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Accepted Paper:
The third actor. China’s role in artefacts restitution between Europe and Africa: the case of the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Senegal
Stefano Galeazzi
(University of Padua and Ca' Foscari Venice)
This contribution aims to analyze the political and societal consequences of China’s role in the construction of the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar and in the mediation during the artefacts restitution process.
Paper long abstract:
Inaugurated in 2018 in Dakar and aiming to be a reference point of cultural heritage for the whole continent, the Musée des civilisations noires gathers artefacts exported during the colonial period from all Africa. China had an active and paramount role both in the construction of the museum building and in the mediation with the European institutions during the process of restitution. Far from sounding odd, China’s entanglement is coherent with its promotion of a development and cooperation plan based on a rhetoric extolling the South-South and win-win relationship, in ideological opposition to the Euro-American West and its colonial past on the African continent. Thus, the case of Senegal allows to push the analysis of artefacts restitution practices beyond the classical dualistic opposition Europe-Africa and to insert them into neocolonial dynamics. More specifically, this contribution aims to answer the following questions: how has Chinese entanglement in artefacts restitution been experienced in Senegal? How has the Musée been perceived by the Senegalese? What are the consequences in post- and neocolonial relations between Senegal and other Countries?