The talking statue at the centre of Africa’s cultural restoration debate

Daniel Nelson

Dahomey is three films in one: the slow, near silent packing of crates as France prepares to send back 26 royal treasures to their country of origin, then Abomey and now Benin, and the joyously respectful welcome as they touch down; the deep, rumbling poetic voice of one of the returning statues (“There are thousands of us in this night. Uprooted. Ripped out. The spoils of massive plundering”); and a university students’ discussion of the restoration.

All three segments are interesting — even the uneventful packing, unpacking and installation in a 2,000-square-metre space in the presidential palace in Cotonou is given life by the thoughts of Work No.26, locked away in Europe for 125 years after its seizure by the French in 1892, six decades after independence and now brought back to a transformed country.

But, surprisingly, it’s the articulate, animated students who bring a real spark of life to the process. I would happily have listened to their impassioned arguments for another hour.

Their involvement and directness is thrilling. I have followed the debate about the return of looted, stolen, donated and sometimes purchased African political, religious and cultural works and I cannot recall hearing the issues discussed with such intelligence, relevance and lucidity.

Work 26, now released from his box, has the final say in Senegalese director Mati Diop’s documentary, but it’s the students’ words that linger.

That debate is far from over. The French newsagency AFP reported that a 2018 report commissioned by France’s President Macron estimated that there are some 90,000 African works in French museums. It also reported that hundreds of thousands of other objects are housed in the UK, Belgium, Austria and Germany.

As for the carvings, it would be good to see more of them, but what we see are skilful and immensely powerfui. No wonder they are still creating disturbance. 

This strange, moving film adds another layer of disturbance to the disruption of colonialism and slavery.

* Dahomey is showing at the BFI London Film Festival on 12, 14 and 15  October