Czechoslovak Exhibitions in the Cold War Era: Decolonization versus Imperial Legacies, 1950s-1960s

• In Event: Beyond Moscow: Eastern Europeans vis-à-vis the Liberation Movements in the Global South

Abstract

Amidst the tensions of the Cold War, Prague's ethnographic Náprstek Museum curated a total of 64 exhibitions on Africa between 1948 and 1989, culminating after the "Year of Africa" in the 1960s. This paper focuses on the exhibitions in the 1950s and 1960s, drawing on unpublished archival materials alongside exhibition texts, and visual and material culture. While I argue that these exhibitions significantly advocated for decolonization and cultivated solidarity with African communities within Czechoslovakia, I also aim to uncover more subtle imperial aims that challenge the overt anti-colonial rhetoric.

Author

• Anna-Marie Kroupová, U of Vienna (Austria)