We are so lucky to have lovely friends who live in the Netherlands who always take us to interesting and different places when we go to visit. This year they took us to Nijmegen, the oldest city in the country, situated on the banks of the River Waal. The Romans built an outpost there, and it was strategically important for centuries, but we didn’t visit the few remains of them that still exist, in fact we didn’t really visit the city at all apart from driving through its suburbs. we went to Nijmegen to visit the Afrika Museum which is nearby.
The Afrika Museum really has too much to see in just one visit; there are wonderful items on display inside, and on the occasion that we went there was a photographic display by Jimmy Nelson, and in the lovely grounds there is a lot more to look at. There was a most interesting sculpture exhibition, with pieces dotted throughput the parkland, but the main attraction is a series of African villages from different countries.
There are representations of villages from Lesotho, Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, and within the different homes are artefacts and items which the village people might use in their every day lives. There were also areas laid out as the gardens and farms of the villagers might be
In some of the homes there were recordings playing of conversations, songs, laughter, music, a radio… all to try and give a feeling of village life thousands of miles away on a different continent.
We went at a time when there weren’t many other visitors which was lovely because we could wander where we wanted and didn’t have to queue to go into the different compounds, but it gave it a slightly eerie air, of a place abandoned, of a people missing.
I don’t think I will ever have the opportunity to visit any of the countries in Africa, so seeing this representation was a wonderful substitute!
Lois Elsden 