Museum & Learning Centre

A key objective of the Trust is to support and strengthen the rural communities of Graaff-Reinet and the surrounding areas, with a focus on young people. The Trust has eight young interns, trained and mentored through participation in the Trust’s projects and programmes.

• RobertSobukwe Museum & Learning Centre is under construction, located in uMasizakhe, Sobukwe’s birthplace. It is scheduled for completion in June 2017:
  The learning centre and library will support youth education and training.
• Exhibitions will interpret Sobukwe’s life and ideals and the history of Graaff-Reinet.
• The museum will enable the community, in particular its youth, to act as caretakers of the cultural and natural environment and as creators of their own futures.
• A sustainable model of ‘green’ technology – for environmental education.
• And, in the spirit of Sobukwe, provide a resource that builds community pride and inspires the quest for knowledge and life-long intellectual curiosity.
• Provide a ‘home’ and ongoing support for youth-based income generating cooperatives

Between February and September the Sobukwe Trust is conducting a project to produce a large-scale woven tapestry (wall-hanging) for the Sobukwe Museum & Learning Centre. The tapestery will depict Sobukwe’s life and times and the history of the Graaff-Reinet area from the earliest geological formations to our post-liberation present. Oral histories reflecting lives of uMasizakhe residents and Robert Sobukwe, will be major elements in the design.

The design will be workshopeed with youth in Graaff-Reinet and produced by the Stephens Tapestry Studio in Johannesburg. Two young people from Graff-Reinet will be trained in the weaving craft during the production of the tapestry. This training will provide the foundation for a small weaving operation, to be set up at the Sobukwe Museum & Learning Centre in uMasizakhe, Graaff-Reinet.

Project deliverables/outcomes

• The tapestry will ensure that the history of Graaff-Reinet, and in particular the history of one of South Africa’s oldest townships, uMasizakhe is conserved for future generations in a innovative, engaging and sustainable manner.
• The tapestry will be a ‘centre piece’ display in the exhibition hall of the Sobukwe Museum drawing visitors into the township and provide a source of community pride and cohesion.
• Training provided by the tapestry producer will assist young people to establish a weaving operation based at the museum.
• The museum shop will provide an outlet for products produced in situ by the weavers.
• The weaving cooperative will establish a working relationship with a local organisation of women spinners. Through this relationship, beneficiation of locally produced wool will occur.