The Dundo Museum (), officially the Dundo Regional Museum and formerly called the Dungo Ethnographic Museum, is a national

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

and

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

Dundo Dundo, or Dundo-Chitato, is a former mining town, with a population of 177,604 (2014), now a city and the provincial capital of Lunda Norte Province, Lunda Norte in Angola. Established in the early part of the 20th century as a planned diamond min ...

Lunda Norte Province Lunda Norte () is a province of Angola. It has an area of 103,760 km² and a population of 862,566. Angola's first President, Agostinho Neto, made Lucapa the provincial capital after independence, but the capital was later moved to Dundo. ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. It was founded in 1936 by the Diamang company, making it the country's first museum. It is considered one of the country's most important museums and one of the most important cultural museums in Africa. It focuses primarily on preserving artifacts related to the heritage and culture of eastern Angolan groups, particularly the

Chokwe people __NOTOC__ The Chokwe people, known by many other names (including Kioko, Bajokwe, Chibokwe, Kibokwe, Ciokwe, Cokwe or Badjok), are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group of Central Africa, Central and Southern Africa. They are found primarily in An ...

, and also has

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

collections. Several objects were looted during the

Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War () was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two for ...

and repatriation efforts are ongoing. On 18 April 2016, it was named a regional cultural reference monument.

Exhibits

Most of the museum's collection focuses on the culture and history of East Angolans, particularly the

. , the Dundo Museum hosts approximately 10,200

objects and 30,000

specimens, including a

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

. The museum's entrance is fronted by two lion sculptures, which in Chokwe culture are symbols of protection; and a map of Angola is in the center. The main gallery in the museum contains a reconstructed Chokwe village. The museum is divided into different sections on daily life and political and social structure. Other exhibits inside the museum include a portrait gallery of Angolan chiefs; an "Indigenous Room" containing objects of cultural heritage; and an "Africa Room" containing objects

repatriated Repatriation is the return of a thing or person to its or their country of origin, respectively. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as the return of mi ...

from Europe beginning in the 1940s. The library houses about 25,000 books.

History

Establishment and early years

The Diamang company established the headquarters for its

diamond mining Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

operations at

in 1917. The town, consisting mostly of workers and their families, quickly grew, and most of the town's infrastructure was built and operated by Diamang. Soon, Diamang identified a need to document the local communities within their mining territory and formally established this in their mission. The Dundo Museum was established in 1936, initially to host the private collection of José Redinha, who had collected cultural objects from eastern Angola, as well as painted portraits of the local people in their

traditional costume Folk costume, traditional dress, traditional attire or folk attire, is clothing of an ethnic group, nation or region, and expresses cultural, religious or national identity. An ethnic group's clothing may also be called ethnic clothing or ethnic ...

. In 1942, Redinha became first curator of the museum, which was then known as the Dundo Ethnographic Museum. His collection was initially placed in a room at Diamang's headquarters before a dedicated building was built, with construction beginning in 1942 and completing in 1947. A new village was soon established around the museum, with its own chief, who would welcome guests and provide tours. In 1936, the Dundo Museum had 436 objects; by the end of 1937, the collection had increased to 2,296. The following year, Redinha collected an additional 700 objects from the Sombo area. By the 1950s, the Dundo Museum had collected over 7,000 objects. Some of these—particularly artwork and photographs—were exhibited overseas in Brazil and Europe. Besides cultural objects, the museum also curated archaeological artifacts and specimens of local plants. When the museum's natural history collection began in 1945, the name was shortened to the Dundo Museum. The museum also organized public festivals and dance competitions, at which native Angolans were asked to perform their traditional music, dances, and other ceremonies. The museum would record the ceremonies and folklore, supply traditional clothing, and provide winners of the competitions with prizes. The Dundo Museum quickly became one of the most prominent research institutions in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

and supported studies in

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

, biology, archaeology, geology, and related studies. It also funded missions in Angola to record folklore and traditions, with a focus on villages which had very little contact with Europeans. By 1957, more than 260 researchers from around the world were working in collaboration with the Dundo Museum; some of the most prominent, included

Jean Janmart Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...

, head of Diamang's Prospecting Brigade;

Henri Breuil Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil (28 February 1877 – 14 August 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil (), was a French Catholic Church, Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He studied cave art in the Somme ( ...

;

John Desmond Clark John Desmond Clark (10 April 1916 – 14 February 2002) was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa. Early life Clark was born in London, but his childhood was spent in a hamlet in the Chiltern Hills of B ...

; and

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

. The museum also established the ''Publicações Culturais'', a publication which documented research results from academics associated with Diamang and the museum. These and other documents were stored in the museum's library, which in 1955 counted 900 volumes of assorted material.

Angolan independence and 21st century

The museum did not halt acquisitions after the outbreak of the

Angolan War of Independence The Angolan War of Independence (; 1961–1974), known as the Armed Struggle of National Liberation (Portuguese: ''Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional'') in Angola, was a war of independence fought between the Angolan nationalist forces ...

in 1961. At the outbreak of the

in 1975, the museum temporarily closed but reopened again on 11 November 1976. Several artifacts were looted, especially from the ethnography collection. Just before the civil war, the museum estimated about 20,000 objects in its collection. Documents detailing the museum's history were also lost. Artifacts continue to be found and returned to the museum. In 2015, the

Sindika Dokolo Foundation The Sindika Dokolo Foundation is a cultural foundation headquartered in Luanda, Angola. It is supported by businessman Sindika Dokolo, the organization's president, and managed by its vice president, Fernando Alvim. Simon Njami the organization's ...

announced its plan to recover more than 100 artworks that had gone missing during the civil war. Between 1980 and 1994, the Dundo Museum was Angola's most visited museum, averaging about 25,000 people per year. In 2005, the museum closed for extensive renovations as part of a push by the Angolan government to revitalize the country's cultural heritage centers. During its closure, the building itself was renovated and refurnished and a multimedia room was added. The museum reopened to the public on August 12, 2012. The museum was named a regional cultural reference monument on 18 April 2016. By the early 2020s, the museum had about 200–300 visitors per day. Protective measures were instated during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

that restricted the number of visitors at any given time to 10. The Minister of Culture, Tourism and Environment, Jomo Fortunato, announced in August 2021 that a virtual museum would be created to allow online exploration of its collections.

Relationship with native Angolans

Collaboration with locals was the main source by which the museum acquired artifacts. Over the years, other Diamang employees donated their own collections. The majority of objects were fielded from locals in collection campaigns, including from local chiefs of villages who supplied workers, with whom Diamang attempted to foster close relationships. The participation of the chiefs in this exchange may have been tied to cultural expectations of reciprocity and the securing of alliances with Diamang as a monopolistic colonial power. A 1955 report claimed the local people saw the Dundo Museum as their "tribal mansion". Historically, the relationship between the museum and the local people was often strained. A 1946 report from the Tchiboco Ethnographic Campaign documented tensions between the expedition and locals. Disagreements arose about the type of objects the museum desired, the method in which they would be used or displayed, and generally about the acquisition of important objects. Additionally, Diamang would often require, coerce, or threaten new workers—some of whom had important ceremonial roles in their home villages—to donate cultural objects they had brought with them to Dundo. A chief's portrait could be removed from the gallery if Diamang was unsatisfied with the amount of workers his village supplied. The museum stated its intent to preserve cultural heritage at risk of going extinct. During the 1940s, the Dundo Museum established an art gallery for portraits of local chiefs who visited the museum. In the late 1950s and 1960s, and especially after neighbouring Belgian Congo gained independence and competing interests from other museums emerged, Diamang enacted even more ambitious collections projects. Around this time, the museum established an "Africa Room", which fielded collections from Europe that had originated in Africa with the purpose of returning them to the continent. In 1960, 871 objects were counted in this room.

References

Bibliography

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