France and Germany have launched a €2.1 million fund to finance research over three years whether African artefacts in French and German national museums were justly obtained. This may conclude with the return of unjustly obtained objects to Africa.
The fund was launched at the end of January in Berlin. The three-year fund will receive annual contributions of €360,000 from each participating country. It will focus on supporting research on artefacts originating from anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is expected that Togo and Cameroon will be given preference as they have colonial ties to France and Germany.
The Centre Marc Bloch, a Franco-German research centre for social sciences and humanities in Berlin, will manage the disbursement of funds. “The first year will be experimental,” said Dr Julie Sissia, scientific project head of the fund at the Centre Marc Bloch. “We gave as few budgetary and thematic constraints as possible for eligibility criteria to keep it as open as possible.”
Sissia stated that projects seeking funding must involve a German-French institutional team, maintain a close relationship with a partner in Africa, and encompass both museum and academic research. Sissia emphasized the aim to observe the emergence of new teams and methodologies within this framework from a German-French perspective, as conveyed to Euronews Culture.
Further Sissia added that this is the first fund devoted to international cooperation in provenance research, a huge step towards a Europe-wide collaboration on the restitution. Further, she stated the new Franco-German fund will also allow for new research on the circulation of cultural objects from Africa, shedding light on how objects crossed borders through international art dealers and cultural institutions.
Both France and Germany have been actively seeking a framework for the return of African artefacts, a matter that has gained newfound importance among national policymakers.
In France, this initiative gained momentum following President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 speech, where he pledged to improve relations with France’s former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. Macron declared that returning or lending African artefacts held in French cultural institutions would be a primary focus of his administration.
Following his visits to Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Ivory Coast, Macron tweeted, “African heritage cannot remain captive in European museums.” France returned 26 artefacts to Benin in 2021, yet efforts for further restitution have faced obstacles, particularly with the stalling of legislation aimed at establishing a framework for the return of African artefacts in parliament late last year.
In Germany, the momentum behind the restitution project has notably increased. In November 2022, a German foundation financed the launch of the first comprehensive database documenting artefacts collectively referred to as the Benin bronzes. A year later, Germany’s foreign minister physically returned 21 bronzes to Nigeria, originally looted by British forces.
Cameroon was colonised and looted by imperial Germany in the late 19th century. Some objects looted by German forces in Cameroon were sold to collections in France. For instance, the “Bangwa Queen,” a wooden sculpture from Cameroon’s Grassfields region.
The Altas of Absences, a project mapping Cameroonian heritage objects held by German museums was published in June 2023. The project identified over 40,000 items held in German museums; the Linden Museum in Stuttgart alone houses 8,871 artefacts. Notable among Cameroonian heritage objects is the Mandu Yenu, an ornate throne bedecked with pearls and shells, purportedly gifted to German Emperor Wilhelm II by King Njoya of the Bamum kingdom in 1908. It is currently exhibited at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.
Germany’s federal commissioner for culture and media, Claudia Roth, remarked on the launch of the Franco-German project, stating, “The start of the program demonstrates that collaborations – crossing borders and bridging science and culture – facilitate crucial projects like this one, particularly necessary in challenging times.”