As the first museum to be built in Senegal following the nation’s independence, the Musée Dyamique, inaugurated in Dakar during the First World Festival of Negro Arts (1966), was an architectural expression of the roles that Senegal, negritude, and artistic exchange could play in healing a world torn by the violence of colonialism, the devastation of the World Wars, and the tensions of the Cold War. Its design emerged from a partnership between the Senegalese government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). By examining the Museum’s architecture alongside the philosophical writing of its planners, Taylor's essay argues that the Musée Dynamique mediated the related but distinct humanistic worldviews espoused by each of its founding partner agencies. This case study thus demonstrates one way in which cultural philosophies of Black liberation and post-war theories of cosmopolitanism mutually informed one another and influenced independence-era architecture in Africa.
Read the full article in African Arts.