IT BELONGS TO ME! GIVE IT BACK! Mwazulu Diyabanza

                                             It belongs to me! Give it back!

There is a Jamaican proverb that says: "Tief tief fram tief, God laff."  Explanation: A thief steals from a thief, God laughs. The meaning - when poetic justice is meted out.



Mwazulu Diyabanza is a Congolese activist who has lived in France for 20 years.  An article on Reuters (October 2, 2020) reported by Yiming Woo and written by Richard Lough tells how Mwazulu "and an associate prised the carved wooden ornament from its stand in the Quai Branley museum as a third man live streamed the act on social media." The carved wooden ornament was a 19th century funerary  post from central Africa.

Mwazulu was stopped as he was about to leave the Museum.

What was the dramatic incident all about? "We're in a fight to recover our (cultural) wealth. When the Europeans arrived they pillaged these artifacts, they pillaged our patrimony," he explained to Reuters. Mwazulu  is part of a pan-African movement that "is putting pressure on France to return the artifacts."

On September 30, 2020 Mwazulu appeared in Court charged with attempted theft. A verdict on the case is due on October 14, 2020. Mwazulu faces yet another charge of stealing - he removed another artifact, this time from a museum in Marseille and took it to a police station.

He does not feel that he is a thief. The real thief is he who takes something fraudulently, he said, "I am the legitimate inheritor."

In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron said, "African heritage can't just be in European private collections and Museums."

A large part of Africa's cultural heritage is on display in Europe, the article said. There are also thousands of African objects at London's British Museum.

                                                       ===000===




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