Africa's Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat

by Bénédicte Savoy, Susanne Meyer-Abich Narrated by Ronnie Archer-Morgan

Overview

A major new history of how African nations, starting in the 1960s, sought to reclaim the art looted by Western colonial powers

For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. One of the world’s foremost experts on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy investigates extensive, previously unpublished sources to reveal that the roots of the struggle extend much further back than prominent recent debates indicate, and that these efforts were covered up by myriad opponents.

Shortly after 1960, when eighteen former colonies in Africa gained independence, a movement to pursue repatriation was spearheaded by African intellectual and political classes. Savoy looks at pivotal events, including the watershed speech delivered at the UN General Assembly by Zaire’s president, Mobutu Sese Seko, which started the debate regarding restitution of colonial-era assets and resulted in the first UN resolution on the subject. She examines how German museums tried to withhold information about their inventory and how the British Parliament failed to pass a proposed amendment to the British Museum Act, which protected the country's collections. Savoy concludes in the mid-1980s, when African nations enacted the first laws focusing on the protection of their cultural heritage.

Making the case for why restitution is essential to any future relationship between African countries and the West, Africa’s Struggle for Its Art will shape conversations around these crucial issues for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year

Survival

"Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, a highly readable and meticulously researched overview of the cultural-restitution debate in Europe. . . . A fascinating and highly recommended read for anyone interested in an often overlooked dynamic that continues to influence North–South relations."

Kirkus Reviews

2021-11-17
A closely observed look at the resistance of European museums to repatriate artwork looted from Africa during the colonial era.

French art historian Savoy, a professor at the Technical University of Berlin, revisits a bitterly contested debate that began in the 1960s, when newly independent African nations began petitioning for the return of cultural patrimony. They were unsuccessful, and to this day, “the major public museums in Paris, Berlin, London, Brussels, Vienna, Amsterdam and Leiden together hold more than half a million African objects.” In many cases, the requests were dismissed with barely disguised contempt and often with raw racism by museum curators and directors with a variety of excuses—e.g., poorly equipped African museums would not be capable of taking proper care of sensitive material, the artwork in question was needed where it was for the purpose of scholarly study, and so on. Wrote one German scholar, “it is important to remember that the Berlin holdings were purchased legally at the time.” Another added, “Not everything which is technically possible [is] therefore sensible and justifiable in terms of effort”—in other words, we have better things to do than worry about returning African objects. The debate stretched across the 1970s and early 1980s, with some unexpected twists, as when Greek diplomat Melina Mercouri demanded the return of the Elgin Marbles and other materials from the British Museum. Her demand was unsuccessful as well. Given that many U.S. museums are now engaged in the repatriation of artworks to the Native American nations from which they were taken, there are methods in place for restitution. Still, writes Savoy, European museums in particular continue to resist. “The issue still continues to trigger compulsive instances of institutional defence,” he writes, “as if the search for an equitable approach to collections created in an inequitable context was one of the greatest threats to European cultural heritage.”

Though chiefly of interest to specialists, this is a thoughtful study in the ethics of art collection.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175521321
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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