"Maison du pays." Exhibitions in Private Museums in West Africa and Cameroon

From the start of the colonial era, traditional powerholders undertook to set up, or supported setting up, museums, which were mostly private establishments. Currently, local & religious authorities, ethnic associations, & artists are, in turn, creating museums -- usually & mainly with the intention of promoting the authority or identity of the founders, whether persons or groups. But do these museums have a feeling, such as exists in African societies, for a cultural heritage? Given both the meaning, as seen through exhibitions, assigned to the objects they store & the image they present of the group or community whose culture they display, very few of them depart from the Western museum model as conveyed by national museums. Adapted from the source document.