Part 2 of my conversation with the Benin President on African cultural heritage in Europe

My African cliché of the day is a visa. Let’s call it the "Quai Branly Museum Visa”. This is the visa that President Macron will soon put in place, to facilitate school trips for children from villages in Benin to Paris, so that they can finally see for themselves a statuette like Kondo the shark symbolizing King Béhanzin. The Parisian museums of Quai Branly and the Orangery, strategically of course, will be able to sponsor air tickets for children, with the proceeds of their current joint exhibition titled "Felix Fénéon, and the arts from far away" which exhibit so many stolen pieces.

 And while waiting for this new visa to be ready, I dared to suggest 3 quick actions to President Talon. First, popularize the proven influence of the so-called African primitive art, on Pablo Picasso and his cubism, on the Dadaists, in short, on modern European art. Secondly, invest in schools and universities, and on every sidewalks to talk about culture, because right now, if you ask about their African heritage, there is fair number of young Africans who may ask you if it is on Netflix! And finally, ask for the declassification and the digitization of all the archives of the French colonial administrations.

So what do you think the president responded? Well…I can’t really tell you dear passengers, since that lunch was purely fictional. But what is not fictional, is the very supporting messages I received from many of you, Sarah in Kampala, Holly in Canada and Tanya from….Instagram who kindly agreed that I use her photos from Quai Branly museum to illustrate this episode. I look forward to boarding you again next Monday on the Sankofa flight. Thank you and goodbye.