The mission of this Museum is to conserve, uphold, promote and propagate the life, values, philosophies and legacy of the late Chief Albert Luthuli in the struggle against apartheid oppression respect for human rights as well as life devotion to non-violent resolution to world problems. This mission statement has guided the museum’s collections policy since 2004 when it was established as a national legacy project. Given that under the apartheid regime most documents, correspondence and literature generated by Chief Luthuli were banned, confiscated or located outside South Africa, at the time of the Luthuli Museum’s inauguration the only surviving artefact on site was the physical home of Chief Luthuli. The benefit was that the Luthuli Museum was unhindered by the collections and curatorial baggage of those museums instituted during the colonial and apartheid periods. This has allowed the Luthuli Museum to engage in a new museology concerned as much with memory and the intangible as with more conventional museum artefacts. Since its formation, the Luthuli Museum has subsequently been involved in a rigorous process of collecting and repatriating oral histories, photographs, paintings, documents and other artefacts to assist with developing knowledge about the Legacy of Chief Luthuli and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa.
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