A rich history archive has been left to rot – David Saks

Neglected MuseumAfrica has a treasure trove of collections that have been consigned to mothballs

All aspiring writers will attest to the pleasure of seeing their work appear in print for the first time. In my case, it was an article (published by this newspaper) on the new direction that the Africana Museum – shortly to rename itself MuseumAfrica – was taking in response to South Africa’s unfolding political transformation.

My very appointment, in April 1990, as curator of history was part of the museum’s seeking to reposition itself in a rapidly changing society.

By then, it had been recognised that if the museum was to remain a respected and properly funded cultural and educational resource in a future democratic South Africa, it had to move decisively away from the heavily Eurocentric focus of the past and become genuinely inclusive in the services it provided.

This would have a major impact not just on what was on display, but also on collection policies and educational programmes.

  How MuseumAfrica went about implementing these changes, thereby becoming both a reflection of – and an active agent in – the transformation process, is related by Sara Byala in her 2013 book A Place That Matters Yet.

  Since her history appeared, however, things have deteriorated sharply. Writing in the Mail & Guardian (Letting MuseumAfrica collapse is a cultural assault), Byala paints a depressing picture of where the museum finds itself today, with its very existence apparently under threat.

Personally, this came as no surprise. On a recent family visit to the museum, I was profoundly disheartened by what I saw. Empty spaces abounded, whole sections were unlit, interactive displays no longer functioned and hardly anything new seemed to have been added since my last visit.

Even more revealingly, we were the only visitors, despite this being a Sunday. What used to be the offices of a range of curators – among them a geologist, an ethnographer, two historians and curators for the costume and picture collections – have been unoccupied for years.

Whatever reasons there might be for the disastrous state of neglect into which the museum has fallen, it cannot be attributed to a failure to adapt to post-apartheid realities.

If anything, successive curators have swung too far in that direction for fear of being accused of pandering to notions of white cultural domination.

As a result, the “old” was jettisoned, almost in its entirety, in favour of installations with themes that carefully, even slavishly, mirrored what was felt to be the acceptable post-colonial struggle narrative.