9, November 2021
France formally returns looted Benin artworks at Élysée ceremony 0
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted his counterpart from Benin, President Patrice Talon, on Tuesday to formally seal an agreement to return 26 artworks taken from the former French colony’s Palace of Abomey – today a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The 26 pieces, from a trove of objects snatched by French forces in 1892, were exhibited at the Quai Branly museum in Paris in the run-up to Tuesday’s ceremony. They will be shipped to the West African country in the coming days.
The decision to return them follows growing calls in Africa for European countries to return the colonial spoils from museums.
It is part of a drive by French President Emmanuel Macron to improve his country’s image in Africa, especially among young people.
The treasures are from the kingdom of Dahomey in the south of present-day Benin and include the throne of Dahomey’s last king, Behanzin, as well as three totemic statues, four palace doors, several portable altars and three warrior dance staffs.
The Élysée said Macron’s commitment for Africans to be able see their cultural wealth at home and not just in European museums “marks an important step in building a new relationship between France and Africa”.
Last month, Macron announced that a “talking drum” cherished by Ivory Coast’s Ebrie people, also at the Quai Branly, would be handed back as well.
Some museum directors have criticised the move to return works they deem of “universal” interest.
But Quai Branly president Emmanuel Kasarherou said he welcomed the “soul-searching” that those calls had triggered about the provenance of artworks.
‘Ripped from their cultures’
The Quai Branly, which has a vast trove of African artefacts, has begun a sweeping review of its collection of 300,000 objects.
The aim is “to identify works believed to have been taken through violence, without the owners’ consent, or as war booty or through the coercion of the colonial administration”, Kasarherou told AFP.
“Not all objects that are in European collections have been stolen,” he emphasised, but “what proportion were? Our objective is to find out.”
Since his election in 2017, Macron has gone further than his predecessors in admitting to past French abuses in Africa.
In a speech to students in Burkina Faso soon after taking office, he vowed to facilitate the return of African cultural heritage within five years.
An expert report commissioned by Macron counted some 90,000 African works in French museums, 70,000 of them at the Quai Branly alone.
The restitution calls culminated last year in a vote in the French parliament, where lawmakers overwhelmingly backed returning a group of artefacts to Benin and Senegal, another former French colony.
Macron has predicted that the 26 objects taken from the Abomey palace will be “the pride of Benin” when they are returned.
They will be exhibited at various sites in Benin, including a former Portuguese fort in the city of Ouidah, once a slave-trading hub, while awaiting the completion of a museum in Abomey to house them.
Benin’s Talon has previously said he was “not satisfied” with the “small steps” taken by France and called on Macron to go further.
Source: AFP
9, November 2021
Cameroon Football: Shame on Eto’o for appointing an anti Anglophone journalist to run his campaign 0
Earlier this week, Samuel Eto’o, the controversial Cameroonian football legend with strong ties to the corrupt regime in Yaoundé declared that Ernest Obama will be responsible for the media coverage of his campaign to become president of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).
Ernest Obama, former Director of Vision 4 Network and current general manager of BNews TV have a track record of being an anti Anglophone journalist and had called several times via Vision 4 for the complete destruction of Southern Cameroons.
The absurdity of this Samuel Eto’o appointment of Ernest Obama has shocked many Southern Cameroonians worldwide, but is perhaps most insulting to the English speaking Cameroonians who have supported Eto’o throughout his brilliant career as a footballer many of whom now have firsthand experience of the atrocities of the Biya Francophone radical Beti Ewondo regime in its five year-old war in Southern Cameroons.
The vast majority of Southern Cameroonians know all too well that the regime in Yaoundé not only has a deep-rooted hatred for English speaking Cameroonians, but has advanced an on-going genocidal campaign against Southern Cameroonians and with the support of French speaking journalists such as Ernest Obama promoted the military campaign that has claimed the lives of some 10,000 Cameroonians with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths. Shame on Samuel Eto’o and other Cameroon football heroes for turning a blind eye to the Biya regime’s deep-rooted anti Anglophone policies in order to advance their own financial interest.
The list of Ernest Obama’s anti Anglophone actions on Vision 4 TV are too voluminous, but perhaps his call for the total and complete annihilation of all Anglophones gave Southern Cameroonians the signal that they were no longer welcome to live freely in the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon.
And indeed, Mr. Ernest Obama’s declarations caused a massive wave of Southern Cameroonians to flee their homeland to Nigeria and either leave their assets behind or sell them at bargain prices. The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé has still not stopped the killings of innocent English speaking Cameroonians. Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons continue to arrest and torture thousands of Anglophones and confiscating millions of FCFA in Southern Cameroons businesses and assets.
Moreover, Southern Cameroons minority population has fled the country during these five year-old-war to the point where most of Southern Cameroons settlements are now ghost towns and villages.
Apart from Ernest Obama, Eto’o has been mentored for years by Bell Joseph-Antoine, another legendary Cameroonian footballer with well-documented anti Anglophone sentiments which also raise urgent questions about Samuel Eto’o’s intention. During a friendly football encounter with Egypt, Bell demonstrated absolute disrespect for the late Tataw Eta Stephen who was the captain by rushing to the referee with a flag he had in his pocket and performing the kickoff ritual with the Egyptian captain. When Stephen Tataw finished with the group photo business and went to the referee, he was told Bell Joseph had already conducted the process. In USA 94, Bell again continued with his anti Anglophone policy and rallied all the players from his Bassa Francophone extraction to have a vote on who to captain the team.
“Yaoundé should not be giving positions to people with anti Anglophone sentiments, end of story,” a senior official of the Biya regime who spoke to Cameroon Concord News at the time of writing this report said.
“Under the leadership of the Biya regime, Yaoundé has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to work with anti Anglophone cabinet ministers and political figures, and they appear willing to do so until the bitter end of the Biya presidency” a Southern Cameroonian living in Yaoundé told Camcordnews.
Eto’o reportedly met Mr. Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic, another anti Anglophone CPDM baron. So far, nothing has filtered out of the exchanges between the two French Cameroun personalities.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai