By Caroline Uliwa
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| Tanzanian dancer in the production Vinyago, body painting by Masoud Kibwana photo by Nicholas Calvin |
Ever found it fishy despite that
scientifically its proven Africans are the mother race New
York Times (Article) A single migration from Africa Populated the World Access to our history a little beyond the
coming of the ‘coloniser & the perpetrators of the slave trade’ is trifling
to find? The answer commonly thrown at us, is our ancestors didn’t efficiently
record our history, but is this true?
At a conference held in the National Museum
of Tanzania headquarters in Dar es Salaam, earlier this month titled Beyond Collecting: New Ethics for Museums
in Transition a wholesome answer is articulating itself. “We’ve discovered
more & more, the museum as we know it isn’t a benign caring institution as
it has always presented itself, caring for collections for future generations.
We have realised just the extents to which its ideology of care was installed
through a history of violence. How colonialism coincided with the birth of the
modern museum.”- Prof Ciraj Rassool-African
Program In Museum and Heritage Studies, University of Cape Town.
Prof Ciraj cited this to no dispute during
a public discussion facilitated at the end of this conference. This discussion
steered by Prof Ciraj, Prof Barbara Plankensteiner (Director of ‘Markk-Museum
am Rothenbaum’-Germany), Dr Oswald Masebo (Department of History University of
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), Mr. Johannes Ebert (General Secretary Goethe Institut,
Germany) was chaired by Dr Winani Thebele (Chief Curator Botswana National
Museum).
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| Isack Abeneko in the production Vinyago that debuted at this conference. Photo by Nicholas Calvin |
Last week I had the privilege to be present
at the commemorations of 113 leaders of the Maji Maji War. Here I had an
opportunity to hold a focus group discussion with Ngoni elders where Chief Gama
was present… I asked them ‘Why are they so committed in the struggle of the
return of Chief Songea’s remains?’ The first response was ‘you know what, this
is not a remain! This is the ‘head’ of our ancestor.”Dr Masebo shared where he
went on to add that hearing that answer led him to re-think “Is it proper as
Africans to refer to the bodies or body parts which were chopped from our
ancestors as ‘remains’?”
This conference pooled a healthy dose of
African historical scholars coming from Rwanda, Senegal, Nigeria, Namibia,
South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania with key Museum experts from the U.K and
Germany. So as Dr Masebo reiterated it’s the hope that the results from the
conference right from its minutes, will give Tanzania and other African
countries distinct results in the road to restitution.
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| A dancer in the production Vinyago, wearing a historical mask from East Africa. Photo by Nicholas Calvin |
Indeed at the public discussion Prof Plankensteiner
confirmed. “Our Secretary of Culture has said that he would support restitution
of objects, works that have been illegally taken...I cannot tell you how long
it will take its a procedure” She added when asked the number of artefacts held
in museums in Germany from Tanzania. “It’s again hard to say for my museum, but
I worked for a long time in Austria at the Weltmuseum Wien, there you’ll find
approximately 3,000 objects from Tanzania.” In this conference other experts
confirmed an additional 11,100 plus objects from Tanzania residing in other
institutions in Germany to include Human body parts.
Mr Bufure informed us that the National
Museum of Tanzania as of last year received an order from the Ministry of
Natural Resources & Tourism, which it is under. To formally start processes
for claiming national restitution of artefacts lost during colonial rule. “We
have been forming a committee and there are some procedures. But again we
cannot do it on our own, there are some other stakeholders who we have got to
contact, to discuss together so as to take it to the national level status.”
Mr. Achilles Bufure.
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| The dancers performing the debut production'Vinyago' at the National Museum of TZ earlier this month |
This ‘we cannot do it on our own’ was expanded
as part of the challenges museums face in this provenance research in Africa. It
was pointed out that most museums in Africa unlike their counterparts in Europe
are under the state. This is mostly a bad thing as the funds it allocates to
these institutions mostly depend on the executive’s political agenda. As well a
lack of clear national policies is what is disabling regional bodies and
ultimately the African Union, to articulate a clear cry from the continent on
the return of these artefacts.
“If each African government came up with her own position they may take that position to its regional body. Like the East African Community (EAC), ECOWAS, SADC then a possibility exists for restitution to be a key agenda in each of the regional bodies. I think if we have that process then it’s possible to have the African Union taking a central position in this agenda.” Dr Masebo.
“If each African government came up with her own position they may take that position to its regional body. Like the East African Community (EAC), ECOWAS, SADC then a possibility exists for restitution to be a key agenda in each of the regional bodies. I think if we have that process then it’s possible to have the African Union taking a central position in this agenda.” Dr Masebo.
It wasn’t all tensions between the global
south & west from these archival experts, as one theme unified them all. Articulated
aptly by Prof Ciraj in his statement “We have challenges on how to hold on to
independence, how to ensure that museums are spaces of public articulation and
public debate as the primary purpose. So that citizenship isn’t a domain of
instruction but citizenship is a domain of independent social criticism.”
He was joined by Prof Barbara who shared it
starts with telling it like it is, as steps to remedy this from the West. “Ethnographic
Museum, itself in name is a bad idea, as it is a colonial concept...under a
colonial framework in which all items that aren’t European are categorised as
ethnographic, seen as just this one people!”
She confessed that this is giving them
serious challenges; as it wasn’t historians who mostly brought these artworks
(mostly army officials). This means their inscriptions are hardly correct, “So
for European collections, what is very relevant aspect is transparency and
access to these collections. It might seem very slow the process but I think
many institutions in this provenance research are improving documentation. For
our example we have to create a new storage facility, we have to work on our
database and make it go online; we have to finish our inventory. We’re working
very hard on that and sometimes this is not visible. “Prof Barbara
Plankensteiner.
It was generally agreed by members of museums/cultural institutions from Europe present. that their archives of African artefacts are to be made public. As well that processes of returning human body parts should be expedited particularly for cases like the Ngoni & descendants of Chief Mangi Meli in Tanzania.
This conference was sponsored by the Goethe
Institut, Markk-Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, the German Federal Office,
with sincere efforts from Berlin Postkolonial e.v. an organisation founded by
Tanzanian Engineer residing in Germany Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, with the support of
the National Museum of Tanzania.
The conference intentionally came alongside
the debut of a theatre production called
Vinyago by Tanzanian artists to include dancers, musicians, painters,
photographers & video-graphers. The production is part of an ongoing project
that is working to sensitise the public in Tanzania & Europe on the nuances
of restitution. In the photos here, the masks are all sourced from East Africa
dating back to the late 19th C.
Great article from a local voice
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