The Phansi Museum houses one of the world’s largest publically accessable collections of Southern African artefacts.The collection includes: Zulu, Xhosa, Shangaan and Ndebele beadwork, telephone-wire baskets, carved wooden meat platters and milk pails, ceramic beer pots, snuff spoons,containers and pipes, walking sticks, wood,vinyl and perspex earplugs.

The collection is housed in Roberts House,a fully restored Victorian National Monument in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

All three floors of the building house innovative contemporary displays.

A large space on the top storey has  30 life-size marionettes on display. These are dressed and adorned with beadwork,garments, jewellery and ceremonial objects, from the various ’tribal’ regions of Southern Africa. They illustrate the complex visual language which communicates regional identity and social structures  through the use of colour,material and design.