Macron’s promise of African heritage returns faces setbacks

Seven years on from Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to return Africa’s heritage, frustration grows about the lack of progress and a crucial colonial bill has stalled:

it has been seven years since French President Emmanuel Macron announced his landmark plan to return African heritage to the continent. His November 2017 declaration in Burkina Faso that "African heritage can’t just be in European private collections and museums" reignited the global debate over the restitution of colonial artefacts. Since then, the journey toward restitution has been slow and challenging. In January 2022, France’s Senate approved a bill — proposed by senators Catherine Morin-Desailly, Max Brisson, and Pierre Ouzoulias — to establish a national expert commission that would be consulted on all future non-European restitution cases. This bill also proposed facilitating the return of human remains held in French public collections, a law that was passed last December [] .

 

(Tamilla Hasanova, 'Macron’s promise of African heritage returns faces setbacks Restitution or retention?' Caliber.Az 28 November 2024 )