Dahomey Film Confronts Colonial Looting and Historical Amnesia

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Dahomey, the award-winning documentary by Mati Diop, imagines the voices of royal treasures looted from West Africa by European colonizers and returned only recently to their homeland, present-day Benin. She tells RFI she hopes the film will inspire reflection on themes of displacement, exile, and return – not just of objects, but of people.

Diop, who is of French-Senegalese heritage, says she and others of African descent grapple with the collective amnesia surrounding European colonialism and the ongoing “refusal to accept historical and political responsibility for that past”.

Dahomey, released in France this week, recounts the story of 26 artifacts stolen by 19th-century French forces from the former African kingdom of Dahomey, including a throne and sculptures symbolizing the dynasty’s warrior kings. Though, of the 26 artifacts Diop returned to Benin, over 7,000 pieces remain in Paris and other African countries colonized by France and fellow former empires are still waiting.

Her documentary won the prestigious Golden Bear award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February.