Museums and History in West Africa

Edited by Claude Daniel Ardouin and Emmanuel Arinze

by Emmanuel Arinze

Description
Reviews

Outlines some of the key issues in managing West Africa's cultural heritage.

The contributors to this volume examine the problems of museums being perceived as warehouses for exotic objects presented in an historic way, rather than as research-related centres that are capable of developing and communicating with their public through exhibitions and outreach.

Published in association with The West African Museums Programme and the International African Institute; North America: Smithsonian Institution Press

"...a useful book that analyzes both problems and solutions in researching, managing and explicating West Africa's cultural heritage. -" Thomas H. Wilson, JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY

"This volume provides a larger audience with a valuable awareness of the complexity of issues facing African museums and academic institutions. -" Barbara E. Frank, AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW

"... this volume, in unison with the two preceding it, has a clear message, that museums matter in modern societies and need to reach out to their communities - and that all this requires is renewed and more imaginative efforts. In that endeavour these neat publications of the West African Museums Programme are valuable symbolically. -" John E.G. Sutton, JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES

"The volume's strength is the specifics of case studies, the on-the-ground picture of moving between bureaucracies, research, and the public in settings where basic funds and supplies, helpful media, a receptive audience and safety for collections and archaeological sites are all problematic ... -" Adria LaViolette, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES