THE DAKAR-DJIBOUTI MISSION: THE SPOILS OF THE MUSEUM OF MANKIND

FR / 2020 / 52’ / HD / French, English

TS Productions /  Arte France / Directed by Marc Petitjean

European rights available, rest of the world upon request

TAGS

Artifacts, restitution, kono, Dogon, Kirdi, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Italy

SYNOPSIS

Composed of archive material, this film tells the Dakar-Djibouti ethnographic expedition that brought back hundreds of objects from Africa between 1931 - 1933 on behalf of the newly-opened Musée de l’Homme (the “Museum of Mankind”) in Paris. During the voyage, the expedition’s secretary, Michel Leiris, wrote a highly idiosyncratic diary entitled “Phantom Africa” that went on to become a cult book.