From Restitution To Digitalization: Looted Benin Treasures To Go Online

Title: From Restitution To Digitalization: Looted Benin Treasures To Go Online
Author: Dr. Kwame Opoku
Media Outlet: Modern Ghana
Publish Date: April 27, 2020

“(…) European museums, with some other allies no doubt, consider any request for restitution as confrontational by Africans who did not crawl before them in awe and humility but insisted on the rights of Africans as human beings whose rights have been violated by violent colonial plunderers. Their expectations are disturbed by simple demands for justice by Africans who see through all their baseless arguments.

(…) The difficulties in discussing restitution lie far beyond artefacts and are much deeper that they appear. They go to the roots of the relationship between Africans and Europeans. That is why the sub-title of the Sarr-Savoy report is: Toward a New Relational Ethics. Many have clearly not understood the significance of this sub-title.

(…) Are we to see in this effort of digitalization a silent consensus of the parties to move from restitution to digitalization without raising the issue of restitution?”