Geopolitics of heritage, return economies, tourism imaginaries – ReTourS

In France and in Europe, a debate is currently raging around the restitution of African works of art. In this context, ReTurns, a comparative, diachronic and multi-scalar research program, seeks to shift the focus of inquiry: (1) from Europe and North America toward the African countries concerned; (2) from the topic of restitution toward the fact of return; (3) from museum-centered approaches to approaches centered on the role of diasporic communities and tourism; (4) from official patrimonial oversight to sites and to modes of discourse and transmission typically considered to be marginal, secondary or informal.
Designed with the Sarr-Savoy (2018) restitution timetable in mind and structured around an international, multidisciplinary consortium of researchers working in and on four African countries – Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal – as well as their diasporas, ReTurns is an innovative program in terms of its critical research goals, its methodological stance and the cultural collaborations it entails.
International and multidisciplinary consortium of 14 researchers, ReTours will work from Benin, Cameroon, Mali and Senegal and on their diasporas. The objective is to understand the political stakes, the economic roles and the social uses of return. It is organized around three axes which are as many ways of designating objects: 1) Geopolitics of heritage, around mobilizations for or against the restitution of "works of art", 2) Return economies and tourism imaginaries, concerning facilities and welcoming of "museum pieces"; 3) Appropriations and resocializations around social memories, the agency of returned "things", transformations of meanings and contemporary creations. 
The ReTours program thus proposes to work according to methods inspired by collaborative anthropology and research-action, which imply a reflexivity attentive to both the stakes of power and the risks of interlocking. Workshops will associate the actors of the return (traditional authorities, cultural institutions, artists, associated partner associations).

In terms of results, ReTours will combine field, archive and digital surveys to propose maps of mobilisations, networks and objects, comparative and multisite analyses, social biographies of objects, analyses of artistic interventions. ReTours is engaged in an ambitious programme of conferences, publications and seminars, on its own or co-designed with other international research programs. 
The major scientific impact expected from ReTours is the change of the research paradigm on the circulation of works of art and their appropriation: new knowledge, but also new ways of doing research, with collective, reflexive and attentive enquiries into the effects of asymmetry linked to status, gender and origin. 
ReTours responds to the research objectives of the "Culture, heritage creations" axis, by working on real cultural cooperation with a large number of institutional, museum, cultural and artistic partners : virtual exhibitions, digital applications, catalogues, educational tools, etc. 
In terms of social and economic spin-offs, ReTours aims to document good practices in each of the countries, to provide the institutions in charge of the return with useful tools for decision-making, but also to show and hear the memories of often ignored social groups, especially women, and thus participate in the recognition of their own knowledge. ReTours will thus enrich the knowledge on restitution which, focused on historical, legal, political and museum issues, has hardly taken into account the tourism argument of the African countries requesting assistance, nor developed the role of the diasporas in the mobilisations and the geopolitical dimensions of restitution.