New French Law Sparks Hope for Long-Awaited Return of Looted ‘Ségou Treasure’ to Senegal
A new French law adopted in May has raised hopes in Senegal for the restitution of the long-disputed “treasure of Ségou,” a group of items taken by French forces in 1890 from the family of Omar Saïdou Tall, a 19th-century Senegalese Muslim leader and founder of the Toucouleur empire. The trove, held across French museums and the national library, includes nearly 500 manuscripts as well as jewelry, weapons, and other artifacts seized during a raid led by General Louis Archinard on Tall’s family palace in Ségou (in present-day Mali). Thierno Madani Tall, a descendant of Omar Tall in Dakar, told Le Monde the law is essential because it reflects French acknowledgment that the objects were stolen and should return. France previously repatriated the remains of Tall’s grandson Abdoulaye Tall in 1995 and returned Tall’s sword in 2019, but those cases required lengthy diplomacy and legislation. The May law is the third French “framework” restitution law—alongside separate frameworks for human remains and Nazi-looted art—and covers items taken from 1815 to 1972, though it avoids explicitly naming colonialism.
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This story was covered in Stolen Masterpieces, Shaken Museums, Restitution Reckonings