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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 24 November 2018

Time for France to give back looted African art, experts say

By ANGELA CHARLTON were perhaps legitimate at
Associated Press the time, but illegitimate to-
PARIS (AP) — African art- day."
works held in French mu- The report is just a first step.
seums — richly carved Challenges ahead include
thrones, doors to a royal enforcing the report's rec-
kingdom, wooden stat- ommendations, especially
ues imbued with spiritual if museums resist, and de-
meaning — may be head- termining how objects
ing back home to Africa at were obtained and whom
last. to give them to.
French President Emmanu- The report is part of broad-
el Macron, trying to turn the er promises by Macron to
page on France's colonial turn the page on France's
past , received a report Fri- troubled relationship with
day on returning art looted Africa. In a groundbreak-
from African lands. ing meeting with students
From Senegal to Ethiopia, in Burkina Faso last year,
artists, governments and Macron stressed the "unde-
museums eagerly awaited niable crimes of European
the report by French art colonization" and said he
historian Benedicte Savoy wants pieces of African
and Senegalese economist cultural heritage to return
Felwine Sarr, and commis- to Africa "temporarily or de-
sioned by Macron himself. finitively."
It recommends that French A visitors look at wooden royal statues of the Dahomey kingdom, dated 19th century, today's "I cannot accept that a
museums give back works Benin,at Quai Branly museum in Paris, France, Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. Associated Press large part of African heri-
that were taken without tage is in France," he said
consent, if African coun- held by just one museum, eral works from the Da- Heritage, Yonas Desta, said at the time.
tries request them — and the Quai Branly Museum homey kingdom, in today's the report shows "a new The French report could
could increase pressure on in Paris, opened in 2006 to West African country of Be- era of thought" in Europe's have broader repercus-
museums elsewhere in Eu- showcase non-European nin: the metal-and-wood relations with Africa. sions. In Cameroon, profes-
rope to follow suit. art — much of it from for- throne of 19th-century King Senegal's culture minister, sor Verkijika Fanso, historian
The experts estimate that mer French colonies. Ghezo, the doors to the Abdou Latif Coulibaly, told at the University of Yaounde
up to 90 percent of Afri- The museum wouldn't im- palace of Kign Gele, and The Associated Press: "It's One, said: "France is feeling
can art is outside the con- mediately comment on the imposing, wooden statues. entirely logical that Africans the heat of what others will
tinent, including statues, report. The head of Ethiopia's Au- should get back their art- face. Let their decision to
thrones and manuscripts. Among disputed treasures thority for Research and works. ... These works were bring back what is ours mo-
Thousands of works are in the Quai Branly are sev- Conservation of Cultural taken in conditions that tivate others."q

A look at the books which have inspired literary classics

By HILLEL ITALIE editor Tom Anderson. "We Schopenhauer and his
Associated Press think of those books as the belief that "death is the
NEW YORK (AP) — Behind unsung heroes." only reality," a viewpoint
every great book are the Charles Dickens' portrait of expressed by the cere-
books which influenced it. extreme wealth and pover- bral Prince Andrei Niko-
The "micro-learning" app ty in London in "Oliver Twist" layevich Bolkonsky in "War
and platform blinkist.com was in part modeled on and Peace." Kokobobo
has been compiling literary Edward Gibbon's "The His- also noted that "War and
sources for such classics as tory of the Decline and Fall Peace" was a response in
"A Clockwork Orange," ''Oli- of the Roman Empire." An- part to such French schol-
ver Twist" and "1984." Mary thony Burgess drew upon arship as Adolphe Thiers'
Shelley's "Frankenstein" was fiction and nonfiction for "History of the Consulate
inspired by each of her his terrifying "A Clockwork and the Empire of France
parents — William Godwin's Orange," his sources includ- Under Napoleon," which
"An Enquiry Concerning ing Aldous Huxley's futuristic Tolstoy believed exagger-
Political Justice" and Mary classic "Brave New World" ated Napoleon's stature
Wollstonecraft's "A Vindica- and B.F. Skinner's landmark and military ideas.
tion of the Rights of Wom- of psychology "Science "Tolstoy did not believe in
en." and Human Behavior." this 'great man' theory, also
One of the defining novels This combination photo shows covers of classic books, "War Tolstoy's "War and Peace" propagated by Thomas
of the Civil War era, Har- And Peace," by Leo Tolstoy, left, and George Orwell's "1984." reflected the author's read- Carlyle, and thought that
riet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Associated Press ing of the philosophy of Ar- victory and defeat were
Tom's Cabin," drew in part mains standard reading in tention around the 200th thur Schopenhauer, along not determined by a sole
upon one of the defining many schools, also was cit- anniversary of 'Franken- with works about Napoleon heroic leader, but rather by
memoirs, "The Narrative of ed by Toni Morrison for her stein' and got to thinking and French history. the collective alignment of
the Life of Frederick Dou- Pulitzer Prize winning histori- about the nonfiction works According to Tolstoy schol- the will of thousands," said
glass, an American Slave." cal novel "Beloved." which help author of fic- ar Ani Kokobobo, the au- Kokobobo, editor of the
Douglass' book, which re- "We were noticing the at- tion," says Blinkist writer- thor was "captivated" by Tolstoy Studies Journal.q