Questioning the Narrative of Slavery Museums
Including Subaltern African Voices in order to Break Historical Silences and Build Meaningful Bridges between Past and Present
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v13i26.13268Keywords:
Decolonization, Slavery, Commemorative MuseumsAbstract
Commemorative museums have the possibility to represent and rewrite history. While any museum has the power to make history visible and to establish its interpretation, the treatment of global histories within a Western-oriented system is always prevailing. Today, movements of social and ethnic minorities identity recognition are blossoming throughout the world: communities once historically marginalized and silenced are now calling for a deeper analysis of identity construction, questioning and rewriting their history. As a case study of my PhD, I brought the International Slavery Museum of Liverpool to Angola in order to acquire an alternative reading of the most award-winning slavery museum in the world, and to give a voice to an audience so far unheard. Visitors from Angola – from whose costs millions of enslaved Africans were sent to America – have finally capsized the interpretative perspective expressing their opinion.
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