I checked the time on my phone. It was half past nine in the morning when our car pulled up to the car park of the Howick Museum. As I stepped out of the car and onto the grounds of the museum, the morning sun cast a warm glow on the ash metal gate, green roof, and brownish walls of the building. The scenic exterior belied the complex histories and narratives that lay within.

Our team had arranged a prior visit with the management, allowing us to bypass the bureaucratic processes that often accompany such tourist sites. However, this visit was not merely a tourist excursion; it was an ethnographic foray into the museum as a reproductive space.

As we entered the museum, I was struck by the division of the building into two distinct sections. The left side was a tapestry of textual images, pictures, and objects that wove together a narrative of South Africa’s past. The texts provided a detailed historical context, drawing connections between the past and present. These were not merely static displays; they were dynamic reproductions of ideas, histories, and contested knowledge.

The right side of the museum was a treasure trove of physical historical relics, each one a tangible connection to the past. The collection as a whole depicted the complex and contested histories of South Africa, from the Anglo-Zulu War to the development of the Howick township.

As I navigated the museum’s spatial layout, my sensory experience was heightened by the vast and stunning collections on display. The visual feast before me ignited a sense of wonder and excitement, drawing me into a world of artefacts and narratives. My presence in this cultural institution afforded me the opportunity for ‘sight-seeing,’ a term that belies the complexity of my engagement with the exhibits. Yet, as I lingered before the displays, my gaze transcended mere observation, and I found myself immersed in a process of introspection and recollection.

The artefacts and texts on display served as catalysts, stirring memories of my prior readings on South Africa’s tumultuous transition from apartheid to democracy. The narratives of struggle, resistance, and liberation resonated deeply, evoking a sense of empathy and connection. As a Ghanaian researcher in a South African museum, I was acutely aware of the cultural and historical specificities that distinguish our respective nations. And yet, despite these differences, I discerned parallels between our shared experiences of colonialism, radicalisation, and the ongoing struggles for justice and equality. The museum’s exhibits served as a poignant reminder of the complex and fraught history of radicalisation in South Africa, a history marked by the scars of apartheid and the ongoing quest for reconciliation and healing.

As I navigated the museum, I began to conceive of it as a space that reproduces historical ideas, narratives, and cultural forms. The historical objects on display may not have had an immediate connection to biological reproduction, but they nonetheless contributed to a broader understanding of the museum as a reproductive space. This epistemological approach challenges conventional notions of the museum as a static repository of artefacts and instead reveals it as a dynamic site of cultural reproduction and interpretation.