Africa-Press – Angola. More than a thousand people, mostly students at different levels of education, visit the National Museum of Archeology of Benguela (MNAB) every month, attracted by the new image of the exhibition gallery.
The general director of MNAB, Maria Helena Benjamin, recalled that before the rehabilitation and equipping of the institution, the number of visits was around 300 people per month.
He said he believes that with the completion of the restoration works, a lot has changed and, practically the only historic museum building in the municipality of Benguela presents a welcoming image.
The person responsible said that the gains resulting from the works, carried out by the Provincial Government of Benguela, translate into new compartments and airy spaces, with conditions worthy of a museum institution.
He also recognized that the museum gained greater space for the exhibition gallery, whether permanent, temporary or itinerant, and guaranteed that it is open to the public from Monday to Friday, during normal public opening hours.
It also adds that there are indoor and outdoor spaces for educational and leisure activities.
As for the influx of visitors, he recognizes that, with the new exhibition gallery, open to the public practically in May, the demand is very high.
“Even when schools were on vacation, we received visitors almost every day”, he stressed, highlighting that many guided tours were part of the schools’ vacation plan.
The person responsible also mentions national or foreign tourists among those who visit that institution in groups or individually, next to Praia Morena.
For her, it is noted that visiting the museum, the only one in the municipality of Benguela, has been one of the points of reference for those who visit the city.
“Before the rehabilitation, we always received study visits from schools, even in a very small space that is the entrance hall”, he explains, adding that the statistics were around three hundred visitors per month.
And he says that, as a result of the new image after the rehabilitation works, which have long been demanded by residents compared to the building’s previous state of degradation, the statistics have changed and there are now more than a thousand visitors/month.
Schools lead visits
Among the institutions that visit the museum the most are schools ranging from nursery, primary, secondary and higher education.
Typically, requests are made in writing by institutions indicating the day, time and number of students for study visits.
For other visits, according to the same source, access is free whether in a group or individually.
Museum promotes tourism
The building where the Museum operates is classified as national historical-cultural heritage.
Visitors, as mentioned, are told the history of the building from the period in which it served as Benguela’s customs house and a concentration point for slaves, until the beginnings of the installation of the National Archeology Museum.
This is a reason that leads the general director of MNAB to boast of seeing her institution on the local tourism route, especially since the Provincial Tourism Office and travel agencies always take tourists to the museum.
Collection
Being a national museum, there are around three thousand objects collected until 1974, from 16 archaeological sites in Angola, namely in the provinces of Luanda, Uíge, Huambo, Huíla, Namibe, Cuanza Norte and Lunda Norte.
These are also objects resulting from the work of the MNAB Research Brigade, both in surface collection and in archaeological excavation work in the Baía Farta region, since the creation and foundation of the National Archeology Museum in Benguela, in 1976.
The collection is made up of megalodon (shark tooth) fossils, whale fossils, objects ranging from pre-history, which are stone instruments to the present day, which are ceramics, pearls (seashell beads and ostrich egg) and macutas (first coin minted in bronze for Angola).
In addition to this mobile collection, the director says that there is also the property, which are the cave paintings, around 43 rock art sites spread across the national territory.
Difficulties
The organizational chart of the National Archeology Museum is 57 employees, but the person responsible regrets that the staff is very small, with only 16 workers, including basic and technical staff.
“Many of them retired, others asked for transfer to other sectors and were never replaced,” he said.
As a consequence of this, he complains that technical departments only work with one technician, who is the head of the department himself.
Still in the chapter on difficulties, he states that working conditions for scientific activity are not the best in terms of rolling equipment.
“We have to move to the field where the archaeological stations are”, he explained, informing that the vehicles used for archaeological research work throughout the national territory are damaged as they have been used for more than 20 years.
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