THE CHALLENGES OF THE PUBLIC IN A NEW MUSEUM: CASE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF AGONGOINTO
By Cossi Zéphirin DAAVO, Coordinator of theof enhancement’sprogram
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Traduction en anglais: Théodore ATROKPO, guide animateur sur le parc
Presentation of the park
All started of the road constructed in 1998 around Bohicon thanks to the Danish cooperation in the intention of diverting toward the periphery of the city the traffic of the vehicles thick carriers of which the circulation in agglomeration had become in charge very dangerous for the population. One of the engines of the Danish enterprise of works collapsed in a big hole. A piece of luck had just been thus carried to this space that was covered with high herbs in the middle of which were a few big trees: baobabs, irokos and nérés seriously felt by the time and the fires of bush.
Located to 130 km from Cotonou (economic capital of BENIN), the archaeological park of Agongointo in Bohicon is an open museum of new type. The innovative character resides in its two main components.
First, it is about a museum where the visitor coasts of very near the cultural and natural treasures and plays as well especially when it is a child.
Second, the space of the museum is an archaeological site full of underground shelters whose construction reveals the big ingenuity of the peoples that lived in this locality in the XVIIIème century. It is about real houses of basement with rooms to the various functions and storage spaces.
These two big components of the jewel cultural of Agongointo make of this site an unequalled cultural appeal in Benin.
The archaeological park of Agongointo, indeed, offers supports of education and spaces of distraction organized through a plot that puts in stage the underground shelters and rooms cleverly built, modern and traditional games, sacred spaces and a setting for the natural resource admiration at a time. Panels and other disposed text shelves on the circuit contain the necessary information to bring to the visitor the appropriate answers to most his/her questioning.
Presentation of the park | The challenges of the park | The assets of the park | Public of Agongointo