Activist fined for attempting to take ancient African burial pole from Paris gallery

A Congolese activist has been charged a penalty of 2,000 euros ($2,320) on Wednesday for attempting to take a 19th-century African burial pole from a Paris gallery in a demonstration against colonial-era injustice that he streamed online.

The Paris court convicted Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza and two other activists of attempted theft, but the punishment ended far short of what they conceivably faced for their operations at the Quai Branly Museum: 10 years in jail and 150,000 euros ($176,000) in fines.

Activists and security lawyers observed the case as a hearing about how ancient empires should atone for past atrocities. Diyabanza’s museum operation practised place in June, amid global demonstrations against racial inequality and colonial-era crimes unleashed by George Floyd’s death on May 25 in the United States at the knee of a white policeman.

In the Quai Branly demonstration, Diyabanza and other activists ejected the funeral pole from its place while he gave a live-streamed address about looted African art.

Guards immediately obstructed them. The activists claim that they never intended to theft the pole but just wanted to attract consideration to its beginnings. The supervising authority insisted the trial should focus on the specific funeral pole incident and that his court was not competent to judge France’s colonial era.

French officials denounced the Quai Branly incident, saying it threatens to continue consultations with African nations launched by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 for legal, ordered restoration efforts.

Diyabanza has staged related actions in the Netherlands and the south French city of Marseille.

He blames European institutions of making millions on artworks stolen from now-impoverished countries like his native Congo and said the funeral pole, which came from current-day Chad, should be among the works returned to Africa.