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Abdullahi Ali Sherif is the founder of Sherif Private Museum, the first private museum in Ethiopia and holds an honorary doctorate from Haramaya University for its contribution to the development and conservation of cultural heritage. Abudullahi Sharif, a father of five who considers the museum his sixth child. She received an honorary doctorate from Haramaya University on March 13, 2021, and at age 70, she wants to do more to preserve indigenous heritage. Addis Standard Etenesh Abera visited his museum on March 21, 2021 and sat down with him for an interview to discuss the process of establishing the first private museum, culture and heritage and more.
Excerpts:
Addis Standard: Thank you for sitting down with us, can we first give a brief introduction for those who follow your work and can you tell us more about your journey to establish the first private museum in the country?
Abdullahi Ali: I was born and raised here in Harar. During my high school years, I had unanswered questions that led me to search for my identity and culture. Being a Harari, I started asking our elders about our culture and heritage, the answer I got was “We have nothing”, it plunged me into an identity crisis. Luckily for me, 25 years later, there was this traditional music band from Harari called Hayewan Mugad and they wanted to celebrate their 25 year anniversary and I started working on the preparation of this event by collecting audio and other media. During the preparation, the elders began to bring me mediums and artifacts that recorded our traditional and religious heritages. I was upset because years ago, when I was on the trip to learn our history, I asked them why they refused years ago to give me these materials and the answer was more annoying, they said: “We were afraid for our lives because during that era all the people had than to sing about a culture, a country and a religion “.
We released about 125 songs in the Harari language along with a biography of the band. After that, I continued collecting Harari artifacts from our elders and different individuals in the community.
AS: How would you describe the artifact collection process?
Abdullahi: Difficult, but as I told you before, once I started collecting artifacts, the Harari community will bring me most of them for free and as far as you know, my collection is not complete as I am still in the process of collecting them. I have collections of coins before the Menelik era, manuscripts, religious books, different medals of cultural clothing, etc.
Before moving into this house that belonged to Teferi Mekonnen or as it is widely known as Haile Selassie I, I used my own little family room as a museum for over 17 years. Using my own home as a base for my museum caused a lot of stress on my family and cost us both mentally and physically. I moved into this house. July 26, 2007 just before the start of the new Ethiopian millennium. I have been renovating it for 13 years and it still needs a lot of renovation. In this humble setting, I have five showrooms that can display 13,000 artifacts. This number is an improvement on the 6,000 artifacts I had when I started.
“In our museums we not only work to preserve only Harari artifacts and current Harari culture, but we also work to preserve and assist other culturally specific museums …”
I also have four operational workshops. I operate one workshop as a manuscript digitization center, I operate a second as an audio digitization center, I operate a third workshop as a binding center, in which I am proud to say that we have already assembled more than a thousand books and operated my last workshop as a center. renovation of the museum and preservation of artifacts. If I may add that here in our museums we are not only working to preserve only Harari artifacts and the current Harari culture, but we are also working to preserve and assist other culturally specific museums, for example of the 1,500 manuscripts that we digitized so far, only 1,000 belong to our museum and represent the Harari culture. We always prepare two copies of digitized manuscripts and send one copy of each manuscript to the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, a non-profit organization located and sponsored by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Of the artifacts I own, only 35% have been purchased, while the rest were collected from the Harari community primarily by donation. We only show 20% of the artifacts collected due to a shortage of showrooms. We store the remaining 80% in warehouses and make them available at the request of researchers.
I now have in my possession more than 1,300 manuscripts written in Arabic, Harari and Afan Oromo and more than 2,000 religious and historical books. I also have a collection of cultural clothing of different ethnicities, a collection of medals, old coins, postage stamps, photographs, in short I have in my possession artifacts from 17 categories.
AS: Did you exhibit your collections in other places besides this museum?
Abdullahi: Yes, I toured almost every major city and town in Ethiopia and if I’m not mistaken the total is over 60 cities and towns. Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Morocco are some of the countries where I have exhibited my collection. I have received many certificates and awards for these exhibitions.
” Receiving this recognition for their hard work, the feeling was more than I can describe. I have to give credit to my wife Sa’ada Tawfiq for her 17 years of patience while all these artifacts filled our living room. ”
AS: Describe your feelings when Haramaya University made the decision to award you an honorary doctorate.
Abdullahi: Receiving this recognition for their hard work, the feeling was more than I can describe. I have to give credit to my wife Sa’ada Tawfiq for her 17 years of patience while all these artifacts filled our living room. I must add that this honorary doctorate for me is not a mere recognition, but also places a great responsibility on me to get the job done. Many of the artifacts have yet to be registered and cataloged, this is a huge burden. This recognition will be a motivating force to finish organizing the museum and bring it to the national standard, it is also a revelation for the regional and federal governments, as well as the community in general, to pay due attention to the museum.
AS: What is your main source of support?
Abdullahi: I would have to say mainly to the Ethiopians that they helped me in many ways financially and otherwise, but I would have to add that the office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the embassy of the United States, the Russian embassy and the United Kingdom embassy. and the Ethiopian-Saudi businessman Mohammed Al-Amoudi lend me a hand in the maintenance of this museum.
AS: What are the biggest challenges you face? Can you tell us about your concerns about the future and what you want the public to know?
Abdullahi: To be honest, I am concerned that the museum will close after my death. My children know the ins and outs of this profession and the methods of preserving artifacts, but my concern is that financial constraints prevent them from continuing this dream of mine. I have received some support for the museum from the government, and that support has to continue. Another challenge would be the lack of promotion, the eastern part of the country is merely promoted for international tourists and that can be solved if the responsible government agencies promote it. Because Harar is a tourist destination and the museum could be a great source of employment and income for the community if supported.
I have to say this to my fellow Ethiopians; we have to protect our unique identities, preserve our unique cultures and our artifacts for generations to come to see.
I have to say this to my fellow Ethiopians; we have to protect our unique identities, preserve our unique cultures and our artifacts for generations to come to see. If you own an artifact, no matter how small you think it is, donate it yourself or through someone you trust to museums, do not keep them out of selfishness or sell them to tourists, because if you do, you leave the next generation struggling to find things that connect them with their identities, cultures and history. WHAT
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