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Regarded as a living museum, the Bakone Malapa Museum near Polokwane is one of several museums and national monuments that bear testimony to South Africa’s peoples. The Bakone Malapa, where tribesmen practise long-standing traditions to enlighten visitors about the traditions of Africa’s people, is one of two similar museums in Limpopo - the other is the Tsonga open-air Museum near Tzaneen.
Bakone Malapa is a reconstructed village in the style used by the northern Sotho about 250 years ago designed to demonstrate the daily life of the Bakone, a highly sophisticated subgroup of the northern Sotho tribe. The cultural village includes two homesteads or lapas that display and explain fire making, maize grinding and beer brewing as they would have been carried out years ago. There are also handcraft demonstrations that include pottery, basketry and bead work and most of these locally-made crafts are then sold from the local craft shop.
The guides are all excellent story tellers and the village’s architectural and cultural styles come alive through their eyes as they take one through the village’s traditional way of life. But the museum is more than a cultural village alone. There is a bird sanctuary, a game reserve, hiking trails and outdoor recreation areas. (courtesy savenues.com)
A basin rich in magnificence and biodiversity, the Makapansgat Valley displays some of the most astounding beauty in Limpopo. Not only is it of interest to paleontologists - numerous caves in the Makapansgat valley hold fossils that date back to 3.3 million years before the present, linking directly to the history at the Cradle of Humankind, when the valley was a tropical paradise - but it also displays an incredible diversity of life.
This series of caves together form a national monument and intentions are that it should soon become a World Heritage Site. Primates in the shape of baboons and vervet monkeys make this their playground, whilst bush babies or galagos come out at night to forage for food. Like our forefathers, whose remains have been found in the Makapansgat catchment, these primates find a good supply of plant food in the form of seeds, tubers, fruits and berries. Nowhere is the biodiversity of early times in such rich display as in the caves of the Makapansgat Valley.
The hills surrounding the Makapansgat valley are dotted with caves. Many of these are silting up or filled up long ago and are re-opened by local quarries in search of limestone. During one such search during mining operations in the 1920s, a large number of fossil bones were blown out of a particularly large cave in the area. It was not fully investigated until 1947, when it was confirmed that there were remains of Australopithecus africanus or early man.(courtesy savenues.com)
Hugh Exton Photographic Museum
Over 23 000 glass negatives offer a window on the first 50 years of Polokwane's history. The collection can be viewed in the first Dutch Reformed Church built in Polokwane in 1890.
Polokwane Art Museum
This growing collection of 800 pieces is one of the most extensive in South Africa, with a special emphasis on the artists of the Limpopo. Housed in the Danie Hough Cultural Centre.
Polokwane Game Reserve
More than 21 game species, from small buck to rhino can be seen in this 3200-ha scenic reserve, one of the largest municipal owned game reserves in South Africa, adjacent to the city. Many walks on offer, including a one-day hiking trail over 20 km with overnight accommodation.
Polokwane Museum
Housed in the famous, historical "Irish House", the museum portrays much of the past history of the region.
