https://en.sputniknews.africa/20251101/south-africans-touch-and-feel-past-through-mobile-museum-project-1080033282.html
South Africans 'Touch and Feel' Past Through Mobile Museum Project
South Africans 'Touch and Feel' Past Through Mobile Museum Project
Sputnik Africa
Heritage is more than a record of the past; it is a living dialogue between memory and identity. Across Africa, stories, artifacts, and oral traditions keep... 01.11.2025, Sputnik Africa
2025-11-01T12:59+0100
2025-11-01T12:59+0100
2025-11-01T13:05+0100
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South Africans 'Touch and Feel' Past Through Mobile Museum Project
Sputnik Africa
Heritage is more than a record of the past; it is a living dialogue between memory and identity. Across Africa, stories, artifacts, and oral traditions keep communities connected to their roots. When people are able to touch, feel, and interact with history, culture stops being distant; it becomes deeply personal.
For centuries, museums have acted as custodians of cultural memory, but their static displays often isolate the public from the very stories they preserve. In South Africa, Professor Tim Forssman, Associate Professor of Archeology and Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Mpumalanga, is reimagining this relationship through his Museum in a Box project, a traveling, tactile collection that brings history to schools and communities, allowing people to engage with their heritage beyond glass walls.
For centuries, museums have acted as custodians of cultural memory, but their static displays often isolate the public from the very stories they preserve. In South Africa, Professor Tim Forssman, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Mpumalanga, is reimagining this relationship through his Museum in a Box project, a traveling, tactile collection that brings history to schools and communities, allowing people to engage with their heritage beyond glass walls.Forssman explained that this hands-on experience reshapes how people relate to Africa’s past. Allowing communities to touch replicas and context-free original items gives them a sense of connection and belonging that static exhibitions cannot offer. He observed that physical interaction transforms curiosity into emotional understanding.To find out more about the museum in a box, tune in to the Global South Pole podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on Telegram.► You can also listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict, Overcast, and Mave Stream.► Check out all the episodes of Global South Pole
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podcasts, museums, heritage, art, artifact, africa, south africa, history, education, colonialism, university, аудио
South Africans 'Touch and Feel' Past Through Mobile Museum Project
Aliyu Bello
Correspondent, Podcast Host
Heritage is more than a record of the past; it is a living dialogue between memory and identity. Across Africa, stories, artifacts, and oral traditions keep communities connected to their roots. When people are able to touch, feel, and interact with history, culture stops being distant; it becomes deeply personal.
For centuries, museums have acted as custodians of cultural memory, but their static displays often isolate the public from the very stories they preserve. In South Africa, Professor Tim Forssman, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Mpumalanga, is reimagining this relationship through his Museum in a Box project, a traveling, tactile collection that brings history to schools and communities, allowing people to engage with their heritage beyond glass walls.
Forssman explained that this hands-on experience reshapes how people relate to Africa’s past. Allowing communities to touch replicas and context-free original items gives them a sense of connection and belonging that static exhibitions cannot offer. He observed that physical interaction transforms curiosity into emotional understanding.
“What we’ve noticed when we do present the museum to people and people get to touch things […] they were shocked at how they feel, often how heavy they are, and when it comes to things like stone tools, how durable they are. And a lot of people explained that by holding the artifact and being able to touch it, it helped them remember some stories behind the stone tool […] So that definitely had a big impact on people,” Forssman explained.
To find out more about the museum in a box, tune in to the Global South Pole podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on
Telegram.► Check out all the episodes of Global South Pole 
