Museum Africa, Johannesburg

Museum Africa, Johannesburg

Occupying the complex of Johannesburg's former fruit and vegetable market, the Museum Africa explores indigenous African cultures, history and archaeology, geology, and languages.

Occupying the complex of Johannesburg's former fruit and vegetable market, the Museum Africa explores indigenous African cultures, history and archaeology, geology, and languages. The permanent exhibition on 'My Culture' traces the 500 different South African cultural and ethnic groups which have been identified so far, such as Afrikaner, Chopi, Khoekhoen, and Xhosa. One of the most popular exhibits is 'Gandhi's Johannesburg: The birthplace of Satyagraha', which showcases the places associated with Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle against injustice through mass civil disobedience. There are various other interesting exhibitions which focus on specific aspects such as 'Sounds of the City' which traces South African music from the Marabi music and dance of the 1920s slums, and 'Johannesburg Transformations' which examines the effect of the discovery of gold on the development of the city.

Museum Africa houses the Geology Museum which displays over 17,000 rock and mineral samples from Southern Africa, and the Bensusan Museum of Photography, which exhibits rare and valuable photographic equipment from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and pictures made using this equipment including wet-plate prints, stereoscopic views and digital images.