Still: The Story of Ne Kuko - Festus Toll

The opening of The Story of Ne Kuko is remarkable in the sheer audacity displayed by the film’s key protagonist, Mwazulu Diyabanza, a Pan-African activist. With a colleague he walks into the Africa Museum in the Dutch village of Berg en Dal and walks out with a valuable African artefact under his arm. He calls it restitution. The museum called it theft. As he calmly walks away two aggressive police officers arrest him, taken aback at his calmness and high level of compliance. 

The film then turns to subject of Ne Kuko, a 19th Century chieftain within the Congolese region of Boma, who sold vast tracts of land to an immoral and unscrupulous Belgian colonialist, in the process ceding all the rights of his people. This led to the razing of villages and the murder of their occupants, as well as the wholesale theft of precious objects, the nkisis, which found their way to the museums of Europe.

One such nkisi is the statue previously owned by Ne Kuko and taken from the village of Kinkuku. It is alleged to have strong protective powers, and the contemporary villagers want it back from the Africa Museum in Tervuren, near Brussels, where it currently resides.

“This nkisi represents the bigger story of the colonial past and the white colonialist versus the Native African, and especially what Europe owes Africa,” says director Toll, who further acknowledges that the custodians of the Africa Museum were happy to co-operate on the film in terms of access to the nkisi and their own research into it. “Although it's not easy right now for them politically to take all these statues and send them back, they still take a position of self-reflection and they chose to work with us on this film.”

That said, the call for the nkisi’s return has been longstanding. Exactly 50 years ago, in 1973, the Congolese President Mobutu demanded its restitution, but all to no avail. These days, the cause is aided by the impact of the BLM movement and the vast number of parallel restitution claims from indigenous peoples across the world, such as the Sámi in the Nordic countries. 

Another hurdle is the resistance of the local Congolese church who note that the spiritual efficacy of these objects can only be maintained if sacrifices are made, which flies in the face of Christian doctrine. 

The film’s visuals, overseen by mixed-media artist Roxanne Mbanga, are very impressive and comprise 19th Century archive, colorized stills, new Super-8 footage as well as live-streamed i-Phone footage shot by activist Mwazulu. The producers on the doc are Janneke Doolaard, Sylvia Baan and Harmen Jalvingh for DOXY Films.

The film world premieres at IDFA but it is Toll’s desire to arrange screenings in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and across Africa as soon as possible to further enable discussion on colonialism and action on the return of precious artefacts. He also wants to arrange an installation in the Africa Museum, the very institution that houses the nkisi.

“At first I was very much against the idea to showcase the film in the museum we're trying to get the statue out of, which is the most ironic thing,” says Toll. “But then I thought about it some more, and especially the people that are looking for this information and how that museum is a place both for context and for affirmation… the film becomes the mirror that I want to reflect onto them.”

IDFA takes place on November 8 - 19. For more information, click here.