Museum Africa

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Museum Africa in the Newtown Cultural Precinct.

© Museum Africa

Museum Africa, in Johannesburg's Newtown Cultural District, is not only an important ethnological museum holding artefacts, paintings, photographs, musical instruments and archaeological items, but is also an animated memorial to key phases of Johannesburg’s past.
Its permanent displays are themed to reflect the city's geological, social, political and economic history, with many documenting the social effects of the gold mines on life in South Africa and, specifically Johannesburg.
One of them, Sounds of the City, traces South African music from the Marabi music and dance of the 1920s slum yards to the township jazz of a Sophiatown shebeen, bringing this world vividly to life.
Another permanent display, Tried for Treason, covers the 4 year trial of 156 people opposed to apartheid, including Nelson Mandela.
In the exhibition titled Gandhi's Johannesburg, you will discover the city landmarks associated the man who pioneered the philosophy of passive resistance. There’s another long-term exhibition called Cartoons in context, looking at South African history through the eyes of some of the country’s leading visual commentators and satirists over the decades. Johannesburg tracks: Mapping sexuality in the city explores the gay experience of Johannesburg.
Attached to Museum Africa is also the Workers’ Museum, telling the story of migrant labour in southern Africa.
The museum also collects southern African exhibits from the Zambezi River down, and a highlight is an Iron-Age Tswana house, including a furnace for working iron.
The Africana Museum, formerly housed in the Johannesburg Public Library, has also been incorporated into Museum Africa, with its collection of historic utensils and furniture used by the Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Afrikaner. Two other museums have also moved to the Museum Africa: the Bamberg Museum of Fashion, with its gowns and accoutrements, and the renowned Bensusan Museum of Photography.
The latter traces the history of photography from Louis Daguerre in 1839 to the latest digital images, and there is a fine collection of equipment for both photography and cinematography.
Contemporary exhibitions on Southern Africa's socio-economic history, featuring traditional as well as fine art, are also often presented at this South African cultural museum.