Beijing, China – Amongst 1.4 million artifacts and cultural relics meticulously being preserve in the National Museum of China located a stone throwaway from the famous Tiananmen Square in Beijing, are about 340,000 were gathered from Sub-Sahara Africa.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
By 2015, 7.6 million people had visited the National Museum of China in Beijing to see cultural relics and artifacts from Sub Sahara Africa
These African cultural objects collected from countries including Mali, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal, and Ghana amongst others, have been at several exhibitions in many western countries including the United States, England, Italy, France and Poland and others.
Also in the museum are hundreds of African artifacts presented as gifts by former and current leaders of African nations to former leaders of the People’s Republic of China.
For the PRC, preserving these “state gifts” is an epitome of friendship with other nations including African countries and a means of showcasing the inter-cultural ties amongst their respective peoples.
An inscription on the wall of the museum explains how the gifts are a testament of China’s brilliant success of diplomacy over the past six decades – an expression of friendly feelings between the Chinese people and other peoples, it reads.
At least 611 representative gifts “possessing unique historical significance and high artistic value from governments from across the world” are neatly placed in glass cases – some of which have travelled many times across the world to be featured in colorful exhibitions.
Desiring Collaboration with African Museums
Officials say the museum collaborates with several others across Asia and Europe to hold three to four exhibitions every year, but collaboration with museums in Africa is yet to happen.
In 2013, an exhibition of African masks was held in Paris, France. Holding such event shows the prominence of African sculptures in China’s cultural and lifestyle.
A senior official says the National Museum of China welcomes collaborations with their African counterparts in the near future, especially as their main focus remains history and arts since reopening in 2003.
Including the national museum in Beijing, there are 3,800 public museums and 4,000 private ones across the country.
Across Africa, there are several museums with the most prominent ones in Egypt, Libya, Senegal, South Africa, and Mali amongst several others.
But some experts say the full story of the continent’s development has not been told through the presence of relics at these museums.
Some are still collecting and mobilizing resources to conduct archeological survey to help reshape the narrative that Africa has depended on the rest of the world, something they claim is contrary to the continent’s rich and enormous ancient civilization.
On one hand, there are also concerns about preserving historical relics, and the challenges of sourcing funding, on the other.
Rich in history like China, some African countries like Liberia are struggling to maintain their respective museums at a level far below China’s.
Asked what Africa can learn from their example, Madam Zhu Xiaoyun, of the NMC’s international department, said managing over 1.4 million objects is an enormous challenge.
Zhu said providing a suitable environment with a temperature of at most 23 degree Celsius with 50% humility is significant – an approach Africans can adopt.
She also noted that having the appropriate equipment for environment control, hiring trained and professional staff, and having scientific and reservation centers with labs for research would obviously ensure the preservation of cultural and historic relics.
Value for Culture and History
The reward China gets from spending millions to manage these museums is far beyond generating revenue, the museum authority said.
The country believes upholding these historic and cultural identities sustain the value of its national philosophy.
By the end of 2015, 7.62 million people had visited only the national museum.
Amongst them were elementary and junior high students whom, according to the school curriculum, must attend potion of their classes at the museums to learn history.
The Asian nation’s national interest in history and culture influences a huge part of its population.
Currently, there are four million people – almost the population of Liberia – following the national museum on the internet, while the influx of people at the museum shows its popularity amongst a massive population of 1.3 billon people.
The National Museum of China was founded in February 2003, based on the merging of two previous museums – the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution.
The NMC is dedicated to collections, exhibitions, research, archeology, public education and cultural communication.
Its basic functions are collections of cultural relics and artworks, exhibitions, public education, history and art research and cultural communication.
