Culture and Heritage Studies lecturer Dr Munyaradzi Sagiya is in Cape Town, South Africa for the final phase of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) German Academic Exchange Service’s The MuseumsLab 2022 fellowship programme.
Dr Sagiya recently returned from Germany where he participated in the MLab museum residency which exposed him to diverse museum practices.
Reflecting on the experience, Dr Sagiya said, “We learnt about the challenges of disentangling different (colonial and WW2) histories of looting of cultural heritage and how these events can inform the updating of the museum’s risk/disaster preparedness today in the wake of the current uncertainties caused by the series of environmental change, pandemic and armed conflict.”
He participated in a 2-week residence at MARKK (The Museum of Antropology Hamburg). He was paired with Raphael Schwere from Zurich, Switzerland and they witnessed diverse ways of museum marketing and publicity.
“We noticed that at MARKK every department is in motion, and actively engaging in conversations about decolonization. It was greatly inspiring,” said Dr Sagiya.
55 researchers from African and European museums are taking part in the fellowship. Dr Sagiya and Livingstone Muchefa from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe are the only Zimbabwean representatives.
He will be in Cape Town for 2 weeks and hope that the experience will aid BUSE in establishing the first University Museum in Zimbabwe.
