Académie des Traces and C& Publish Dossier on Colonial Heritage

The Académie des Traces, a consortium of academics and museum experts from Africa and Europe, has teamed up with C& magazine to release a dossier focused on colonial heritage within museum collections. Edited by Margareta von Oswald, this publication comprises seven contributions from participants of a spring school held in Berlin in 2024. The subjects explored include the restitution of cultural artifacts, such as a sabre involving Senegal and France (Aliénor Brittmann) and the Benin bronzes returning to Nigeria (Jan König and Elias Aguigah). Other topics include the 2021 return of 26 Dahomean artifacts (Salomé Soloum), a contemporary art exhibition (Adéwolé Faladé), archival photographs from a 1930 mission (Carly Degbelo), critiques on 'open storage' (Ariane Théveniaud), and the effects on African communities (Injonge Karangwa and Anguezomo Nzé Mboulou Mba Bikoro). This dossier aligns with the upcoming 2025 edition of Académie des Traces, which will feature online seminars in April.