Blackitude Museum, Cultural museum in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
The Blackitude Museum is a cultural institution in Yaoundé devoted to the heritage of Cameroon's ethnic groups, with focus on the Grasslands region and Fang Beti communities. The exhibitions display artworks, carved objects, and crafted items from different sources.
The museum project began in March 1998 under Ngo Nab Fô I Nana Agnès Sunjio, a member of the Bahouoc royal family, and the museum opened in 2008. In 1982 she had inherited her father Fô Nab Ngo I's royal treasury, which she enlarged to more than 2,070 works. Prehistoric lithic artefacts were added from field research in the Western Region between 2009 and 2012.
The collection displays traditional clothing, jewelry, and everyday objects from different ethnic groups across the region. Visitors can see how these items were used in ceremonies and celebrations.
The museum is in the city centre of Yaoundé, behind the Presidential Tribune on the Boulevard du 20 Mai. It occupies an old building renovated into exhibition spaces, and renovation work to meet modern museum standards was still under way, so some areas may be closed off. Allow time to see the 360 objects on permanent display.
The museum holds more than 2,070 works of art, but only 360 are on permanent display; the rest stay in the reserves and the restoration room. Among the instruments shown are the Mvet, a traditional guitar of the forest peoples, and balafons, which the sources link to Beti culture.
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