Whose Museum? Collobaration and Contestation over Heritage Management at the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga in Malawi

This article explores how the disciplines of paleontology and archaeology enabled the establishment of the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga, popularly known as Karonga Museum, in Karonga district, in northern Malawi. Important in the article is how the international paleontologists and archaelogists together with researchers in the Department of Museums and Monuments of Malawi mooted strategies to collaborate with the local community in order to source funds for the establishment of the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga. Later what was intended to be a mutual partnership and collaboration turned out be a troubled and contentious relationship surrounding the question of control, regulation and management of the heritage at the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga. Drawn on a combination of historical modes of inquiry that include qualitative interviews and documentary sources the article argues that the longtime research interests and activities of paleontologists and archaeologists in Karonga constituted the motivational factors for the establishment of the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga. However, the requirements of the European Union to only fund projects that are community driven made one of the local communities in Karonga to be a conduit to access grants for the museum project. Consequently, this made the project and the subsequent established museum to appear as community-inspired initiatives. This context became a major contributing factor to the protracted tension and conflict in management and administration of the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga between the community and the government and to some extent the international community of researchers all of whom made claims to the ownership of the museum. The article therefore provokes questions of how to manage heritage which draws interests not only from the local and the national but also forms the international sphere. Overall, the article makes a contribution to knowledge of the complexities in collaboration between museum and its community in management of heritage.

Automated summary

This article explores the establishment of the Cultural and Museum Center Karonga in northern Malawi through the collaboration of paleontologists, archaeologists, and the local community. Using qualitative interviews and documentary sources, it examines the tensions and conflicts that arose surrounding the management and ownership of the museum. The article raises questions about how to manage heritage that attracts interests from local, national, and international communities.