I have read recently a number of press articles sent by friends, especially by Kwame Opoku, who is as always watching intently the consequences of the declarations made in Ouagadougou by President Macron on the subject of restitution of African treasures by French (and hopefully European) museums.
The last such articles was https://frieze.com/article/fraught-future-ethnographic-museum and it led me to the following comments which might stir some more discussions and keep the ball rolling on a very important subject:
This article is interesting, but it is misleading: the author writes about ethnography museums by using as an example the Musée du Quai Branly which is essentially an art museum. Ethnography is not art history. Ethnography is a scientific discipline created by Europeans in colonial times to study civilizations in colonized countries. It was later extended to European populations, including industrial societies. Art history is another discipline based on European aesthetic standards and tastes which has "discovered" "primitive arts" and "African art", thanks to the private tastes of famous artists, rich collectors, galerists and cultural gurus like Malraux. Being unable to understand "primitive" values and historical significance of their heritage, they invented this new art field which became a flourishing market.
A problem which is not mentioned in the article is that many ethnography museums have been influenced by the glamour of pan-European art, the success (in statistical terms) of great exhibitions and the constant pressure on their directors to make the attendance grow, have treated the "best" objects of their collections as works of art, and not as items of exceptional ethnographic, historic or cultural value.
Another point which should be stressed is that Africa, like all other continents, has now and has had for decades excellent ethnographers/ethnologists, archaeologists and historians, many of whom have been trained in museology and museography. I have known the IFAN in Dakar when its scientific responsibility and administrative management were transferred to African professionals/It was about 50 years ago. Ekpo Eyo from Nigeria and Richard Nunoo from Ghana have been most respected museum leaders at that same period. They were able to discuss ad equals with Robert Gessain from the Musée de l'Homme and with Bernard Fagg from the Pitt Rivers.
I don't think the real problem is ethnography museums, it is the art museums world, and the market which is also art oriented. The Benin bronzes or the Abomey treasure would be easier to repatriate if they were exhibited as a proud military loot, in a museum which would be dedicated to the glories of colonial history. Then the change (inversion) in human and political values would quickly lead to the closing of such museums and the restitution of their collections to the now-independant countries. But these same objects are called pure works of art which can be presented and appreciated only in Euro-American museums and exhibitions (and be valued by the media in dollars or euros)..
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