International symposium organized by Benedicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr.
In a major volume published in 2009, Réinventer les musées, the current curator of the Musée Théodore Monod in Dakar, El Hadj Malick Ndiaye, wondered how African countries could " appropriate and manage on their territory this ambiguous colonial heritage that is the museum " (p. 12). Citing Aimé Césaire's " equations malhonnêtes ", Alain Godonou deplored in the same volume the failure of Western governments to respond to the legitimate claims of African countries dispossessed of their cultural heritage during the colonial period (p. 116). Ten years later, the study day at the Collège de France considers the new future of African museums in the light of recent theoretical and political advances : announcement of the restitution by France of major pieces of African heritage ; re-evaluation of the concepts of heritage and museum as untranslatable from European languages ; revival of African critical thought ; vitality of the art scene on the continent ; commitment of private collectors.