Authentically African: Arts and the Transnational Politics of Congolese Culture is an important and timely book given French President Emmanuel Macron's declaration in November 2017 that he was committed to “temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa” (Dagen 2017). Restitution has a history in Africa and one that both politicians and museums would be wise to study. Already in 1973, Mobutu Sese Seko launched a demand before the UN in New York for return of cultural heritage to the Republic of Zaïre (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). In the end, the Zairian leader won the transfer of 1,042 ethnographic and art objects from the Belgian Royal Museum of Central Africa (Tervuren) (p. 123).
In Authentically African, Sarah Van Beurden argues that Belgium began to search for a more humane rationale for colonialism after World War II and began to frame stewardship over the collections...