(Marcus Garvey)
My name is Ms. Esther (or Mama Kiki to some) and I would like to tell you about our wonderful children's museum located int the Park Heights community of Baltimore. Part of our mission is to provide much-needed knowledge of Africa, (through play and other interactive activities) to school children in Baltimore and beyond. We hope, through these activities to cultivate their inter
est in African cultures and hopefully encourage a love of learning of other cultures. I am a Ghanaian-born citizen of the US and a graduate of the University of Ghana at Legon. I have lived and worked in the Maryland area for over 30 years. My husband James Clemmer and I own and manage Sankofa African & World Bazaar, a specialty store and gallery of African tribal art, clothing and gift shop also located at 4330 Pimlico Road, the site of the museum. The thought to open a children's museum of African cultures came about in February 2016 when during the celebration of Black History Month, we experimented with an idea to bring Africa to groups of young people from two Baltimore City Elementary School 3rd and 4th grade classes. One of the ideas was to measure how well these youth would respond to the untold story of African civilizations and cultures before the period of slavery. We feel strongly, as the famous quote (above) by Marcus Garvey indicates, that by empowering our children with the pride and respect that comes from the knowledge of their history and connection to their roots prior to the Transatlantic Slave trade, we would be making a major contribution to their sense of identity and self-esteem, and perhaps help prevent the negative behaviors that we see exhibited on so many different levels today. For this program, students, parent-chaperones and teachers not only heard and learned about previous and current African cultures, but interacted with different aspects of them, including dress, musical instruments, tribal art, personal artistry and story-telling. It was an overwhelming success as evidenced by the photographs and videos shown here. They begged us to present this to our children every day of the year, not just during Black History Month! The mission of Sankofa Children’s Museum of African Cultures, Inc. is to build and operate a world-class living and interactive children’s African museum in Baltimore for the benefit of the Baltimore communities and all visitors that embrace learning. From our research, this would be the first children’s museum dedicated to educating children about Africa, in the United States.
