“Dahomey” by Mati Diop : Restitution or Reclamation?
Movie poster of "With Dahomey” by Mati Diop
By Christian Wabenga / January 13, 2025
With Dahomey, Mati Diop delivers a distinctive documentary that questions colonial history and collective memory through art. Awarded the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale, this hybrid film blends documentary and fiction to recount the restitution of 26 royal treasures to Benin, a country formerly known as Dahomey.
Photo taken from the movie 'Dahomey' by Mati Diop.
A partial restitution, a global question
The return of these artworks in 2021 marks a symbolic turning point but also raises profound questions. These 26 pieces represent only a fraction of the thousands of objects looted by the French colonial army in 1892 during the sack of the royal palace of Abomey. The film does not merely observe this return; it gives it a voice, embodied by the 26th statue in the collection, which “speaks” and shares its journey back to its homeland. By granting an artwork the ability to express itself, the film shifts the conventional gaze placed upon these objects, restoring their political, spiritual, and living dimensions. This poetic and imaginative approach explores both the ongoing impact of stolen cultural heritage on the identities and struggles of formerly colonised nations and places restitution within a broader perspective: beyond a diplomatic gesture, what is the true significance of this return?
A reflection led by Benin’s youth
Photo taken from the movie 'Dahomey' by Mati Diop.
In its second half, Dahomey focuses on the debates among Benin’s youth regarding these restitutions. These discussions raise fundamental questions: what does the return of these artworks truly mean for the people who were dispossessed of them? How can they be reintegrated into a collective memory often fractured by colonial history? And above all, why have so few works been returned, while thousands remain in Western museums?
The Quai Branly: A museum under scrutiny
These concerns also point to the role of institutions such as the Quai Branly Museum, often criticised for being a postcolonial space where the West continues to control cultural narratives. Since its opening, the museum has been challenged for its lack of European artworks in its permanent collections, reflecting a Eurocentric perspective on non-European art. This context makes the film’s central question even more relevant: can the restitution of a handful of objects truly rebalance history?
Photo taken from the movie 'Dahomey' by Mati Diop.
A poetic and politically engaged cinema
Ultimately, Dahomey is far more than a documentary about restitution—it is a meditation on memory, justice, and Africa’s place in the art world. It prompts us to reflect on the future of African treasures still housed in Europe and the necessity of cultural reclamation by the peoples to whom they rightfully belong.