“An Assessment of the Ethnographic Museum of Wollega”
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Date
2020-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
An Assessment of the Ethnographic Museum of Wollega
Several researches have been conducted on the museums of Ethiopia. Research on the
Wollega Museum, the subject under study is very minimal. Wollega Museum has not
been touched adequately by researchers. Since museum is vital human treasure in all
countries in the 21st century, the status of museums should be adequately evaluated;
whether they meets national as well as internationally set standards. In the case of
Ethiopia, concerns to the cultural institutions in general and to the museums in particular
has given less attention in government structures as compared to other public institutions.
Museums have a real power to teach the society about everything of the past and also
create a link between the past and the present. Everybody can contemplate and think to
put her/his history in the museum where every cultures and identities displayed and
communicates. Based on these and other issues regarding the museum under study, the
researcher has set an objective on the identified problems that initiated him for the study.
The overall objective of this study is to assess the general status of Wollega Museum.
The assessment has been made on overall of the museum‟s category of collection,
documentation, conservation, exhibition and its management and also the museum
standard. It also aims at exploring the challenges and opportunities of the museum under
study and suggesting possible solutions to the identified gaps.
Qualitative research method has been applied to address the objectives of the research.
Data collecting techniques and tools are those appropriate to the qualitative research
method such as, interview and observation are applied as the basic methods of data
collecting tools. The collected data has been analyzed and interpreted to address the
objective of the study. After all the data has been interpreted recommendations has been
made to suggest possible solutions based on the findings.
The key findings are: 1) The museum has meet the standard of museum establishment
proclamation criteria, established according to the legislation of the Ethiopian Museums,
but the Wollega Museum has not given attention on the administrative part of the
museum. 2) The museum by its collection is not only an ethnography museum, it seems
the general museum and its rank is on the 1st level. But, due to mal administration of the
local authority, it is below the standards set for the museum in terms of management and
professional personnels. As a result, recommendations for possible solutions has been
forwarded for the concerning body.
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An Assessment of the Ethnographic Museum of Wollega