"The following report only concerns sub-Saharan Africa. It bears witness to the specificity of the African case and situation and proposes solutions adapted precisely to this very specific case4. The report takes into account the history and the particular responsibilities of France throughout this region of the world (administrative supervision and colonial exploitation, failed attempts at decolonization, centralizing political legacies) that are much different than those left by Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, or Italy. And this report relies on the declaration that has often been reiterated by experts according to which over 90% of the material cultural legacy of sub-Saharan Africa remains preserved and housed outside of the African continent.5 Whereas many other regions of the world represented in Western Museum collections are still able to hold on to a significant portion of their own cultural and artistic heritage, this is not the case in sub-Saharan Africa which has been able to retain almost nothing. In this light, the project of restitution undertaken by France is inscribed within a threefold logic of reparations, a re-harmonization of a veritable global cultural geography, but also and above all, within a new point of departure."
Source: Report Introduction
