by Rayiah Ross
African diaspora museums seem to be hard to come by outside of the United States, but that doesn’t make them any less important. The purpose of a museum is to preserve cultural and historical objects and present them to an audience for education and enjoyment. Listed below are a list of museums around the world that focus on African diaspora culture and art.
1. California African American Museum (CAAM) – Los Angeles, California
This museum is home of over 4,000 paintings, photographs, sculptures, films, and artifacts ranging from the 1800s to the present. It has many nineteenth-century landscape paintings, modern artworks, and contemporary mixed-media reflections on both cultural and political events.
2. Louvre Museum – Paris, France
The Louvre is currently one of the world’s most visited museum, known for its collections that span across territory that from French America to the confines of Asia. The curatorial department includes paintings, drawing, and sculptures celebrating different cultural artworks.
3. House of Slaves – Dakar, Senegal
The House of Slaves, also known as Maison des Esclaves, and its Door of No Return is a museum and memorial to the Atlantic slave trade on Gorée Island. Its museum memorialise the the slaves from Africa while visitors make it an important place to remember the human toll of African slavery.
4. National Museum of Ethiopia (NME)– Addis Ababa Arada, Ethiopia
The National Museum of Ethiopia, also known as the to as the Ethiopian National Museum contains many local archaeological finds such as the fossilized remains of early hominids. Recently added to the basement gallery is a display on Selam, found between 2000 and 2004. This archaic fossil is estimated to date to 3.3 million years ago.
