Dundo Museum

The Dundo Museum was founded in 1936 by the diamond company that ran this corner of Angola, and it assembled one of the most significant collections of Chokwe art anywhere: masks, chairs, staffs, musical instruments and figures, along with archaeological and natural history material from the Lunda region. The collection suffered badly in the late twentieth century and has been rebuilt and rehoused since. Among the traditions documented here is sona, the Chokwe practice of drawing geometric figures in sand, which UNESCO recognises as intangible heritage.

History

Diamang, the diamond company, set up its mining headquarters at Dundo in 1917 and built most of the town, and in 1936 it founded the museum, the first in Angola, at first to hold the private collection of José Redinha, who had gathered objects from eastern Angola and painted portraits of local people in traditional dress. Redinha became its first curator in 1942, the year work began on its own building, finished in 1947, and the collection grew from 436 objects in 1936 to 2,296 by the end of 1937 and more than 7,000 by the 1950s, with natural history added from 1945, when the name was shortened to the Dundo Museum. Some objects were later lost, and efforts to bring them back are under way, and on 18 April 2016 it was named a regional cultural reference monument (Wikipedia, Dundo Museum).

What to look for

• The Chokwe masks - a major holding of masks and carved figures.
• The carved chairs and staffs - Chokwe furniture and regalia in the collection.
• The musical instruments - drums, lamellophones and other regional instruments.
• The sona tradition - the Chokwe sand drawing practice, documented in the displays.

When to go

May to September is the dry season and easiest for travel. The museum keeps limited hours and closing days vary. The rains from October to April make regional roads difficult.

Good to know

Dundo is remote and reaching it usually means a flight and permission to enter a diamond-concession area. Labelling is limited and mostly in Portuguese. The collection is smaller than it was before the losses of the war years.

Nearby

Lagoa Carumbo is south in the same province, and the Lunda region runs east.

Key facts