Origins Centre Museum

Origins Centre Museum A museum that explores the origins of art and humanity in Africa,
San heritage, and rock art. Africa is where our ancestors evolved.

It’s only fitting then that the bustling metropolis of Johannesburg, South Africa, is home to the Origins Centre. Ceremoniously opened by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2006, the Origins Centre is a world-class museum dedicated to the exploration and celebration of humankind, telling the story of the emergence of human beings and humanity in southern Africa. Conceptualised by a team of academics

and designers from Wits University, the museum aims to provide visitors with a unique experience of Africa’s rich and complex heritage. The Origins Centre houses an extensive collection of southern African rock art in collaboration with Wits University's Rock Art Research Institute (RARI). Visitors are thus afforded the fantastic opportunity to learn about the earliest images made by humans, and witness southern African rock art - recognized by many as comprising some of the most beautiful and complex rock art in the world. Combining cutting-edge technology with the creative vision of some of South Africa’s foremost artists, exhibits take visitors on an extraordinary voyage of discovery, which begins with the origins of humankind in Africa, and progresses through the history, symbolism, and technology associated with the various traditions of southern African rock art. The permanent museum exhibit begins with the oldest aspects of the human past. A favourite of this part of the journey features casts of hominid fossils discovered in South Africa and focuses on the contribution that these fossils have made to understanding the development of humankind. The exploration then continues, showing how the diverse southern African rock art traditions – the world’s oldest continuous art forms – have been treated differently at various points in history, contrasting colonial ideas with with the re-discovery of these ancient masterworks in a contemporary world. The average museum experience takes between 90 minutes and two hours, but for the enthusiast, there is an unsurpassed wealth of additional multi-media material detailing Africa’s past. To book your tour of the centre contact our front desk on +27 (0)11 717 4700, or email: [email protected]

To subscribe to our mailing list and receive updates on events at the Origins Centre, email: [email protected]

If you would like to contact the Rock Art Research Institute at Wits details can be found at https://www.wits.ac.za/rockart/

We're delighted to have Abena Motaboli here with us at Origins for a short-term residency.Join Abena on Saturday 13 Jun...
04/06/2026

We're delighted to have Abena Motaboli here with us at Origins for a short-term residency.

Join Abena on Saturday 13 June for a hands-on, collaborative workshop

PLANTS AS MEMORY, COLOUR & EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE
- Facilitated by Abena Motaboli, with Dr Tammy Hodgskiss

Date: Saturday 13 June
Time: 09:30-13:00
Place: Wits Origins Centre 

During the workshop you will explore natural dyeing and earth-based colour practices as living systems of memory, where plants and materials from the land are approached as carriers of ecological and ancestral knowledge.

Through walking, gathering, making, and reflection, participants are invited into a slow, embodied engagement with colour as both material and story.

Participants will create with plants and ochre pigments and take home a naturally dyed cloth work.

Tickets: R350
(Includes all materials, a guided site engagement, plant-based dye processes, a naturally dyed cloth piece to take home, light refreshments).
Tickets on webtickets only.
Suitable for ages 12 and up. Limited spaces available

Abena Motaboli is a Basotho-Ghanaian artist, educator, natural dyer, and writer based in Chicago, US. She works with natural dyes, pigments, and ancestral materials informed by her Ghanaian, Togolese, Basotho, and Ndebele heritage. With a deep commitment to social and environmental justice, her work explores belonging, interconnectedness, and material histories. Abena has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago and has exhibited at Heaven Gallery Chicago, The Bhavan Gallery London, Woman Made Gallery, The Other Art Fair Chicago, SOFA Chicago, and Aqua Art Miami.


The workshop is co-facilitated by South African archaeologist, ochre researcher and the Head of the Origins Centre museum, Dr Tammy Hodgskiss. Tammy will support site engagement, walking routes, and contextual framing of landscape and materials. 

Enquiries: [email protected]

   

UbuGqi beThongo: A Solo Exhibition by Mzwanele Tshishonga16 May – 30 June 2026UbuGqi beThongo is both a search and a rum...
03/06/2026

UbuGqi beThongo: A Solo Exhibition by Mzwanele Tshishonga

16 May – 30 June 2026


UbuGqi beThongo is both a search and a rumination that started long before the formal creation of this offering. This body of work, presenting ceramic and photographic material, emerges from a sustained and intimate engagement with ancient and contemporary local artistic practices, refracted through the lens of ubuGqi.

UbuGqi is posited as a foundational philosophical framework, understood as a cosmic life force that permeates across realms and spheres, particularly in the onto-triadic conception of being. Existence is understood to encompass the interconnected spheres of the living, the living-dead (ancestors), and the not-yet-born.

Ubugqi beThongo is submitted in partial fulfilment of the artist’s Master of Arts in Fine Arts degree at the Wits School of Arts.

Mzwanele Tshishonga is a ceramist, researcher, and educator whose work bridges artistic practice, ancestral knowledge, and scholarly inquiry. His research and creative practice focus on the preservation and reimagining of African sculptural traditions, particularly through the lens of clay as a medium of healing, spiritual connection, and intergenerational knowledge transmission.

Entrance is R40/R70 (this gives full access to the museum and all temporary exhibitions).

Enquiries: [email protected]; 0117174700

Artist details: Mzwanele Tshishonga [email protected] / [email protected]; +27 61 492 5791



Join us this Saturday for a FREE walkabout through the Atlas of Uncertainty exhibition with one of the curators. No book...
03/06/2026

Join us this Saturday for a FREE walkabout through the Atlas of Uncertainty exhibition with one of the curators. 

No booking required

🕚 6 June at 11:00


Visit https://www.atlasofuncertainty.com/ 

Graphic: 

                   

03/06/2026
27/05/2026
LAST CHANCE! Celebrate Africa month by experiencing the journey of humanity like never before with a special combo featu...
25/05/2026

LAST CHANCE!
Celebrate Africa month by experiencing the journey of humanity like never before with a special combo featuring "!AITSA"
at the Wits Anglo American Digital Dome, WITS University and a visit to the Origins Centre Museum

✨ Bringing together ancient spiritual knowledge and cutting-edge science, !AITSA is a transcendental documentary film about humans in the Great Karoo desert of South Africa seeking meaning in the infinite darkness surrounding us all.
🗿 With the same ticket, step into the Origins Centre Museum to uncover the story of the origins of art and innovation. Anytime in the month of May (Mon - Sat, 9:00 - 16:00)

Two experiences. One powerful story.

🎟️ Combo tickets are still available!
https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1583524226
!AITSA show times at the Wits Digital Dome
📅Wednesday, 27 May: 18:00, R150
Tickets for Origins Centre valid until end May

Please note !AITSA is not a fulldome show (i.e. it is not a 360 degree experience). Duration 90 minutes. Suitable for ages 13 and above.

🌍✨

You're invited to a guided walkabout of the Atlas of Uncertainty exhibition.Join one of the exhibition curators this Sat...
20/05/2026

You're invited to a guided walkabout of the Atlas of Uncertainty exhibition.

Join one of the exhibition curators this Saturday 23 May at 11:00 to gain deeper insight into the stories, ideas and artworks that shape the project.

Entrance is free.
Please bring ID to get into campus.

Visit the website for more details.

Come see this little cutie on 21 May This curled up Lystrosaurus is a pre-hatched embryo. It's 252 to 250 million years ...
19/05/2026

Come see this little cutie on 21 May

This curled up Lystrosaurus is a pre-hatched embryo. It's 252 to 250 million years old and was found in the Gariep Dam area, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Prof Julien Benoit will be giving a PUBLIC LECTURE titled 'Milk, egg, but no custard! The first synapsid egg and the origin of mammalness' 

Thursday 21 May | 18:00
Wits Origins Centre

"Detailed imaging of a 250-million-year-old fossil has revealed the first proof that the ancestors of mammals laid eggs. The discovery answers a long-standing question about the reproductive biology of our ancient forerunners and hints at how they managed to flourish in the aftermath of the biggest mass extinction in Earth’s history." - Kate Wong, Scientific American

For two hundred years, palaeontologists have looked for mammalian ancestors' fossilized eggs, but they remained elusive. It took great efforts and almost 20 years for Julien Benoit and his colleagues, Professor Jennifer Botha and Dr Vincent Fernandez, to find, identify and describe the first egg of a pre-mammalian synapsid from the Karoo. 

This talk will explore the implications for the origins of viviparity and milk production in the mammalian lineage.

Julien Benoit is an Associate Professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University. He studies the evolution of therapsids from the Karoo, the origin of mammals and how they developed their defining traits, such as hair, lactation and endothermy using innovative approaches and 3D imaging. 


Tickets: R40/R70 on webtickets or at the door. 
In person only.
Drinks will be served.

Please bring ID to get on campus

18/05/2026

Join us at the Origins Centre as we celebrate International Museum Day

✨️Discover the Beauty of Origins✨️

🎟Free Entry on 18 May 2026 until 17:00pm🎟

Address

Corner Yale Road & Enoch Sontonga Drive, University Of The Witwatersrand, Braamfontein
Johannesburg
2001

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 09:00 - 17:00
Saturday 09:00 - 16:00

Telephone

+27(0) 11 717 4700

Website

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