By Chris Duncan
Having attended some recent brand training this week past one of the brand cultures is “Destination Unlocked”. The front line staff are expected to know important historical and cultural places nearby. Being in Port Harcourt this is somewhat challenging as these types of places are few and far between, this is no tourist destination and with the current state of the nation and visa requirements there are far less challenging countries to visit and explore.
However, there is a museum I had learnt so a visit is on order.
Saturday morning, driver, Mopol, Andre and I set off in search of some culture.
En route we visited some shops we have never been to and wandered along the isles examining the goods on offer. In this particular shop which was run by Lebanese people the shelves were packed with an array of Middle Eastern groceries. They even had Arborio rice. The store was clean and neatly laid out and I will be sure to return. A new journey into the cuisine of that area could well be on the cards.
Then onto our mandatory stop at the Spar for some purchases before visiting the museum. An old building dating from the colonial era with once was a well laid out garden met us as we entered the gate. Sitting outside the entrance was the tour guide and some other staff.
Announcing our desire to visit the museum we were told the building was without power so there was no lighting or cooling but we are welcome to enter should we wish. Paying the required fee and signing the book we started our tour together with our armed escort.
The first half of the museum was the historical section, a display of various metal artefacts used as money, then onto traditional fishing baskets, traps and then various types of terracotta cooking pots, ceremonial pots and gourds. On the walls were pictures and explanations of the displays, all neatly numbered, the displays themselves looked tired and dusty. To read these required some lighting so here our mobile phone torch came in handy. Then we moved on the section of oil drilling and refining. The layout was a semi circular passageway with the displays along the walls.
As we progressed our guide continued with a well informed commentary on what we were viewing.
We then continued to the second half of the museum, the cultural side. An ancient belief in their ancestors and their spirits and how they interact with them in daily rural life was well represented with a display of masks and headgear. It was interesting to learn that the spirits were with them when they feast and dance and how they were summoned to ensure a bountiful harvest or a safe fishing trip.
It is difficult to understand that on one hand they are very religious people but on the other hand they have deep cultural beliefs. But then again, this is Africa, Western democracy governing alongside tribal ruling, Christianity worshiped together with ancient spiritual beliefs. Sometime I wonder why Africa does not turn its back on all things Western and continue in its old ways. Things are too far gone for that as the trappings of a Western lifestyle are highly desired, particularly here in Nigeria and those manky Naira notes.
Continuing our tour we next came to the musical instrument display. Here was a selection of old drums, bells, shakers, horns and a harp. Of interest here was a box drum, used to allow the spirits to talk. Our guide described how the elders would sit under a large tree and make music, the rhythm of Africa as the palm wine flowed and the village danced.
Finally we returned to the entrance where on the wall was a large chart displaying a time line of Nigerian history from 1800BC to the present with a comparison to other happenings in the known world at the same time which the guide talked us through. It started with a wooden dugout canoe and ended with oil.
As we left, relieved to be out the building as by now the sweat was dripping of my face from the humidity Andre and I looked at each other and asked simultaneously, “but where was the wheel?”
An interesting tour it was, not by any means a magnificent museum but we both agreed it was a worthwhile excursion and left us with a better understanding of the local culture but still no wheel.
