Building a Sustainable Future in Museums: Decolonized Perspectives of the University of Lagos Museum Collection

Abstract

This article explores the role of the University of Lagos Museum Collection in decolonizing the Nigerian mind and promoting a return to African roots and ideology. The collection was stored away in the University of Lagos Library archives from 1977 to 2012 when the Museum Section of the University of Lagos Library was inaugurated. At this point, the collection was organized for display to the public. It has largely been unstudied, except for an M.A. project by this author in 2009 and a few mentions of the collection in scholarly articles by a few other researchers. Using a case study approach, the article explores the potential of the University of Lagos Museum Collection in decolonising Nigerian minds and promoting a return to the roots and precolonial African ideals. It evaluates the impact of the museum’s constructions on Nigeria’s historical and cultural studies. The research data is gathered through the consultation of literature, the artworks in the collection, and interviews with actors in the field. The study scrutinizes the University of Lagos Museum collection as one of the surviving archives of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), by examining how the artworks in the University of Lagos Museum archives are being used as a means of reorientation of the postcolonial Nigerian mind. The study explores the historical significance of museum archives in shaping individual and collective memory, and how museum collections and displays can be used to challenge dominant narratives and ideologies. The findings suggest that museums can be powerful tools for decolonization, and the University of Lagos Museum Collection in particular holds great potential for this purpose. Overall, this article contributes to the ongoing discourse on decolonization and the role of museums in shaping national identity and memory.

Keywords: Decolonisation, Museum, Identity, Sustainability, globalisation