MA Museo africano

The African Museum has been re-opened on May 2006, after few years of closure for restructuring. The Museum has a twofold goals: at the ethnographic level to help people and visitors of all ages, cultures and paths of life to know better and to appreciate Africa and its cultural richness and at the didactic level as a means to offer school children and their teachers the occasion to increase their knowledge about Africa in its geographical, historical and cultural aspects. Students - at the same time - will have also the chance to take active part in didactic laboratories connected with the permanent exhibition of the Museum.
Considering the great value given to the sacredness of life all over Africa, we chose to arrange the Museum following the description of the "cycle of life". The first aspect underlined by the Museum is the importance of fertility and motherhood in Africa, the journey then proceeds describing the different stages through which each person goes: infancy, childhood, education, initiation, marriage, family life, work, adulthood and authority, old age, death and the other world. The ‘cycle of life’ is portrayed through artefacts (sculptures, masks, musical instruments ….) and every day tools used mostly in traditional African settings. Finally the Museum includes a "multipurpose hall" where temporary exhibitions on different topics are organized.