Fabricating a nation: the function of national museums in nonracial re-presentation and the national imagination

Abstract

South Africa provides a contemporary example of a nation struggling to find and cohere a national imagination that is universally agreeable. In their effort to create a sense of self based on unity across difference, South African relies on museums to produce and spread this narrative. The success of the narrative and its adoption rely on decolonizing modern concepts of race, museum, and nation that perpetuated the apartheid agenda. This paper examines national museums in the country for their success in adopting pedagogy and curricula that break down racial structures and their location in the nation. The inquiry finds moments of promise – a coexistence of narratives and refusals to cohere – alongside moments of concern – struggles to remove the deeply rooted race-based structures from society and museums.

Keywords:

• nation-state
• museum
• pedagogy
• public space

Notes

1. I have chosen to use Boer in the eighteenth- through twentieth-century South African history to distinguish an Afrikaner subgroup who left the Cape settlements and encountered the British in their Western migrations.

2. The theorists proposing this are white South Africans who identify themselves as members of marginalized groups. This is contentious since they still hold most of the economic, cultural, and intellectual capital in South Africa.

3. I have chosen to use the name Tshwane to reflect the metropolitan area in Gauteng Province and the city of Pretoria. The official renaming of Pretoria to a noncolonial name is contested and under regular review. Given the support of decolonization as a principle in this manuscript, I reflect that in my decisions around names such as Tshwane.

4. There are many local museums also affiliated with the Department of Arts and Culture. I show in this paper that museums often reflect local character, but local museums are envisioned and developed locally. Mapping these alongside national museums would provide stronger evidence of the racial landscape produced by museums.