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.
Linda Cimardi (Wed,) studied this question.