Nhabe Museum

Museum located in the north of Botswana, dedicated mainly to exhibit cultural elements of the historical area of Ngamiland.

Nhabe Museum
Image credit to Botswana Guardian
Type:	Cultural Museum
Country:	Botswana
Establishment:	1995

The Nhabe Museum is a museum located in the town of Maun in northern Botswana, the museum is dedicated to exhibiting traditional objects from the historical region of Ngamiland. The name "Nhabe" is of San origin, one of the ethnic groups of the region.

History

The museum building was built in the 1940s. In 1995, the North West District Council decided to grant permits to transform the building into a museum, and the following year, it was officially opened, one of the main reasons for the establishment of the museum was to showcase the cultural diversity of Ngamiland such as fishing nets used by Yeyi communities, in addition to baskets of Hambukushu origin, another ethnic group from this region of Botswana.

[1]

In 2017, the museum received renovation grants from the European Union for a total of one million pula, which integrated a specialized office for the local organization Okavango Artists Association, dedicated to promoting the visual arts in northern Botswana.

[2]

In addition, a building for the Poetavango Collective was also established, the process of renovation and integration of new buildings to the museum began in 2015 and was completed the following year.

[3]

In 2017, the museum launched an exhibition in cooperation with the Indian High Commission to showcase ethnographic objects of the Indian community in Botswana such as Shiva statues.

[4]

The museum has also benefited from several craft conversation projects supported by the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, with a focus on preserving traditional crafts from various settlements in the district such as Etsha, Gumare, Shakawe and Shorobe.

[5]

Collections

The museum contains several exhibits of musical instruments as well as hunting tools used by San communities.

[6]

Since the opening of the museum, it has been primarily concerned with exhibiting baskets, within the first few years, the museum exhibited around 400 baskets traditionally made in Botswana.

[7]

References

1. Herold, H. (2003). Historical Buildings in Botswana. Printcol. (Page 65)

2. Dinale, G. (2017-08-01). Maun museum to reopen after major revamp. Southern & East African Tourism Update.

3. Nhabe Museum’s P1million facelift. (2017-08-09). Guardian Sun

4. Keakabetse, B. (2017-03-24). Shiva cosmic dance stuns Nhabe Museum revelers. Mmegi Online.

5. Pelontle, K. (2018). "Nhabe Museum to create craft markets" DailyNews.

6. McIntyre, C. (2007). Botswana: Okavango Delta, Chobe, Northern Kalahari. Bradt Travel Guides. (Page 166)

7. Matambalya, F., & Assad, M. J. (2002). Enhancing Africa’s Competitiveness Through Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers. (Page 148)