Museum of African Heritage (MAH)

HISTORY

The Museum of African Art and Ethnology was founded in the year 1985 with the purchase of the collection of African Art of Mr. Hubert H. Nicholson and Mrs. Desiree Malik. These collections were annotated thought UNESCO by Dr. William Seligman, Curator of African and Oceanic Art Brooklyn Museum in 1992. The museum was declared open in 1992.

Since then, donations from the local community have continued and include art and craft brought from African community here in Guyana. The museum has collected pieces from local communities.

In 2001, the museum was renamed the Museum of African Heritage in order to open their door o a wider audience and being to fully address the Africa experience in Guyana. This new mandate or Mission Statement will allow the museum to community with something to share, as well as to being to provide programmers that will educate visitor to the activities in our lives that come from these origins.

THE COLLECTIONS

The existing collection includes many example of African Art mostly WestAfrican, from the wooden mask to the carved door of secret societies. Much of art in the collection is an example of the kind of art objects found in West Africa and help to educate us as to the meanings and reason behind African art traditions.

Also in the collection are more practical pieces like the brass weights used for measuring Gold Dust, Drums, Musical Instruments, Game and clothing. More recent donations include a wooden replica of the 1763 Monument.

The visitor can begin to learn about what style and traditions have been brought to Guyana and adopted to our own environment. One example is the Masquerade, or masked dance popular all over Africa and now one of our favorite Mashramani traditions.