MILELE MUSEUM
Africa's first virtual museum dedicated to African knowledge and practices.
About the project
For decades, stories of African cultures and history have been narrated by Western scholars and institutions.
It is time to change this narrative.
Different countries and cultures are represented with 3D artifacts, animation and interactive games in the metaverse of Milele all in local languages.
We are shining a light on the importance of restitution and provenance research through the implementation of 3D scans of African artifacts that were looted and are now in Western museums. African artists who are representative of the respective culture are invited to research and design the environments for these artifacts.
JOURNEY
May - November 2023 TheMuseumsLab2023
Founding Director Meliibees is part of 2023's edition of TheMuseumsLab. A fellowship program for African and European museum professionals to work on important topics in the current art industry and foster collaborations between eachother through workshops.
Phase 1 : online lectures & discussions
Phase 2: Tours and workshops in Berlin and a 2-week residency.
Meliibees did her residency in Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.
Phase 3: Tours, lectures and workshops in Nairobi, Kenya
During this program, the participants challenged the current environments of Western and African art institutions by critical thinking and discussions. It was also a place for opportunities to foster collaborations with different regions.
Whats next?
The following activities are planned for 2024
We are facing a delay because of lack of fundings.
Help us by donating today. All the funds raised will be allocated to Milele Museum activities.
Contact info@milele.space for donating options.
Developing Web experience
f0r these spaces.
African people deserve to have an online safe space where they do not have to always see the violence's of racism. We deserve a space where we can comfortably distance ourselves from traumatic events, however the big known online platforms are not doing enough to offer these spaces.
This is one of the reasons why we have built Milele Museum: an interactive online space where you get transformed into an Afro-Futuristic environment. A space where you can get spiritually in touch with your roots and the practices of your ancestors. We are an online platform where the rich culture of Africans is celebrated through interactive gaming exercises that can be accessible on your web device, phone or Virtual Reality headsets
The beta version is currently available on demand for Oculus 2 Virtual Reality Headset. To make Milele Museum more accessible, we are currently developing the next version for web. This way, only a device with internet is needed to experience Milele.
Ubutabire: Mobile workshops and exhibition in Rwanda.
There is an ongoing problem happening for Africans across the world. History about the rich knowledge and practices Africa holds are rarely being taught in primary and high school across the world. This harms the longevity of the beautiful culture Africa has to offer. If we do not conserve it now in a way that is easily accessible, culture might be lost for our future generations. Schools and institutions do not teach Africans about their beautiful history, so who will?
Milele Museum is built for education. Besides it being a virtual platform, our team highly believes in the value of getting in touch with your culture and roots. At this very moment we are about to take off on a journey in our first target country: Rwanda, where Milele was founded. We have developed a series of interactive workshops with different cultural practitioners, local healers and artists in different disciplines about the rich pre-colonial traditions Rwanda has. Throughout the entire country, we are touring through different partner primary, high and university schools to offer these interactive workshop classes. Each workshop ends with an exhibition that the school can showcase how long they would like to. With this approach, we are challenging the current curriculum in institutions and museums by going to the people and letting them interact with culture.