Noteworthy institution gives visitors deep insight into Atlantic island
The Museum of St Helena, situated right adjacent to the bottom of the steep Jacob’s Ladder staircase that is perhaps the island’s most iconic tourist attraction, deserves at least as much attention.
Situated in an old power station (that was, before that, an old East India Company warehouse), its excellent, well-maintained layout features different areas for history, culture, military events, natural history, slavery, technology and more.
There are artefacts from everywhere – Dutch and Chinese ceramics; British uniforms (their fabrics ridiculously thick and dense for such a hot, humid climate); a piece of the Google undersea cable (surprisingly thin); carved items made by Afrikaner soldiers in the Boer prisoner-of-war camps (including General Cronje’s ornate wood and ceramic pipe) and a telephone exchange that would once have served the whole island. There is much more too, including a collection of the unique animals that have lived locally across geological eras. Interestingly, ‘megafauna’ in this context refers to creatures such as the giant earwig – unusual, certainly, but still smaller than some contemporary South African insects.
Past to present
A model of the RMS St Helena serves as a reminder of the importance of the many sea routes that have serviced the island throughout its history – and that ship in particular, sailing from Cape Town – now replaced to some degree by the much faster Airlink flights.
There’s a sense of the East India Company being a mercenary mega-corporation, running the island for profit, not for the benefit of its people. It’s difficult to argue with that while looking at the slavery exhibit, which includes a poster advertising the sale of three slaves alongside other items such as ribbons and pins. Another offer includes leasing the slaves, this time also pitching the sale of a horse. It’s horrifically dehumanising, pitched in such a blasé way.
Redeeming that history only began relatively recently when the British, who initiated slavery on the island, began to use its strategic location to find and intercept slave ships crossing from Africa to the Americas as abolition began and spread.
With Jacob’s Ladder right outside, interacting with a scale model of the rail system that used to run up and down the prodigiously steep slope, moving rubbish and waste to the Ladder Hill Fort area at the top, is fun and fascinating, while also underlining what a challenge it has always been to join the two points.
Today, the museum is not a finite organism, with its collection continuing to grow as new objects and relics are donated, found by St Helena residents and visitors as they walk and dive around the island.
Text and photography | Bruce Dennill
For more information or to book a stay, go to sthelenatourism.com.
