Between 1931 and 1933, the 'Dakar-Djibouti Ethnographic and Linguistic Mission' journeyed through sixteen African countries. Led by French ethnologist Marcel Griaule, it tested new methods of ethnographic survey and collection. In 1933, it contained over 3,000 objects, 6,000 natural specimens, as many photographs, 300 manuscripts, around 50 human remains, some 20 recordings and over 10,000 field notes resulting from observation 'surveys' or 'interrogations'. This scientific expedition also attracted a great deal of media attention with the publication of L'Afrique fantôme, the personal diary of the mission's secretary, Michel Leiris, in which he reveals the relations between the colonised and the colonialists, as well as the conditions under which the surveys and collections were carried out.

Through a selection of objects, photographs and archives, the exhibition revisits documented facts, placing at the heart of the subject the results of research and the current viewpoint of professionals from the African continent. These counter investigations, carried out jointly by a dozen African and French scientists, aim to retrace the conditions under which these heritages were acquired and collected in order to shed light on the colonial context and the stories of men and women who have remained anonymous until now.