🔅 Where The Bulk of Africa’s Cultural Treasures Really Live
Yinka Shonibare Gets His Homecoming & Nigeria Bans Protest Song, Thus Giving it Even More Airtime
Good morning from… Can you guess where in Africa this is? (Answer at the bottom!)
Where The Bulk of Africa’s Cultural Treasures Really Live (And No, They’re Not in Africa)
If you want to see Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy, you might want to book a flight to Europe first.
According to a 2018 French government-commissioned report by economist Felwine Sarr and historian Bénédicte Savoy, up to 90% of Africa’s cultural heritage is not on the continent. It’s sitting in European museums, and sitting pretty.
Top of the leaderboard? Belgium’s Musée Royale de l’Afrique Centrale, hoarding an eye-watering 180,000 artifacts. Close behind: Germany’s Humboldt Forum (75,000), France’s Musée du Quai Branly (70,000), the British Museum (69,000), and Vienna’s Weltmuseum (37,000).
By comparison, national museums across Africa often struggle to even hit 3,000 objects, and most of those aren’t the heavy-hitters. As museum specialist Alain Godonou put it bluntly: most African museums have collections that are small and lacking in globally significant pieces.
And Gus Casely-Hayford, former head of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, didn’t sugarcoat it either: any major Western institution could outgun the entire museum network of Sub-Saharan Africa – single-handedly.
But this cultural lock-up isn’t just about pride, because researchers from the very regions these artifacts come from often can’t even afford to see them in person, let alone study them.
To learn more about the location of specific collections at each major institution, follow this link by
.Nigeria Bans Protest Song, Thus Giving it Even More Airtime
In classic "this will definitely backfire" fashion, Nigeria’s broadcast regulator has banned a new protest track Tell Your Papa by artist Eedris Abdulkareem – a song calling out President Bola Tinubu for the country’s economic chaos and rising insecurity.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) said the song was “inappropriate” and “objectionable” and told TV and radio stations to yank it off the airwaves. Naturally, Tell Your Papa is now blowing up online!
In the track, Abdulkareem (a veteran government critic) urges Tinubu’s son, Seyi, to tell his dad that Nigerians are starving, unsafe, and tired of empty promises. He even challenges Seyi to ditch his private jet and travel by road like everyday citizens... if he dares.
Since Tinubu’s election in 2023, reforms like scrapping the fuel subsidy sent prices soaring, while inflation has stayed stubbornly above 30%. Meanwhile, kidnapping-for-ransom rackets and Boko Haram threats continue to fester.
Abdulkareem’s no stranger to controversy: back in 2003, his hit Nigeria Jaga Jaga (translation: “Nigeria’s a mess”) also got banned, and then still managed to become a national anthem for discontent.
Lesson here? If you don’t want a song to go viral in Nigeria, maybe... don’t ban it?
By the way, what do you think of it?
Yinka Shonibare Finally Gets His African Homecoming (And It’s in Madagascar)
After decades of dazzling global audiences with his colorful, fabric-wrapped art, British-Nigerian superstar Yinka Shonibare is finally getting a major solo show on the African continent. About time.
His exhibition, Safiotra (Hybridities), just opened at the Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar – and it’s big. Like, 6,000-fabric-covered-books big. (That's The African Library installation, if you’re keeping score.)
Alongside his iconic sculptures like Alien Woman on Flying Machine and Refugee Astronaut X, Shonibare’s also showing off some lesser-known quilt works, and flexing his curatorial muscles by spotlighting 19 boundary-pushing artists from Africa and its diaspora, including El Anatsui and Billie Zangewa.
Fun fact: Shonibare says he’s long wanted to put on a massive show in Africa, but just hadn’t had the right invite, until Fondation H slid into his DMs (okay, not literally). Now, with spaces like his own G.A.S. Foundation popping up in Lagos and partnerships like this one thriving, he’s finally getting to show his roots some love.
If you end up at the show, let us know how it is!
Food for Thought
“The ignorant praises his own ignorance.”
— Uganda Proverb
And the Answer is…
The photo is taken from Mauritius! You can also send in your own photos, alongside the location, and we’ll do our best to feature them.