Restituer le patrimoine ou le déporter de nouveau: quand « La route des chefferies du Cameroun »mène au Musée du Quai Branly- Jacques Chirac en 2022

• Published in: Vestiges Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 44 - 58
• Main Authors: Simona-Lévi Betzogo Etongo, Champolio Miaché Evina, Narcisse Santores Tchandeu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: ISCA, University of Oxford 01-05-2022
• Subjects: cameroon; cameroun; chiefdom road; deportation; heritage; patrimoine; quai branly-jacques-chirac; restitution; route des chefferies
• ISSN: 2058-1963

The main symbol of a French colonial ethnology characterised by widespread, all-out and rapid (little documented) cultural looting, the Quai Branly Museum (QBM)-Jacques Chirac preserves an unrivaled collection of Cameroonian heritage. So one would have expected that the commitment of President Macron, for a restitution to Africans of their heritage looted during the colonial period, would find a most favourable reply for Cameroon. Far from it. While the country is struggling to establish itself as a requesting State, the irresistible network of "France-Africa" is paradoxically activated, through the "Route of the Chiefdoms " project in Cameroon, to send during 2022 some of the last survivals of heritage to the QBM- Jacques Chirac. Once again it is a question of going to the continent, taking the beaten path of the "Route of the Chiefdoms of Cameroon", in order to relive the fantasies of a fetishised Africa, in the grip of the eternal initiatory passage "from the visible to the invisible". Against the current of the perspective of restitution of heritage looted during the colonial periods, the exhibition project "On the road to the Chiefdoms of Cameroon..." at the MQB can intrigue by its motivations, its opportunity, its interest and its objectives.