FEATURES OF CULTURAL NATIONALISM IN MUSEUM AND GALLERY ACTIVITIES OF DECOLONIZED COUNTRIES OF AFRICA

Abstract

The purpose of article is to define a system of approaches to the formation of the national and cultural identity of post-colonial African countries through the prism of their museum and gallery activities of various forms of ownership. The research is based on the theory of postcolonialism, stylistic, iconographic, biographical and comparative-historical methods are applied. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time, against the background of three African countries (South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal), the development of a post-colonial cultural policy strategy and the functioning of museums, galleries, and other types of artistic organizations were examined. As a result of the comparative analysis, it was found that all the above-mentioned states have a common problem of the primary multiculturalism of societies, which, together with the experience of colonial dependence, led to the hybridization of culture. Their museums and galleries are in close interaction with the state and are interdisciplinary centers of knowledge. The art of the indigenous population is a priority in terms of study and exposure, but the art of the ex-colonizers has not completely disappeared from the exhibition halls. Each of the countries builds its own special type of cultural relations with the former occupier: equidistant partnership (South Africa and the United Kingdom, the Netherlands), partnerships in the “ad hoc” format (Tanzania and Germany, Great Britain), an alliance with features of neoimperialism (neocolonialism) (Senegal and France). The research is useful practical training for art historians, especially museum workers, cultural managers, as well as for civil servants in the field of culture, historians, political scientists.