Museum of Black Civilizations

Senegal has opened the Museum of Black Civilizations to the public, spanning 14,000 square meters of floor space. The innovative institution regards Brazil, the United States, and the Caribbean as Black civilizations in their own right, and maps the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its diasporic implications throughout history. Among its first exhibitions are artworks from Mali, Burkina Faso, Cuba, and Haiti.
The museum is 52 years in the making — Senegal’s late president Leopold Sedar Senghor first proposed the idea at a festival of black artists in Dakar in 1966, but the museum’s construction was halted before a Chinese investment of $34.6 million. The museum opens in the wake of Senegal’s public request for the repatriation of its objects looted through colonial imperialism. [Africa.com]
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