The AfroDigital museum: Citizenship, identity and technology

The AfroDigital Museum: citizenship, identity and technology

This paper is about the creation of the AfroDigital Museum, a national project that aims to question and overcome socially embedded classifications and hierarchies. A broad consensus seems to have been reached in Brazil that Afrodescendents have the right to reparation and justice. A digital archive offers new opportunities since information forgotten by traditional institutions for archiving and displaying objects, documents and collective memories can be quickly recovered, reproduced and made available to a wider public. This paper’s objective is first of all to analyze the emergence of social movements and public policies intended to strengthen the identity of Afrodescendents. Identities are always constructed and perceiving the actors and motivations involved in such constructions is essential to evaluating the development of the new museum. The second point to be explored concerns the communicative potential of a digital museum. The paper will also evaluate aspects that are very often assumed to be inherent to the language of digital media. Aside from the restriction on access faced by poorer sections of the population, the text will point out the limits imposed on interactivity and communication.