Former residents of Usakos living in Windhoek may be interested in the travelling museum exhibition, ‘Usakos: Photographs Beyond Ruins.
The Old Location Albums, 1920s to 1960s’ which will be launched on Wednesday, 23 August in the foyer of the library building at the main campus of University of Namibia (Unam) at 18h00.
The historic showing was seen in towns and cities across South Africa and in Maputo, Mozambique and draws on the private archives of four women who lived in the Old Location of Usakos: Cecilie //Geises, Wilhelmine Katjimune, Gisela Pieters and Olga //Garoës.
The exhibition juxtaposes historical photographs of life in the Old Location with contemporary photographs of the town by the photographer Paul Grendon.
These colour photographs capture the mood of the town but also show the `ruins’ that suggest the town’s former prosperity as one of the most important railway workshops in the country.
A collaboration between Usakos Town Council, the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN), the University of Basel, the Unam and District Six Museum was sponsored by two Swiss donors – the Carl Schlettwein Stifftung and Stiftung Mercato.
The exhibition is being donated to the MAN so that it will be available to travel to other venues in Namibia or to help promote Namibia abroad.
Dr Jeremy Silvester, MAN’s project development manager says telling the stories of specific communities is important.
“The exhibition is an exciting example of the new approach to museums that we are happy to see developing in Namibia.
It shows the ways in which it is possible to work with communities to make exhibitions and museums that tell the stories that are important to a community.
“Usakos has a unique history, but there is also much that will be familiar to other Namibians who grew up in small towns before independence.
The exhibition will give young Namibians an insight into our past and that is why we wanted the first venue to be at Unam.
Saara Ilovu, the economic development officer for Usakos says the Usakos Museum Advisory Committee has a vision.
“We believe that the museum will encourage many of those people who just drive through Usakos (or stop to buy some biltong) to stop and spend some more time and some more money in our beautiful town.
Usakos has many histories and many mysteries that people will discover from this exhibition.
The launch of the exhibition will be followed by a week long training session on exhibition planning and development for students and museum workers.
Contact Ilovu at Usakos Town Council on 0816270129, email: silovu@gmail.com for more information.
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