Paper short abstract:

Addressing the issue of restitution of colonial cultural goods and ancestral remains from the perspective of the formerly colonised Togolese community, with a view to revitalising a fading identity and addressing the shared history of colonialism in terms of reconciliation with its past.

Paper long abstract:

In Togo, the gradual discussion of the issue within both academic and social communities is arousing growing interest and curiosity about colonial objects and the remains of ancestors. The reluctance to take a clear position on the issue of restitution, and questions about German colonialism seen from a different angle, particularly in terms of the plundering of cultural property and the humiliation of ancestral remains, reveal the astonishment at the immoral colonial dimension, and the frustrations and resentments that affect communities in the regions of Togo. Investigations carried out in the regions of Togo that were the scenes of punitive expeditions and/or Christian mission fields, on the one hand, and the expectations of communities with regard to the return of their cultural property and their ancestors, on the other, lead us to raise the question of the importance of the identity of colonised peoples around the current value of colonial objects and the importance of tradition in the treatment of ancestors who will be repatriated. The Togolese community today finds itself at a crossroads between a new perception of its identity, long abused by the coloniser, and reconciliation with its past and its oppressor in a context of intercultural dialogue. The aim of this study is to address the issue of restitution of colonial cultural property and ancestral remains from the perspective of the formerly colonised Togolese community, with a view to revitalising a fading identity and addressing the shared history of colonialism in terms of reconciliation with its past.