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The external features of the African Art Museum in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province. The building was designed by Cho Myong-haing, director of the museum. / Korea Times Photos by Kim Se-jeong |
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
The first non-commercial African museum in Korea opened in Gangwon Province last Tuesday.
Gazing over the Dong River in Yeongwol, the African Art Museum revealed its two-story exhibition halls to a hundred guests.
A wooden cone building, with a zebra-pattern structure behind as if it were a tail, held a variety of African artifacts, ranging from simple paintings to wooden sculptures and masks. A majority of them belong to Cho Myung-hang, a retired Korean diplomat, who has spearheaded the project and will act as director of the museum.
Cho said the museum would contribute to enhancing the level of understanding about African culture and history among Koreans. ``I hope this will extend its role in bridging the relationship between Korea and African states,'' he said at the opening ceremony.
A former ambassador, Cho retired from the Korean diplomatic service in 1999, putting an end to his 35-year career.
He said, ``I had had a longstanding personal interest in collecting African cultural artifacts,'' as to the reason why he decided to open the museum. That also explained an extensive range of items despite his short stay in Africa.
His only and last post in Africa was to Nigeria in the 1990s where he spent three years as ambassador.
``Collecting them (artifacts) has taken some time, but major purchases were made while I was in Nigeria," Cho said.
He was also posted to Chile, the last station in his diplomatic career.
The museum isn't the first African museum in Korea. In fact, on Jeju Island and Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, there are African museums. Yet, Cho's museum isn't a profit-driven commercial one like the others. ``I just wanted to create a venue for an African exhibition.''
Because of that, he can stay calm amid concerns about the location of the museum.
Situated in a rural area surrounded by nothing but mountains and rivers, the location isn't good enough to attract visitors, some argue.
He thinks the location couldn't be better.
``Yeongwol County intends to become `the city of the museum.' It's already got 16 museums in the county. Wouldn't it be nice to stay with other museums as a group than as a single museum to attract people?'' he said.
Cho's museum is the 17th in Yeongwol, and the local government offers incentives to such projects.
The director thanked county Governor Park Sun-gyu, who had given Cho unconditional support.
The land, which used to be an elementary school, was donated to him by the local government.
Cho also thanked the African diplomatic corps in Korea, which provided diverse exhibition items on the second floor.
Emmanuel Abeni Koffi, Cote d' Ivoire ambassador and also dean of the African diplomatic corps in Korea, thanked him for what he had done to bring the African continent to the people of Yeongwol and Korea.
Calling it a ``noble endeavor,'' the ambassador offered warm encouragement. ``The museum will enhance understanding of Africa, African countries and their history.''
Nearly 70 African diplomats in Korea attend the event. One unidentified diplomat commented on the exhibition saying, ``It's a long way to go, but you can see Africa here.''
The African museum will help curry favor with African diplomats who have often said Korea's interest in Africa fell short, compared to its neighboring countries, such as China and Japan.
It will also help the Lee Myung-bak administration's efforts in initiating exchange with the African states as to bolster energy diplomacy.
Since inauguration early last year, Lee's administration has established more Korean embassies in Africa. Last year, embassies were established in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
African states are also opening or promoting their diplomatic offices in Korea.
Angola promoted its representative office to embassy last September, and Rwanda, which opened a representative office last year, promoted it to embassy in March this year.
skim@koreatimes.co.kr
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