Uganda Museum

Uganda Museum

File:Museum Entrance 2.JPG Museum entrance
Established	1908
Location	Northern part of Kampala Kitante hill plot 5 Kira road 5 km away from the city centre, Uganda.
Type	Historical
Director	Rose Nkaale Mwanja
Public transit access	The Uganda Museum can be accessed by public taxi, going to Kamwokya Ntinda , motorcycle motorist (Boda boda) or by private means. www.ugandamuseums.ug

The Uganda Museum is a museum in Kampala, Uganda, which displays and exhibits ethnological, natural-historical and traditional life collections of Uganda's cultural heritage. The museum was founded in 1908 after George Wilson called for "all articles of interest" on Uganda to be procured. Also among the collections in the Uganda Museum are playable musical instruments, hunting equipment, weaponry, archaeology and entomology.

History

The museum is the oldest museum in East Africa, it was officially established by the British protectorate government in 1908 with ethnographic material. The history of the nuseum goes back to 1902 when Governor George Wilkerson called for collection of objects of interest throughout the country to set up a museum. The museum started in a small Sikh temple at Lugards Fort on Old Kampala Hill. Between 1920 and 1940s, archaeology and paleontological surveys and excavations were conducted by Church Hill, E. J. Wayland, Bishop J. Wilson, P. L. Shinnie, E. Lanning, and several others who collected a significant number of artifacts to boost the museum. The museum at Fort Lugard later become too small to hold the specimens, and the museum was moved to the Margret Trowel School of Fine Art at Makerere University College in 1941. Later, funds were raised for a permanent home and the museum was moved to its current home on Kitante Hill in 1954. In 2008, The museum turned 100 years old.

Galleries

The museum has a number galleries, that is ethnographic gallery, natural history gallery, traditional music gallery, science and industry gallery and the early history gallery.

Ethnography gallery

The ethnography section holds more than 100,000 collections of historical and cultural materials that convey meaning about our past and present. A traditional reed door leads to exhibits on health, knowledge systems, objects of warfare, traditional dressing and other various ceremonial practices

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  Traditional reed door leading to the Ethnography Gallery

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  Barkcloth Showcase

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  Traditional wooden stools from different parts of Uganda

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  Traditional Justice showcase

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  Gomesi and Kanzu traditional outfits of Uganda

Music gallery

The music gallery displays a comprehensive collection of musical instruments from all parts of Uganda.The instruments are arranged according to the major groups of music instruments namely: drums, percussion, wind and string instruments.

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  Wind Musical Instruments

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  Wind musical instruments

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  Percussion musical instruments

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  Percussion musical instruments

Paleontology

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fossil hominidae age between 19-20 million years ago from Napak-Uganda

The Uganda Museum carries out research across the country though intensive research has been conducted in Karamoja region (Napak,Moroto and Kadam),Eastern Uganda at the foothills of Mt.Elgon(Bukwa) and the whole of Western rift to Dellu near Uganda’s border to Sudan. The Paleontological Research Unit has yielded interesting fossils in relation to human evolution. For instance the Uganda Pithecus(fossil skull of a remote cousin of Hominidae). This fossil Ape aged between 19 and 20 million years was discovered in Napak. Paleoenvironmental research around heritage sites has also taken place in Eastern and western Uganda.

The Uganda Museum collaborates with Mbarara university, Makerere University,College de Franca,Natural History Museum in Paris and the University of Michigan in this field.

Collections

A wide range of collection exist since the 1960s to recent years.Remarkable specimens are displayed in the Natural History /Palaeontology Gallery which is open to the public. Collection in stores is open to researchers and students on request to study.

Publications

Publication of finding can be found on various journals including the Geo-Pal an online Uganda, Scientific Journal published.

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. conducted tours, organized large number of schools are shown around the museum as well as giving introductory lectures with slides, films with other aids. The museum staff from the Education section goes out into the more remote areas of the country to teach in the villages whose schools are not able to have a chance to reach the museums. some objects are loaned out to schools to be used as visual aid. 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 offers a variety of traditional foods of Uganda taste and gift shops that show case Uganda's craft.

Cultural Village

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The Cultural Village at the Uganda depicting the different architectural and traditional lifestyles in Uganda

At the back of the Uganda Museum building are traditional huts depicting traditional lifestyles of the early indigenous people in Uganda. For visitors who want to experience the traditional ways of the Ugandan people, an array of cultural material such as milk pots made from wood (ebyanzi), gourd vessels, basketry, beadwork, horn work, ceramics, cutlery, leatherworks, armoury, and musical instruments are displayed. These houses include the Bamba House on your left as you enter the Cultural Village followed by Tooro House, Bunyoro House, Hima House, Ankole House and Kigezi House all representing the western region. Some of the things to experience in the Tooro House, which belongs to the Batooro, are the beddings - especially the makeshift wooden bed, the backcloth blanket, and the royal drums. In the Ankole House that belongs to Banyankole there are cooking utensils like pots, bowls made of clay and a mingling stone showing how the Banyankole used to prepare millet bread (Kalo) before the invention of the milling machines. In the Hima House that belongs to the Bahima there are milk gourds used for keeping milk and long horns representing the type of cattle that used to dominate the Hima kraals. The Hima House there is also a lotion made from milk used to smear a would-be bride. From eastern Uganda there is Busoga House, Jopadhola House, Bugisu House, Teso House and the Karimojong House. The Bugisu House is dotted with circumcision 'weapons', including knives headgear among other regalia. In the Teso House there are several calabashes used for brewing and drinking Malwa, a popular local brew in eastern Uganda. There is also mingling stones and pots for preparing kalo which is one of their main foods. Other houses include Acholi House, Lango House, the Alur House and Madi House all from northern Uganda. Some of these houses contain arrows and bows which were mainly used as protection tools and for hunting among others. Then there is the Buganda House that represents people from the central region. Inside the house there is backcloth, drums, baskets for Luwombo, hunting nets, wooden sandals (emikalabanda), and the Mweso game popular among the Baganda.

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  Bamba House

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  Lango House

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  Acholi House

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  Acholi Old man House

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  Bunyoro House

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  Madi House

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  Ankole House

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  Hima House

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  Alur House Granary

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  Teso House

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  Tooro House

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  Kigezi House

• Alur house.JPG

  Alur house

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  Busoga house

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  Karamoja house

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  Japadhola house

Children's Resource Center

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• Banana fibre activity.JPG
• Filling puzzles.JPG
• Making ropes.JPG

Architecture

The Museum building is a historical landmark designed by a German Architect called Ernst May. The building was functionally 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 vis - 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.

External links

• "The Uganda Museum Versus commerce"
• "Uganda Museum "
• "The Uganda Museum: The Custodian of Uganda's Heritage"