IDP museum: a panacea for the preservation of cultural heritage in an insurgency bedevilled region

Abstract

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeast Nigeria have since 2009 been chased away from their communities and their villages destroyed as a result of the Boko Haran insurgency. The cultural heritage of the IDPs has suffered destruction, hence, there is the need to bring together and document their cultural identity for preservation, display and interpretation in a museum. The IDP museum would, therefore, be able to promote and grant access to different publics, thereby providing congenial platforms for both the IDPs and the general public to appreciate and identify with traditional motifs, artefacts, and other iconic cultural materials, which explicate meanings in the lives of the people.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, Material culture, IDPs, IDP museum, Insurgency, Boko Haram