Wereldmuseum Berg en Dal

Long known as the Afrika Museum, this institution in Berg en Dal — a suburb of Nijmegen in Gelderland — was the only museum in the Netherlands devoted exclusively to the cultures and art of sub-Saharan Africa. Founded in 1954 by the Spiritans, a Catholic missionary congregation, its collection reflects the entanglement of missionary activity, colonial history, and ethnographic study. From 2014 onward it was absorbed into the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, though a property dispute between the landowner — the Catholic order — and the national museum leadership complicated its future. The holdings included masks, textiles, everyday objects, and contemporary African art, making it one of the most thematically focused collections on African cultures in the Benelux region.