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Article: Reflections on "African voices" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of natural history.
- Article from:
- African Arts
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Regents of the University of California. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Unless you know the road you have come down, you cannot know where you are going.
--Temne proverb, Sierra Leone
In December 1999 the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History celebrated the opening of "African Voices" (Fig. 1). It had kept its promise, made seven years earlier, to open a new permanent hall of African history and cultures. Developed with substantial community involvement, this exhibition expresses a broad consensus about how to represent Africa and the African Diaspora to Americans.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Its title is emblematic of the philosophy behind its creation. The central voices of authority that tell about ...