A Shared Resource for the Future: Why MOWAA Matters to Africa’s Cultural Infrastructure

Yinka Olatunbosun

As Africa’s Museum landscape expands, a central question emerges: how will institutions support one another in an era of growing collections, climate threats, and public demand for access? For the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), the long-term answer is to function not only as a museum, but as cultural infrastructure for the region.

Its conservation labs, digitisation platforms, training programmes, and archaeological research units collectively serve institutions far beyond its campus. National museums, university archives, grassroots heritage centres, and independent curators all draw on these shared resources.

In practical terms, this means access to stabilised storage strategies, digitisation workflows, professional mentorship, and research partnerships that would otherwise be out of reach for many institutions.

The value of such infrastructure is cumulative. Each trained conservator multiplies impact across institutions. Each digitised archive preserves knowledge for future generations. Each archaeological survey protects sites before they disappear.

Over time, these layers of invisible cultural work quietly strengthen the foundations of African heritage practice. Exhibitions may capture public attention, but it is this sustained institutional support that ensures collections survive, research thrives, and public memory endures.

In this sense, MOWAA’s deepest contribution is not just the art it will display, but the systems it is building to ensure that African heritage remains visible, accessible, and preserved for centuries to come.