‘Dahomey’ follows the return of colonial artifacts from French museums to Benin

Posted on October 31, 2024
By emilyhayflick
In Museum Anthropology Blog

26 October 2024, Interview via NPR

NPR’s Scott Simon speaks to director Mati Diop about her new documentary, “Dahomey.” The film follows the return of royal treasures plundered by French forces.

COTT SIMON, HOST: The documentary film “Dahomey” is a story of return, the restitution of stolen royal treasures. The 26 artifacts were among thousands taken by French colonial troops in the late 19th century from the kingdom of Dahomey, which is now the Republic of Benin in West Africa. The loot was displayed in Paris, but in 2021, the artifacts were carefully loaded into crates and flown back home, a journey that the French Senegalese film director Mati Diop captures in her new documentary. The film won the coveted Golden Bear prize earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival. And Mati Diop joins us now from our studios at NPR West. Thank you so much for being with us.

MATI DIOP: Thank you for having me.

SIMON: I have read that you felt it was your duty to make this film. How so?

DIOP: Yeah. In duty, I don’t want to make it sound too heavy either, because it was the most fantastic challenge and journey and experience as a filmmaker. But I felt that it was very important to document this historical moment. Most of the archives from Africa have been filmed by colonizers, and so I think it’s very important for us to take in charge through cinema our stories. And so this is what I meant by duty.