African Museum (Lyon)

Brief information

The African Museum in Lyon grew out of the obligation of missionaries to bring objects of material and religious culture from Dahomey to France. Its collection should therefore be read not as a random selection of curiosities, but as a collection that arose from a specific channel of acquisition: objects arrived here through the work of the Catholic Society of African Missions.

The museum was founded in 1861 and is among the oldest French museums devoted to African culture. The collection is based on objects from West Africa. In the permanent exhibition, they are arranged not by visual impact, but according to the structure of life: everyday, social, and religious. This order helps visitors see the exhibits as parts of different practices, not only as separate museum objects.

What to notice first

The information about the exhibition sets the main focus for the visit: it is worth comparing its three sections. Objects of everyday life show the domestic side of culture; the section on social life shifts attention to relationships between people; religious objects recall that part of the collection was connected specifically with spiritual practices. In this way, a single collection is revealed through the different functions of things.

One can also note the scale: the permanent exhibition occupies 759 square meters and includes 2,126 exhibits. This is not a palace enfilade and not a huge national museum, but a dense private collection in which the grouping of objects matters. The history of the building offers a separate contrast: the museum closed for renovation in 1998 and reopened after restoration on January 28, 2001. Temporary exhibitions add the theme of contemporary life among the peoples of Africa to the historical core.