The museum becomes archive: reassessing Johannesburg’s MuseumAfrica

Abstract

This article charts the history of MuseumAfrica (formerly the Africana Museum) from its founding vision to the present. Taking the museum’s current abysmal reputation as its starting point, it seeks to fill the void in academic and popular thought that encompasses the institution. Sketching the original mandate under which it was created before focusing on the museum’s work from 1935 to the near present, it explores the ways in which the museum interacted with and impacted the world outside its doors. Paying particular attention to the museum’s engagement with liberal and illiberal forces for change, it presents the museum as something other than the monument impervious to change that it is often assumed to be. Categorising the museum as an archive, this article argues in favour of the museum’s enduring relevance in the post‐colonial order.

Keywords:

• MuseumAfrica
• Africana Museum
• Gubbins
• archive

Notes

1. While there is a dearth of scholarly work on MuseumAfrica and while most of it is not nearly as vitriolic as people’s spoken views of the space, some examples of how the institution’s history has been understood and misunderstood include Coombes (2003), Dubin (2006), Hamilton (1994), Nettleton (1993) and Van Tonder (1994).

2. In addition to catalogues of Africana, the museum published the quarterly journal Africana Notes and News from 1943 to 1993.

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.

4. All personal communications referred to in this article are cited with permission.

5. The Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto grew out of an exhibition titled ‘Never, never again’, originally launched at MuseumAfrica. The Apartheid Museum in Gold Reef City was created and continues to be run by Christopher Till, former head of the Africana Museum.

6. Neither the Apartheid Museum nor the Hector Pieterson Museum collects objects at this time.