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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Beurden, Sarah Van, author.

Title Authentically African : arts and the transnational politics of Congolese culture / Sarah Van Beurden.

Publication Info. Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2015]
©2015

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xix, 372 pages) : illustrations (some color), map.
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series New African histories
New African histories series.
Summary "Together the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium and the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Zaïre (INMZ) in the Congo have defined and marketed Congolese art and culture. In Authentically African, Sarah Van Beurden traces the relationship between the possession, definition, and display of art and the construction of cultural authenticity and political legitimacy from the late colonial into the postcolonial era. Her study of the interconnected histories of these two institutions is the only work of its kind in English. Drawing on Flemish-language sources other scholars have been unable to access, Van Beurden illuminates the politics of museum collections, showing how the INMZ became a showpiece in Mobutu Sese Seko's effort to revive "authentic" African culture and reconstructing debates among Belgian and Congolese museum professionals. She also casts light on the art market, showing how IMNZ's traveling displays helped generate an international market for Congolese art. Authentically African tells a new history of decolonization as a struggle over cultural categories, the possession of cultural heritage, and the right to define and represent cultural identities"--Back cover.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-363) and index.
Contents Congolese history and the politics of culture -- The value of culture : Congolese art and Belgian colonialism -- Guardians of heritage : a politique esthétique and the museum as a "laboratory of native policy" -- The art of (re)possession : heritage and the cultural politics of Congo's decolonization -- Mobutu's museum : authenticity and guardianship -- Civilizing citizens? : Museums as brokers of postcolonial Zairian modernity -- Belgian patrimony, Zairian treasure, and American heritage : the transnational politics of Congolese art -- Colonial and postcolonial legacies.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Institut des musées nationaux du Zaïre -- History.
Institut des musées nationaux du Zaïre.
History.
Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale -- History.
Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale.
Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic) -- History.
Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic)
Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic) -- Political aspects.
Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic) -- Appreciation -- Belgium.
Belgium.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Beurden, Sarah Van, author. Authentically African 9780821421901 (DLC) 2015034123 (OCoLC)910981060
ISBN 9780821445457 (electronic book)
0821445456 (electronic book)
9780821421901 (hardback ; alkaline paper)
0821421905 (hardback ; alkaline paper)
9780821421918 (paperback ; alkaline paper)
0821421913 (paperback ; alkaline paper)