Tanzania: Arusha's Fourth Museum Opens in Kisongo

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Arusha Times (Arusha)

6 September 2008
Posted to the web 8 September 2008

Arusha

Arusha already has three museums and when you thought these were rather too many, the fourth one has just been established in Kisongo area.

The new museum is located at Meserani area a few kilometers from Kisongo village on the way to Monduli, a place where the company which founded it already runs another tourism outfit, the Meserani Snake Park.

Berr Jerry, the managing director of Snake Park, pointed out that it was high time to honor East Africa's famed traditional nomads with a special museum. "The Maasai culture, while long persevering is also in danger of disappearing thus we felt the need to establish this Maasai museum," he explained.

Snake Park the flagship venture for Jerry's company, on the other hand, is a reptile sanctuary displaying live snakes of different types, tortoises, turtles, crocodiles and giant lizards. It also offers camel riding treats. The park, which is more than two decades old now, also comprises a Maasai artifacts gallery at the entrance.

"People from all over the world are interested in learning about the Maasai culture, way of life and experiencing day-to-day activities of the indigenous community but few can manage to spend whole day in a real Maasai village thus we created a typical Maasai lifestyle settings here," added Jerry.

While the museum is a brainchild of Snake Park, its various components have been prepared and arranged by Maasai people themselves. There are improvised huts, bomas (enclosures), Maasai attires as adorned lifelike images, cattle and other items found in any real Maasai settings.

"I have lived with Maasai people for over 15 years and thus have great knowledge about the culture but for the museum project we still had to get ideas from Maasai men, women and youths from all parts of Arusha and Manyara region so as to come up with a genuine set up," Jerry maintained.

The Meserani based museum features images of Maasai elders, Morans (youths), women and children going about their daily routines and activities from sunrise to sunset.

It also displays important cultural events such as circumcision, traditional medicine, milking cattle, slaughtering of bulls, meat eating ceremony, Maasai elders' 'Olpull' (gatherings) traditional dancing and other events.

All the model displays, housed in real huts are accompanied with literature explaining in vivid details the events and their importance in the Maasai community. "At the end of the museum tour people will have entirely mastered, the Maasai culture," concluded Jerry.

Jerry's Maasai museum is the fourth to the already existing, Natural History Museum located along Boma road, the Arusha declaration museum located at Mwenge junction along Makongoro road and the recently opened Tanzanite Museum (run by Tanzanite Foundation) along India road.

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