Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority Museum (TCRA)
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Tanzania Communication
Regulatory Authority Museum (TCRA)
An Icon of Communication
System in East Africa
by Kimambo, J. S
Introduction
This
article came about as a result of the author experience in the field of museum,
participation at the final stages of TCRA museum development including setting
up the museum exhibition and curatorial work from August, 2015 to April, 2016.
During my tenure a t the TCRA museum I participated in inventory,
documentation, advancing the museum exhibit, and attending visitors. Subsequently
to these activities, I noticed that museum lack reference information to saves
the museum visitor. Furthermore, understating nature of the museum visitors
whom among others includes students visiting the museum for education purpose,
general public who always require presentation of museum in simplified
information, and general needs of the museum reference document, I decided to develop
this article to bridge the aforementioned gap. This article, therefore, aimed
at providing the museum visitors/readers with general knowledge about TCRA
museum.
Overall,
generally, this article covers the concept of establishing communication
museum, and TCRA museum exhibit. Also, I
have presented my views on the significance of the museum for current and
future generation as well as possible challenges that may face the museum. I,
however, would like the readers to understand that, the information given in
this article will undoubtedly be outdated by the future development of the
museum and further studies. This is because; at the time of writing this
article the museum was at early stage of its development. Therefore, any changes
from provided information will be inevitable due to the advancement of the
museum exhibit and detailed study.
The Establishment TCRA Museum
The
idea to establish TCRA museum existed since 2008. However, it was until 2012
the plan for having the museum was initiated. The preliminary activities
involved long work of consultancy to describe location, setting of the museum,
facilities to be used, identification of museum objects and literature reviews.
Study visit and benchmarking were done in various communication museum include
Berlin communication museum, Berlin natural history museum, Deutsche welle
radio in Bonn, and Bern Switzerland communication museum. Later on the acquisition
team were selected from TCRA and NMT expert to conduct preliminary survey,
documentation, and identification of object in various part of the country.
Places such as Ruvuma, Tabora, Shinyanga, Morogoro, Mbeya, Iringa, Kilimanjaro,
Unguja and Pemba were visited. It should be noted that, the focus of the survey
focused on area with historical significances. This is to say, in order to get
early imported object, the team required to visit earliest white settlement and
so the post office.
Acquisition of the museum object was done under the directorship of museum expert. Then, it was followed by mounting exhibition production of the story line. The display are divided into three themes namely postal services, telecommunication, and broadcasting both of which to be discussed later. The museum was inaugurated by Hon. Prof. Makame Mbarawa minister for Communication, Science and Technology on 9th October 2015. Since then, the museum was opened to the public. The museum is located at basement floor of the Mawasiliano tower. It’s about 0.8 km from Mawasiliano bus stop and 200 m from university junction just on the right side to Mwenge through Sam Nujona Road.
TCRA Museum Exhibitions
Presentation
of the TCRA museum is categorized into three aspect. Part one of the museum is
designed to exhibit postal services. Part two of the exhibition focused on telecommunication
while part three is dedicated to broadcasting.
Part one: Postal gallery
The
section introduce and trace various concept of communication practiced in Tanzania
before and after introduction of postal services in Tanzania. The exhibits are
presented in form of posters, illustration, and pictures which are fed up with
the information. Material objects such as animal horns, drums and some other
traditional equipment are also presented. All these attempt to depict
traditional means of communication before advancement of technology and
subsequently introduction of postal services.
Before
development postal people already had means of communication from one society
to another. Many societies used traditional means of communication such as fire
signal, drums bit, blowing horns, messengers, and paintings. In Europe for
example, messengers/runners were used to transfer message from one kingdom to
another. In Africa, drums, horn and fire signals were used to alert or inform
various events. For instance, among the Chagga, Gogo, and Sukuma blowing animal
horn were used to announce the public gathering for meeting or
ceremonial/traditional dances. Similarly, the same instrument has been used to
alert dangerous situation suddenly appeared in a given society. The context and
content of the message (announcement through word of mouth) accompanied the
horn blowing determine the type of events.
It should be neither noted that, introduction of postal service neither a single event replaced traditional means of communication nor was an overnight process. This is to say, peoples continue to use their traditional communication system alongside postal services. To date, postal activities have significantly changed due to advancement of science and technology. Yet, some society such as Chagga and Sukuma still use the traditional equipment for communication purpose. For this reason, the museums have decided to exhibit both traditional and postal collections in one section to show trend of its development and their evolution.
On the other hand, a section covers the antiquity of Tanzania postal services back to German colonial time. These materials were acquired from various post offices across the country. Large collection these materials were obtained from Moshi general post, Shinyanga general post, Iringa general post, and Tabora general post suffice to mention. Historically, these were among earliest post office built in Tanzania. Also, other objects were collected from present day postal office and TCRA includes stamps, telex machines etc.
Moreover,
exhibition section is advanced with a mould of the postal office and equipped
with all facilities for both current and those used during the colonial
time.The collection are placed to portray various activities which are
conducted in postal office. Of importance, the exhibition had collection used back
to the colonial error. Among other object displayed, some were used during
German, British colonial time, during the independence and post-independence
Part Two: Telecommunication gallery
Second
part of the museum is dedicated to the historical development of
telecommunication system in Tanzania. In this case, various instrument,
telephone which was used from early 1900s to present were collected from
various source. The section portray major development, changes, and evolution
of telephone system from magneto telephones to digital technology. The display
exhibit object such as magneto telephones, magneto telephone switch board, STDs
switch board, STDs automatic switch board, and evolution of digital telephone
mobile phone, and handset.
Part Three: broadcasting
gallery
Section
three of the museum exhibit all about broadcasting to include radio and
television. However, the section contain a minor category to exhibit sound and
videos monitoring and regulatory equipment from TCRA. Special thanks to CTN,
Radio Dar es salaam, and Radio Tanzania, Audio Visual Media, TBC, ITV and radio
one media who have contributed some of their object exhibited in this section.
Broadcasting exhibits contains early and near recent object the then instrument
used in aforementioned channels such as Gate studio player, Ampex studio
magnetic player, Uher recorder, Technics record player, video cameras,
transition antennae, heavy duty film projector and evolution of radios suffice
to mention.
Significance of TCRA
museum for the Current and future Generation
For
academic purpose the museum is the centre of learning for general public,
students, and researchers. For the student, the museums offer variety of
education program such as field practicum for museum studies, journalist
(broadcasting), as well those taking subject related to postal, and
telecommunication services. For the general public the
museum provide a room for understanding the historical development of communication
system in Tanzania. Furthermore, the museum collections provide new room for researches
in various specializations include metal conservation, communication as well as
museum studies
The
museum also is the center for recreational for general public. The museum is
advanced with user friendly interactive programs for the general public.
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