THE Smithsonian breaks ground yesterday on the last available space along the National Mall in Washington for the only national museum dedicated exclusively to Americans of African heritage.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture will rise a stone's throw from the towering obelisk that honors George Washington, the slave-owning first president of the United States.

Barack Obama, the first black president, is among the VIPs scheduled to attend the long-awaited launch of construction, which coincides with the final days of the nation's annual Black History Month.

Inspired in design by traditional Yoruban art and architecture, the US$500 million venue — authorised by Congress in 2003 — is co-conceived by Tanzanian-born, London-based architect David Adjaye.

Its director Lonnie Bunch has been busy collecting artifacts to fill it, from a shawl given to 19th century abolitionist Harriet Tubman by Britain's Queen Victoria to a red Cadillac once driven by rock pioneer Chuck Berry.

Bunch has also reached out to the estimated 350 other African American museums across the United States, many of them struggling rural operations, to reassure them that the mammoth Smithsonian project will not spell their doom.AFP