Best museum destinations in Africa

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Africa's museum offer spans an extraordinary chronological range, from the ancient civilisation collections of north Africa and the ethnographic institutions of the colonial era to the contemporary museums and cultural centres emerging from the continent's major cities with increasing ambition and international profile. The continent's institutions hold material of profound significance, though a substantial proportion of the most important objects remain in northern hemisphere collections acquired during the colonial period.

North and southern Africa have the most developed museum infrastructure, with institutions of increasing quality and interpretive ambition supported by growing domestic and international visitor numbers. Contemporary cultural centres and private museum developments in several cities have added a new layer to the offer, with collections assembled with serious curatorial intent alongside programming that reflects living creative scenes rather than purely historical material.

Repatriation debates are an increasingly visible part of engaging with African museum collections and several institutions are actively reclaiming significant objects from overseas collections. Your money goes a long way across most of the continent making extended museum itineraries practical on modest budgets. Opening hours and temporary closures require advance checking as published information dates quickly at smaller regional institutions.