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Culture, Artifacts, and Independent Africa: The Cultural Politics of Museums and Heritage

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The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History

Abstract

This chapter traces how, in the context of Western colonial knowledge cultures and regimes of value, certain objects from African material cultures were reinvented as art, and considers the impact of these changes on the development of museum and heritage cultures in postcolonial Africa, in which museums were seen both as subjects of, and tools for, cultural decolonization. African cultural institutions were confronted with the legacies of colonial regimes of value, but also with the physical legacies of colonial cultural infrastructures, in which large collections of what was now considered national heritage were located in the West. The chapter addresses the rising importance of international heritage and conservation regimes supported by organizations such as UNESCO, and their role in the negotiation of restitution claims.

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Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany for providing her with the time, space and support to work on this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of History and African American and African Studies, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Sarah Van Beurden

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  1. Sarah Van Beurden
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. History Department, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Martin S. Shanguhyia

  2. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Toyin Falola

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Van Beurden, S. (2018). Culture, Artifacts, and Independent Africa: The Cultural Politics of Museums and Heritage. In: Shanguhyia, M., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59426-6_47

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59426-6_47

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59425-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59426-6

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