# Iziko Museums (Cape Town) ## Basic Info **Name:** Iziko Museums of South Africa **What is it:** A network of national museums managed under a single institutional structure by the South African government. **Who is involved:** Administered by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture; includes curators, researchers, and cultural heritage professionals across 11 institutions covering a wide range of disciplines—from natural history and paleontology to military history, decorative arts, social history, and contemporary culture. **Location:** Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa **Link:** [https://www.iziko.org.za](https://www.iziko.org.za) --- ## Entries **22/09/2022**: During my visit to the **Slave Lodge**, one of the institutions within the Iziko Museums complex in Cape Town, I encountered the exhibition dedicated to the [São José Paquete d’África](https://slavery.iziko.org.za/2015/07/23/sao-jose-paquete-de-africa/) — a Portuguese slave ship that sank off the coast of Cape Town on December 27, 1794. The ship was carrying 512 enslaved Mozambicans to Maranhão, Brazil, when it stopped to resupply. Around 200 individuals died in the shipwreck, and the survivors were sold into slavery in the city. They and their descendants came to be known as _Masbiekers_, a term derived from “Mosambieker” (Afrikaans for “Mozambican”). The exhibition is the result of long-term research led by archaeologist Jaco Boshoff, affiliated with Iziko Museums, in collaboration with the **[Slave Wrecks Project (SWP)](https://slavewrecksproject.org/)**, an international research initiative now housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The SWP also works with [Diving With a Purpose (DWP)](https://divingwithapurpose.org/), a nonprofit dedicated to identifying and documenting shipwrecks linked to the transatlantic slave trade. Iziko’s curatorial approach to the São José includes the participation of Masbieker descendants. This way I got to know the poem _[My Name is February](https://camissamuseum.co.za/index.php/7-tributaries/tributes-of-poet-descendants/d-ferrus-my-name-is-february)_, written by Diana Ferrus: > _My name is February. I was sold > my breasts, private parts and eyes > my brain > are not mine yet..._