descendants of enslaved peoples, whereas only 15% of white Americans agree that money is deserved and warranted for the individuals still affected by these crimes[1]. Several years later, the same United States is in a whirlwind state of political unrest[2], continued racial inequalities, the mediatization of police brutality, and a misgoverned pandemic. At the forefront of battling these century old injustices is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement (founded in 2013), which has been a scream heard across the globe. At the same time, the entire world is in a postcolonial constellation[3], implying that the West is contemporarily intertwined with Africa through the simultaneous processes of neocolonialism[4] and decolonization. Contemporary French “wokeism”[5] thinkers, who rebuke French notions of universalism— the idea that everyone is the same and therefore should be treated the same, also unveil historic and repeated systemic racism at the core of French identity, and social media platform projects such as Histoires Crépues[6] and La vérité pour Adama[7] fight against similar discriminations. The American-born BLM grassroots organizational process has been adapted in France to respond to and evoke necessary institutional changes within the French government, and in numerous regions internationally where the French sphere of influence, or la françafrique is evident, like in Benin, West Africa, a former colony of France. In the year 2021, in part thanks to the BLM-style protest, some objects stolen during the French colonization project in Benin (formerly known as Dahomey) were returned. This essay, therefore, centers around the influence of the BLM-style movement in France on the restitution process of cultural art objects to Benin. Equally, it aims to illustrate the importance of these twenty-six returned artefacts for defending, conserving, and expanding traditional and New Wave African art in Benin, which is a global leader to offering a contemporary decolonized foundation[8].

BLM brings up racism, arguably the worst pandemic, and their global mission is, “to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes,” and it is said that “by combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives”[9]. Additionally, the non-profit organization, National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) in the United States “[since 2015,] fight[s] for reparatory justice compensation and restoration of African American communities that were plundered by the historical crimes of slavery, segregation and colonialism and that continue to be victimized by the legacies of slavery and American apartheid,”[10] and they commission a preliminary ten-point reparations program document detailing the process. As a point on this list, The Right of Repatriation and Creation of an African Knowledge Program recommends that the descendants of Africans shall be given monetary support to return to the motherland to an African nation of their choice to learn about their ancestry and explore their heritage. Furthermore, it places importance on an African Knowledge Program which will build “bridges of belonging” between Africans in the United States and Africans on the continent. Considering the traumas that slavery and colonization have both passed down through generations and left on Black folx throughout history, it is surprising that reparations are still considered so radical and wrong among the majority of Americans in today’s standards.

Traditional African art represents power, spirituality, or religion using divine craftmanship to create purposeful cultural objects. Together with the artist, the cultural spokespeople, the object, and the client, traditional African artistic relics become alive and integral parts of society. Present-day African art, in its modern role, can be used as a response to “the turbulence of temporalities, locations, mediations, and identities that typifies contemporary conditions,”[11] specifically in youth culture. An object is material in form and physicality but can be transformed, transposed, and transported through application and intention to become an ideological tool. Contemporary art, therefore, disguises itself as liberated liminal ranges of expression through the frames of reference of Africans. Young African artists use homegrown materials, local techniques, and positional imagery from the continent that reflect their intersectionality within a technologically advancing space. In response to the journal’s conceptualization of the role of objects and objectification, this article demonstrates some ways in which movements like BLM have contributed to the first steps in reparatory measures by the return of cultural art. Additionally, as in the case of the French restitution in Benin, objects taken from their viable traditional source were mutilated and fetishized, yet at the same time are currently being used to protest, resist, and to object in the name of solidarity and empowerment.

FRENCH BLM-STYLE MOVEMENT QUESTIONS RACE DESPITE COLOR-BLINDNESS

Art historian Dr. Suzanne Preston Blier notates that “African art today is in the midst of a brilliant renaissance [because] it’s far more than just a continent. It’s a global diaspora, an international culture and a metaphor with fantastical associations”[12]. Considering larger effects of globalization, such as increased ease in transport of goods and services, access to technology leading to innovation, and unavoidable unequal economic growth, subsequently, many prominent African artists taking part in this contemporary New Wave artistic group have trained and/or lived their adult lives (or some part of their lives) in Europe or the United States[13]. According to data sets from France’s Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires, over three million French nationals of sub-Saharan African origin (out of France’s total population of over sixty-seven million) live in France as naturalized citizens and/or second-generation immigrants.[14] Bearing in mind neocolonialist theories where the West continuously extracts imagination and resources from the global South, these African-born artist’s personal economic flow, along with the benefits reaped from their spirit and labor, stays within itself and never trickles back to the original point, where it was derived, is needed, and owed. Because of this disproportion and contradiction, these objects and artworks, and all financial earnings from them, often have little prominence to the local communities that the artists were born into and inspired by. As curator Enwezor explains, “In a sense, Africa ceases to be an elsewhere, a distant, remote region visible only through the hazy lens of ethnography and travel literature.”[15], in other words, Africa, through art, is no longer necessarily viewed through a Western perspective. But, because of the colonial period in Africa, the continent suffers lingering tensions between pre/post-independent situations and ways of viewing, contesting, and understanding human existence and responsibility. During the centuries-long colonial project, many relics from the African continent were looted by colonial authorities, often via looting and trickery, such as expressed in the well-known proverb by Desmond Tutu (also attributed to Jomo Kenyatta), “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible, and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land”. Moreover, these objects were objectified by the untrained and unworthy eye because the only way to understand an object’s purpose is to unite all key cultural players. These objects were snatched and stripped of all reminiscent ancestorial powers and held captive. Today, similar colonialist techniques continue to wreak havoc, leaving in their place detrimental consequences such as the loss of national, individual, collective, and cultural identity, and they furthermore produce the erasure of any financial and economic gain by artistic tourism and commerce to African nations.

In 2017, then-and-now current French President Emmanuel Macron, on a three-day trip to the continent in front of students of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, vowed to return stolen African patrimony within five years. Years previously, Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande also declared while visiting Senegal in 2012 that “the time of la françafrique is over” and that France’s sphere of influence over the former colonies were no longer.[16] In 2018, as promised, Macron under the Ministère de la culture, commissioned Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy to propose a clear framework on how to return cultural property back to Africa. Nicholas Mirzoeff summarizes that this report offered “legal and museological procedures by which African nations can identity materials and determine how they might be returned”[17] while also focusing on sub-Saharan youth, which accounts for close to 60% of the total population, by questioning their specific role in shaping the future of Africa in their absence of their own cultural heritage knowledge. The Sarr-Savoy Report suggests that the younger generation of West Africans must “put history to work” and rebuild what has been erased by the mass removal of artefacts leaving “memory silent”[18]. The youth are deemed responsible in reconstructing memory in part by returning to the source, but also by understanding and defending a decolonized approach to growing tensions brought on by globalization.

The French Republic was founded on three basic values, liberté (liberty), égalité (equality), and fraternité (fraternity), in hopes of harboring a unified and equal French national identity. In its constitution, discourse surrounding the term universalisme, meaning ‘race-blindness’, has been a focal point. Before 2018, Article 1 of the French Constitution stated: “France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion”[19]. On July 12, 2018, the French National Assembly voted unanimously to remove the word ‘race’, changing it to read, “without distinction of gender, origin or religion.”[20]  The removal of the term ‘race’, and therefore it’s ideological and historical relevance to modern context, allows for the government to withhold any qualifying and quantifying questions aiming to collect data, numbers, and statistics regarding it. Frenchness therefore loosely translates to denial of differences (differences that make us each unique and essential). Being dismissive to race as an identifiable naming device, in other words, ignoring it, and yet paradoxically punishing non-white bodies institutionally, France arguably has some internal progress to make[21]. Anti-racist activists such as scholar Rokhaya Diallo[22] and writer Assa Traoré are also known for critiquing the Republic’s stances on racial inequalities. According to Goldman, “Race-blindness paralyses action against structural racism by rendering statistically invisible the discrimination faced by French people of colour. Moreover, it silences those who would speak out about their experiences of racial discrimination by accusing them of “communitarianism””[23]. In silencing people by simply erasing their identity, deeming it insignificant, and by also masking intersectionality, the ideals of universalisme place humans before and above all else, justifying a way to dominate others, falsely expressing opportunity for all, while in practice acting as a catalyst for the advancement of one group at the expense of other groups. French universalisme then implies that it is acceptable to infer that generalized values, norms, and points of views can be associated to all members of a shared society. This is contrary to particularisme whose principles give autonomy to particular groups who wish to preserve and to define attitudes of their shared community.

Seeing a lack of freedom in suggesting radical needed political change, the BLM movement, which has a large youth following, has resonated with French youth of the twenty-first century to express care, solidarity, and empathy with the realities of police brutality, systemic racism, and the government’s failure at protecting non-white bodies and lives. In France, the first mentioned BLM-style protest took place over several weeks in Paris following the death of Adama Traoré, who was killed in police custody on his twenty-fourth birthday on July 19, 2016[24]. The social media hashtags #BLMFrance and #Justicepouradama went viral on Twitter within France during these protests. Additionally, demonstrators and well-known celebrities, such as Black M, wore shirts adorned with slogans including “Justice pour Adama: sans justice vous n’aurez jamais la paix”[25] (“Justice for Adama: Without justice, you will never have peace”) and chanted “Black Lives Matter,” often replicating the ‘hand-in-fist’ gesture. Again, notably when George Floyd was killed by a police officer on May 25, 2020[26] in the United States, he cried out, and once more amplified the BLM movement scream around the world, especially in France, a country that, like the United States, suffers from histories of colonization, empire and slavery, and also has a racism problem. In accord with the ideals of the American BLM movement, similar protests erupted throughout France and all over the world after George Floyd’s death to combat police brutality with record-breaking tens of thousands of demonstrators, despite pandemic lockdowns. Could it be that the continued supporting and rallying against systemic racism employing BLM-style techniques led to the decision of French restitution in Benin?

FRANCE RETURNS CULTURAL PATRIMONY TO BENIN

Following the reignition of the BLM-style movement in France, on December 17, 2020, the French senate finally voted in favor of the bill that would return twenty-six of the total national ninety thousand African objects to Benin. Yannick Kerlogot, a Member of Parliament député, applauded this decision citing it as “a strong act towards African and Afro-descendant youth”[27]. Perhaps the continued supporting and rallying against systemic racism employing BLM-style techniques influenced the series of events and timing since the struggle for the restitution of these key anthropomorphic statues bearing royal emblems, which has suffered many years of political and transnational tensions. Several years prior, under the current presidency of Patrice Talon, documentation requested the return of cultural heritage, and now, it has arrived at a glimmer of hope as they finally returned home on November 12, 2021.[28] From October 26, 2021, to October 31, 2021, the week was marked as ‘La Semaine Culturelle du Bénin’ (The Cultural Week of Benin) at the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac in Paris, France where the twenty-six royal objects, for the first time ever together, were shown free of charge to the public through an exhibit entitled ‘BÉNIN, la restitution de 26 oeuvres des trésors royaux d’Abomey’. During the one-week celebration, over fifteen thousand visitors came to honor this cultural heritage and to attend and assist various shows, films, and speeches organized by the museum and the Beninese government[29]. Forget not however, based on early defense against repatriation a few years prior, that objectors suggested that African nations, such as Benin could not properly handle and care for the objects due to lack of infrastructure, and therefore, they should not return to their rightful owners. Yet Sarr and Savoy point out in 2018 that there were already over five hundred museums in sub-Saharan Africa that already existed, and that additionally, new museums were currently being built in anticipation of the return of these artefacts, and more to hopefully follow. It was mentioned that some institutions may need to seek financial aid as part of the restitution planning, but assuming that systems are not there already is maintaining the Western perception that Africa is barren and barbaric. Furthermore, discourse on what happens with a nation’s heritage should be discussed and governed by its elected peoples. The Republic of Benin is proven highly capable, as confirmed through their local associations, of caring for their patrimony. Moreover, the rich history of art and preservation are integral parts of the Beninese cultural foundation.

The Republic of Benin, formerly known as Dahomey, is a small, diverse, and ideal land. Sharing the same approximate size and population of the state of Pennsylvania[30], Benin has most recently celebrated its sixty-first year of independence from France on August 1, 2021, and although it may seem like this nation is relatively new, the history of this territory can be traced back to before the thirteenth century. Additionally, an art exhibit entitled My Loved Ones by Aïcha Snoussi, hosted by La Fondation Zinsou from November 2021 to March 2022 uncovers the mysterious Tchech civilization known to have lived in Ouidah over seven thousand years ago.[31] Before the colonial period, this area was home to many different kings and realms. Today, local ethnic groups from the north, such as the Bariba and the Otammari live among other tribal groups to the south such as the Yoruba, Fon and the Gbe peoples. The Kingdom of Dahomey, which the final king, Béhanzin, ruled until the colonial take-over in the early 1900s, was, and is still known for its tradition, which includes rituals, art, dance, and heritage sites. It is estimated that about one-fourth of the Beninese population practices traditional beliefs such as vodun, and a national holiday is celebrated every January 10^th for La fête des religions endogènes to commemorate and pay homage to ancestral values. Vodun has been identified as originating from this part of the world in particular and being transferred to the Caribbean and what Americans may relate to as the voodoo traditions in New Orleans, Louisiana[32].

The territory of Dahomey was first discovered by the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, and it wasn’t until the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries that the coastal kingdom of Ouidah became one of the largest exporters of enslaved peoples on the Gold Coast by the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and other European countries[33]. La porte du non-retour, a concrete and bronze memorial arch erected in 1995 on the beach of Ouidah and under remodeling since 2020, stands as a memorial to those who were taken to never again return. Today, a visitor can view memorial structures while traveling along the two-and-a-half-mile commemorative route, the same route taken by hostages, beginning at the forts and markets, then terminating at the ships in the sea.  The people the site commemorates – those destined for enslavement – were marched to the sea blindfolded, led in circles around obstacles to ensure they would not know from which direction they came, thus were neither able to escape physically or symbolically. A contemporary visitor traveling this route experiences a sense of being physically attached to the red dirt and sand and can empathize with the march so many people took. Physically, as well as spiritually, the return of these art objects from France acts as a bandage to help start to heal a scar-leaving wound.

In 2005, the prominent and influential Beninese Zinsou family created La Fondation Zinsou. This center, located in largest southern city of Cotonou, hosts on-site and travelling art exhibitions, and it also publishes books, and provides libraries and training. The president of center, Marie-Cécile Zinsou reflects on how the title ‘museum’ didn’t quite fit the concept and context of the foundation at its inception, noting that since its opening, the center has focused on all types of art from the continent along as fighting poverty and promoting the arts in education[34]. As a result of her continued efforts and interests, Marie-Cécile Zinsou created and opened the first ever sub-Saharan contemporary art museum in Ouidah, known as The Museum of Contemporary Art of Ouidah, and the teams are currently working on heritage projects to promote the traditional past. She states, “We wanted to have something to be proud of as a future history, and of course art is the best way to do that”[35]. Furthermore, both spaces are working on exhibits paying homage to patrimonial artist Cyprien Tokoudagba, who depicts ancestral icons and imagery through sculptures and painting. In anticipation for the return of the twenty-six Royal Treasures, the French Development Agency, the public funding group that supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, will loan twenty million euros towards the construction of new museums on land that formerly housed the royal palaces of the Kingdom of Dahomey in Abomey and around the country[36].

As Professor of Fine Arts, African, and African American Studies at Harvard University, Dr. Blier reminds, “it is important to note that many of the world’s great art movements come into being during this kind of deep-rooted crisis [because they are] cultural encounters, clashes, and contradictions, with their sociopsychological and internationalizing features” [37]. She continues, “works of African art pose unique problems with respect to subject matter classification and meaning analysis and raise new and important questions having protentional ramifications for the wider field of art history”[38]. African art is complicated to classify for many reasons, and only a small fraction of this art housed in Western museums is displayed. Blier argues that “it is often impossible to determine the identity of a particular motif or form without the aid of sources outside the work itself because it is the product of both a social and cultural interaction”[39]. These objects are created for specific reasons, and each aspect plays an important role in the conception. The framework for this interaction has four points: the creators, the commissioners, the cultural spokespersons, and the object itself. Without input from each of these points, it is nearly impossible to understand the true meaning and context of any specific piece. Objects of African descent often have spiritual “deep”, and “deeper” meanings, and one must work and be guided through knowledge-based levels to get to the “deepest” meaning, so in other words, not everyone is privy to all information. Generally speaking, a piece of traditional African art could have been commissioned to act as a conduit in ceremonies, or an object could have been made to ward off bad spirits. A mask and accompanying costume, for example, could have been created to be represented in a ritual, or a figurine could have been given life to represent a deceased person. In all, the object’s function is to act as middle ground between this life and the afterlife, and if one considers these artistic products to being living artefacts, as their true intensions, the importance of their physical location is equally of as importance to their wellbeing and legacy. In short, by stealing these objects and tearing them from their motherland and purpose, it is but epistemologically destroying them, so an accent on returning these objects is of utmost importance for their heritage and for future humanity.

THE ROYAL OBJECTS PROMOTE HERITAGE PROJECTS

An official letter from the Beninese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation signed August 26, 2016, shows that the return of the cultural property was requested from Paris’s Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. Under the Beninese government of Patrice Talon since 2016, the restitution process of these objectified objects has sparked development programs homing in on the rich spiritual history and patrimony of Beninese arts. If it is impossible to justify the reason for an artefact, it is dishonest to portray it as something that it may not be. In other words, if African objects become demystified in a foreign land, they were not meant to be there. During the opening ceremony for ‘La Semaine Culturelle du Bénin’, government officials reunited to celebrate this iconic moment, and spoke about connections and coming together. Earlier, in February 2021, twenty-four visual artists came together at Dota quartier in Cotonou to create the longest graffiti wall ever to be established in Africa. This 5-and-a-half-square-foot and almost half-a-mile long barrier promotes aspects of traditional and contemporary Beninese culture. For example, illustrations can be found of King Béhanzin, the infamous Recade, the Door of Return, the Egungun, the man orchestra Sagbohan Danialou, the diva-Mother-Nature-singer Angélique Kidjo, vibrant tributes to the Amazon Warriers, the effaced queen Tassi Hangbé, the Guèlèdè masks, a tribute to General Mathieu Kérékou, and to the memory of the capital’s actress, Marcelline Aboh. This wall signifies the prideful and powerful moving Beninese force, and suggests a new, more independent country. The ‘Heritage Wall’ forms part of the mosaic of tourist sites in Cotonou, and it is to be taught, discovered, and admired; as the quality of the graffiti, the mixture of vibrant colors, the strength of the images, should leave neither tourists nor citizens indifferent.[40] The past few years in Benin have shown a visible and obvious shift in mentality to promote the Beninese world view. Government tourism agencies have turned to its people to sell the country through personal impactful ways and Beninese literature is being introduced into the public curriculum. Additionally, Beninese Literature is being promoted through social media platforms through organizations like Bookconekt[41]. Social media pages have multiplied urging people to appreciate and honor of the beauty and spirituality of Benin through the eyes of those who love to live and be a part of the bustling and colorful culture.

Later, at the opening ceremony of ‘La Semaine Culturelle du Bénin’ for the twenty-six restored cultural objects, Felwine Sarr poetically took the stage to act as a conduit and driving force for getting the job done, declaring:

“Today, the Glèlè, Ghézo, Béhanzin ancestors, with their cohorts, are returning to the red lands of Abomey and Ouidah. Again, they will cross the Atlantic, but this time in the direction of a much-needed and long-awaited return. Their backs beaten by the breaths of the ponant[42]. For 129 years, they were deprived of the Danhomé sun, the air of their own gaze, ritual treatments, songs, annual processions. Today, they enter the end of the shadow season of their exile. These returning objects, we have said, are not just objects. These are signs which go beyond all the meanings attributed to them. Children of a long spiritual, social and artistic evolution, powers of germination, forces of generation of reality, they are beings inhabited by the soul and the spirit of the cultures that gave them life. In order to fuel the forges of the present and the future, these cultures were sorely lacking, the fire of the ancients … We had to fetch the sap from everywhere, sometimes sucking at the driest udder. But the art survived the ruin, and the sign lodged itself in the elusive abode of the dream. These cultures endured. And life with it.”

Each object represents a part of Beninese past, which is important to consider while assessing and defining the current identity, given tensions of traditional and present ideologies. At last, after many years of consistent nagging, along with a global pinpoint on racism and decolonization, a big win is secured for Benin. Like Sarr evokes in his manifesto, the living emblems of spiritual life that these objects represent are liberated and fed into the biosphere of oxygen and landscape and also into the cosmos of light, day and night. They plant seeds in the human bodies to be reborn into the contemporary consciousness. The French restitution in Benin signifies an end of one era and an opening and hosting of another, or so it appears, but one must not neglect the reality up until this point.

Included in the inventory of the twenty-six (26) Royal Treasures, there are six (6) asens. In principle, asens are made on the death of the king. Asens are objects intended to perpetuate the memory of the dead, and every deceased has the right to their asen. The lower part is a sign of a successful life on earth and integration into the world of the ancestors, and the upper part of the asen receives libations during ceremonies to “feed” the ancestors. The Asen de Béhanzin is dedicated to King Béhanzin, for example. Note that the hotagantin asens are not strictly speaking altars but rather distinctive signs. Used during annual ceremonies, they are planted on the roofs of prestigious buildings to identify them and pay homage to their ancestors. The Asen hotagantin d’Agassou shown here is dedicated to Agassou, the common ancestor of the royal dynasty of Danhomè, here represented by a panther.

Also included in the inventory of the twenty-six Royal Treasures are four (4) doors from the Royal Palace of Abomey shown here. The lion carved on the bottom panel of the bottom left door pays homage to King Glélé. The chameleons on the top panels in both left doors represent Vodun Mawu Lisa, supreme deity related to fertility. The imprint of the snake biting its tail in the bottom panel of the top left door evokes Vodun Dan Aido Hwedo, a symbol of the continuity of life. The sculptures on the right top door pay homage to the royal ancestors Kpengla, Ghézo, Tegbessou, to the army, and to the protective spirit of King Glélé. The frogs, placed at the four corners, evoke the royal Tohossous, divinities of the waters. These four doors were carved during the reign of Glélé (1858-1889) by the royal artist Sossa Dede. They probably marked the openings of the ajalala – the reception building – of the Glélé Palace, and they were taken by French troops during the capture of Abomey in 1892.

Additionally, there are four (4) thrones, shown here, that are included in the Royal Treasures inventory. The Trône d’apparat du roi Ghézo is where King Ghézo took his seat for special occasions such as the Ato ceremony in honor of the royal ancestors. The throne was installed on a platform that allowed him to overlook the crowd and distribute gifts such as cowries, fabrics, animals, food, and weapons.

The Trône du roi Glèlè is made up of two assembled floors: the upper part is curved to accommodate a cushion, and the lower floor is decorated with geometric shapes. The lion, painted in yellow and carved on each side, allows this throne to be attributed to King Glélé. Kings are often associated with animals and had objects made to represent both sides of their identity.

The Trône de Cana comes from Cana, the sacred city of the kingdom, located about twelve and a half miles from Abomey. The upper part of the throne represents the king under his parasol, surrounded by his maids. On the lower level, a line of shackled enslaved peoples evokes two major characteristics of the kingdom: its expansionist policy and the enslavement of the populations of the conquered regions.

The Kataklè (taboret royal) du roi Béhanzin is the royal stool called Kataklè which is carved from a single piece of wood and is an attribute of power, and it serves as a portable throne for when the king could not be at his palace. Given communal meetings often take place under large trees in the center of town, this throne could be easily transported.

Furthermore, included in the inventory are three (3) large statues. The Statue anthropozoomorphe homme-lion du roi Glèlè is a lion-headed statue representing King Glélé (1858-1889). It was carried in procession during the annual parade of riches between the royal palace and the market. It would also have accompanied the troops to the places of fighting. The rest of the year it was kept in Adanjèho, “the box of courage”.

The Statue anthropomorphe homme-oiseau du roi Ghézo is a statue that could represent King Ghézo, identifiable thanks to the iron blades that cover his body. They evoke the plumage of the cardinal bird, one of the symbols of Ghézo. The stake on which the statue is placed indicates that it was planted and protected under a shelter.

The Statue anthropozoomorphe homme-requin du roi Béhanzin is a statue with the head of a man and the torso of a shark representing King Béhanzin (1889-1894). It was carried in procession during the annual parade of riches between the royal palace and the market. It would also have accompanied the troops to the places of fighting. The rest of the year it was also kept in Adanjèho.

There are also three (3) recades included in the inventory of Royal Treasures, called baton de danse guerrière. The recade is an attribute of power and a ceremonial object, and its level of refinement and the emblems represented on its handle or on its blade indicate the rank of its owner. Although it is mainly reserved for kings, it can also be used by ambassadors, Vodun cult leaders, and some army officers. The three recades shown here were used in war dances by male soldiers of the “blu” battalion, made up entirely of foreigners.

There are also two (2) objects called Métier à tisser et fuseau considered Royal Treasures. These looms, made up of a wooden frame and a comb, show a length of cotton being made. This weaving tool was used horizontally with the help of a spindle – formed of a rod and two cork rings – where the cotton thread is wound. The clothes were sewn from woven bands assembled by specialized artisans.

Additionally, there are two (2) examples of clothes called Tunique et pantalon de soldat ou d’agoodjié. This tunic and these pants belong to a soldier or an agoodjié of the kingdom of Danhomè. The blue and red stripes of this outfit tend to lean towards a gunner, loaded with heavy weapons such as cannons.

To add, there is one (1) bag called Sac gibecière, languette de cuir à fond blanc, which is a leather bag said to be a Hausa-made game bag. Originally from northern Nigeria and southern Niger today, the Hausa excel in many crafts including leather. They also produce a local cheese known as wagashi. Hunting is an important aspect of Beninese traditional culture.

Finally, there is one additional (1) Royal Treasure called Calebasse à couvercle. The calabash is often used as a container. You often drink a local alcoholic drink known as tchoukoutou from this bowl-like object. It can be decorated with engravings. These patterns make it possible to transmit messages – often in love – to the recipient of the calabash.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, racial and power inequalities in France, the United States, and around the world are now, perhaps more than ever, visible thanks to the ease and practicality of social media sharing and live streaming capabilities, along with means of mobilization. This contemporary global microscope on these actualities has shifted societal views and responsibilities on a transnational scale, and one can hope that this restitution process is the start of many needed changes. The return of these key art products to their sources will bring life back into these living artefacts, and it will also promote nationalism and patriotism in Benin and Africa more generally. Furthermore, it will restore self-confidence in the new generations of African youth and artists and will provide the younger generation physical emblems of their history, allowing them to understand where they came from and why. Regaining these objects will value African talent and encourage creative minds to stay and contribute to the continent. France’s current positive political steps forward in inclusion, apologies, and repayment, can be applauded, and must influence law makers in the United States as well.[43] However, one must remember the thin line between performativity and constructive shift, and it cannot stop here. This restitution process does not mean that the story ends here, rather it is a rebirth and another beginning. The West and Africa may not see art and politics from the same vantage point, but it is clear that social and cultural movements have an impact on governance and identity, and as Congolese artist Freddy Mutombo, who is known to take matters into his own hands to take back what he believes to belong to his people declared that, “paternalistic and unbalanced relationships have not disappeared with the wave of a magic wand”[44]. One must recognize the positive small advancements, yet it is also useful to consider the awaiting challenges ahead. Technology is a driving force giving space to platforms that connect many people. During a time where all actions are mediatized, the power is in the people. Collectively, change can happen, and will happen. May this be the first wave announcing the storm that is Africa’s strong and forceful moving future.

Endnotes

[1] Nicole Daniels, “Should Museums Return Looted Artifacts to Their Countries of Origin?,” New York Times, October 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/learning/should-museums-return-looted-artifacts-to-their-countries-of-origin.html?fbclid=IwAR1K6yIHLEp7QxszyLab74R6QGx-OENuQXlnN0lz1x116fm456rpCHR0.

[2] The year 2021 was welcomed by what the Department of Justice called the biggest criminal investigation in U.S history, The Riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6^th.

[3] Terry Smith, Okwui Enwezor and Nancy Condee, Antinomies of art and culture: Modernity, postmodernity, contemporaneity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), xx.

[4] As theorized as when the State is allegedly independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty, but in reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside. Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, (New York: International Publishers, 1966).

[5] The notion of “wokeism” comes from anglophone influences of “being woke” meaning to be alert to injustices. Hugh Schofield, “France resists US challenge to its values,” BBC, December 13, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59584125.

[6] Social media content is directed at sharing different versions of the presented colonial past.

[7] Assa Traoré is declared one of Time Magazine’s 2020 Guardians of the Year. Vivienne Walt, “How Assa Traoré Became the Face of France’s Movement for Racial Justice,” TIME, December 11, 2020,  https://time.com/5919814/guardians-of-the-year-2020-assa-traore/.

[8] New Wave African artists depict a current view of Africa with challenges such as climate change, globalization, development, beliefs, and heritage, to name a few. Culture At Work Africa, Catalog of the Visual Arts in Benin (Cotonou: ABA, 2020), https://www.cultureatworkafrica.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Repertoire.pdf.

[9] “About #BlackLivesMatter,” Black Lives Matter, accessed December 6, 2021, https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/.

[10] “Reparations Plan,” National African-American Reparations Commission, accessed December 6, 2021, https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-plan/#reparations-plan-point-2.

[11] Ibid, xx.

[12] Suzanne Preston-Blier, “Nine Contradictions in the New Golden Age of African Art,” African Arts Vol. 35, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002): 1-6, JSTOR.

[13] Ellen Wulfhorst, “Millions making plans to leave Africa for Europe and U.S., says report,” Reuters, March 22, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-migration-africa-idUSKBN1GY1QO.

[14] “The African diaspora in France,” France Diplomacy, last modified February 2019, https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/africa/the-african-diaspora-in-france/.

[15] Okwui Enwezor works on the notions of “center” and “periphery” deconstructing and decolonializing representations of African art. Okwui Enwezor, “Contemporary African Art: Beyond Colonial Paradigms,” interview by Chika Okeke, Art Papers, August 2002, https://www.artpapers.org/contemporary-african-art-beyond-colonial-paradigms/.

[16] As current events in 2021 reveal, West African currency is going from France’s production for over 75 years (while keeping a 50% hold on the former colony’s reserves), of the CFA (Colonies Francaises d’Afrique) to an African governed ESO (Economic Community of West African States). Aisha Salaudeen, “France is set to end the use of the 75-year-old controversial CFA franc in West Africa,” CNN, December 23, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/23/africa/france-stops-use-of-cfa/index.html.

[17] Nicolas Mirzoeff, “How France’s Restitution Report Unsettled the Conversation about Cultural Property,” Frieze, March 15, 2019, https://www.frieze.com/article/how-frances-restitution-report-unsettled-conversation-about-cultural-property.

[18] Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy, Rapport sur la restitution du patrimoine culturel africain. Vers une nouvelle éthique relationnelle (Paris: Ministère de la Culture, 2008).

[19] République Française, Constitution of October 4, 1958 (New York: French Embassy, Press and Information Division, 1958), p. 4.

[20] Ibid, 4.

[21] Statistics show that 2,274 racist crimes were committed in France in 2020. “Breakdown of the number of racist offences in France, according to the target population,” Statista, September 3, 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/782196/number-of-racist-criminal-acts-by-target-france/.

[22] Rokhaya Diallo takes a job and moves from France to the United States and becomes an inaugural Researcher in Residence for 2021-2023 at Georgetown University. “Rokhaya Diallo joins Georgetown University Gender+ Justice Initiative as Researcher in Residence,” Georgetown University,  https://genderjustice.georgetown.edu/home/rokhaya-diallo-joins-georgetown-university-gender-justice-initiative-as-researcher-in-residence/.

[23] Josephine Goldman, “Can Black Lives Matter in a Race-Blind France? French Avoidance of ‘Race’ and Mobilisation of Black Collective Identity in Response to Police Brutality,” Literature & Aesthetics Vol. 30 No. 2 (Winter 2020): 92-11, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349158079_Can_Black_Lives_Matter_in_a_Race-Blind_France_French_Avoidance_of_%27Race%27_and_Mobilisation_of_Black_Collective_Identity_in_Response_to_Police_Brutality.

[24] Ismael Halissat and Amélie Quentel, “Mort d’Adama Traoré: la vérité étouffée,” Libération, August 1, 2016, https://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/08/01/mort-d-adama-traore-la-verite-etouffee_1469800/.

[25] As seen in the music video by Black M, “Je suis chez moi,” accessed December 6, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOqEhMumaw.

[26] “How George Floyd Died, and What Happened Next,” New York Times, November 1, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html.

[27] Yannick Kerlogot (@Kerlogot22), “Je me félicite de l’adoption définitive du projet de loi pour le retour de biens culturels au Bénin et au Sénégal ➡️ Un acte fort en direction de la jeunesse africaine et afro-descendante #DirectAN,” Twitter, December 17, 2020, https://twitter.com/Kerlogot22/status/1339541721324122116.

[28] Maurice Thantan, “Dix choses à savoir sur les 26 trésors royaux d’Abomey restitués par la France au Bénin,” ORTB, November 10, 2021, https://ortb.bj/culture/dix-choses-a-savoir-sur-les-26-tresors-royaux-dabomey-restitues-par-la-france-au-benin/.

[29] “Semaine Culturelle du Bénin,” Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, https://www.quaibranly.fr/fr/expositions-evenements/au-musee/spectacles-fetes-et-evenements/fetes-et-evenements/details-de-levenement/e/semaine-culturelle-du-benin-39231/.

[30] The country of Benin covers an area of 44,310 sq mi with a population of 12.12 million as of 2020, and the state of Pennsylvania occupies an area of 46,055 sq mi with a population of 12.9 million as of 2020. “List of US States by Size,” accessed December 6,2021,  https://state.1keydata.com/states-by-size.php. “Benin,” accessed December 6, 2021, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/benin/.

[31] Iseult Cahen-Patron, “Aïcha Snoussi, lauréate du Prix SAM pour l’art contemporain 2020,” connaissance des arts, December 18, 2020, https://www.connaissancedesarts.com/arts-expositions/art-contemporain/aicha-snoussi-laureate-du-prix-sam-pour-lart-contemporain-2020-11150538/.

[32] Emmanuelle Kadya Tall, “De La Démocratie et Des Cultes Voduns Au Bénin (On Democracy and Voodoo in Benin),” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 35, no. 137 (1995): 195–208, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4392581.

[33] James A. Rawley and Stephen D. Behrendt, 2005. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

[34] “Musée de Ouidah,” Fondation Zinsou, http://fondationzinsou.org.

[35] Art Histories, “There is an earthquake in your mind when you see the art” Interview with the President of the Fondation Zinsou Marie-Cécile Zinsou,” Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices, March 16, 2016, https://medium.com/from-traditional-to-contemporary-aesthetic/there-is-an-earthquake-in-your-mind-when-you-see-the-art-b49682d1a87b.

[36] “Benin gets (euro) 20m loan for new museum to show restituted heritage,” The Art Newspaper, July 18, 2019, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/10/29/art-among-the-egyptian-pyramids-plus-the-new-museum-triennial-and-edouard-manet.

[37] Suzanne Preston-Blier, “Words about Words about Icons: Iconologology and the Study of African Art,” Art Journal Vol. 47, No. 2, Object and Intellect: Interpretations of Meaning in African Art (Summer 1988): 75-87, Academia.

[38] Ibid, 75-87.

[39] Ibid, 75-87.

[40] “Le “mur du patrimoine”, nouvelle attraction culturelle et touristique au coeur de Cotonou,” Gouvernement de la République du Bénin, opened March 21, 2021, https://www.gouv.bj/actualite/1225/le-%22mur-patrimoine%22–nouvelle-attraction-culturelle-touristique-coeur-cotonou./.

[41] Bookconekt caters to clients online and by delivery/pick up services for scholastic sources, and also organizes philanthropic programs, https://bookconekt.com.

[42] A French term translating to represent “the sunset, the Atlantic sea, or the West”, https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/ponant.

[43] Karen Attiah, “If U.S. museums say Black Lives Matter, then they should return Africa’s stolen art,” The Washington Post, May 12, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/12/if-us-museums-say-black-lives-matter-then-they-should-return-africas-stolen-art/.

[44] Suyin Haynes, “Why African Artists and Curators Want Action from Museums,” TIME, October 20, 2020, https://time.com/5901806/african-artifacts-museums/.