Abstract:
The question of how to define a museum has been a festering debate
globally, and particularly for previously colonized societies who
inherited the institution from a specific historical period – the colo
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nial era, which fostered oppression, marginalisation and ostraci
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sation of colonised societies. In the post-colonial context, beyond
contests over the definition of museums, the major debates and dis
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cussions have been on the role and relevance of museums within the
wider society. Thus, as the museum world rethinks the current defi
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nition, it is perhaps also a good moment to critically reflect on how
museums do create spaces for effectively dealing with societies and
remaining relevant. For many museums in Africa created during
colonial subjugation, museum knowledge production, classification
and representation practices structured ethnographic collections
in accordance with Western epistemological thoughts. For many
such institutions, this is the moment to address the intellectual
and emotional processes of decolonisation in terms of repatriation
of objects or developing collaborative projects with communities
(Sandahl 2019). This book draws on the ongoing debates around
the coloniality of museums and associated knowledge production
and representation practices to imagine a decolonised museum in
Africa. In this Introduction, we set the background and context
of these debates, as well as the historical and current contexts of
museums in Zimbabwe, before providing a specific narrative on the
development of Mutare Museum in Eastern Zimbabwe. We argue
that the decolonial future of museums lies in them challenging their
histories and normative practices by a mingling with heritage sites,
local cultural practices and ways of knowing. To demonstrate this,
this book moves between the museum, selected sites and associated
practices
