In November 2018, French president Emmanuel Macron stirred a debate on African cultural heritage when he announced a five year plan for France to hand over objects acquired during colonial times and currently owned and exposed in France.

He also commissioned two scholars, Senegalese Felwine Sarr and Bénédict Savoy, to assess France’s collections and provide suggestions as to their future.

In doing so, he shook cultural institutions all over Europe, not least Germany, which boasts sumptuous collections, where can one find the Pergamon altar, the Ishtar gate, the Benin bronzes, and Nefertiti’s bust amongst others.

Yet, the origins of those items, found across Africa and elsewhere, are now demanding the return of these objects to their legitimate owners.

This report from Emmanuelle Chaze.

German colonialism part 5