ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the prehistory and making of the Musée des Civilisations Noires (Museum of Black Civilizations, MCN) in Dakar, Senegal. The MCN has its roots in the Pan-African movement which developed in America and Europe at meetings among Africans from the continent as well as from the Diaspora. These actions culminated in the first Pan-African meeting on African soil during the Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres which took place in Dakar (Senegal) from April 1 to 21, 1966. First initiated in the early 1970s, the MCN project was abandoned in the 1980s before being resumed in the early 2000s and subsequently inaugurated on December 6, 2018. Planned in line with the concept that led to the founding of the Musée Dynamique (Dynamic Museum) and the IFAN Museum at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop, it stands out as a contemporary institution that has put in place the ideals of the founders of Pan-Africanism aiming to keep the spirit of the original Pan-African vision alive. The MCN is a museum that seeks to build a particular model whose foundations are anchored in a new form of cultural diplomacy. This new way of seeing the world fits well with Africa's mission to build independent knowledge.
