Muzeum (bez) pamięci – Museu Nacional da Escravatura w Luandzie i dziedzictwo transatlantyckiego handlu niewolnikami w Angoli
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/RM.01.2025.17.02Keywords:
slavery, Angola, museums of memory, heritage of slavery, selective remembrance, LuandaAbstract
MUZEUM (BEZ) PAMIĘCI – MUSEU NACIONAL DA ESCRAVATURA IN LUANDA AND THE LEGACY OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE IN ANGOLA
This article examines the role of the Museu Nacional da Escravatura in Luanda as a site of both memory and oblivion, embedded within Angola’s broader postcolonial heritage and historical politics. Based on field research conducted in 2023, the author explores the museum’s history, exhibition, and spatial-symbolic context. The institution, while officially commemorating the transatlantic slave trade, does so through a narrative that omits the complexity of local actors and historical nuances. Drawing on Ruy Llera Blanes’s concept of “places of no history,” the museum is interpreted as a space where memory is simultaneously revived and sanitized. The article addresses the selectivity of historical narratives, the instrumentalization of heritage, contemporary identity politics, and the marginalization of community-based memory practices.
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