Although Europeans had been importing objects from Africa since before 1884, the decade following the Berlin Conference saw a substantial increase in the number of pieces brought back, at the same time as numerous museums dedicated entirely to ethnology were set up in Berlin, London, Paris, Brussels and many other European cities.
As early as 1930, voices were being raised on the African continent to deplore the loss of these objects and the resulting threat to the social equilibrium - - and to demand their return - these European museums, far from being the collateral beneficiaries of a colonial enterprise focused on natural resources, played an essential role in the extraction of heritage, according to a dual logic of scientific research and international rivalry.
