Restitutions and Positionalities. Multiple Voices and Silent Resistance in the (Re)definitions of Postcolonial Heritage (Senegal)

Abstract

This paper focuses on multiple voices, silent resistance and dynamics of infra-politics in Senegal, which challenge the current imaginaries of postcolonial heritages regarding restitutions to Africa. At the crossroads of museal, artistic and academic transnational spheres, the European hegemony, its universalism and its relation to ethnology are questioned, as well as the risks of re-balkanization of Africa and the systemic logics of French and European interference. Oppositions to ordinary postcoloniality also emerge outside institutions. They highlight socio-cultural decentering from colonial history, from Europe and its conflicts with racial minorities, and renew pan-African ideas to think about cultural heritages from local perspectives.