– Es gilt das gesprochene Wort –

Last year, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a powerful speech at the opening of the Humboldt-Forum. Calling for the return of colonial artefacts, she said: “We can’t change our past, but we can change our blindness towards the past.”

Ladies and gentlemen,

Germany is about to change its blindness towards the colonial past. We, as the Federal Government and as a country, intend to address the legacy of our colonial past. Precisely here in Berlin, the site of the so-called Congo Conference, where the European countries staked their colonial claims in Africa. As the Federal Government and as a country, we acknowledge the horrific outrages committed under colonial rule. We acknowledge the murders and plundering, we acknowledge the racism and slavery, we acknowledge the injustice and trauma that have left scars that are still visible today.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We can change our blindness towards the past. So this day should not only open our eyes. It should also shine a light to illuminate our shared future. For decades, the bronzes have served as emblems of the African struggle to reclaim art expropriated under colonial rule.

Today, we finally hear the call. We express our gratitude to all those who have relentlessly raised their voices. Governments, academics and civil society. To stand for all of them, I would like to honour one man in particular whose work inspired me a lot: with his exhibition “Treasures of Ancient Nigeria”, Dr Ekpo Eyo showed all of us the way forward. Today we are finally moving forward together.

We are moving forward into a future where Nigeria and the Edo people own the Benin Bronzes. A future where today’s generation and all future generations in Nigeria will grow up with the pride and beauty emanating from these items. A future where justice may heal the wounds of the past. A future where Germans and Nigerians, Europeans and Africans come together to face the challenges of our time.

That is what our joint policy declaration today is about: laying the cultural foundation for a new era of cooperation. And the foundation of all cooperation is culture. Culture allows us to address the legacy of the past in order to make a shared future possible. It allows us to see what we have in common instead of what divides us, and it opens our eyes to the beauty of our differences. And so I hope that today will find its way into the hearts of our people and our countries as a day of hope, of shared humanity, of friendship.