Diane Abbott on the Today programme

Always a pleasure.

On the subject of museum collections:

’90% of African culture is held outside’

If by that you mean 90% of African cultural artefacts are held outside Africa then do try to say so if you are broadcasting nationally.

And then provide some factual back up for your obviously ludicrous, invented on the spot statistic.

93.84% of statistics are made up on the spot.

to be fair a lot of those pyramids were indeed plonked on a boat and moved to skegness

Maybe she means that they are not indoors

I assume she also means historic cultural artefacts as I'd image that things like current performances of plays and paintings that African artists are working on are in Africa.

Diane Abbott - innumeracy incarnate.

Diiianne AAAbbot!

No, she went to Cambridge.

Given that we invaded pretty much the whole continent (apart from the leetle bits the Portuguese and Belgians got), it seems feasible to suppose we nicked most of their art.

"The extent to which France, Britain and Germany looted Africa of its artefacts during colonialism is not known, but according to the report, which will be released this Friday, about 90% of Africa’s cultural heritage currently lies outside the continent."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/france-urged-to-return-looted-african-art-treasures-macron

Actually the French Empire in Africa was about the same size as ours.

But in any event she was clearly talking made up on the spot nonsense.

"The sprawling Quai Branly Museum in Paris is stuffed with treasure. It has some 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collection, including magnificent statues from present-day Benin and delicate paintings that once decorated church walls in Ethiopia. But a long-awaited report coming out this week could have a dramatic impact on what visitors see there, with repercussions for other international museums.

The report was commissioned in March by President Emmanuel Macron of France from two academics, who were asked to draw up proposals for the restitution of pieces of African cultural heritage. It is due to be delivered to Mr. Macron on Friday. A copy was made available to The New York Times.

The academics, Bénédicte Savoy of France and Felwine Sarr of Senegal, recommend that objects that were removed and sent to mainland France without the consent of their countries of origin be permanently returned — if the country of origin asks for them. This restitution should be part of a collaborative process of information gathering, research, scientific exchange and training in the next five years, they say.

The report could have far-reaching consequences for the international museum world. It says that 90 to 95 percent of Africa’s cultural heritage is held outside Africa by major museums. France alone has at least 90,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its national collections, of which 70,000 are inside the Quai Branly Museum. The rest are elsewhere in Paris, in port cities like Cherbourg and Le Havre, and in large centers like Lyon and Grenoble."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/arts/design/france-museums-africa-savoy-sarr-report.html

no doubt one could disagree with the report, although it seems to have been received politely by museums. But accusing Ms Abbott of making up statistics on this particular occasion seems a little unfair.

Made up statistic.

Unless one defines ‘cultural heritage’ ao incredibly narrowly as to make it meaningless. Leaving out buildings, non physical cultural heritage, fabric, anything produced since decolonisation that might count as cultural heritage and so forth.

um, strutts, this is an occasion to withdraw gracefully

she has not made up a statistic, she has reasonably accurately quoted a state sponsored piece of research

It is not as the ‘statistic’ is clearly wrong for the reasons mentioned above.

If she had said ‘90% of high value portable items of cultural significance in existence or created during the period of colonialism’ one might have more sympathy, but she didn’t.