Palace doors and statues of the royal treasures of the Abomey Kingdom on display at the Musee du quai Branly in Paris, part of 26 artworks set to be restituted to Benin on Wednesday Photo: AFP

Benin on Wednesday welcomed back nearly 30 royal treasures looted from the West African state during France's colonial rule more than 130 years ago.  

Benin's President Patrice Talon and the country's culture minister traveled on Tuesday to Paris to bring home the 26 artifacts, part of France's President Emmanuel Macron's bid to restore African heritage.

The plane carrying the royal treasures landed Wednesday afternoon at Cotonou airport, the economic capital of Benin, where hundreds of people gathered to pay homage, dance and celebrate.

"I came to convince myself that these artifacts really returned to the country. I am moved to tears," said Ousmane Agbegbindin, a 45-year-old Beninese, on the road between the airport and the presidency, where the works will be transported by truck. 

"We cannot see the objects, but the mere fact of knowing that the thrones of our ancestors, their shoes, racks and other objects are in these trucks has an effect on me that I cannot describe."

Along the road, many Beninese mostly dressed in loincloths and traditional dress, were waiting on the sidewalk to the sound of drums and fanfare.

Martine Vignon Agoli-Agbo, a resident of northern Benin, traveled with her two daughters more than 500 kilometers just to witness the moment.

"We have been in Cotonou for 24 hours, just to experience the arrival of these treasures. It is so moving," she told AFP. 

"I did not want to be told about this moment. And if my children are with me, it is so that one day they will be able to tell their own children."

Large-scale restitution

The return of the artifacts taken from Abomey palace, which also include three totemic statues, comes as calls mount in Africa for Western countries to return colonial spoils.

In France, most are held by the Quai Branly museum, which has begun a review of its collection to identify works some say were acquired through violence or coercion.

French lawmakers in 2020 passed a bill allowing Paris to return artefacts to both Benin and Senegal, another former French colony.

Talon had said he saw Tuesday's handover as just the first step in a large-scale restitution.

In Benin, they will be exhibited at several sites, including a former Portuguese fort in Ouidah, while awaiting the completion of a museum in Abomey.

Experts estimate that 85 to 90 percent of African cultural artifacts were taken from the continent. 

Some were seized by colonial administrators, troops or doctors and passed down to descendants who in turn donated them to museums in Europe and the US.

But others were gifts to missionaries or acquired by African art collectors at the start of the 20th century or discovered by scientific expeditions.

An expert report commissioned by Macron counted some 90,000 African works in French museums, 70,000 of them at the Quai Branly alone. 

Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have also received requests from African countries to return lost treasures.

Nigeria said in October that it had agreed with Germany on the return of hundreds of so-called Benin Bronzes - metal plaques and sculptures from the 16th to 18th centuries that were stolen from the palace of the ancient Benin Kingdom in present-day Nigeria.