Last week I was in the centre of town for a visit to the optometrist, and thought it was a good opportunity to go and see the new museum that I've heard about in the international news (not that anyone here in Dakar seems to know about it), the Museum of Black Civilisation.
Whilst they have still not finished with the top (third) floor, and there is as yet no cafe/restaurant and no souvenir guide book, what is there is pretty good. It starts with pre-history - various skulls of early humans - and then goes through the development in Africa of various strands of civilisation such as metallurgy, writing, and architecture, with a sizeable section on ancient Egypt (although I noted that the exhibits in this section are copies), a nice collection of key African artefacts such as Benin bronzes, Malian chiwaras, masks, and textiles from across the continent, some modern artworks, and a room on Islam and Christianity in Senegal, the latter room with far too little information but I have a feeling that room might not yet be finished.
I loved the Malian hunter's tunic and one of the Benin bronzes.
One thing that I felt was missing was music - the continent could easily fill a whole room of different instruments, with listening posts for the different kinds of music. Isn't music an important part of civilisation?
The section on architecture reminded me of how fortunate I am to be so well-travelled. It referred to a number of places that I have visited such as the pyramids of Meroe (Sudan), the Loropeni ruins (Burkina Faso), Askia's tomb in Gao (Mali) - and inexplicably omitted some others such as the Friday Mosque in Djenne (Mali) and the rock-cut churches of Lalibela (Ethiopia) - which relatively few people have had the good fortune to see. Some of these being pretty much out of bounds given the security issues across the continent right now. Speaking of which, this beautiful piece of modern art by Abdoulaye Konaté is entitled, "Non à la charía à Tombouctou".
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