May marks International Museum Month with museums all over the world participating to raise awareness of the fact that museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding. Hosted by the City of Cape Town, National Museum Day was celebrated on Friday May 11 at the Rhodes Cottage in Muizenberg with a historical talk on Cecil John Rhodes, a tour of his cottage and a light lunch. Chairman of the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, Glenn Babb, welcomed visitors and Mayco member for area south, Eddie Andrews, officially opened the event. The keynote speaker was Chris Taylor, the vice-chairman of the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, who compared museums to jigsaw puzzles. “Museums are places of learning and you put the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle to get a better picture,” he said. He advised visitors – when reading about history – to take the context in which it took place into consideration before deciding if it was good or bad and said destroying historical artifacts does not erase history, it just makes it harder to understand and learn from it. PICTURES: YOLANDE DU PREEZ