#Restitutions : The archives in question
When: 15.09.2026 20:00
Where: 48.850289, 2.326965
Organizer: Admin
Reclaiming one's history is reclaiming one's identity. At the level of societies, archives therefore play a major role and are at the heart of cultural reaffirmation reflections. What place do they occupy today in international debates on the issue of restitution?
The discussion will take place in the context of the 60th anniversary of the Festival mondial des arts nègres, organized in 1966 in Dakar (Senegal), a major moment of cultural and political reaffirmation. Sarah Frioux-Salgas, archivist at the Musée du Quai Branly and Mamadou Diouf, Professor of African Studies and History at Columbia University, will discuss the notion of “restitution” applied to archives and the conditions of access to resources: is it about transfers of ownership, deposits, regulated circulations, certified copies, shared digitization, or hybrid arrangements?
This meeting aims to foster critical reflection on the possible modalities of restitution, sharing, or circulation of archives, while questioning contemporary transformations of the role of heritage institutions in the face of social and political demands for recognition and reparations. The exchanges will also address experiences of archival cooperation, as well as the resistances and controversies they generate.
The exchanges will be moderated by journalist Valérie Nivelon (RFI).
The speakers
Sarah Frioux-Salgas (1978) is a historian by training (specialist in slavery and Pan-Africanism) and archivist at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac since 2003. She has been curator of four exhibitions presented at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac: “Présence Africaine. Une tribune, un mouvement, un réseau” (2009, 2011 in Dakar), “L’atlantique noir de Nancy Cunard. Negro Anthology (1931-1934)” (2014); Dakar 66. “Chronique d’un festival panafricain” (2016); “Paul Robeson. Un homme du "Tout Monde"” (2018, 2021 in Dakar), “Déborder l’anthropologie. Zora Neale Hurston, Eslanda Goode Robeson, Katherine Dunham” (2024). She coordinated, between 2020 and 2022, the research project “Pour un partage des archives : le festival mondial des arts nègres, Dakar 1966 (FMAN)”.
Sarah Frioux-Salgas is also an editor at the publishing house Rot-Bô-Krik.
Mamadou Diouf is Professor of African Studies and History, and holder of the Leitner Family Chair of African Studies and History at Columbia University in New York, United States. He is Visiting Professor at the Global Studies University-Africa Institute in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). He taught in the History Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (1982 – 1991), and headed the research and documentation department of the Council for the Development of Research in Social Sciences in Africa, CODESRIA, from 1991 to 1999. He was Professor of History and African and African-American Studies (2000-2007) before holding the Charles Moody Jr Chair of History and African Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2007-2008). Among his publications we can cite Senghor et les arts. Réinventer la négritude (with Sarah Frioux Salgas and Sarah Lignier); Catalogue de l’exposition du même nom au Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac (March-November 2023); Déborder la Négritude. Arts, politique et société à Dakar (with Maureen Murphy); Dijon, les presses du réel, 2020, Africa Nko; La bibliothèque coloniale en débat (with Mamadou Diawara and Jean-Bernard Ouédraogo), Paris, Présence Africaine, 2022; and L’Afrique dans le temps du monde, at éditions Rot Bo Krik, Paris (2023).
Journalist and sound documentary maker, Valérie Nivelon conducts historical investigations and participates in scientific memory research programs. Using the sound of audio archives and testimonies, she produces radio narratives from the perspective of actors and witnesses, in order to tell History differently. She has been traveling regularly to African field sites for more than 20 years and contributes to the emergence of female figures in history.
Valérie Nivelon received the Scam award for best radio program in 2011.
#Restitutions. Another definition of the world
A series of meetings, designed in collaboration with Valérie Nivelon (initiated by the Podcast Africaines Queens and the program La Marche du monde on RFI) that will animate the debates.
On June 7, 1978, Amadou Mahtar Mbow, the first African Director-General of UNESCO, issued a “solemn call” to all governments, cultural institutions, museums, libraries, historians and artists, for the restitution of cultural assets to their countries of origin. Almost 50 years after this founding call, what is the state of the return issue?
The series “#Restitutions. Another definition of the world” offers a space for reflection and dialogue around the questions of restitution of artworks and assets
Tags: archive, history, conference
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/restitutions-les-archives-en-question-106432
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