Africa Culture : A Day at the Mali National Museum

A Day at the Mali National Museum gives a good overview of the struggles of museums in African countries.  The museum gets 20-25,000 visitors each year from all over the world. The museum director, Samuel Sidibe is a one man evangelist for Mali’s culture and history. Under his directorship the museum won the 2007 Prince Claus Prize  in recognition of significant efforts to fight illicit traffic of cultural goods. He has instituted ‘Musical Thursdays’ where the museum courtyard resounds with local musicians, drummers and dancers celebrating Mali culture often to an audience of 1000 mainly local people.

Here is a Dogon standing man held in the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art

- Like many other African institutions, Mali’s National Museum is confronting the controversial issue of reclaiming works held in countries of the North. It has taken a wider view of the question, encompassing the fight against looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.