My proposal is to explore how borrowing from the concept of digital twins and virtual representations used in Smart cities and urban planning, how valuable artifacts located in other continents can still be accessible to many across Africa and how can we prevent the destruction of artifacts already located in Museums on the African continent in times of social and political unrest and catastrophe.
Proposed by Sarafadeen Bello/ independent curator
For decades across West Africa, knowledge and histories were told from generation to generation orally through stories and performance. With the coming of colonization and modernization this tradition has steadily declined, making many of our collective memories distorted, lost and forgotten. With colonization came looting of precious artefacts from the black continent. Over the past decades there have been avid conversations and demands for the repatriation of looted African artefacts presently housed in museums across Europe and in America. For example, Germany has agreed and is working towards returning Benin bronzes artefacts looted from the Kingdom of Benin during the colonization of Africa. Also, with the recent COVID 19 pandemic we have all been challenged to rethink the way we live, work and play as we head into the future. The pandemic which hit the global cultural and educational sectors badly, greatly exposed the vulnerabilities of Museum practices in both developed and developing countries. Hence the urgency in developing alternative and sustainable models to museum practices.
According to Eric Falt, Director and UNESCO Representative, “The potential of museums in facilitating our progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals has been well recognized. We must therefore harness the relationships between the economic, educational and various facets of museums as we prepare emerging museum professionals for a renewed cultural dialogue. An inclusive, informed and participatory museum policy in the digital age is the first step towards pandemic recovery in this area.” With museum management across Africa still considerably influenced by colonial legacy and plagued with insufficient funding/ resources and political insecurity, what will museums of the future across Africa look like? With the pandemic, many museums embraced hybrid models, which has been touted to be a sustainable future of Museum practices. But how do we make these new forms of Museums people and community-centered rather than technology-centric? And how can oral storytelling and history practices play a crucial role in the future of African Museums?
My proposal is to explore how borrowing from the concept of digital twins and virtual representations used in Smart cities and urban planning, how valuable artifacts located in other continents can still be accessible to many across Africa and how can we prevent the destruction of artifacts already located in Museums on the African continent in times of social and political unrest and catastrophe. A case in point is hundreds of heritage artifacts and artworks destroyed in the flames at the University of Cape town library, South Africa earlier in the year.
***
Sarafadeen Bello. Nigerian design architect and creative who currently works and resides in Lagos, Nigeria. He graduated with a Specialist degree in Architecture from Ivanovo State Polytechnic University in Russia. His artistic medium of expression is through text, essays, research, design and installation. And his areas of interest and research operates within the overlapping boundaries of architecture, urban design, theatre, culture, social inclusion as well as the intersection of art and public realm participation.