Home Art & Culture Senegal’s Black Civilization Museum for a Post-Colonial Cultural Vision

Senegal’s Black Civilization Museum for a Post-Colonial Cultural Vision

Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilisation opens December 6.
Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilisation opens December 6.
Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilisation opens December 6.
Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilisation opens December 6.

Senegal launches the biggest museum of Black Civilization on Thursday in the capital city of Dakar. The first Senegalese President, Leopold Sedar Senghor, announced the establishment of a post-colonial cultural vision in 1966.

It has been 52 years since the first Senegalese president tabled the idea of decolonizing culture through a post-colonial cultural vision. On Thursday, the vision will finally come to life with the inauguration of the biggest museum of Black Civilization in Dakar, Senegal.

The launch would be marked by traditional African dance and music. The curator Babacar Mbow said the event would be “incomparable to anything in the world.”  He added that “All of the phases of the inauguration of the museum is done by Africans.”

The museum was made possible with a donation of over thirty million dollars from China, hence the country will be addressed by a Chinese Minister on Thursday. In July, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Li Xinping, inaugurated a wrestling arena for the national sport.

The museum of Black Civilization is measured to be as vast as the museum of African American history in the United States. The museum, spreading over a floor space of 14,000 sq. meters, has the capacity to display eighteen thousand artifacts. The museum will conserve the values of the black people and is said to showcase Africa to the world.

It includes the ‘Africa Now’ section, exhibiting contemporary African art. The Caravans and the Caravel tell the tales of trade across the Sahara and the establishment of diaspora communities in the United States, the Caribbean and Brazil. The history of black slavery and suffering would also be on display in the form of magnificent artwork by artists like Philippe Dodard. The Museum’s ‘Women of the Nation’ section, on the other hand, would disseminate knowledge about inspiring and influential women of African descent.  

The museum is an important landmark, distancing Africa and the Black civilizations from European ideas and languages, truly decolonizing the history, knowledge and the culture of African people.