Museums Link our Past and Future – MP Rachael Magoola

Ugandans have been told to respect and embrace their diverse cultures to overcome some societal challenges.

Rachael Magoola, the chairperson Parliamentary Forum for Creatives and Bugweri district Woman MP, said most of the challenges people face are because they don’t know their culture.

Adding, “If you don’t have a culture, you can’t know where you are coming from and where you are going. We should embrace our cultures because these define who we are and where we are going.”

She made the remarks at an exhibition to commemorate the International Museums’ Day organized by the Cross Cultural Foundation Uganda.

The theme for this year’s Museums day is “Museums, education and research.”

She underscored the role of community museums in preserving and promoting diverse culture as centres of research, education and knowledge dissemination.

Magoola mentioned that museums are making an effort to link our past and future through their collections, which are accessible to schools, researchers, residents and foreign visitors, during a press conference.

“Community museums are also playing an important role in preserving and presenting the diversity of Uganda’s cultural heritage and provide spaces for appreciating different cultures. They are cultural repositories, some with well-documented literature on culture and other socio-anthropological aspects,” she said 

Barbra Babwetera, the Executive Director of Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU),
said community museums are a good tool for shaping the country’s future.

“A number of us are not aware that museums are actually centres where you can innovate, research and come up with great things. It is the reason we put a focus on museums to promote learning by putting a link between the past, present and preserving it for the futures,” Babwetera said.

As a pre-event to the International Museum Day 2024, (CCFU) supported 25 of Uganda’s community museums to join the rest of the museums in the world to commemorate the International Museums’ Day.