Barry Streek
South Africans are going to be taught the skills of centuries-old African goldsmithing techniques and how these can be adapted to modern conditions at a new gold museum in Cape Town.
The training programme, which is expected to become operational in June?next year, will be the first time that South Africans will have been exposed?to the gold-crafting skills that have generated gold objects, mainly from?West Africa.
The new trainees will also have the benefits of being able to examine a?unique collection of gold objects from the 19th and 20th century from Mali,?Senegal, Ghana and Cte d’Ivoire that has been purchased from the?Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva at a cost of R11-million.
It is hoped that the Gold of Africa Museum in the historic Martin Melck?House, in the centre of Cape Town, will become the home to the world’s largest?and most important collection of African gold artefacts.?
This core collection is to be expanded in the future with new acquisitions?of gold from other parts of Africa to represent the whole continent’s gold?history and loan collections of gold from around the world will also be?housed there from time to time.
It is intended that the Gold of Africa Museum will become a centre of?learning about African gold and Africa’s unique tradition of goldsmithing.?
Although the museum will house these collections as well as a retail outlet?and a restaurant, a key feature will be a studio on the premises to house a?training facility to promote the development of local gold jewellery design?and skills.?
The training programme is still being developed but will incorporate?experience from the AngloGold-sponsored Vukani-Ubuntu Training Project, a?traditional goldsmith training project that took place in Mali in July, and a recent gold beneficiation (the process of creating a value-added product out of raw material) fact-finding tour to West Africa.?
Kelvin Williams, AngloGold’s executive director of marketing, said at the?launch of the new gold museum product that ”locally the jewellery industry?is very much a European clone. We don’t have a gold jewellery culture of our?own, but they do have it in West Africa.”
The museum’s Sarah DaVanzo pointed out that more than 50% of jewellery?manufacture in South Africa took place in Cape Town, which was becoming ”a?key beneficiation hub”.
She also said that 80% of tourists to South Africa who were not visiting?the country for business purposes came to Cape Town.?”It is a wonderful environment for job creation and it is very fitting to?be in one of the oldest buildings in Cape Town to talk about something new.”