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Parliament to establish political museum

According to a report by the Parliament Board of Management (BOM) select committee on establishment of the museum, it will be funded by Parliament "for ownership and sustainability" and will come into being through a phased approach.

Thursday September 15 2016

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Artiste Philip Luswata 

In Summary

• The museum will have a public reading room where the public can consult. This involves designing projects to be made available in digital form.

• The plan is to transform the current parliamentary buildings into a museum

         

By Isaac Imaka

PARLIAMENT. Parliament has set into motion a plan to set up a political museum.
When ready, it will be an interactive story telling art centre capturing the democratic heritage of Uganda spanning over many years of our history.

According to a report by the Parliament Board of Management (BOM) select committee on establishment of the museum, it will be funded by Parliament "for ownership and sustainability" and will come into being through a phased approach.

The decision to set up a museum recounting the country's political journey through the years was actualised after Parliament institution struggled to get historical documents about the country's politics when it was celebrating its golden jubilee.

"Since independence, the political turmoil impacted negatively on record keeping in the country. Libraries and records centres were looted. While preparing for the celebrations to mark the golden jubilee of the Uganda Parliament, information pertaining to the history of Uganda was not readily available. Neither was it found in the national archives," the document reads in part.
To stock the museum, Parliament resolved to push for the return of Uganda's political documents and artifacts taken by former colonial master, Britain and are evidently archived in the UK.
Parliament also plans to engage cultural institutions, religious institutions, historical families and Uganda's internationally exposed artists and musicians.

"Kingdoms like Buganda, Bunyoro have rich collections of their heritage that would enrich the museum. Negotiations and lobbying would be made to enhance smooth working relations between Parliament and the kingdoms," the report reads.

"Religious institutions have put up collections of archival material pertaining to Uganda's heritage and families of outstanding personalities, independence crusaders, religious leaders, educationists would have a stake in enriching Parliament museum," it adds.

However, artiste Philip Luswata thinks political and democracy heritage is not more important than cultural heritage.
"I am worried that government is not protecting the cultural heritage of its people and that's why we are fighting for the national theatre. Culture informs the politics of the country. How do you talk about political heritage when you can't protect the cultural heritage. We all come from traditional heritage. Protect the culture of the people; you curate their politics and democracy," he said.
Busoga Kingdom tourism minister Hellen Namuganza said the plan to collaborate with cultural institutions is good not only because kingdoms inform the national politics but because it will be a chance for them to showcase their rich history.

"The white man who impacted the country's history came through kingdoms. Kingdoms like Busoga are part of Uganda... the museum will help the kingdoms market their history to the many people who visit Parliament," she said.
The director of library service, Mr Innocent Rugambwa, under whose docket the project falls, said there has not been any monetary figure attached to the project yet "because for now we are looking to hire consultancy services to be advised on what type of museum it will be and the costs involved".

Giving a snippet of what they expect, the select committee described the ideal museum to be a story which is "woven with the help of walk-through period settings with sound-light-video animation; large screen interactive computer multi-media; immersive visualisation with multi-screen panoramic projection; virtual reality and animatronics."
The museum will also have a public reading room where the public can consult. This involves designing projects to be made available in digital form. The plan is to transform the current parliamentary buildings into a museum.

iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com

Gwokto La'Kitgum

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