- Title: Meet the Congolese “seizing†African art from Western museums
- Date: 2nd October 2020
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 2, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) CONGOLESE ACTIVIST MWAZULU DIYABANZA, SAYING: "What is a museum? It is also a prison. It is a kind of confinement to stifle this culture, to prevent cultural expression, presenting these works like trophies of war; moreover, intimacies were violated, because they are exposed like that, for all to see, when that was not the case (before)." DIYABANZA LOOKING AT PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (French) CONGOLESE ACTIVIST MWAZULU DIYABANZA ASKED ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON JUNE 12, SAYING: "We took the path and we came in, there were 5 of us, in front of the museum, we paid as good citizens the entry ticket of 9 euros, we took care of this task, we quietly took our tickets, and we found ourselves inside. Once inside, it was there .... if you will, the internal revolt, of the monstrosity that was before our eyes, because we saw the works of art, the priceless unique pieces that were facing us and were in front of us." (SOUNDBITE) (French) CONGOLESE ACTIVIST MWAZULU DIYABANZA, SAYING: "People come in to seeing the glass (of the museum), people see the beautiful building, we see the blood flowing. When you approach the building, you hear cries of women, cries of children, when you enter. It was those cries, the whole place, which prompted us to say, no, we must do something, we must stop these cries, we must stop this process of violence, we must cover the nudity of these works. This sacrilege must be stopped, and it was then when it was decided, to take the funerary post that was precisely in front of us."
- Embargoed: 16th October 2020 16:11
- Keywords: Africa France Mwazulu Diyabanza art museum steal
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Art,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA004CYFOL6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: One day in June, Mwazulu Diyabanza stood before a 19th century funerary post from central Africa displayed in a Paris museum and berated France for looting tens of thousands of pieces of art from its former colonies.
He and an associate then prised the carved wooden ornament from its stand in the Quai Branly museum and made for the exit, as another accomplice live-streamed the act on social media. He was stopped in his tracks by a security guard.
Diyabanza, a Congolese activist who has lived in France for 20 years, belongs to a pan-African movement that demands France return colonial artifacts it expropriated from its subjugates and recompense for acts of slavery.
Diyabanza appeared in court on Wednesday (September 30) charged with attempted theft. Prosecutors demanded that he be fined 1,000 euros. The judges will return their verdict on October 14.
Some 90% of Africa's cultural heritage is now believed to be in Europe. The Quai Branly Museum in Paris alone holds some 70,000 African objects.
The Quai Branly museum declined to comment on this case.
At the time, French President Emmanuel Macron said "African heritage can't just be in European private collections and museums". But so far, fewer than 30 restitutions from French collections have been announced.
Diyabanza also faces trial in Marseille, where he seized another artifact from the Museum of African, Oceanic and Native American Arts. He said museums were tantamount to a prison for African cultural heritage.
Diyabanza's case has led to renewed scrutiny of France's history in a year in which anti-racism protests have forced developed nations to re-examine how they remember their colonial pasts.
(Production: Yiming Woo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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