Whitey Ford
10-01-2020, 05:30 PM
Five activists on trial in France for trying to seize African funeral staff from museum
https://i.imgur.com/QMJFAgw.jpg
Five activists have gone on trial in Paris for trying to remove a funeral staff from France’s pre-eminent indigenous art museum as part of a campaign to pressure the government into restituting items they claim were stolen.
Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza, 41, led the operation at the Quai Branly museum last June, condemning “the pillage of Africa”.
“We’re taking it home,” he said in a video posted on social media after removing the 19th-century funeral staff and parading it around the building.
Since then Diyabanza has staged similar operations at indigenous art museums in the southern French city of Marseille and in Berg en Dal in the Netherlands.
“The issue of restitution ... deserves a serious debate,” said Emmanuel Kasarherou, director of the Quai Branly, which is a civil party in the trial against Diyabanza.
Kasarherou, a member of the Kanak indigenous people from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, this year became the first indigenous person ever to head a major French national museum.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/five-activists-on-trial-in-france-for-trying-to-seize-african-funeral-staff
https://i.imgur.com/QMJFAgw.jpg
Five activists have gone on trial in Paris for trying to remove a funeral staff from France’s pre-eminent indigenous art museum as part of a campaign to pressure the government into restituting items they claim were stolen.
Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza, 41, led the operation at the Quai Branly museum last June, condemning “the pillage of Africa”.
“We’re taking it home,” he said in a video posted on social media after removing the 19th-century funeral staff and parading it around the building.
Since then Diyabanza has staged similar operations at indigenous art museums in the southern French city of Marseille and in Berg en Dal in the Netherlands.
“The issue of restitution ... deserves a serious debate,” said Emmanuel Kasarherou, director of the Quai Branly, which is a civil party in the trial against Diyabanza.
Kasarherou, a member of the Kanak indigenous people from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, this year became the first indigenous person ever to head a major French national museum.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/five-activists-on-trial-in-france-for-trying-to-seize-african-funeral-staff