Chichiri Museum

Museum in Blantyre, Malawi

Chichiri Museum

Location| Blantyre, Malawi
Old Europeans only bus at Chichiri Museum.

The Chichiri Museum, also known as the Museum of Malawi, is a historical and cultural museum located in Blantyre, Malawi.[1] Strictly Museum of Malawi refers to a group of five museums but Chichiri Museum (which is one of them) uses the name due to the breadth of its exhibits.[2]

## History

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The Society of Malawi started to campaign for a museum in the early 1950s.[2] The Museums of Malawi, initially known as the Nyasaland Museum, was established through legislation in May 1957 via Museum Ordinance No. 201.[2] The initial museum was housed at Mandala house in Blantyre.[2]

The current museum building was constructed in 1965 at Chichiri Hill in Blantyre, using funds from the Beit Trust and the Government of Malawi.[3] The cost of construction was 21,000 Malawian pounds.[2] The museum was formally opened by Kamuzu Banda on 29 June 1966.[2] Under the presidency of Kamuzu Banda collecting was in some cases limited to avoid any risk of upsetting the government with the result that little collecting was done from groups associated with rebels.[2] Attempts to compensate for this have been made in post Banda collecting practices.[2]

In 2009 the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi supplied a hydroelectic exhibit that sits in the outdoor section of the museum.[2]

## Collection

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The museum has a transport collection displayed outdoors that includes a steam engine, a fire engine and a Europeans only bus.[2] Also outdoors is a Ndiwula hut in the syle of a Chewa rural homestead.[2] It was built in 1966 under the instructions of President Kamuzu Banda.[2]

The Machinga meteorite

The museum also displays the Machinga Meteorite which at the time of its fall was mistaken for a mozambique missile.[2] The meteorite weighs 93.2Kg and in 1984 was classified as a shocked L6c chondrite.[4] In 1990 a reanalysis classified it as a L6d.[5]

## Gallery

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* Early trains of Malawi

* Old fire brigade truck

* Early currency used in Malawi

* Malawi kwacha notes

* Military exhibit

* Early humans in Malawi

* Human evolution exhibit

* Iron Age exhibit

* Fishing and hunting tools

* Farming tools

* Household appliances

* Domestic appliances

* Jewelry exhibit

* Magical earrings

* Bangles

* Ivory nose plug and earrings

* Traditional beads

* Amulets

* Ceremonial spears

* Chief's stool

* Gule Wankulu exhibit

* Traditional medicine exhibit

* Traditional medicine: nyanga

* Traditional medicine: chithumwa

* Traditional medicine: nsupa

* Human skin photo

* Exhibits behind glass

* Slave trade exhibit

* Weapons

* Dancing apparel

* Drums exhibit

* Musical instrument exhibit

* Musical instrument chisekese

* Moir Brothers agreement

* Old clothing exhibit

* Bark cloth exhibit

* In front of the entrance to the temporary David Livingstone exhibit (2014)

* Map of Livingstone's travels at temporary exhibit (2014)

## References

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1. ^ "Museum of Malawi, Chichiri". International Council of African Museums. Archived from the original on 24 October 2006. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lusaka, Mwayi (4 Jan 2023). "Curating the nation: Collections, ethnographic representations and heritage production at Museum of Malawi". Cogent Arts & Humanities. 10. doi:10.1080/23311983.2022.2160577. S2CID 255631526.
3. ^ "Chichiri museum". The Museum of Malawi. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
4. ^ Graham, A. L; Crow, M. J; Chatupa, J. C; Mndala, A. T (30 June 1984). "The Machinga, Malawi, meteorite - A recent L6 fall". Meteoritics. 19 (2): 85–88\. Bibcode:1984Metic..19...85G. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1984.tb00029.x. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
5. ^ Koeberl, Christian; Reimold, Wolf Uwe; Horsch, Hanna E; Merkle, Roland K. W (1990). "New Mineralogical and Chemical Data on the Machinga (L6) Chondrite, Malawi". Meteoritics. 25 (1): 23–26\. Bibcode:1990Metic..25...23K. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1990.tb00967.x. Retrieved 28 January 2023.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chichiri Museum.

* Official website

15°48′12″S 35°02′18″E﻿ / ﻿15.80333°S 35.03833°E﻿ / -15.80333; 35.03833