In downtown Johannesburg there's a place where you can see 250 million years of local history in one day. MuseuMAfricA , in the Newtown Cultural Precinct, was the city's first fruit and vegetable market. MuseuMAfricA is Johannesburg's major history and cultural history museum. The structure of the original building, erected in 1913, has now been built into a modern building. Its collections have been accumulated and preserved since 1933, when an impressive collection of Africana was bought by the Johannesburg public Library from J C Gubbins, turning the museum into the Africana Museum. It was renamed in 1994.
The interior is a series of walkways and ramps, from prehistoric times to the present. The geological section has slabs of minerals and stones, fossils and gemstones. There is a collection of objects from the days of the Dutch East India Company. Frascati’s Bar is a late 19th-century local saloon complete with old beer bottles (Stag, Rob Roy and Tooth’s lagers), sepia-toned boxing prints, worn leather seats and slow-turning fans. Jürgen Schadeberg’s exhibition, Voices from the Land, is an exposé of what conditions were like on some of South Africa’s farms. His photos of the 1956 Treason Trialists grace the walls of the Tried for Treason exhibit. Newspaper sheets from the 1950s take one back in time. Life-like exhibits of mineworkers’ living quarters are contrasted with those of mine managers. You can go from the shebeens of Sophiatown to early Soweto shack life. Music and sound effects follow you. The Road to Democracy showcases the twin paths of white politics and black resistance. Wooden walkways lead through faux caves, recreating ancient rock art made from crushed ochre, charcoal, fat and blood. The Bensusan Museum of Photography takes you through 160 years of photography.