Tech and Cultural Heritage New Chapter in African Museology

A visionary idea to modernise museum practice in Africa has come to fruition, thanks to a collaborative effort of cultural activists, academics and political leaders. Ruby Ofori on the launch of Africa’s first digital museum.

Ms Ofori, the Pan African Heritage Museum is key milestone as far as documentation, access and management of the continent’s cultural and natural heritage is concerned. Who is behind this project and what is its objective?

The Pan African Heritage Museum (PAHM) is Africa’s first immersive digital museum established using the most cutting-edge technology. It was founded by Mr. Kojo Yankah, a Ghanaian writer, academic, politician and the chairman of the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival and the Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust. He first had the idea while attending a ceremony in Jamestown, Virginia in 1993, to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans from Angola to what is now the United States of America.

The digital version of the museum Mr. Yankah envisioned was launched nearly 30 years later, on 5 May 2022, and is to be followed in 2023 by a physical museum which is currently under construction in Ghana’s central region.

Through the digital and physical museum people of African descent and the world in general have an opportunity to unlearn, re-learn, and explore the true history of humanity’s origins in Africa. PAHM is part of a new wave of African museums being established to challenge the “scientific racism” that has been deeply rooted in the Western museum systems since the 1800s. An example is that of the British Museum in the United Kingdom which has an exhibition on Egyptian antiquities and another separate exhibition on Africa. The Pan African Heritage Museum situates Egypt in Africa geographically and culturally. This is demonstrated in the three exhibitions which can be viewed in the digital museum. The first is a multimedia immersive tour titled African Civilizations – Granaries of Memory and it raises questions about the purpose of art: Why and how did humanity find it important to create art from the very beginning of our existence?  The exhibition suggests that the answers can be found by exploring the art of African civilizations from Egypt to the kingdoms of Nubia and Kush, Benin, Congo, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Zulu, Asante, Lori, and the Munhumutapa.

Digitalisation and knowledge management are not new on the African continent: Libraries and archives have been active in this field and have made noticeable progress. Why has the museum sector taken so long to move in this direction?

Africans have documented and recorded their cultural patrimony in various forms over millennia. However, museums were introduced in Africa by European colonisers as tools in their arsenal of subjugation. Consequently, museums reinforced the otherness of Africans in their own land. After attaining political independence, the governments of African states focused their limited resources mainly on education and health with little attention paid to culture except, possibly, as tools to amplify nationalist rhetoric. In the last twenty years however the number of museums in Africa has doubled to around 900. Though still very few and extremely underfunded, African museums are embracing progressive new ideas of inclusivity and the need to encourage as many Africans as possible to enjoy their exhibitions. This has spurred a wave of digitilisation of cultural heritage. One of the first museums in Africa to digitalise part of its collection was the National Museum of Kenya in 1998. In which other ways will the Pan African Heritage Museum change the face of museology on the African continent?

Even before the completion of the physical museum, it has been cited by Time magazine as an institution that will be among the top five tourism destinations in Africa thereby boosting tourism to Ghana where it is located. The museum will be a place of healing for Africans and people of African descent where they can unlearn the falsehoods about the history of their ancestors and re-learn the true story of their culture dating back to antiquity. It will enable people of African descent to discover their complex and rich cultural inheritance. Many who visit the museum, whether digitally or physically will learn about their culture which created advanced kingdoms across Africa as well as a way of life that still has exceptional relevance today, not to mention the extraordinary and creative contributions of African cultures and civilisations to humanity.
 
What are the next steps in the project and in the wider context of digitalisation of museum collections in Africa? Are there any plans for cooperation among African museums at a continental level?

The Pan African Heritage Museum is the result of cooperation and collaboration, not only among African museums but also museums representing people of African descent around the world. Two of the museum’s partners are the African Union and the Association of African American Museums. One of the short term plans is to launch three new digital galleries in August this year, making a total of six galleries in the digital space.  The new galleries will showcase Africa’s contribution to science and technology, Migrations and the making of the Pan African World as well as Narratives of Resistance, Rebellions, Revolution and Liberation. The construction of the physical museum is expected to be completed in 2023.

One of the biggest challenges African museums face is the fact that the cultural heritage objects they would like to display are still held by museums in the global North and attempts to have the objects returned to the communities of origin have not borne much fruit. Is the digital museum an attempt to provide a practical solution to the problem of missing objects?

The negative impact of the theft of cultural artifacts and human remains by European colonisers on African societies cannot be mitigated or ameliorated by Africans resorting to the use of new technologies to conjure up the likenesses of what was stolen from them. This is particularly the case with objects that were sacred or had religious significance. To underscore this point, the Nigerian award-winning author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said, “…those things that are sacred, those things for whom people were killed, and those things that have in them the stains of innocent blood should be returned.” Most likely, the impact of digital museums in Africa will be to intensify the demand for restitution of stolen artifacts and human remains as more Africans will become aware of the patrimony that was taken from them.

The interview was conducted by Eliphas Nyamogo.