Supa Ngwao museum re-opens
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday August 11, 2017 14:56
The museum, which first opened its doors in 1992 had financial challenges in the past years and as such has been in and out of operation leading to its closure in 2016.
Supa Ngwao is located a stone throw away from Jubilee Hospital, which lies along the railway line and next to the Nyangabgwe hill. The museum is the beacon of the city’s history and culture. It is under the care of a Board of Trustees that includes the Northeast District Commissioner, Francistown City Clerk and the Director. Prior to shutting down the museum was also struggling to generate interest from exhibitors and the public.
A new board of trustees has been ushered in and the board is working around the clock to resuscitate the museum.
The board vice chairperson, Saadia Rossenkhan who likes to be identified by her Kalanga name, Phaja, which means Lucky, said they are trying to regenerate interest.
She said they have identified plans that will perennially keep the museum in operation and self-sustainable.
“The new Board is proactive and has a lot of interest in preserving the rich culture of Francistown,” she said.
“We have identified individuals who will do traditional businesses at the museum, things that will be informative like the culture of our language, clothing and others. We are also in the process of appointing a permanent curator for the museum.”
“This is a place that defines the city for the tourists and we want people to come here and understand how far back Francistown comes from and also be able to get remembrances of Francistown that they can take home from the museum.” Phaja said they will also be re-launching the historic sights in Francistown such as the railway line, Nyangabgwe hill and the airstrip.
“There is so much history in this place that people should know about, which also include the public swimming pools that were in the city centre and the entire culture of the northeast. We have some Dikgosi (chiefs) on the Board of Trustees and their contributions is immesurable.”
She said they have taken advantage of the city’s 120 years jubilee celebrations hence the re-opening is scheduled on the jubilee day. “We are happy we were able to partner with a jazz group that will provide entertainment for us as we re-introduce the museum.”
The museum has collaborated with Streethorn, the organisers of the Francistown Jazz Festival. Soares Katumbela, the director of Streethorn said they are equally happy for the collaboration.
He said they have been working with different museums around the country and after learning of the re-opening of Supa Ngwao they saw a perfect opportunity. He said developing the arts is one of their objectives.
“We work mostly on developing arts in all diverse forms. We have done a lot of arts workshops and other events in a number of local museums and we are glad to have collaborated with Supa Ngwao, we believe it will open doors for us in the north.”
“It’s a great opportunity and the place alone is a perfect venue for different arts events even beyond the jazz family fun day,” he said.
The family fun day will also be activation for the jazz festival that is billed for September 9 at the Francistown old Stadium.
The Jazz maestro, Lister Boleseng is lined up to headline the activation alongside the poet, Moroka Moreri, Acoustic guitar player, BabaFlow, DJ SK of Duma Fm and DJ Walls.
Meanwhile, Katumbela said they have held a number of successful activations for the festival in the northern part of the country and they have been successful.
“We are on a drive to reassure people after the festival was postponed and they are happy with our activations so far. We have a number of companies buying tickets and we are hopeful of securing a good sponsorship soon.”