Great report

Benin: after restitution, reappropriation

Audio 7:30 p.m.

Alain Godonou, director of the museum program at the National Agency for the Promotion of Heritage and Tourism.

© Delphine Bousquet/RFI

By: Delphine Bousquet

4 mins

In Benin, the exhibition of 26 pieces returned by France is a hit: more than 147,000 visitors in 3 months.

The event takes place at the presidential palace, exceptionally open to the public, with at the same time a large exhibition of contemporary Beninese artists.

It ends this Sunday (May 22, 2022).

This is the beginning of the process of reappropriation of objects looted in 1892 by French troops, during the conquest of the kingdom of Danhomé.  

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Interview with Alain Godonou: 

" 

It's a common Beninese treasure

 "

In Benin, the exhibition of 26 coins from the Kingdom of Abomey returned by France on November 10, 2021 is a success: more than 147,000 visitors visited the presidency, transformed into a museum for 3 months.

Interview with Alain Godonou, director of the museum program at the National Agency for the Promotion of Heritage and Tourism.

RFI: How can this popular success be explained?

Alain Godonou: I would say it's because there was a very long wait, with political and media interest, and finally, the objects came back.

Everyone wants to see them with their own eyes.

And many Beninese were incredulous, even when the boxes arrived in Cotonou, they wondered if they were not empty!

It should be noted that visitors generally come in groups: family, association, community, sometimes 100, 200 people.

Some print t-shirts or loincloths with the image of objects, it's a phenomenon that we see for weddings or funerals here.

RFI: The Beninese who are in contact with these pieces express their emotion and their pride.

Did you expect such strong reactions?

AG:

Not really.

Some bow, make prayers, there is always a moment of emotion, regardless of ethnic origins and religious affiliations.

These objects have been shown a lot in pictures, but when people are in front of them, they are amazed by their size, by their quality, they say: “

".

They testify to the greatness of our past.

Visit of the exhibition.

© Delphine Bousquet/RFI

RFI: The authorities speak of “royal treasures”.

What role should they be given?

GA:

Obviously, they no longer have the functional role that was theirs in the kingdom they left.

No one will sit on the throne anymore, the statues of kings Guézo, Glélé and Béhanzin will not be used to galvanize the army.

They are the cement of a collective, historical memory.

It is a common Beninese treasure!

These pieces are now listed as national heritage, with an inventory number, as “significant quality objects for our identity and our history”.

This is why the provisions of the law on the protection of cultural heritage (Editor's note: voted in October 2021) are important to guarantee their preservation as much as possible in terms of technical attention, conservation, insurance on the part of the State, and their ability to circulate as representatives of Benin.

They also have this role,

RFI: The parts will first go to Ouidah and then to Abomey.

Won't the challenge be to maintain the same enthusiasm?

AG:

Yes, but in Ouidah, the International Museum for the Memory of Slavery will be a new facility with a new appeal.

There will be exhibits related to the slave trade and slavery.

The national narrative will take another form.

The school and academic public will be a priority, we are preparing programs for schools and scientific research.

These are different times: after the stage of emotion that we are experiencing, it will be the stage of education.

RFI: What place and what means will be given to Beninese researchers?

AG:

At the future Museum of the Amazons and the Kings of Danhomè in Abomey, there are plans to have a research department open to Beninese and foreign academics to make these objects speak, put them in correspondence with those that remained, analyze the results of archaeological excavations, and that it goes into a scientific production.

There are already points that are debated in the documentation that we have received from the Quai Branly museum, we hope that researchers will be fruitful in enlightening us on the gray areas.

We know that the history of Danhomè and the archeology of southern Benin are of interest to universities all over the world, so there may be cross-funding.

That's how it works in Greece and Egypt.

RFI: Do you think that this return will change the relationship of Beninese to cultural heritage?

AG:

That's the big surprise, he's already changing!

It was said that Beninese don't go to museums too much, that they aren't interested in heritage.

We discover that they are deeply interested in it.

Moreover, the fact that people come in groups is significant: I notice that after the exhibition, the members of the same family clan begin to discuss what they have, ask themselves questions about the value of their heritage.

There is a social movement underway.

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