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As far back as I can go
there has never been a night
so deep and opaque.
Here, it is the only possible reality.
The beginning
and the end.
I journeyed so long in my mind
but it was so dark in this foreign place
that I lost myself in my dreams,
becoming one with these walls.
Cut off from the land of my birth
as if I were dead.
There are thousands of us in this night.
We all bear the same scars.
Uprooted. Ripped out.
The spoils of massive plundering.
Today, it's me they have chosen
like their finest and most legitimate victim!
They have named me 26.
Not 24.
Not 25.
Not 30.
Just 26.
26.
Why didn't they call me by my real name?
Don't they know it?
"You can leave now!
26, go back home!"
Return to the surface of time...
leave behind my brothers, prone, ignored deep in the unnamable.
Go back home?
What awaits me elsewhere?
Leave the kingdom of the night
to enter another.
My head is still assailed by the rattle of chains.
I have in my mouth an aftertaste of the ocean.
In several languages, these memories whisper in my ear
the full weight of a past of which I am the trance, the trace.
I'm torn
between the fear of not being recognized by anyone
and not recognizing anything.
Ladies and gentlemen...
Mr. President of the Republic of Benin...
your highnesses...
dear guests...
Is this the end of the journey?
Everything is so strange.
Far removed from the country I saw in my dreams.
My head is spinning.
I give myself up to this tropical caress
to the smell of childhood, a road to myself.
I did not expect to see daylight again.
Statue of King Ghezo.
Designation:
anthropo-zoomorphic royal statue.
Medium:
painted wood,
metal,
fibers.
Weight:
220 kilos.
Condition:
average condition overall.
The pictorial layer presents gaps.
The sculpture is stable despite cracks.
The metal is stable, although oxidized and deformed.
Description:
this statue is a representation of a Bo ,
a power-figure of King Ghezo.
The iron blades covering the body of the statue
allude to metals, the symbol of the Vodun Gû ,
the Vodun of iron and, by extension, of war.
Condition:
good structural condition despite cracks and missing parts.
Description:
this throne was taken from Cana, less than 20 kilometers from Abomey.
The arrangement of the sculpted characters shows
that this work has Yoruba origins,
and was made for the king.
The upper part of the throne depicts the king under his sunshade,
surrounded by his maidservants.
On the level below,
a line of shackled slaves
alludes to two major characteristics of the kingdom.
Its expansionist policies
and the enslavement of the population in conquered regions.
Statue of King Glele.
Condition:
average condition overall.
Peeling and defects in certain areas,
particularly on the head.
Keep under observation.
An asen, or sinuka, its real name in Fongbe,
was intended to perpetuate the memory of the dead.
Every deceased person is entitled to a sinuka .
It symbolizes an accomplished life on earth
and integration into the world of the ancestors.
Not by the fin.
Not the head.
Don't let go. Hold it.
Paul, hold it.
Stay on this side to hold it.
Statue of King Béhanzin.
Description:
this statue depicts Béhanzin,
King of Dahomey from 1890 to 1894.
Béhanzin's coat of arms featured a shark
in memory of the words he uttered,
announcing to his people his intention to wage war on the French...
"The shark has been angered and the ocean has been clouded."
We have centuries ahead of us.
If our conservation efforts so far
failed to reassure you in the long term,
we will do what it takes.
What you have seen demonstrates our commitment and determination
to do things properly, abiding by all standards.
We shall work
for the best conservation of what stayed here,
what has returned and what will return.
There's an asen here that is intriguing.
For researchers and traditionalists alike, it continues to be a subject of debate.
How was it possible for Dodds to carry off the asen of King Béhanzin?
King Béhanzin was still alive
when Dodds entered the royal palaces.
A King must not see his asen .
A living being may not see their asen .
Our researchers may be on the right track
when they say that the court soothsayer,
the soothsayer Guédégué,
had questioned the oracles
and informed the King that he would lose the war.
The response was always the same.
"Your Majesty, fight like a worthy son of Dahomey,
but you will lose this war."
Did you know thousands of Beninese artifacts
were held overseas?
If so, at what point in your life, did you find out?
To answer your question, I'd say,
during my childhood, I grew up with Disney,
I grew up watching Avatar ,
I grew up watching Tom & Jerry ,
but I didn't grow up watching an animated movie
that focused on Béhanzin,
that focused on our cultural heritage.
During my childhood therefore, I was never made aware
that artifacts belonging to us
had been deported and...
would return who knows when.
So I grew up completely ignorant that my heritage,
my culture, my education,
my life and soul had been kept overseas for centuries.
You understand?
I'd been told in high school but partially,
because our teachers used to say in social science classes,
"A lot of things were stolen from us."
By "a lot of things," I got it into my head these were "things."
I didn't know they were treasures,
only that they were things.
To answer the first question, I didn't know.
In primary school, it was the history of victors and vanquished.
That's what we got.
But when I heard about the return of this stuff...
I call them "stuff" because so far it...
I feel nothing with regard to...
these statuettes.
I call them that since I feel nothing.
90% of Beninese heritage...
Careful with your statistics.
I reiterate, 90%!
I weigh my words. 90%.
- All our heritage, meaning? - Our heritage.
- Only 10% is here? - Exactly.
When you say that 90% of our cultural heritage
is overseas, I don't think you're right.
Cultural heritage is composed of material
and immaterial heritage.
Now, part of our material heritage
is in other countries.
But our immaterial heritage,
our dances, traditions and know-how are still in our country!
To go see these 26 works
is a patriotic act. Why?
For me, it's about more than pride.
I remember last Sunday,
when I went to the Palais to see the 26 works,
I cried for fifteen minutes.
I was like, wow!
I cried so much that...
I was taught...
- In school, the king's throne... - We all have our own sensibility.
I cried because I said to myself,
Wow, look how our ancestors...
The ingenuity of our ancestors, especially for the throne of King Ghezo.
If you go see the paintings and sculptures of Benin,
it's not for amusement.
But I also agree with the fellow who said it's an insult.
Out of 7,000 works, they bring back 26.
And what hurts me the most
is the god Gû , god of iron, whom we asked for
but we were told to wait.
A historic day.
Experiencing this moment is very moving.
Special.
It's a moment of great emotion
and joy.
And it's a response...
sent out to those who were skeptical
when the issue of restitution
was first raised.
Some people, including some Beninese,
claimed that
Benin did not possess the means, either financially,
materially or in human resources, to look after these works.
The works are here now,
so what role can you still play
in the whole process?
Well, the role I have to play
is to pass the torch
because I am already advanced in age
and there has to be a younger generation
in whom we place our trust.
That generation is already there to take up the torch.
That would be my ultimate satisfaction.
I don't think it's in any way historic.
It's a purely political event.
We all know that an ancestor of our president, Patrice Talon,
was one of the interpreters who facilitated the plunder.
And now he's back to bring them home to us
but just a tiny fraction.
That shows the complexity of things
and that they just want to increase their popularity
with us, the general population.
Because if we need to...
If we need to act more
in terms of teaching our culture, meaning our history,
I don't think this is where we should begin.
The aim is not to make people in Benin happy.
The aim is, in fact, to gratify France
by showing a positive image of France,
which is losing ground.
France is losing its power in Africa.
Macron didn't do this because we asked.
He did it to boost his brand.
Political or not, it's a historic event that will allow...
historians and artists to reappropriate the history,
to be able to work on it
and to be able to produce works
and produce documentation
based on restituted works.
I agree with the idea that it's a historic act.
Posters everywhere, all about this,
like there are no more empty bellies in this country,
It's all about this, and that's fine. It's fine.
But don't...
Let's be aware that this is a savage insult.
Restituting 26 works
out of 7,000 is an insult.
Go ahead.
Hello, everybody.
My name's Diane. I'm a filmmaker.
I listened with great interest to what everybody had to say,
and this talk of insults disgusts me, in fact.
Because you're denigrating the work of President Talon.
First you say that he's courageous, and he's done a lot of hard work.
Then you talk about insults.
You have artifacts coming back home after so many years.
I'll say this in Fon...
In fact, it's because these 26 works are back here already
that you can run your mouths off, saying it's an insult.
If they hadn't given anything...
Start by accepting the little you have,
then develop a technique to get the others back!
Look at how we think...
They take from us more than 7,000 pieces
and they restitute 26.
- We consider it's a start. - And we're happy.
So in 100 years, I guess...
It's been over 100 years, right?
- In 100 years, they'll restitute two... - Another two.
We won't be here then!
Right?
In 200 years, maybe four more.
We won't be here. Where's this going?
The simple fact of having to ask is the problem.
They came and tore that from us!
And they conditioned us never to think we can tear it back
by any means but diplomacy,
behind-the-scenes deals.
And you have no idea what's been signed away.
So to me...
we are still stuck in the pattern mapped out by the colonizers,
claiming that things have evolved...
No! We need a revolution!
We need mobilization in Africa,
widespread mobilization so everything is given back to us.
And for us to be able to protect it,
so we can tell our history to our children!
Thank you.
The return of these works,
of these treasures, is not perceptibly
the doing of Patrice Talon.
Be aware, it's the...
potentially silent wish...
It's the materialization...
of bygone revolts.
It's the accomplishment of Bio Guéra,
Béhanzin and the Amazons.
It's all of those energies
coming together today in the accomplishment
of a step in the march
of our people toward its own identity.
If I have to state
the intention around all that,
I'd say, at first sight,
it's the intention for self-determination.
The intention for self-determination of a whole people.
I'd rather not heap that on Patrice Talon. It's too much to ask of him.
Where I am is where I must be?
I wonder...
in the conviction that it will change nothing
in the present-under-construction that is history.
I feel attracted by something from ancient times,
a sort of invitation.
Perhaps a new beginning.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Ouemeho, Rose.
I've listened carefully to all that's been said from the start.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize the fact that
all you Beninese...
All of us, Beninese?
Okay, all of us, Beninese, who are here today,
we don't realize that...
the colonizers made us slaves of ourselves.
To begin with...
Even our languages. We can't...
I can't talk in my own language, for example,
and say all I can say.
All I want to say. I can't say it.
Because they made us slaves of our own language,
to begin with. The colonizers!
Normally, Fon, Nago and the other languages
should be part of our education system.
Even our own culture is not learned in our own language.
We learned it in French.
I'm speaking French but I'm not French. I'm from Abomey.
The education system did not fail to mention
the treasures but it did not mention them by name.
We were told our parents were stolen from us,
our able-bodied men went away...
And they sidetracked us
by putting in the system of education
facts that don't engage us in any way!
And curiously, that sucked out our capacity for excellence.
In other words...
when you are able to quote Aristotle,
to quote Plato, to quote whatever...
you're a genius.
I always had issues with my teachers,
for whom an inability to quote those people
invalidated my essays' arguments,
and that's unacceptable!
It's totally biased!
Nelson Mandela said education
is the most powerful weapon to save the world. Taking it from there...
We have these 26 artifacts now.
The Palais de la Marina is open for people to view them.
But for children in schools and high schools today,
what funding has been put in place to allow them to visit?
Children who happen to be
in a remote village, for example,
how will they come visit?
What system is there for them to come and visit?
So that they're given the facts,
and by themselves, with their imagination,
they can create their history, reconnect with their culture.
For so long, we were told we descended from slaves.
But I descend from Amazons and I'm proud!
Do policies with regard to education,
with regard to promoting the development
of a culture of visiting "museums"...
Do we have that in Benin? No.
We must not dissociate the social aspect
from the economic aspect.
How many people in Benin
are assured of three meals a day?
If we want people in Benin, from now on,
to develop the habit of visiting museums,
it's good for the economy, sure, but we have to boost
workers' purchasing power,
so that the working and middle classes can afford it,
so that the lady selling talé-talé outside
can educate herself first
to pass it on to the little boy she's raising at home,
so he gets into the habit of visiting museums.
The fact that you focus the issue on the word "museum"
is a mistake.
Museums are a Western institution.
I'm Beninese.
These works were initially intended for rituals of worship.
We had our way of keeping things
and conceiving things that we have forgotten.
Mr. Gael, please,
President Talon was right to exhibit them here.
If we took them back to Abomey,
the sacred aspect would automatically be highlighted.
Drastically!
Personally, I wouldn't go near them. automatically I'd be scared!
It's to desacralize them. They're works of art!
It's art. Nothing but art!
We live in a country where we're all 100% hypocrites.
Here's why.
The young lady says that if she sees the sacred aspect,
it will scare her.
But we all know that after church, 95% of people practice Vodun.
Let's stop deluding ourselves.
Let's not delude ourselves.
Why are we so scared of Vodun now?
Where's this fear from?
What was looted more than a century ago
is our soul.
The people's soul.
It's our ability to be proud,
to identify with our own essence that was looted.
The life was taken out of these works.
Let's give back the life that was taken.
Night again.
Atlantic,
shores of the wound.
May the light engulf you.
I walk.
I will no longer stop at each junction,
where my humanity will be challenged.
I'll no longer mull over my incarceration
in the caverns of the civilized world.
I won't ever stop.
I never left.
I am here.
I don't forget.
There is nothing to repair.
There are the dreams of the continent,
the path calling us to the very end.
I am the face of the metamorphosis.
I see myself so clearly through you.
26 does not exist.
Within me resonates infinity.
I walk.
I won't ever stop.