the opening of the Exhibition in the Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg
11 August 2006
Programme Director
Honourable Chairperson of the Council of the Natal Museum, Professor PND
Nzimande
The Honourable Executive Mayor, Councillor Hlatshwayo
Members of the Natal Museum Council
Director and staff of the Museum
All invited guests
I want to especially greet you and thank you for this opportunity to give
this address today.
I want to thank the Museum Council and staff for always inviting me to share
in the celebration of achievements of this Museum. I was last here in 2004 when
the Museum was celebrating 100 years in "true style", as they were saying.
This event today takes place just two days after the celebration of Women's
Day which, once again, highlighted the role that women played in the liberation
of all the people of this country which sometimes tends to be overlooked. This
is, in fact, a year of celebrating the milestones in the history of our
country. I am therefore pleased to see the efforts that our heritage
institutions, like the Natal Museum, are making to ensure that this rich
heritage is properly documented especially for future generations. With South
Africa hosting the World Cup in 2010, it is important that we showcase our
heritage as part of the planning for this important event. But for this to
happen successfully, our people must identify with these institutions and
ensure that they are truly reflective of the diverse cultures and heritage of
the communities that they serve.
It is good to see that a lot of work has already been started to achieve
that goal here. The work that is done here will have no relevance to our
communities unless they are informed and participate fully in it. It is for
this reason that institutions like Museums and Libraries need to develop strong
links with their communities and should be responsive to the needs of those
communities. I am proud of some of the initiatives that this institution has
undertaken towards this end. The opening of the Learners Resource Centre
Swahili Towns and Trade exhibition today is a plausible effort to bring the
Natal Museum closer to the people.
I often quote Sir Seretse Khama, the first President of a liberated
Botswana, who said: "A nation without a past is a lost nation; A people without
a past is a people without a soul". Because what he said inspires me. Museums
are places where aspects of the world in which we live, which constitute this
"past" Sir Seretse Khama referred to, are researched, interpreted, preserved,
conserved and stored for posterity and made available for the public to
interact with.
Different museums concern themselves with different aspects of our world.
This museum concerns itself with the natural and cultural world around us,
which is evident from the displays on view. People who may lack an
understanding of what the value is, of all this, may regard interest in such
pursuits as trivial, since it seemingly falls short of providing for their
basic needs like shelter, jobs, food and water.
But if you ask the hundreds of people and the thousands of school children
who walk through the doors of museums and libraries each year, who visit these
institutions and are exposed to and educated in these various aspects of our
world, the will certainly tell you that they have been inspired and their
knowledge has been enriched, to learn and experience about the world around
them. Where else, other than a museum, can one see and learn so much about our
world, within a short time, in such limited space?
People visit museums and libraries to absorb, to be part of, and find
inspiration in the soul of the nation. This alone is sufficient reason for the
continued, and increased, support for South Africa's museums and libraries. The
mission of the Natal Museum is to focus on the natural and cultural world
around us. Thus, we should not only focus on the local. It is critical that we
find inspiration beyond our horizon. Not only should we look overseas to the
West and East for inspiration and interaction, which too often happens to be
the case, but we should also focus on our own continent, Africa.
South Africans and South Africa did not develop in isolation. It is from
Africa that we all emerged, whether in the remote past or more recently. If we
fail to reach out to Africa we limit our understanding of our world. We would
actually be cutting ourselves off from our roots, lose our connection to our
history and hence lose our souls, or at least, place severe restrictions on our
ability to understand ourselves, our identity, who we are and where we come
from.
This sentiment is fundamental even to recent development initiatives such as
New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), which is about socio-economic
improvement, and cultural projects such as the African Renaissance. President
Thabo Mbeki is clear on this: the African Renaissance "links the past to the
future and speaks to the interconnection between an empowering process of
restoration and the consequences or the response to the acquisition of that
newly restored power to create something new".
Hence our President, together with President Toure of Mali, are championing
the preservation and conservation of the ancient manuscripts discovered in
Mali, which deal with various disciplines such as astronomy, mathematics,
science, history, literature, commerce, music, governance and Islamic Law.
The Learners Resource Centre being opened today has a common theme:
"reaching out". The Learners Resource Centre marks a major shift from the
traditional Museum library being a library for research purposes only. This
resource centre will supplement the Museum's educational programs and allow
learners to understand other aspects of heritage that are not addressed by the
exhibitions.
The use of multi-media technology for the resource will ensure that the
Museum communicate to the young people through a medium that they fully
understand. The department of Arts and Culture is proud to be associated with
such projects as part of the on-going process to transform the heritage sector.
The fact that the centre will be used to highlight the commemoration of
specific events in our heritage is also a significant achievement for the
Museum.
I have also been educated today. When viewing the exhibition I learnt that
the Swahili culture evolved out of the expansion and intensification of ancient
trade links along the East African coast to encompass people in Arabia, India,
Indonesia and China. Out of centuries of intense and cosmopolitan contact with
people from these diverse regions, people on the African coast from Somalia to
northern Mozambique constructed a unique, complex culture that merged elements
of African, Arabic and Indian life under the banner of Islam, which was
introduced to East Africa around 1 000 years ago.
Undeniably though, the Swahili are African people. This display portrays
some aspects of Swahili life, depicts the trade routes that criss-crossed the
Indian Ocean and, through the beautifully carved doors from Bagamoyo in
Tanzania, takes the visitor into the homes of the people.
I also learnt that the Zimbabwean culture, which today is about 1 000 years
old, also developed out of long-distance interaction. It differs from the
Swahili example in that people in southern Africa constructed a new indigenous
belief system rather than adopting and transforming one from outside. The
Zimbabwean culture originated in the Limpopo valley at the famous sites of K2
and Mapungubwe. Its centre subsequently shifted to Zimbabwe.
This display proudly focuses on the South African components of the Zimbabwe
culture. The story of origins in the Limpopo valley is told in some detail, as
is the emergence of the Venda nation from interaction between Shona and Sotho
people. The Zimbabwe culture lives on today, among the Venda of Limpopo
province. A model of the finely decorated palace wall at Nalatale (a royal site
in southwest Zimbabwe) and continuously rolling imagery from Great Zimbabwe
forms an impressive backdrop to this story and provides alternative texture of
the rest of the display.
We must commend the staff of the Natal Museum for the initiative they have
taken in obtaining funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
While our department will continue to strive to access funds from Treasury for
the development of such exhibitions, the formation of partnerships to attract
funding will allow for greater involvement of both the public and private
sector and thereby speed up the process of transforming our heritage landscape.
I am glad to see that the Natal Museum has started to develop such
initiatives.
Our department will continue to support the Museum to address the imbalance
in terms of heritage development and transformation in this country. This is
the main challenge that we face and established institutions like the Natal
Museum should assist the department in addressing it. Museums should not be
seen in isolation to the development needs of our young democracy. Museums
belong to the people and their projects should be directed at ensuring that the
people of this country develop a sense of pride and ownership of these
institutions.
The projects that the Museums develop must always be aligned to the national
imperatives as identified by our government and contribute to the
socio-economic development of our country. These projects should also
contribute to the healing and building of our nation and unite all of us in our
diversity.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the staff that worked so hard to
conceptualise and develop these projects that are being opened today and once
more, thank the Chairperson of the Council and all the Council members, for the
support they have been giving the staff in executing their mandate.
And now, I have the honour and privilege to declare the Learners' Resource
Centre and the Swahili Towns and Trade Exhibition officially opened.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
11 August 2006
