Addressing Slavery in the Museum Artwork

90 Second Narratives

90 Second Narratives is a podcast featuring engaging true stories told by trained historians. Each episode includes a short story interwoven with expert analysis of the story’s historical significance. The concise length and storytelling format of the episodes make history accessible, dynamic, and entertaining. The subjects of the stories are diverse—spanning the globe and ranging from the pre-historic to the modern age. While individual stories stand alone, the episodes in each season are linked thematically and combine to offer comparative perspectives that illuminate connections from across the human experience. Every episode also includes recommendations for further reading. 90 Second Narratives provides a novel way to hear historians share the wonders of the past in their own voices.

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Addressing Slavery in the Museum

November 29, 2021 • Sky Michael Johnston • Season 10 • Episode 1

“In the past three decades black social actors, committed curators, public historians, and academics have pushed western museums to examine slavery and the Atlantic slave trade in their exhibition spaces. But the introduction of slavery in the museum has been very problematic…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo.

For further reading:
Museums and Atlantic Slavery by Ana Lucia Araujo (Routledge, 2021)

90 Second Narratives
Season 10: “Seeking Justice”
Episode 1: “Addressing Slavery in the Museum”

Sky Michael Johnston:

You are listening to 90 Second Narratives. This is the podcast that brings you “little stories with BIG historical significance.” I’m Sky Michael Johnston and I am happy to welcome you to Season 10 of the show. This season’s theme is “Seeking Justice” and Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo is the season’s first storyteller. Dr. Aruajo is a Professor in the Department of History at Howard University. Her story today is entitled, “Addressing Slavery in the Museum.”

Ana Lucia Araujo:

In the past three decades black social actors, committed curators, public historians, and academics have pushed western museums to examine slavery and the Atlantic slave trade in their exhibition spaces.

But the introduction of slavery in the museum has been very problematic.

In most museums I have argued, the way slavery is exhibited tends to focus on four main themes: wealth and refinement; submission and victimization; resistance and rebellion; and achievement and legacies.

Through the development of these topics most museums were not always successful in conveying the complexities of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.

At the end of the day, institutions and exhibition displays operate in the framework of particular national and local contexts.

By attempting to provide an overview of slavery systems, they often place an excessive focus on victimization.

They omit how enslaved persons lived diverse experiences that not always involved the organization of rebellions, but rather included resisting slavery on a daily basis.

Moreover, most museums avoid addressing topics such as sexual violence.

With few exceptions, in the United States and England, museum exhibitions exploring the problem of slavery remain caught in the chains of white supremacy, conceived here as an ideology, a global political, economic, and cultural power structure that privileges in multiple ways individuals and groups racialized as whites.

In some museums in France, Brazil, and England, most exhibitions celebrate racial mixture and emphasize the achievements of only a few black luminaries, neglecting the experience of ordinary black men and women.

Ultimately, by focusing on wealth and refinement; submission and victimization; resistance and rebellion; and achievement and legacies, most exhibitions fail to fully discuss the legacies of slavery such as anti-black racism and persisting racial inequalities.

Sky Michael Johnston:

Dr. Araujo’s incisive analysis of the treatment of Atlantic slavery in museums over the past few decades is drawn from her new book, Museums and Atlantic Slavery, published by Routledge earlier this year in their Museums in Focus book series. It is available in Hardback and eBook editions. Click on the link in the episode description to visit the publisher’s website and get your copy.

Thank you for joining me today. Come back next week as Season 10 continues on 90 Second Narratives.