ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the Musée National Boubou Hama du Niger's change in legal status from a Public Institution to a Public Research Institution for Science, Culture, and Technology, ratified by the National Assembly of Niger on May 26, 2015 (République du Niger, Law number 2015-27), which defined the national museum as a scholarly research center working in cooperation with scholars at universities and other museums. It first traces the genealogy of this change to the museum's founding. Next, the essay considers the role of research and scholarship during the history of the museum from 1959 until 2015. It concludes by offering preliminary analyses of how the change in legal status has affected the museum's mission since 2015, considers challenges to the implementation of the law, and introduces recent research projects at the museum. We argue that research and knowledge creation was one of scholar, anticolonial activist, and politician Boubou Hama's original priorities for the institution, and that, like the new name, the legal identification as a Public Research Institution draws upon the period immediately following independence for inspiration and direction.
