Displaying and Listening to Africa. Live Events of African Musics and Dances in the Museums of the Yugoslav Region

This article examines live events of African musics and dances hosted in museums housing African collections in Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia during both the socialist and the post-socialist periods. It explores the interplay of official policies, institutional projects, and African performers’ participation by considering Yugoslav anti-colonialism, international brotherhood, and the presence of African students (1960s–1980s), in relation to the post-Yugoslav time (1990s-present) marked by the evolving role of museums and the emergence of new African performers. Across these contexts, certain tropes in the representation of Africa through music and dance recur, and a tendency from presentational performances to participatory workshops has developed.