It is on the fiber “fight against poverty” that President Patrice Talon now defends the restitution of cultural property in Benin.
Speaking on 1 June 2018 at the UNESCO forum, Mr Talon said that his country is engaged in an “important program” of development of the sector of culture and tourism to increase its potential of attractiveness and investing in a sector that is known to generate socio-economic development.
“Beyond political, historical, sociological or philosophical considerations, the restitution, sharing and circulation of cultural goods are now for Benin, a means of fighting against poverty, a factor of job creation and wealth, a tool for socio-economic development, “he added in Paris, at the International Conference on New Perspectives on the Circulation of Cultural Property and Shared Heritage.
Indeed, Benin had officially seized in August 2016, the French authorities on the return of cultural heritage property held in French museums, in order to “help transform the economic environment” via tourism.
A few months later France had replied; unfavorably and without language of wood: “the goods you mention have been incorporated for a long time, sometimes for more than a century, in the movable public domain of the French State. In accordance with the legislation in force, they are subject to the principles of inalienability, imprescriptibility and unseizability, “reads a letter from the Quai d’Orsay, dated March 8, 2017.
It should be noted that Benin is not the only African country to request the return of its property. Among others, Senegal and Gabon, whose representatives once again drew the attention of the “former colonist” on the subject, were quoted in Paris on Friday.
By Nephthali Messanh Ledy
