 Sign at the entrance to the Museum Africa | |
  Museum Africa Location within South Africa | |
Former name | Africana Museum (1935–1994) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1933 |
| Location | Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Coordinates | 26°12′06″S28°01′52″E / 26.2018°S 28.0312°E |
| Website | Museumwebsite |
Museum Africa or MuseuMAfricA (formerly known as the Africana Museum) is a historical museum in Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The museum was established in 1933, when the Johannesburg Public Library bought a large quantity of Africana material and books from John Gaspard Gubbins. [1] From the mid-1930s, the museum's scope widened to include all aspects of African cultural history and material culture.
The museum regularly published catalogues of the Africana it had in its collections, with titles such as "Military medals of South African interest", "Artists' impressions of Johannesburg, 1886-1956" and "Claudius water-colours in the Africana Museum". [2] From 1943 to 1993 the museum also published the quarterly journal Africana Notes and News. [3]
The museum established the following branch museums: James Hall Museum of Transport, 1964; Bensusan Photographic Museum and Library, 1969; The Museum of South African Rock Art, 1969; and the Bernberg Museum of Costume, 1973. In 1978, it took over the Museum of Man and Science. [3]
In 1994, after the fall of apartheid and the election of a representative democratic government in South Africa, the museum was refurbished and renamed MuseuMAfricA.
MuseuMAfrica launched an exhibit entitled "Never, never again" which led to the establishment of the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto. The Apartheid Museum in Gold Reef City was created and run by Christopher Till, former head of the Africana Museum. [3]
The museum is housed in the city's former fruit and vegetable market in Newtown, built in 1913, located opposite Mary Fitzgerald Square, on the same block as the Market Theatre.
The museum has collections of African material culture from across the continent, including noted collections of tokens, musical instruments and head-rests.
Permanent exhibitions include MyCulture which outlines the different South African cultural and ethnic groups, their origins and how these groups have changed over time; [4] Johannesburg Transformations, highlighting the momentous changes that the city has undergone in its history; [5] and Tried for Treason an exhibition detailing the Rivonia Trial involving 156 defendants, including Nelson Mandela.
The Bensusan Museum of Photography collects rare and valuable precision-made photographic equipment, some dating from the Victorian and Edwardian eras [4] and pictures made using this equipment including wet-plate prints, stereoscopic views and digital images.
The Geology Museum collection consists of over 17 000 rock and mineral samples from Southern Africa, including from the Tsumeb area of Namibia (an area with diverse mineral deposits), the Witwatersrand reefs (a gold mining area), and the Okiep area (a copper mining region).
The Workers' Museum, located two blocks away opposite the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, is a branch of the museum which tells the story of the migrant labourers who came from across Southern Africa and other parts of the world to work in the gold mines of Johannesburg. [4]
During the level 1 lockdown imposed on South Africa during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, museums were closed along with all such public buildings. [6] In November 2020 a break-in and robbery occurred. No artefacts from the museum were taken but tap fittings and basins were removed, resulting in partial flooding of the museum and possible damage to stored exhibits. [7]
Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa with 4,803,262 people, and is classified as a megacity; it is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international-scale mineral, gold and (specifically) diamond trade.
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa.
The East Rand is a major urban area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the urban eastern part of Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Springs in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includes the towns of Bedfordview, Benoni, Boksburg, Brakpan, Edenvale, Germiston, Kempton Park, Linksfield and Modderfontein. The East Rand is known as the transport hub of Johannesburg and includes Africa's largest and second busiest airport, OR Tambo International Airport.
The N3 Eastern Bypass is a section of the Johannesburg Ring Road that forms a beltway around the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the N3. The first section of the freeway opened in 1971, from Buccleuch to the interchange with Main Reef Road in Germiston. This is one reason why Germiston is listed as the southbound destination of this route, from the Buccleuch to Geldenhuys Interchanges, rather than to the Elands Interchange south of Germiston. The remaining section from Main Reed Road to Black Reef Road, which included the construction of the Geldenhuys Interchange, was opened in 1977, linking the Eastern Bypass with the N3 freeway to Heidelberg. The interchange at Main Reef Road was removed.
Roodepoort is a city in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the Johannesburg municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton. Johannesburg's most famous botanical garden, Witwatersrand National Botanical Gardens, is located in Roodepoort.
The R24 is a major East-West provincial route in the Gauteng and North West provinces that links OR Tambo International Airport with Rustenburg via Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Magaliesburg. The section of the route from OR Tambo International westwards up to a point in Roodepoort is has been named Albertina Sisulu Road since 2013, named after anti-apartheid stalwart Albertina Sisulu.
David Goldblatt HonFRPS was a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the apartheid period. After apartheid's end, he concentrated more on the country's landscapes. Goldblatt's body of work was distinct from that of other anti-apartheid artists in that he photographed issues that went beyond the violent events of apartheid and reflected the conditions that led up to them. His forms of protest have a subtlety that traditional documentary photographs may lack; Goldblatt said, "[M]y dispassion was an attitude in which I tried to avoid easy judgments.... This resulted in a photography that appeared to be disengaged and apolitical, but which was in fact the opposite." Goldblatt also wrote journal articles and books on aesthetics, architecture, and structural analysis.
The Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg in South Africa is a public space named after Mary "Pickhandle" Fitzgerald, who is considered to have been the first female trade unionist in the country.
Norwood is a rapidly gentrifying suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region E of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. It borders the suburbs of Orange Grove and Houghton. It is a garden suburb, with many of its homes dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. It is also one of the more popular dining spots in the city, renowned for its "celebrated restaurants" and ethnic mix of cuisine, mainly based on Grant Avenue. Other suburbs with a similar atmosphere, popular for their streetlife and dining include Melville, Newtown, Parkhurst and Greenside. The suburb has a "distinctive cosmopolitan atmosphere", and the residents comprise a mix of cultures including Jewish, Muslim, and West African. Norwood Primary School is based in the suburb. Some of its more well-known inhabitants include the anti-apartheid activist Helen Joseph and the actor Patrick Mynhardt.
Newtown is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in the capital city of Gauteng Province and in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. It has the coordinates of 26.204°S and 28.034°E. The suburb originated as a manufacturing district for brick production.
Commissioner Street is a major one-way street (westwards) in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa. It runs from the M31 to the R41, and is indicated as part of the R24. The Carlton Centre, the 5th-tallest building in Africa as of 2024, is located on the street, as is the southern end of Newtown. There is little evidence of Commissioner Street's exact origin, although it is known that this street played a role in the development of Johannesburg.
Africana may refer to:
Robert Tollast, was a British painter. He was a court painter for the House of Habsburg.
Zoo Lake is a popular lake and public park in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is part of the Hermann Eckstein Park and is opposite the Johannesburg Zoo. The Zoo Lake consists of two dams, an upper feeder dam, and a larger lower dam, both constructed in natural marshland watered by the Parktown Spruit.
Pitika Ntuli is a South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic who spent 32 years of his life in exile in Swaziland and the UK.
Mpho Franklyn Parks Tau is a South African politician who was appointed as Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition from 3 July 2024.
The Beyers Naudé Square is a large city square in the center of Johannesburg, South Africa, named after Beyers Naudé, a former dominee in the Dutch Reformed Church, who was banned by the apartheid government for campaigning against apartheid. The square was originally called Market Square because it was Johannesburg's first market place after it came into existence.
John Gaspard Gubbins was an Africana collector and writer. He was the son of a rector Richard Shard Gubbins and Ellen Rolls who were married on 21 November 1865.
The Workers' Library and Museum was a non-profit labour service organisation (LSO) active in Johannesburg, South Africa between 1987 and the early 2000s. The organisation provided a meeting and learning centre for labour activists as well as students from the nearby Alexandra and Soweto areas. In 1994, it was expanded into the Workers and Museum in Newtown, Johannesburg, with the only museum in South Africa focussed on working people other than the Slave Lodge, Cape Town.
Africana are materials such as books, documents, artifacts, or artistic or literary works of any of the nations of Africa which reflect on the geographical, historical, or cultural development of Africa.
