Call for Restitution
In the context of the campaign for restitution, led by the State of the African Diaspora, many kings and great leaders have endorsed this international call :
95% of Africa's cultural treasures are outside Africa. They are in the Tervuren Museum in Brussels, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, etc. These goods were stolen during colonization, often in a context of violence and massacre, and today thousands of objects, and even human remains, are kept and displayed as trophies.
We are not only talking about past crimes committed by armies. We are also talking about contemporary crimes: museums are accomplices because they are guilty of receiving stolen goods and profiting from these treasures. A taste for fine art cannot be an excuse for such attitudes. The Director-General of UNESCO recalled in May 1977: "Some peoples have lost almost all of the cultural property that constitutes an essential aspect of their collective memory and a message transmitted by their past. These peoples call for an understanding of their loss".
This situation is unacceptable and reprehensible. Intercultural dialogue cannot be based on intercultural looting. Restitution cannot be denied. It is a question of justice and culture, of course; it is also a spiritual question, as many of these objects have a religious significance in the tradition to which they belong. It is also an economic issue: these treasures are a source of foreign currency and tourism development that the countries of origin are deprived of.
When African citizens want to pass on their heritage to their children, they cannot do so, because most of these objects are scattered in Europe and the Americas and in private collections. They are deprived of their memory. Europe rejects African migrants but intends to keep African treasures.
The African Diaspora State has already made significant progress in restitution in France, Belgium, and the European Parliament, and has already taken concrete steps to preserve the objects once they are returned. But most of these treasures are still outside the continent, while many very modern museums in Africa remain desperately empty. This situation cannot continue: it creates tensions in North-South relations and is highly detrimental to the friendship between peoples and to international diplomacy.
This is why, as kings, concerned with human rights, culture, and the requirements of the UN Decade for People of African Descent, we support the "Restitution Now" campaign led by the State of the African Diaspora, and on the eve of the Africa-France Summit that will begin on 7 October 2021, we ask:
African leaders to actively formulate official demands for restitution in support of the African Union Chairperson, Félix Tshisekedi, who, upon his inauguration, stated that restitution would be one of his priorities, and who will have to put the issue firmly on the table during the Africa-France Summit and beyond;
EU leaders to implement the European Parliament's resolution voted on 26 March 2019, which calls on member countries and institutions to take into account "the crimes against humanity suffered by people of African descent", and to implement "reparations in the form of a public apology or the return of stolen objects to their countries of origin.
Other countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Vatican, or the United States to do the same, and to set up a restitution process as soon as possible, as these states also have tens of thousands of treasures and cultural goods belonging to Africa in their museums."
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