The way a debate is framed decides upon the kinds of questions it raises. Such is the case with the retrocession of African art that is present in Western museums to the African continent where it came from. The history of the debate itself could be a matter of another debate, as well as where the questions came from and who raises them. But these are more matters of dispute, than of reasoning. At a time when issues of minority and citizen rights are thrust in the forefront of people's attention—BLM, les gilets jaunes, etc.—the call to restitute African pieces of art gains a traction that is informed by the will of Emmanuel Macron to unearth a debate of the 1970s by asking the same question whose answers were already voiced during the moment when the debate was raging—in Germany in particular—to silence France's political misdeeds in Africa under...

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