Zambia to establish a natural history museum

Zambia’s Ministry of Tourism and Arts has announced collaboration with the UK’s Natural History Museum that will see the establishment of a Zambian Natural History Museum.

On Wednesday, October 10, Minister Charles Banda met with Sir Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum in London to discuss plans. According to a statement released by the Zambian High Commission in London, Banda believes that there is a need to preserve Zambia’s history and celebrate its biodiversity.

Banda told Dixon: “We are looking to forge new partnerships with different countries, and regional cultural, scientific and wildlife players that will help us put up a museum like yours, which has been in existence for a long time.”

Dixon said he was happy to work with the Zambian government on this project, and said Natural History Museums aided research in fields like disease eradication, the environment and managing resource scarcity. The Natural History Museum in London currently exhibits the skull of the Broken Hill Man, discovered in Kabwe, Zambia in 1921. The skull is an example of the Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis species, thought to be between 200 000 and 300 000 years old.

source: Tourism Update