Museum

At MikonoYetu, Sima and I are currently working on an information/tour guide book and business plan for a woman’s museum.  The idea behind its creation is the concept of role modelling, and how difficult it is for women to have powerful women role models if they never see or hear about them.  The layout for the future museum is going to be outdoors, with different pavilions covering different sections on women: Powerful historical women, women in the last century who have impacted East African society, traditional dress and food, a section on land rights, and (my favourite), a section dedicated to sexuality, childbirth, disease etc.  When speaking with Samantha, another woman who is working on the project with us, she had a vision of the museum not just being a museum, but also a place for women to access information.  For example, in the section on sexuality, it might dispel myths, or talk about consent and contraceptives. I gravitated towards this idea immediately because I think education and information is the best way to create change and encourage empowerment.

 I have been doing a lot of reading and research over the past few days, but I am finding it difficult to find a lot of valid information on women in East African history.  The library is amazing and has so many textbooks on different subjects, however a lot of them have been donated from Europe or North America and cover history or research done in those areas, not in East Africa. As well, finding information on women is difficult…there is that saying that history is written by the victors, and it relates to this research because in a lot of societal systems, men held more power and were able to write their histories.  Thankfully, Maimuna (one of my project directors here) told me she has quite a bit of information on powerful historical women that she can provide me with soon.

The museum is a large work in progress and will be nowhere near complete once we leave in August, but I am pleased to contribute to its foundation.