Chance Ezekiel, Tanzanian Museum coordinator, promotes youth cultural tourism

Chance Ezekiel has worked here for more than 12 years.

A graduate of Bagamoyo College of Arts and the Open University of Tanzania, Chance has played a pivotal role in engaging children and youth in different engaging activities at the centre that aim at reminding them of the rich cultural heritage they possess and sharing with them the history in a fun and cool way.

Extra effort and creativity are vital in engaging a child who would rather be on social media apps and dancing on tik-tok than learning what life was like in Tanzania more than 6 decades ago, but that’s where Chance and his workmates at the museum do.

In the recently wrapped-up SabaSaba exhibition, the National Museum was one of the most sought-after stalls that displayed there, and children were amassing in large numbers to see the wild animals and other exhibits they had prepared.

The interest that has been growing in visiting the National Museum is not accidental.

A decade ago, no Tanzanian youth would even bother to step foot in a museum. It was seen as a foreign tourist activity.

So deliberate plans were made to evoke interest among the youth, hence the expansion to a state-of-the-art music studio, restaurant, coffee shop, library, and theatre, all in a bid to attract the young audience.

“The direction of tourism attractions is changing. People used to go on safaris to see the wild animals, but with the many zoos in western countries, now people are getting into cultural tourism. People want to travel to see how other communities live. They have already seen the animals, but now they want to know the people, and that's where we in cultural tourism come in,'' he said.

"You can see giraffes in New York, but you can’t see the Maasai community or how they live. You will have to visit Tanzania,” he added.

The National Museum is pivotal to the preservation of the culture of all the tribes in Tanzania and their way of life from pre-colonial times to date.

They have been hosting events, researching, and archiving all the collections of the heritage, so for anyone to truly know Tanzania, the first stop has to be the museums located across the country.

The niche market for cultural tourism is growing, tourists are enthralled by the way of life some Tanzanian communities and tribes have maintained, and the Hadzabe people, especially their huntsmen, have attracted a substantial number of tourists from across the world ever since their peculiar way of life was popularised on social media.

Museum arts explosion, ‘Makumbusho nyumba kwa nyumba’ meaning'museum door to door’ and “Twende zetu Makumbusho,” loosely translating to ‘let’s go to the museum’ are some of the initiatives that target the youth, aiming to spark their interest in the country's history and cultural heritage.

To get the youth excited, they would give them fresh meat and Stone Age tools to try to cut the meat like cavemen used to or grind wheat or grains on a millstone.

Getting hands-on experience has proved to work like a charm.

“They get to learn the creativity and ancient science used by our forefathers,” he said.

They also get to learn about Tanzanian costumes and the dos and don’ts of society, as well as the roles children and parents play in a family.

“They learn to respect their parents and know how children should behave in a family,” he mentioned.

At the Village Museum, traditional houses have been built and preserved to show how various tribes across Tanzania used to live.

This has helped most of the young people who have hardly been to the village get a picture of how communities used to live.

They have even organised festivals for different tribes, where families come to dance to their traditional songs, feast on their cuisine, and learn the oral history passed down for generations.

With museums across Tanzania, children have used them as hubs to reconnect with their culture, even in urban cities.

To have a further reach into communities, they started employing mobile museums, where they can exhibit anywhere they deem suitable.

They have travelled to schools, playgrounds, and communities, all to reach as many young people as possible.

From traditional fashion shows to Indigenous cuisine cooking competitions, the museum has pulled all the stops to engage with students, and parents have seen the shift.

The time their children used to spend watching television or on their phones has greatly decreased, and they couldn't be happier.

For some parents whose only option used to be hanging with their children in restaurants and bars, this is a relief, and more parents are warming up to the idea of spending quality time with their kids at the museum.

“We have a restaurant at the National Museum and House of Culture and we are planning to start having traditional bands perform regularly,” Chance explained.

He said this will help those people who work within the city centre to spend time listening to local music while they are waiting for the traffic congestion to diminish before they start their drive home.

With an increasing number of Tanzanian children born in the diaspora, the museum has looked at ways to reach out to them as well.

An interactive website has been set up, and digital exhibitions with virtual and augmented reality are available.

For those who get to pay a visit to the museum, special programmes can be arranged for the visiting family, where the diaspora children can be taught about the history and culture of the tribes and communities their parents belong to.

Though Tanzania has been largely known for its national parks, Kilimanjaro Mountain and Zanzibar, Chance is not worried that the national museum will be overshadowed.

He stated that Tanzania has strategically decided to brand itself as one destination, various tourism agencies have banded together, and consolidated all the marketing under one umbrella of ‘Amazing Tanzania.’ This gives the National Museum an avenue to be promoted across the world alongside all the famous tourism attractions that Tanzania is famously known for.

Nevertheless, the museum has made efforts to do more outreach to domestic visitors.

The National Museum and House of Culture is a complete upgrade from what it used to be when it first opened up; QR codes are available, you can just scan an exhibit and get all the information at your convenience, and the tech-savvy youth are amazed by it, and they can even share a post on social media with ease.

“My children have watched me work at the museum, and I have raised them to know their history and culture, and they walk around as patriotic Tanzanians and love their country because I have taught them to. I hope other parents will do the same.” Chance concluded.