Moto Moto Museum

Moto Moto grew out of the collection assembled by Jean-Jacques Corbeil, a French missionary who spent decades in the north recording Bemba material culture, and it holds one of the larger ethnographic collections in Zambia: musical instruments, initiation objects, iron working, pottery, and material on the chieftaincies of the region. The name was the nickname the missionary was given locally. The building is plain and the displays are old-fashioned, but the collection is substantial.

What you actually see

• The Bemba collection - decades of material culture recorded by Corbeil.
• The musical instruments - drums and other instruments from across the north.
• The initiation material - objects from the chisungu and related ceremonies.
• The regional history - displays on the chieftaincies of northern Zambia.

When to go

Open year round on standard museum hours. An hour or two covers the collection. Mbala is cooler than most of the country.

Honest expectations

The displays are dated and interpretation is thin. The building is plain and poorly lit in places. It is a long way from anywhere else worth stopping.

Nearby

Kalambo Falls is northwest, and Niamkolo Church is at Mpulungu.