Uganda Museum
Established | 1908 |
---|---|
Location | Plot 5 Old Kira Road Kitante Hill after Mulago Referral Hospital in the Northern part of Kampala, Uganda. |
Coordinates | 0°20′9.49″N 32°34′57.04″E / 0.3359694°N 32.5825111°E |
Type | Historical |
Director | Rose Nkaale Mwanja |
Architect | Ernst May |
Public transit access | The Uganda Museum can be accessed by public taxi, going to Kamwokya Ntinda, motorcycle motorist (Boda boda) or by private means. |
Website | www |
The Uganda Museum is located in
History
The Uganda Museum is the oldest museum in East Africa;
Galleries
The museum has a number of galleries: Ethnography, Natural History, Traditional Music, Science and Industry, and Early History.
Ethnography Gallery
The ethnography section holds more than 100,000 object of historical and cultural value. A traditional reed door leads to exhibits on health, knowledge systems, objects of warfare, traditional dressing and other various ceremonial practices in Uganda.
The ethnography gallery, formerly called the "Tribal Hall", is organized around a series of wooden “shop window” cases, each of which holds objects that derive from the traditional cultures of Uganda's people.[6]
-
Traditional reed door leading to the Ethnography gallery
-
Barkcloth showcase
-
Traditional wooden stools from different parts of Uganda
-
Traditional justice showcase
-
Gomesi and Kanzu traditional outfits of Uganda
Music Gallery
The music gallery displays a comprehensive collection of musical instruments from East Africa, which grew from the collection originally established by Dr Klaus Wachsmann in 1948.[7] The instruments are arranged according to the major groups of music instruments: drums, percussion, wind and string instruments.
-
Wind musical instruments
-
Wind musical instruments
-
Percussion musical instruments
-
Percussion musical instruments
Paleontology
The Uganda Museum carries out research across the country, with intensive research in the Karamoja region (Napak, Moroto and Kadam), Eastern Uganda at the foothills of Mount Elgon (Bukwo) and the whole of the western rift to Dellu, near Uganda’s border with South Sudan. The Paleontological Research Unit has yielded fossils that relate to human evolution. For instance, Uganda Pithecus (fossil skull of a remote cousin of Hominidae) is a fossil ape, aged between 19 and 20 million years, that was discovered in Napak. Paleoenvironmental research around heritage sites has also taken place in eastern and western Uganda.
The Uganda Museum collaborates with
Collections
A wide range of collections exist from the 1960s to the present. Specimens are displayed in the Natural History/Palaeontology Gallery which is open to the public. Collections in storage are available to researchers and students on request.
Publications
Publications of findings can be found in various journals including the Geo-Pal, an online Uganda Scientific Journal.
Education service
Apart from the permanent exhibits in the galleries, the Uganda Museum offers educational service in form of demonstration lessons, outreach programs, workshops and complimentary services. Using the available specimens, the museum arranges a variety of topical lessons related to the school curriculum. Student tours are conducted around the museum, as well as giving introductory lectures with slides, films, and other aids. The museum staff from the education section go into the more remote areas of the country to teach in villages whose schools are not able to visit the museums. Some objects are loaned out to schools to be used as visual aids. The museum hosts lectures, public talks and workshops on relevant topics to the public in the auditorium. The museum is well equipped with facilities, such as canteen and internet cafe, which offer a variety of traditional foods of Uganda, and gift shops that showcase Uganda's crafts.[8]
Cultural village
At the back of the Uganda Museum building is the cultural village with huts depicting traditional lifestyles of people in Uganda. For visitors who want to experience the indigenous ways of the Ugandan people, an array of cultural material, such as milk pots made from wood (ebyanzi), gourd vessels, basketry, bead work, horn work, ceramics, cutlery, leather works, armoury, and musical instruments, are displayed. These houses include Bamba House,
From eastern Uganda there is
-
Bamba House
-
Lango House
-
Acholi House
-
Acholi Old man House
-
Bunyoro House
-
Madi House
-
Ankole House
-
Hima House
-
Alur House Granary
-
Teso House
-
Tooro House
-
Kigezi House
-
Alur house
-
Busoga house
-
Karamoja house
-
Japadhola house
Children's Resource Center
Architecture
The museum building is a historical landmark designed by German architect Ernst May.[10][11] The building was designed with ample natural lighting and air to ensure proper preservation of objects.
Threats to the museum
During 2011, the Uganda Museum complex (that includes the headquarters of Uganda Wildlife Authority) was under threat of demolition. The Uganda Government was planning to build an "East African Trade Centre" (sometimes referred to as the Kampala Tower) on the site. In 2011, four civil society organisations, the Historic Resources Conservation Initiatives (HRCI), Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU), Historical Buildings Conservation Trust (HBCT) and Jenga Afrika, took the Government of the Republic of Uganda to court to halt the government's plans.[12]
See also
- Afriart Gallery Uganda
- Uganda National Cultural Centre
- Uganda Wildlife Education centre
References
- ^ a b Jackson, Chris. "The Uganda Museum – Reviewed by Chris Jackson". The Eye Magazine. The Eye Uganda. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ^ Lewis, Geoffrey D. "History of museums". Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 7. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ^ "The Uganda Museum". Uganda Tourism Board. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ISBN 9781784776428.
- ^ "Participatory Architecture: Web 2.0 Education in the Uganda National Museum", poemhunter.com (2014). Retrieved 3 October 2014
- doi:10.1017/S0010417520000365 – via Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0license.
- ^ Oldfield, Sybil. The Black Book: The Britons on the Nazi Hit List (2020), p.233-4
- ^ "Museum Education Services " ugandamuseums.ug. Retrieved 3 October 2014
- ^ "Cultural Village turns fortunes for Uganda Museum" busiweek.com,5 December 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ "The Ernst May Exhibition at the Uganda Museum" startjournal.org,30 April 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ "Kampala through the eyes of 1945 German architect" newvision.co.ug,24 April 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ Wesaka, Anthony (10 March 2011). "Battle to demolish museum goes to court". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
External links
- "The Uganda Museum Versus commerce"
- Cases on Formal and Informal E-Learning Environments: Opportunities and Practices. IGI Global. 2012. ISBN 978-1466619302.
- "Uganda Museum "
- "The Uganda Museum: The Custodian of Uganda's Heritage"