MUSEU REGIONAL DA HUÍLA

The creation of the Huíla Regional Museum is inextricably linked to the opening of the first Angolan museums at the initiative of José Mendes Norton of Matos Ribeiro, Governor General of Angola from 1911 to 1925. It was the main driving force behind the scientific policy of the colonial era, which resulted from the first normative and legal instruments in the field of social sciences and humanities with major implications for the creation of museums.

Although the foundations of a museum project date back to the beginning of the twentieth century, it was only in September 1938 that the first Angolan museum, Museu de Angola, opened in Luanda. It is from this date that the first muséographiques institutions are beginning to emerge, the collections of which are organised on an ethnographic and colonial basis.

Originally designated Museu de Sá-da-Bandeira, the Museu Regional da Huíla was founded in 1956 by Machado da Cruz, former professor of the famous Diogo Cão lyceum. The colonial museum was then dedicated mainly to Portuguese ethnography. The collections of the Huíla Museum consist of objects and pieces exclusively linked to the local ethnography. Visitors discover the spiritual, economic, political and social world of the traditional communities of Huíla, Namibe, Cunene and Kuando Kubango. The permanent exhibition is organized into two-tiered thematic halls, which show the great diversity and cultural richness of these peoples, their lifestyles, customs, beliefs and traditions.

This small museum is very interesting and deserves to be visited. The collections are well presented and museum guides are passionate.

Adaptation and translation of a text prepared in Portuguese by Soraia Santos Ferreira.