Precis

"No-one has the right to take what belongs to the African people, because it's our heritage," yells Mwazulu Diyabanza as he yanks an African funerary pole off its museum stand.

The Congolese activist is in Paris' prestigious quai Branly Museum, which holds some 70 000 artefacts from Africa. Two thirds of these were brought to France during the colonial era.

Mwazulu is determined to put the issue under the national spotlight.

Most of us are familiar with the stoush over whether Britain should return Greece's lost treasures - the Elgin Marbles. There's now a growing debate across Europe about whether its museums should return Africa's cultural heritage.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, European countries colonised Africa, exploiting its natural and cultural resources.

Some of these objects were looted, some taken under duress, others traded. It's estimated a whopping 90 per cent of sub-Saharan cultural objects are now held outside the continent where they were made.

"Young people in these countries, they need their heritage," says Marie-Cecile Zinsou, an art historian and curator who runs galleries in West Africa. "These objects are part of our history and explain who we were, so they are very, very important."

But Diyabanza's radical actions worry many.

"If you allow people to come and take back what they want, based on their own feeling, what will be the future of the museum?" asks Emmanuel Kasarherou, President of the quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum.

In France, the subject became a national talking point when newly-elected President Marcon visited Africa and said the continent's cultural objects should be in African museums. Three years later, France has passed a law to return 27 objects.

In Germany, recent debates about the country's colonial history have highlighted the ethical problems of displaying looted art. A massive new cultural and museum centre in the heart of Berlin is being criticised for exhibiting 'Benin Bronzes', a set of statues and carvings looted by the British in present-day Nigeria and held in museums across the world.

In a colourful and eye-opening story, France-based reporter Allan Clarke travels from Paris to Berlin and Hamburg to see their vast ethnographic collections in these cities.

He talks to museum leaders, artists and activists about the thorny issue of who owns Africa's lost cultural treasures and whether they should be returned.

Museum directors are now confronting the issue but will this translate into action?

"So things should go back, but how many things go back and which things go back and which things can be shown here," say Hermann Parzinger from Berlin's Humboldt Forum. "I think this has to be solved in a dialogue."

In November, France will return 26 objects to Benin in West Africa. "It's not the end of something," says Kasarherou. "It's the beginning of something new."

"If it's a first step; it's historical, it's very important. It's the most symbolical think you can do," says Zinsou. "If it's the only step, well ... it's nothing."

Mwazulu remains uncompromising. "Let's go to the core of the problem. The West admits that they stole and when you steal, you must return what you've stolen."

Episode teaser. Paris GVs

Music

00+10

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: France is fiercely proud of its culture and history.

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Allan walking, Paris

Walk down any of Paris’s grand boulevards and you quickly realise the capital is a monument to the glories of the empire. The nation’s cultural trophies are on display in its world class museums. Now the debate about who owns many of these precious objects is firing up.

00+25

Allan to camera on boulevard

When France colonised Africa, it brought home tens of thousands of its cultural objects. Many taken under duress, others looted during violent conflict. France insists they’re the rightful owner, but others say they belong in Africa and should be returned.

00+52

Music

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Marie Cecile 100%

MARIE CECILE ZINSOU: It’s just not possible to have 90% of your heritage thousands of kilometres way.

01+12

Mwazulu holding object streaming from museum

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Some are fed up with waiting.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: I’m leaving with our property which I came to take back from the quai Branly Museum.

01+20

POLICEMAN: You're under arrest.

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: If you allow people to come and take back what they want,

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Emmanuel 100%

based on their own feeling, what will be the future of the museum?

01+33

Title: OUT OF AFRICA

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Paris street. Super:
Paris, France

Music

01+41

Allan walking to metro. Super:
Allan Clarke
Reporter

01+49

Train to Champigny Sur Marne, passes Eiffel Tower

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: I leave the opulence of old Paris and head 30 minutes out of the city.

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Champigny Sur Marne market

Music

02+06

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Champigny Sur Marne is a melting pot of people from different cultures – many from former French colonies and departments.

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Music

02+26

Allan exits train station

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: I’m here to meet a man determined to force France to confront its colonial past.

02+32

Allan meets Mwazulu

"Mwazulu!"

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Bonjour!

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Ca va?

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Oui oui ca va.

02+43

Allan and Mwazulu walk to market

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter:  Is this your neighbourhood?

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Yes, I'm not far from here and I come here often.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Mwazulu Diyabanza was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Yes, there’s a little market just here.

02+49

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He’s a political refugee who came to live in France as a young man.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: I think to walk round we need masks.

03+08

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: This looks amazing.

03+15

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: There are some African products on sale there.

03+18

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: What is this?

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: They're African eggplants, the perfect vegetable.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He’s still an activist but now his fight is with the French state. He believes it’s still behaving like a colonial power in Africa.

03+23

Mwazulu greets group members on phone

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Compatriots! How are you?

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Mwazulu is a leader of an African socialist group – its members in Europe and Africa do regular hook ups to discuss politics and strategy.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Okay, so what does this mean for your activism?

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: They’re fighting for the return of their cultural heritage. Without it, they believe Africa will never know its true self.

03+44

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: The house of culture was destroyed. The soul of the true Africa was stolen. So we have to repair this.

04+11

Mwazulu interview

And to rebuild this, we’ll start with bricks, with the ones that were stolen, and those bricks are our objects. They’re the remnants of our ancestors that are buried here.

04+18

Allan walks to Louvre forecourt. GFX overlay Macron Africa visit

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter:  But it’s not that simple. Here in France, the return of cultural objects has long been a taboo topic. Then in 2017, the subject became a heated national talking point when President Macron, shortly after his election, visited Africa and made a radical promise.

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PRESIDENT MACRON: African heritage cannot solely exist in private collections and European museums. Within five years I want the conditions to exist for temporary or permanent returns of African heritage to Africa.

04+57

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: But four years on, only two objects have been returned.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: President Macron’s declaration for us is delaying tactics.

05+15

Like any smart politician, you tell people what they want to hear and that’s what Emmanuel Macron has done.

05+25

Mwazulu outside quai Branly Museum

Music

05+31

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Last year, Mwazulu took matters into his own hands, starting in Paris.

05+33

Mwazulu video stream picking up objects in museum

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: "We’re leaving with our property which I came to take back from the quai Branly Museum."

05+38

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He began big, at the quai Branly Museum, which has tens of thousands of objects from Africa.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: When we walk into a museum, it’s

05+45

Split screen: video stream/Mwazulu interview

the symbol of having taken the object that matters to us, to have liberated this object.

05+56

Mwazulu video stream from museum

"I’m taking back to Africa everything which was a pillaged, stolen while blood of Africans was flowing."

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Live stream from Marseille. Mwazulu carrying object from museum

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Then in Marseille, he snatched an object from a museum, live-streaming the entire stunt to his followers online.

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Split screen

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: "Ladies and gentlemen, are you complicit in these hateful crimes?"

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When we do this, we want to tell the whole world the object has been liberated.

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Live stream

"They've blocked us."

06+28

Live stream from Louvre

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He even tried it on in the world’s most famous museum – the Louvre.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: "They’ve pillaged, stolen."

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: But he got arrested.

06+31

Live stream from Netherlands

He went to the Netherlands where he actually managed to get a sculpture outside the museum, but he didn’t get far.

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Live stream of arrest

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POLICEMAN: "You’re under arrest."

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Marie Cecile looks to camera

MARIE CECILE ZINSOU: His actions are very political.

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African contemporary artwork

I don't think this man is trying to steal anything from any museum.

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Marie Cecile 100%

His point is to show that there is a problem and nobody is speaking about it.

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Marie Cecile looking at artwork

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Marie Cecile Zinsou is a curator of contemporary African art. Her family comes from France and the tiny West African nation of Benin.

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Marie Cecile 100%

MARIE CECILE ZINSOU: These objects are part of our history and explain who we were, so they are very, very important. It's very symbolical. It's not really a question of money or importance, financial importance, because some of these objects are very precious, some of them not at all. But the thing is, is that they tell us who we are.

07+41

Paris GVs

Music

07+59

Roméo walking

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Identity is at the heart of artist Roméo Mivekannin’s work. Born in Africa, he now lives in France.

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Allan meets with Roméo at café

His family is West African royalty. His great-great grandfather was King Béhanzin in what is now the nation of Benin.

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Romeo, you’ve got such an interesting history. In fact, you’re descended from Beninois royalty. Tell me about your family.

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ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: When people ask me what the role or the significance of what Béhanzin represents, it’s the equivalent of Napoleon to France, because he really fought the colonisers, fought in the name of liberty, fought in the name of the people until the last moments of his life.

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Statues. Napoleon on horseback. Paris

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: In 1892, facing fierce resistance from Béhanzin, the French Army invaded the kingdom, forcing him and his family into exile. They then pillaged the palace, taking everything from thrones to tunics before bringing the loot back to France.

09+09

Roméo interview 

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: To strip a society of its objects is a bit like ripping limbs off its body. It’s a way of amputating their history, I think.

09+31

Roméo and Allan to see Roméo's artwork at gallery

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Roméo takes me to see his art just a few blocks away. This is the work – it’s amazing.  His large-scale paintings on linen are hand-painted copies of photographs of his family, showing their journey into exile.

09+47

This is your family?

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: It’s a big family. This woman is the mother of my grandmother, Yvette Béhanzin.

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ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: I can see you have put yourself in there as well.

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: Yes, in my work I often do self-portraits. Here I’m holding the umbrella for the King and it’s a way of putting myself into history which has passed but which I’m part of, in a way.

10+07

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: This one is a quite a striking image. He’s painted one of the most potent symbols of the King’s defeat  – an empty throne.

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: In some way this represents the presence and the absence of the King.

10+35

The throne is the seat of the King and if you remove the seat, you can imagine that you can’t sit down.

10+54

Roméo interview

You can’t imagine a room in Europe without seats. It’s as if you took away the seats from this part of the world which lived for a century without seats.

11+01

Quai Branly Museum

Music

11+10

Allan walks quai Branly Museum

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Thrones and other objects looted from Romeo’s ancestors ended up here, in the quai Branly Museum, France’s biggest ethnographic collection.

11+17

Allan meets with Emmanuel and tours museum

Born in New Caledonia, Emmanuel Kasarherou is the first indigenous-born president of a major French museum.

11+35

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: There’s many, many things. We are travelling through Papua New Guinea here, Solomon Islands. We are passing by a wonderful piece from Vanuatu .

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The museum has a collection of 70 000 objects from Africa, most brought to France during its colonial rule.

11+43

Emmanuel interview in museum

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Some of these are from former French colonies in Africa, how the how did these come into the museum?

11+59

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: That's one of the main problems we face at the moment, because at a time when these objects were brought to Paris, people do not take very much into account the way it was acquired.  There’s big provenance research undertaking at the moment trying to trace back, but it’s quite difficult.

12+06

If they are acquired illegally or illegitimately then this is our duty to put the case to the head of state saying, we should look at this situation. And then the parliament will decide on further action to be done.

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Benin objects

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: In the heart of the museum are some of the objects looted from Benin by the invading French. Statues, doors

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Emmanuel and Allan at Benin throne

and thrones.

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: Throne here.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: This is quite spectacular. It’s huge. Emmanuel says before the French Army reached the palace, King Béhanzin set it alight. The soldiers rescued the objects inside.

12+58

Essentially, they were looted, but at the same time, saved in a way?

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: Yes, it's quite complicated always, because it was looted for sure, but at the same time these objects wouldn’t be there if the palace was completely destroyed by the fire.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Roméo feels torn about the objects ending up in a museum.

13+15

Roméo interview

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: The first time I saw them, yes, I felt a sort of internal anger, some pain, to see the objects there. You wonder, why they are there?  But at the same time, it’s a product of history, because if they weren’t there, you could imagine that they would have disappeared. So a century later, I find it very complex.

13+40

Mwazulu to Aix-en-Provence

Music

14+06

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Mwazulu is continuing his battle with the French state, this time on the legal front. Today he’s been summoned to appear in court in the southern city, Aix-en-Provence. Mwazulu was let off with just a fine for his actions in the Louvre and the quai Branly museums. He was acquitted for his action in the Marseille museum but the prosecutor appealed.

14+18

Mwazulu interview on train

MWAZULU DIYABANZA:  It’s a pity that the prosecutor didn’t accept that he lost the battle and appealed, so we’re going to respond to this latest summons from French justice which refuses to hear the voice of reason.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: How are you feeling?

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Very serene.

14+52

Mwazulu arrives Aix-en-Provence

Music

15+06

Mwazulu with Olivia at court

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Today, the prosecutor will argue Mwazulu intended to steal. But his lawyer, Olivia Betoe Bi Evie, says there's no case to answer.

OLIVIA BETOE BI EVIE: They haven’t proved the intention to steal,

15+13

Olivia interview

because I don’t know any thief who turns up to a museum and says 'film me' and then after having been filmed, puts the object back so he can talk about the motivations, which is what I call the political motive. For me, there's no case. Clearly, there's no case and the acquittal should be upheld.

15+28

Mwazulu on train

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: But the prosecutor wins, and Mwazulu is convicted. He’ll appeal, but in the meantime, if he breaks the law again in France, he could go to jail. He says that won’t stop him; he’s planning to target museums outside France.

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Berlin GVs

Music

16+12

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Macron’s bold promise to send African artefacts home has put other European countries on notice. Like France, Germany’s museums hold tens of thousands of objects from Africa. But unlike in France, there’s a lively debate here about the country’s colonial record.

16+19

Allan walks with Joshua to Wilhelmstrasse

And that's putting museums in an awkward position.

JOSHUA KWESI:  So I’m going to take you around the corner to Wilhelmstrasse. Wilhelmstrasse

16+37

is a place that is really crucial for the history of colonialism.

16+47

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: In downtown Berlin, I’m on a street tour with activist and academic Joshua Kwesi. He wants to show me how traces of Germany’s colonial past still linger in the city.

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JOSHUA KWESI: This is the site where the German Chancellor Bismarck invited all the other European colonial powers and the US and the Ottoman Empire to come and discuss the carving up of the African continent.

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ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The meetings began here in 1884. They all look white to me. Were there any representatives from Africa when this happened?

17+17

JOSHUA KWESI:  No. There were no representatives from the African continent – there was nobody actually from the territories that were carved up.

17+26

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: European nations competed with each other to grab land and resources.

JOSHUA KWESI: And so German colonies were what is today Togo, which includes what is today Ghana. Cameroon, what was then called German south west Africa, today Namibia. All of these places experienced brutal German colonial rule.

17+34

Bismarck statue / museum exterior

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Germany’s time as a colonial power was short – nearly 40 years later it was forced to hand over its territories to the victors of World War One. But artefacts collected during that time still fill its museums.

17+54

Joshua and Allan walk by river

Joshua wants them dealt with in the same way as the art stolen by the Nazis.

18+10

Joshua interview

JOSHUA KWESI:  All we demand is that the insights Germany gained from that part of its history need to be extended to include the dealings with colonial history and the looted art of that era. It’s simply wrong that these objects are there.

18+16

Allan on train to Hamburg

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: I’m heading to Hamburg to see some sculptures that have become the symbol of looted colonial art. Many African artefacts arrived in the port of Hamburg in the 19^th century; among them were some Benin Bronzes.. These are sculptures and carvings looted by the British in 1897 after a bloody war in Benin City in present-day Nigeria.  

18+34

Afrikahaus museum exterior

By the way, that’s different to the West African country of Benin – once a French colony. It’s quite an incredible building.

19+01

Allan and Barbara in museum

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER: Yeah, it was opened in 1912. 

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: And you have Benin Bronzes here as well?

By the way, that’s different to the West African country of Benin – once a French colony.

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER: We have quite an interesting collection of about 170 pieces.

19+12

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Dr Barbara Plankensteiner is a world expert on the Benin Bronzes. Are you able to show me some of them – that’s the question.

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER:  Yes. We are in the course of restoring three works so we could look at those.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Oh great, thank you…

19+22

Barbara and Allan into conservation room to look at Benin Bronzes

Wow!

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER:  Yeah this is the conservation office. We took three of our works out for inspection. So this is one of these relief plaques, very characteristic of Benin royal art.  They tell a lot about the history and ceremonial culture.

19+43

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The statues aren’t actually all bronze; some are made of iron, brass and ivory.

20+05

So this is, I’m assuming, one piece of ivory that has been carved?

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER:  Yes, it’s actually a staff that has been used in certain ceremonies, where with a little ivory stick you would knock on it.

20+11

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The intricate sculptures documented court life for over 500 hundred years, hanging on palace walls.

20+23

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER: This type of head that we date into the 19th century.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: In person it’s very different from looking at the photographs – I mean, there’s so much happening on the actual object.

DR BARBARA PLANKENSTEINER: There is inlay. The eyes, the pupils are inlaid with iron and, you know, iron is a very powerful material. The sheer number and quality

20+31

Barbara interview

of the work is exceptional. There might be about 5,000 works, in most prominent museum collections all over the world.

20+57

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: An international campaign for the return of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria has been gathering pace. And it’s causing big headaches for Germany’s newest and most expensive cultural project.

21+08

Humboldt Forum exterior

The Humboldt Forum in Berlin was still under construction when we visited.

21+21

Allan inside museum

Its collection of non-European art and artefacts is one of the richest in the world. It even has objects from an old German colony – in present-day Papua New Guinea.

21+27

Allan to camera amongst objects

We’ve been granted access to the space where the cultural objects from Papua New Guinea will be displayed here at the Humboldt and it’s quite extraordinary, actually, to see the amount of artefacts that they have like these. It’s surreal actually to see objects from so close to home sitting here in the heart of Berlin.

21+41

CU Objects/ Allan sits with Herman

In the years it’s taken to build this massive museum, controversy has raged over what to do with its colonial collection. Herman Parzinger heads one of the foundations which manages the Humboldt.

22+01

Herman interview

HERMAN PARZINGER: Until very few years ago, the colonial history of Germany was not for the German population, it wasn't really an issue, wasn’t really a problem.

22+16

And of course, the situation changed. We have much more people from Africa living in Germany, the immigrants, and so on so we cannot any more ignore this.

22+25

Humboldt Forum exterior

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The Humboldt Forum has the second largest collection of Benin Bronzes after the British Museum – over 500 objects.

22+34

Herman and Allan walk in unfinished gallery space

The museum’s been under immense public pressure not to display them, but it’s continued building this large gallery to show them off.

22+44

And if we look over here, this will be featuring how many objects, would you say?

HERMAN PARZINGER: Difficult to say. Several dozens of these plaques, of these reliefs.

22+54

Herman interview

ALLAN CLARKE:  You plan to exhibit some of the Benin Bronzes here in the future. How do you do that ethically, knowing that these objects were looted?

HERMAN PARZINGER: While these objects will be exposed, the story behind these objects will be told, the looting and everything.

23+07

It's important that we have not a lacuna, an empty space here on Benin or leaving Benin completely, and putting a completely other topic from our collections in this gallery.

23+24

Humboldt Forum GVs

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Recently the German government said it wants to return a number of Bronzes to Nigeria. But it looks like it’s going to take some time.

HERMAN PARZINGER: Things should go back, but how many things go back

23+36

Herman interview

and which things go back and which things can be shown here in the Humboldt Forum and other places, I think this has to be solved in a dialogue with responsible persons in Nigeria. I think this is the important thing which we have to solve.

23+48

Portugal GVs

Music

24+03

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: With COVID restrictions easing, Europe’s museums are opening up. And Mwazulu Diyabanza

24+11

Mwazulu arrives in Lisbon

is on the move. We track him down in Portugal, where he’s being followed by another media team.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: I’m already in Lisbon. Let’s go!

24+18

Mwazulu livestream at Lisbon airport

You all know the role Portugal played in the first moments of the destabilisation of our mother Africa.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He’s livestreaming his every move.

24+35

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: I’m leaving the airport. How do I get out?

24+45

Lisbon GVs

Music

24+52

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Portugal began colonising parts of Africa as early as the 1400s – one of the first European countries to do so.

24+56

Mwazulu and colleagues in park

Mwazulu and his colleagues want to remind people of that history. His first target is the Museum of Ethnology, which holds many African objects.

25+04

Mwazulu at Museum of Ethnology

Mwazulu is looking for objects taken during those early days of Portugal’s colonisation.

25+17

Mwazulu livestream from Museum of Ethnology

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Today, we begin our work to get our heritage from 1400s to 1890s back.

25+30

Livestream, Mwazulu with pot lids

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He finds these pot lids from Angola.

25+35

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: This represents a hair bun, when the woman makes a bun at the back, you can see the expression here.

25+38

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: But they're not very old and he can't get at them..

25+45

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Looking around, apart from these pieces, there are others here which aren’t old, which are very recent pieces. I can easily pick this up and take it home because you don’t have to ask thieves for permission. But in analysing these two pieces, they are recent. They’re not as old as I’d like.

25+49

Mwazulu exits museum

I decided not to take any.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter:  Mwazulu leaves empty-handed. But his local network has another plan.

26+20

Mwazulu on phone

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Can you give me the exact address, please?

26+32

Lisbon tram

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: His next target is the National Museum of Antiga Art .

26+37

Mwazulu outside closed museum

It has an exhibition with 16^th century African objects.

26+45

Music

26+49

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: But again, he has no luck.

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: There was just a little exhibition there, a temporary exhibition. The space where they have African works isn’t open.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: His growing media profile is working against him. He believes museum staff refused him entry because they recognised him.

27+07

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: Oh it’s complicated.

27+29

Mwazulu walks to museum

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: The next day, he makes one final attempt.

27+40

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: It’s closed.

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: He’s giving up, for now.

27+56

Mwazulu interview on street

MWAZULU DIYABANZA: I’m going back to Paris this evening.  Then we’ll think about something else – Berlin, Brussels, to see what other actions we can do.

28+03

Sunset Paris GVs /Objects in museum

Music

28+16

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: Late last year, three years after Macron’s pledge, France’s parliament passed a law to return 27 objects to Africa, 26 back to the nation of Benin. Among them, these objects looted from Romeo’s ancestors.

28+23

Emmanuel interview

EMMANUEL KASARHEROU: I think it's a very historical moment for a French museum, because the first time that there's so many objects will be given back. It's not the end of something, it's the beginning of something new.

28+40

African objects

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: France has no immediate plans to return other African objects but says it supports long-term cooperation with African countries on returns.

28+53

Marie Cecile interview

MARIE CECILE ZINSOU: If it's a first step; it's historical, it's very important. It's the most symbolical think you can do. If it's the only step, well, it's 27 objects, you know? It's nothing. But I think we'll need, 10 to 20 years to understand if this was an absolute revolution, or if it was just a speech, in 2017.

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Roméo with paintings

ALLAN CLARKE, Reporter: For Roméo, the return of the throne his ancestors once sat on, and other items, is long overdue.

ROMÉO MIVEKANNIN: It’s like when people have an accident and lose a limb.

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They have lost a limb and feel a phantom pain. So by putting it back, that will heal this phantom pain. For Africans, the fact that these objects will return to the African continent is to give them back some power, their vital power. There’s a question of dignity, to give people back their dignity.

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Credits [see below]

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Outpoint

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