“At this time when the museum is opening its doors to the public, I keep wondering to what extent the mighty and powerful will go in their arrogance and violation of our imagination.
We are being invited today to celebrate with the former colonial power an incontestably magnificent architectural monument as well as our own decline and the complicity of those, African political representatives and institutional authorities who consider that our cultural objects are better kept in the beautiful edifices of the North than under our own skies.”
“In our opinion, the Musée du Quai Branly is built on a deep and painful paradox since almost the totality of the Africans, Amerindians, the Australian Aborigines whose talents and creativity are being celebrated, will never cross the doorstep of the museum in view of the so-called selective immigration.
It is true that measures have been taken to ensure that we can consult the archives via Internet.
Thus, our works of art have a right of residence at a place where we are forbidden to stay.”
AMINATA TRAORÉ