Recounting My Visit to the Port Harcourt National Museum
The National Museum was established in 1973 and moved to its current location in 2009 at №2 Harley Street (very easy to find on a map, pretty close to RSUTH) with a permanent exhibition themed, “Life in the Niger Delta”. You can get a bit more background from this blog post.
Okay, so my visit to the Port Harcourt Museum wasn’t all too random, as I’ve wanted to visit since 2021, and three years later, I finally went. Finally.
The museum isn't particularly large and you could be done touring in about an hour or so (at least that was my experience, probably could’ve been longer if I asked more questions) and has artifacts that I think are about 100ish years old, more or less (should’ve asked more questions for sure).
I hope Nigeria’s tourism and culture especially in the Niger Delta gets the attention and appreciation it truly deserves. ❤
Let’s get started.
What to Expect
· A couple of maps
∘ Nigerian Ancient Art Traditions
· Economic Life begins
∘ Tribute to Late Prof. Nwanna Nzewunwa
∘ Articles of Precolonial Trade
∘ Textiles in Rivers Area
∘ Arts and Crafts
∘ Pottery and Calabash Works
∘ Hats
∘ Fishing Techniques
∘ Agricultural Implements
∘ Oil Exploration
· Social Life begins
∘ Dwen
∘ Regatta
∘ Masks and Masquerades
∘ Gbasa Masquerade
∘ More Masks
∘ Music and Dance
· Wrapping Up
Warning ahead: I’m not particularly the best at taking pictures, so…that’s the heads up.
I didn’t take a good picture of the building so here’s one I found online — seems to be a slightly refurbished colonial house (a little rambling — I seriously got excited by door handles today 😂, of all things, I saw old door handles I last saw as a child in my grandfather’s old house. Oh and it has a chimney, I got excited by a chimney, I don’t think we do chimneys here, do we? I should go outside more 😂). Enough about chimneys.
The museum folks there were really friendly, and my guide, let’s call her M, was awesome. I admired her enthusiasm while explaining and providing me with more context and stories about the artifacts. Oh, I almost forgot, there’s an entry fee of ₦500 (maybe 30 cents?), not expensive at all.
The museum area is split in two:
- The economic life
- The social life
Here are a couple of maps:
I’m so tired of sorting through the images I took so this has some coherence, siiiiigh… Let’s continue.
Nigerian Ancient Art Traditions
Hopefully these are zoomable, I couldn’t take a photo of the whole banner so I could see the words clearly…okay, I missed a spot, so here’s the full banner from someone else’s post:
Economic Life begins
Tribute to Late Prof. Nwanna Nzewunwa
Something that came up a lot were tributes to Prof. Nzewunwa who was an archeologist who supported and contributed a lot to the museum and library (there’s a library behind the museum building).
Articles of Precolonial Trade
Light reflections on the glass, so I couldn’t take a good picture of this one. Sorry (maybe not).
Here are pictures of the items:
We had a conversation about this coiled tobacco but I can’t remember what it was, lol.
At this point, you're probably wondering. What the heck is manilla anyway? (not to be confused with Manila — a city in the Phillipines).
ℹ️️Manilla are bronze and copper bracelets that were used as a medium of exchange a.k.a money in West Africa. Read more about it in this Wikipedia page. Apparently, they originated in Calabar (a city in Southern Nigeria).
Articles of Pre Colonial Trade
Textiles in Rivers Area
I don’t think I got all the images of the fabrics, but here you go:
If I remember correctly, weaving fabrics was a profession preserved solely for women as a form of women’s empowerment.
Arts and Crafts
ℹ️ Raffia are fibers from Raffia palm trees.
Pottery and Calabash Works
Hats
I’ve always thought these hats are so cool! I couldn’t find good pictures online, but I’ve been a low-key fan of Kalabari cultural outfits. They have so many colours, patterns and details on them. Let’s make do with this couple’s wedding photo, so cool:
Fishing Techniques
Fishing Implements
Agricultural Implements
I missed some items 🫣
Oil Exploration
Oil Refining
Social Life begins
Dwen
Massive jumpscare to be honest, imagine just casually walking into a room not knowing what to expect especially after seeing basic stuff like fishing implements and you’re met with this. 😅
If I remember correctly, this is a god called Dwen; it’s from the Buguma community. Families have this sort of prayer wall set up in their homes. Dwen has his two wives by his side and three servants on the top. I’d love to learn more about this. I wasn’t particularly taking notes, and I’m recalling from memory as I type this, so if this description is wrong, hopefully someone who knows more corrects me on this!
For some reason, looking at the prayer wall reminded me of Devi praying in Never Have I Ever (amazing show!).
Regatta
Masks and Masquerades
Gbasa Masquerade
More Masks
Offrima is a recognizable name for anybody who went to the University of Port Harcourt — it’s the name of the Faculty of Science building (I was in that building almost every day for 4-ish years, *shivers in academic trauma*). I thought the name meant “big fish” or shark. I don’t know. Wasn’t expecting a scissorfish or maybe this is an interpretation? I don’t know. Moving on…
Tired yet? Me too. This was supposed to be fun, but I’ve been typing for, like, what? 4 hours? We’re almost done.
Music and Dance
Abua is a relatively small community, so seeing the name mentioned anywhere at all makes me really happy.❤️ In the (2) image, Abuan musicians are playing the thumb piano, nut rattle, and basket rattle.
You’re here? You made it to the end! I’m sick of this blog post or whatever this is now; it’s like a compilation of photos or something. Maybe this wasn’t the best approach for obvious reasons, but I would still recommend visiting the museum because I didn’t cover everything.
Wrapping Up
Going to the museum and seeing all the artifacts was an absolute delight. I learned from M that there’s an art gallery in the Port Harcourt Federal Secretariat, and I really wanted to check it out. Well, I did go, but unfortunately, they were closed. I found out the hard way after going there and climbing 7 flights of stairs, not a lot, but it was enough to trigger memories of the never-ending staircase in the Ofrima building (*insert post-academic trauma shivers here*).
Really Wrapping Up This Time
Well, I hope the place is maintained and maybe expanded. Perhaps I’ll be in a place where I can support cultural preservation (amazing how AI is already being used for African language preseveration ❤) and archeological efforts like this. So many things could be improved here but it’s a start. ❤
There’s so much I don’t know, and I can’t wait to learn more. And maybe content about Nigerian culture + history will be super fun to learn beyond school and maybe have funny forms like OverSimplified (the best history YouTube channel ever, but right after Crash Course World History — maybe I’m biased because it’s John Green, who teaches this 🫣).
It was fun; check out the place if you’re in Port Harcourt (No. 2 Harley Street) or you ever visit to learn more about the precious Niger Delta, where I happen to come from. 😄
This has to be the longest blog post I’ve ever written.
Resources
- Tour Of National Museum Port Harcourt
