Activist Mwazulu Diyabanza has gained international attention for removing African artefacts from European museums. He explains his ‘active diplomacy’ to Allan Clark and Lisa McGregor
The footage is shaky and grainy. A man dressed all in black is standing defiantly in front of a row of African artefacts on display at one of Paris's most prestigious museums, the Quai Branly.
Suddenly, he steps onto the podium and begins to yank an African funerary pole with both hands, struggling to get it loose from its stand. A colleague rushes in to help him and together they pull harder, as another live-streams it all on Facebook.
There's a "clack" as it's wrenched free. "Voila," the man says, before turning and marching through the museum brandishing the object. "I'm taking back to Africa all that was pillaged, all that was stolen, while African blood was being shed," he says.
The man is Mwazulu Diyabanza, an agent provocateur dressed in an African tunic with a Black Panther-style beret atop his head, speaking Molière French in a Congolese baritone... Keep reading on abc.au
The footage is shaky and grainy. A man dressed all in black is standing defiantly in front of a row of African artefacts on display at one of Paris's most prestigious museums, the Quai Branly.
Suddenly, he steps onto the podium and begins to yank an African funerary pole with both hands, struggling to get it loose from its stand. A colleague rushes in to help him and together they pull harder, as another live-streams it all on Facebook.
There's a "clack" as it's wrenched free. "Voila," the man says, before turning and marching through the museum brandishing the object. "I'm taking back to Africa all that was pillaged, all that was stolen, while African blood was being shed," he says.
The man is Mwazulu Diyabanza, an agent provocateur dressed in an African tunic with a Black Panther-style beret atop his head, speaking Molière French in a Congolese baritone... Keep reading on abc.au