Government releases Sh2.4 billion for museums upgrade

Mwalimu Nyerere Museum in Butiama. The Museum contains exhibits and information on Tanzania's founding president. PHOTO | FILE

By Zephania Ubwani

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Arusha. The government has released Sh2.4 billion for upgrading national museums across the country.

These include the Arusha Declaration Museum here whose massive rehabilitation kicked off on Friday.
Also launched is improvement of structures at the Arusha-based Natural History Museum, one of the oldest in the country.
“This is part of efforts to turn them into tourist hotspots,” said the director of National Museum of Tanzania Dr Noel Luoga.
He also said that the funds for upgrading the Natural History Museum will be sourced from abroad under the support for Covid-19 fight.
These are to include setting up a biology laboratory, mounting of the reptile remains and increased collections of plant and animal remains.
The museum - the only one dedicated to natural history - is located within the German historical building in the heart of Arusha.
It served as the German military and administrative compound during their rule, and later as provincial offices uder British rule.
In 1987 it was converted into a museum for natural history and has been a hotspot for researchers from within and outside Tanzania.
The Arusha Declaration Museum, formerly a social welfare hall, is the birthplace of Tanzania’s February 5, 1967 Blueprint to Socialism and Self Reliance.
Dr Luoga said the project will commence in the next three months - and, for the Arusha Declaration, it will largely focus on improving its documentation.
Although it does not attract many tourists compared to others museums, the Arusha  Declaration facilityhas been used for exhibitions on Tanzania’s political history.
“The museum enables the public to understand the country’s history. It’s an important teaching aid for history”, said the museum’s director, Dr. Gwakisa Kamatula.
The ‘National Museum of Tanzania’ is really a  consortium of five museums to preserve and show exhibits about the country’s history.
The consortium developed from the National Museum of Dar es Salaam which was established in 1934 by the British colonial government.
The Dar es Salaam Museum was elevated as the national museum followed by establishment of other museums after independence in 1961.
Besides the Arusha-based natural history and Arusha Declaration museums, others arre the Village Museum in Dar es Salaam, and the Mwalimu Nyerere Museum in Butiama.
Several other museums have been set up in different parts of the country or are in process of being established partly in order to boost Tanzanian tourism.
One of the iconic museums is the Oldvuai Gorge in Ngorongoro District; the home of Tanzania’s rich archaeological relics.
In early 2019, the government decided that  a half of revenues generated by the Olduvai Museum be channeled to support the rest of the museums