ABSTRACT
Museums help to promote a sense of identity at various levels of society: national, regional, tribal, local, and individual. In this chapter I contrast the functions they have served and are currently serving in two quite different lands long under British suzerainty: Nigeria and Scotland. Different histories of subordination, different relations between rulers and ruled, and differing priorities of public needs have enforced different museum roles. Yet in both Nigeria and Scotland the nature and purpose of museums is now clearly, if not always overtly, political.
