Sierra Leone’s Nationwide Heritage

INTRODUCTION
The time interval museum is from Historic Greek, Mouseoin, which normally means “the put sacred to the muses.” In accordance with Greek Mythology Mouseoin was the temple of muses, the 9 goddesses that presided above poetry, tunes, the humanities, sciences and understanding. In Greek Mythology the 9 goddesses have been the daughters of Zeus, the King of the gods and Mnemosyne, the goddess of reminiscence. The Greeks thought-about that the muses lived on Mount Olympus with their chief, the god Apollo (American Affiliation of Museums, 2000). Within the third century B.C. all through the rule of the Ptolemy Dynasty, when the Greeks dominated about Historic Egypt, Ptolemy 1 Soter began an institution for literary and scientific analyze in Alexandria and known as it a museum. With the revival of learning all by means of the Renaissance within the fifteenth century A.D. Italian students retained their collections of historic sources in rooms referred to as museums. The Renaissance nobles additionally had adorned their palaces with art work, sculpture and collections of curiosities. It was considerably afterwards that personal collections handed to normal public possession and had been placed on present. For example Pope Sixtus IV opened the Capitoline Museum to most of the people in 1447 and this was adopted by Cesarini additionally in Rome. The first museum to be operated as a nationwide institution was the British Museum in 1753 adopted by the Palace of Louvre in Paris in 1793.Different fashionable museums are the Art work Gallery through which the Mona Lisa is portrayed, the Metropolitan in New York, the Prado in Madrid, the Hermitage in Petersburg (Leningrad), and the Smithsonian in Washington (Sears, 2006).
ORIGINS AND Enhancement OF THE SIERRA LEONE Countrywide MUSEUM
‘There’s at all times a factor new from Africa’ acknowledged Pliny who lived from 23-79 A.D. This in depth continent of Africa has some a number of firsts. The north of Africa is regarded as the cradle of civilization that’s Historic Egypt. It was in Historic Egypt that the very first museum got here into existence. Much more south are nearly impassible limitations of desert and tropical forests, and out of doors of those, lies the larger a part of Africa regarded to the Arabs as Bilad-as-Sudan, the land of the Black women and men. It was on this facet of Africa within the Rift Valley in East Africa additionally recognised as Japanese Sudan that the oldest form of human on a regular basis residing was recognized. The Western Sudan (West Africa) can boast of spectacular historic empires like Ghana, Songhai, Mali and Kanem Bornu.
Sierra Leone a lot too has a extremely affluent and various heritage. She has an considerable regular on a regular basis residing her archaeological websites day again to the Earlier Stone Age in Africa. Oral traditions date once more to the time when the ancestors of current inhabitants settled of their respective places. There’s a terrific number of a number of thriller societies with their associated cultural sources these because the Poro, Bondo, Gbagbani, Kofo, Regbainlay and Mathoma Resolution Societies. There are additionally the earlier widespread arts and crafts monuments and relics which commemorate individuals and capabilities prolonged previously. This heritage has been constructed on across the a very long time by the capabilities of sculptors, architects, painters, musicians, blacksmiths, goldsmiths and different creators of kind and pure magnificence. As much as 1957 Sierra Leone had no museum. The Monument and Relics Fee of 1st June 1947 supplied the muse for the security and preservation of historic, historic and pure monuments, relics and different objects of archaeological, ethnographical (traditional Artwork ) and historic or different scientific curiosity as laid down by the Act. These historic relics had been being scattered all in extra of the place gathering mud and mildew in governing administration ware properties, while her ethnographical treasures ended up remaining destroyed by temperature wooden-boring bugs. In 1954, Sir Robert de Zouche Hall, a earlier Governor Fundamental challenged the Sierra Leone Society to develop a Nationwide Museum for the nation. This museum, based on the Governor, can add to the event of nationwide satisfaction by gathering and preserving objects and incomes them available for contemplation and analysis. This downside was taken up by M.C.F. Easmon and different folks with the event of a Museum Sub-Committee (Cummings, 1996). The Outdated Cotton Tree Railway Station was acquired and rehabilitated, with the help of presidency, and was opened on the tenth December, 1957. The Countrywide Museum, based on Sir Maurice Dorman, was alleged to accumulate, put in get and preserve the perform of man’s fingers that was quickly disappearing from the lives of Sierra Leoneans. The Countrywide Museum, he extra, ‘needs to be a spot precisely the place the illiterate particular person might be inspired by the show display screen of what’s very best in his tradition, equally previously and current, there-by sustaining a historical past of Sierra Leone for posterity.’
MUSEUM Safety
The Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum handles three elements: Archaeology, Historic previous and Ethnography. Within the area of Archaeology there are large steatite (soapstone) heads, the Maye Yafe or Chiefs’ devils. These are thought-about to hold nice luck to Chiefs and detrimental luck to the frequent particular person. There are figures known as Nomoli, that are an enigma and are of mysterious antiquity. The curator thinks that these figures date once more to the Center Stone Age. There’s a giant assortment of poetry and potsherds and it’s believed that among the pots on exhibit within the museum day again once more to B.C. occasions. There’s additionally an abundance of Outdated Stone Age devices this sort of as choppers, hand axes, and polished New Stone Age instruments collectively with a number of steatite bored stones which have been when utilised as foreign money and as digging adhere weights. Within the Heritage area essentially the most well-known merchandise is the primary Structure of Sierra Leone signed in 1799 by King George III by which the settlement turned a British Colony. There are additionally designs of the de Reuter Stone on which the Admiral engraved his determine after sacking Bunce and Tasso Islands in 1664. Bunce Island was a depot from the place slaves have been transported all through the Atlantic Ocean. There are effigies of the late Sir Milton Margai, the initially Prime Minister of Sierra Leone and Bai Bureh, the earlier warrior chief who fought the British from 1898-1902. There’s additionally a bunch of sources drawn from the colonial interval these sorts of as canon, staffs of chiefs, swords, medals, cash, photographs, work and paperwork. Within the spot of Ethnography (Common Art work) there are totally dressed masquerading dancers e.g. Sowei of the Bondo Society, Goboi, the regalia of Chiefs, Magic system Trendy society paraphernalia, stunning carved masks, carvings in human and animal kind, indigenous musical gadgets just like the drums that are integral in African rituals in supply, initiation and lack of life, textile, basketry and different crafts. The Sierra Leone Countrywide Museum has a spectacular collection of artifacts and is genuinely a retail retailer house of the nation’s cultural treasures (Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum Prospectus, 2013).
Operate OF THE MUSEUM
The Sierra Leone Countrywide Museum preserves the countrywide heritage it’s a subtle establishment for analysis, coaching and life-style. It’s an instrument of mass instruction, which caters for the requires of literates and illiterates, each younger and outdated. Babies of college going age make up the premier group served by the Countrywide Museum because of guided excursions. Other than school groups explicit particular person kids take a look at the museum every working day. The museum shows are relevant to the college syllabi extra so in disciplines like Historic previous, Social Analysis, Agricultural Science and Civics. Thus essay and poster competitions are function by the museum for kids. Contemplating the truth that Art work is essentially the most pure normally technique of expression of individuals who cannot learn and write the reveals within the Nationwide Museum are so organized that they’ll discuss for them selves. The museum is a vital analysis heart. It’s exploration that brings the museum to life-style and tends to make it rather a lot far more than a repository of lifeless objects. As evaluation centre the Nationwide Museum is the one space within the nation through which a person can get hold of these sorts of historic recordsdata just like the Sierra Leone Structure. In consequence college students from every higher and tertiary establishments as successfully as scientists (regionally and internationally) make in depth use of museum substance in crafting their jobs. Among the topic areas drastically investigated on within the museum are the origins of St John’s Maroon Church, tourism as instrument of socioeconomic development, typical instructional establishments in Sierra Leone all by means of pre-colonial, colonial and present-day occasions, interment rites of paramount chiefs amongst distinctive ethnic groups within the state, and mining in pre-colonial Sierra Leone.
The Sierra Leone Countrywide Museum is just not solely confirmed for elites and the scholarly group but additionally to provide a help for the conventional normal public. The elemental cause of the museum is to assist the general public to know and benefit from beneath circumstances of present the artifacts which the institution collects, preserves and shields. Entrance to the museum is cost-free as a result of it isn’t solely a national museum but additionally portion of an intercontinental settlement (World Council of Museum) to which the Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum is a signatory have to. Sierra Leoneans are knowledgeable of the straightforward proven fact that the Nationwide Museum varieties an integral portion of the neighborhood custom. The specimens of the cultures represented within the museum at the moment are in use and individuals are conscious about their existence and capabilities. The museum whereas nationwide additionally pursuits non-national public composed sometimes of European, American and Asian nationals, most of those are unaware of African custom on the whole and Sierra Leonean custom in distinctive. Paradoxically the museum has touched equally an informed and fairly largely illiterate as very nicely as educated and fully uninitiated publics. The following are a few remarks from the Museum’s Friends E-book:
• It’s spectacular, stick with it! (A Nigerian).
• We entered into African mysteries (An Italian).
• Very attention-grabbing! Fairly distressing particularly the slaves (An American).
• Most and the best encounter in Space Historic previous).
• It goes a in depth method in preserving our cultural heritage (A Sierra Leonean).
The Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum is an exhibition and dialog center. It offers name with precise objects. It disseminates data about Sierra Leonean Artwork. Artwork items are themselves paperwork that are eloquent. From naturalistic figures held within the museum folks at present can discover out concerning the costume of the time. A sculptured piece reveals a small additional than the human being portrayed. For example a carved warrior or hunter within the museum reveals the type of weapon utilised on the time. The museum steers apparent of ethnic distribution within the state of its objects. It goals at representing comparatively than stating regional peculiarities. For living proof Rhythmic Arts (musical devices), Occupations (fishing gear, basketry and pottery), cultural objects (insignia of Chiefs and bride income), and Ladies’s Routines (ornaments, combs and cooking utensils)) are portrayed within the museum. The reason is that every city and rural friends are nervous to see their technique of life-style mirrored within the “Ancestral Residence,” which is the museum. As native folks go spherical the museum they search attentively for utensils, purposes, weapons or acquainted faces and are ordinarily delighted or usually grievance to workers members when these are absent. In non permanent the Museum performs a extremely important element at nationwide and worldwide ranges. It may assist the general public to respect article content material illustrating historical past. As repository of the nationwide heritage it permits individuals to acquire the components of their earlier and to accumulate new non secular prosperity. The Museum renews in Sierra Leoneans a notion of belonging to a specifically civilization and stimulates in them the spirit of nationwide satisfaction and cohesion that are important substances in nation organising.
MEMBERSHIP OF Certified ORGANISATIONS
The Sierra Leone Countrywide Museum is a member of quite a few certified our bodies each equally at dwelling and abroad. It has been a member of the World Council of Museums (ICOM) contemplating that 1964. The Museum can also be a member of the Group for Museums, Monuments and Web pages in Africa (OMMSA), the cultural arm of the then Group of African Unity (OAU), at current African Union(AU ). The Museum is represented within the Arts Coaching Affiliation of Sierra Leone, which within the earlier structured Artwork Festivals in schools and colleges additionally it is represented within the Basic public Archives Fee and the Sierra Leone Affiliation of Librarians, Archivists and Information Professionals(SLAALIP).
The Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum continues to benefit from cordial partnership with UNESCO which has assisted in employees instruction and supply of substances the West African Museums Program in Dakar(WAMP),which has executed a number of workshops on conservation and preservation of artifacts. Abroad Missions as nicely have contributed immensely to the development of the museum. For illustration the Federal Republic of Germany in Sierra Leone erected an extension of the museum as a bicentenary reward. The French Embassy in Sierra Leone by means of the French Cooperation Technological Division rehabilitated the Outdated Cotton Tree Museum Making. The US of America, via the Workplace of the US Data Options has on varied conditions invited the curator to pay a go to to the Usa which has resulted to shut hyperlinks with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Museum of African Artwork in Washington, Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Museum of Trendy Artwork in Chicago. The U S Embassy was additionally instrumental within the twinning relationship with the Museum of Coastal Heritage, St. Simons Island, Ga. By way of these inbound hyperlinks the Museum was geared up with the outcomes of Indiana-American analysis assignments, pamphlets, calendars of coming gatherings, posters and long run exhibitions. The twinning with the Museum of Coastal Heritage, St Simons Island, Georgia, America of america has led to the investigation of the “Trans-Atlantic Linkage-the Sierra Leone and the Gullah/Geechee Connection.” There was a set of commerce visits between curators and the Fantastic Spring Lecture was despatched at Fort Frederica, St Simon Island in 1995. In the identical 12 months a joint exhibition and a symposium was held on the “Trans-Atlantic Linkage” in Ga.
Points
An individual of the principal considerations of the Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum is the best way to beat the theft and illicit exportation of cultural artifacts. The Governing administration of Sierra Leone has formulated an entire nationwide coverage with statutes as contained within the Monuments and Relics Ordinance of 1947. The Ordinance offers for the preservation of historic, historic and all-natural monuments, relics and different objects of historic, ethnographical and scientific need. Any man or girl who wishes to export from the nation any ethnographical merchandise should publish it to the Nationwide Museum a license will likely be issued which ought to actually be revealed to customs officers on the place of departure. If an supposed product for exportation has cultural, historic or archaeological value will probably be retained within the state as component of the nationwide heritage. Anybody uncovered violating any of the polices is liable to authorized prosecution beneath the supply of the Ordinance. If found responsible the particular person anxious should spend a advantageous of 200 kilos sterling. In default of cost, the person or girl will present a jail sentence not exceeding six months. Even so, despite the endeavours designed by the Museum to protect cultural residence smuggling of artifacts carries on. It’s disturbing to note that in Sierra Leone educated and intelligent individuals order, present and export guarded cultural provides only for the sake of small enterprise promotion. What is much extra Sierra Leone has porous borders which individuals use to edge in smuggling cultural supplies out of the state with impunity.
Extra most of the people help that the Nationwide Museum performs warrants public expenditure, particularly if requirements are to be taken care of. Sadly govt grants to the museum are meagre and this poses one other problem for the working of the museum. Often salaries paid out to workers will not be solely discouraging usually however delayed in cost. In 2014 for event so a terrific deal earnings backlog was owed workers that workers members struck and the museum ceased to function for a although. Furthermore the Nationwide Museum doesn’t have branches within the provinces however solely centered within the funds city, Freetown. Personnel are confined in quantity and ill-enthusiastic. Not often are they engaged in capability growing owing to deficiency of sources. This has led to monumental workers members convert-more than. Much more in extra of working within the museum is just not correctly regarded country-large. Most individuals watch it as a piece for college drop outs. In consequence youthful folks at present don’t like pursuing museology as a occupation. Additionally staff don’t embark on large group coaching on the nice significance of the museum in fashionable society. Small marvel why school heading youngsters sort the most important collection of guests to the museum versus federal authorities functionaries and important stake holders within the place. Even the road ministry, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the Museum is beneath doesn’t seem like to completely grasp its significance in nation setting up. The Ministry priorities its actions and supporting the museum is just not a precedence. Consequently in time of economic stringency the museum is a weak space to swindle cash (Sierra Leone Nationwide Museum Prospectus, 2013). If therefore authorities needs the Countrywide Museum to proceed actively enjoying an at any time escalating job in nationwide enchancment there may be every require for governing administration functionaries to provide subsequent imagined on how easiest they’ll help it to meet this intention. The place the troubles confronted by administration are tackled the museum as nicely may help produce the rather a lot desired abroad trade along with its preservation of the nationwide heritage.