Uganda Museum under Threat

The Uganda National Museum is one of the most important heritage sites in Eastern Africa, but if all goes as the Ugandan government plans, it could be destroyed. In fact, the government has planned to construct a 60-story ultra modern building in Kampala, at plot 5 Kiira Road, the exact location where the Museum building currently stands.

Culture and heritage don’t have big success among the politicians, and those passionate about culture often have to be attentive and act as watchmen. So, the publication by the Ugandan government of a “request for expression of interest” for the construction of an “ultra modern building on its land”, in February, aroused controversy and protests.

The East African Legislative Assembly, alongside organisations such as Bayimba Cultural Foundation, Historic Resources Conservation Initiatives (HRCI) and Arterial Network, are strongly against this project, the brainchild of the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry.

“If Uganda loses the Museum building, it will have lost its past”, says Ellady Muyambi, HRCI Executive Director. In a document he explains that this demolition contravenes Uganda’s Historical Monuments Act of 1967, Uganda’s Cultural Policy of 2006, the UNESCO Convention of 1972 as well as the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda of 1995. Moreover, “an environmental impact assessment has not been done, nor has any heritage impact assessment”.

The building was designed by Ernst May, a German architect and planner of some repute, after having created a plan for Kampala in 1947. The Museum opened in 1908 in another building, created principally to house ethnographic material collected during colonialism, namely religious objects abandoned by Ugandans after embracing Christianity. Then the museum started gathering material in the archaeological field. A famous masterpiece is the Luzira Head, a terracotta pottery figure found during the works for the construction of the Luzira prison.

According to the Commissioner for Museums and Antiquities, Rose Nkaale, only 1/8 of the total artefacts collected for the museum are exhibited and displayed. So, there are thousands of objects that have been lying underground and their storage during the construction of the new building and the move will put them in danger.

Compared to the 2003 Dakar Declaration of the ACP Ministers of Culture, and the ever increasing level of attention to culture as a determining factor in development paid by the EU-ACP partnership it seems strange that a country would want to lose such a source of identity, pride, tourist attraction and, indeed, development.

As reported by Ellady Muyambi the court case hearing is actually under way: “On April 21, the two sides framed the issues. The government lawyer maintained that the government intends to construct a 60 story building on the museum land without demolishing the current museum building while our lawyer insisted that this is practically impossible. (…) The judge has started hearings from the key witnesses.”

The case continues…

Sandra Federici