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Museums from Africa and Europe break new ground: Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Humboldt Forum support international conference in Dakar
Press release from 04/28/2023
Museum directors from 38 African and European countries agree to establish a network, an ongoing discussion on the role of museums and cultural heritage and joint travelling exhibitions - Parzinger: "It's about a new relationship
At a conference initiated and supported by the SPK, the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin and the Humboldt Forum Foundation, among others, 60 African and European museum directors from 38 countries came together at the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar, Senegal, from 25 to 27 April to agree on long-term cooperation between museums in Africa and Europe. For the first time, a joint declaration was signed in which all participants pledged to strengthen partnerships based on mutual trust and respect.
The three-day conference served as a prelude to the establishment of a global network to ensure a multilateral and long-term cooperation programme between museums on both continents. The museum directors jointly defined the priorities of an action plan to sustainably strengthen the social role of museums and the capacity of their institutions to act.
Hamady Bocoum, Director of the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar and Chairman of the Organising Committee, and Guido Gryseels, Deputy Chairman of the Organising Committee, in a joint statement: "The coming together of 60 museum directors from Africa and Europe is a historic event. A network has been established here in Dakar; a forum that allows museums and their partners to shape a common future. We have taken an important step forward and now we have an exciting road ahead of us to promote mutual understanding".
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "With the conference and the Dakar Declaration, African and European museums have opened a new chapter in their co-operation. Bilateral co-operation is now to become a far-reaching network that will address difficult issues such as the restitution of cultural artefacts, but especially future-oriented perspectives for joint work. The collections in Europe are linked to Africa by a difficult history, which is why it is particularly important to make this past productive together. We can rely on an impressive consensus between African and European museums. I am convinced that culture can pave the way for a new relationship between Africa and Europe."
Hartmut Dorgerloh, General Director of the Humboldt Forum: "The meeting in Dakar was arranged with colleagues from African and European museums at the final opening of the Humboldt Forum in September 2022 and I am delighted that it came about so quickly and so successfully and that we were able to make a contribution to it. The Declaration of Dakar is a milestone for forward-looking cooperation, a clear positioning of the partners in Africa and is an important contribution to the decolonisation of cultural institutions in Europe."
During the conference, three major topics were defined that will play an important role in building the museums of tomorrow. Firstly, it is about strengthening the institutions, for example through knowledge exchange, building a network and an ongoing discussion about the role of museums and cultural heritage. There are also plans to jointly design and organise travelling exhibitions in Africa and Europe. The aim is to change the narratives in African and European museums so that they can respond better to current challenges. There is also a desire to pool and document knowledge about the collections and to further develop provenance research. By digitising the various collections, they are to be made accessible to the public worldwide.
The African countries taking part in the conference in Dakar were Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Nigeria, Chad, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Representatives from Europe came from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK.
The initiative is supported by:
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Germany
Stiftung Humboldt Forum, Germany
Goethe-Institut, Germany
Institut Français du Sénégal, France
Musée des Civilisations Noires, Dakar, Senegal
Further information:
Press photos for download: https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html
Declaration:
