(Un-)told stories (2025)

2025 03 RK uk 1

The known / unknown narratives of African museum objects

Context

The approach of the (Un)known Stories research project might be described with reference to the Sankofa bird, an Akan symbol denoting “to go back and get it”. The Sankofa bird is often associated with the proverb “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi,” which means “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten” (African Tradition, Proverbs, and Sankofa, 2006). The mythical bird has its head turned backward, an egg in its mouth representing both the knowledge of the past upon which wisdom is based and future generations that will benefit from such wisdom (ibid). The attention of the bird, and of the research group, is thus simultaneously focused on the past and the future.

 

The project is currently still ‘under construction,’ and is evolving as an extension of undertakings and interests of existing EVC members, with new colleagues coming on board. The cornerstone for the project was cast at a meeting between Malik Saako and Elizabeth Asafo-Adjei from the National Museum of Ghana and the German EVC members Stefan Eisenhofer and Ernst Wagner at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in late 2024 in Munich. Further connections were made at the November 2024 EVC / TUK conference in Nairobi, including Millicent Ochieng from the Nairobi Gallery. Possible German funding for the project concept could not materialise, opening up the project to its current (evolving) form.

 

The research group as it stands includes members Millicent Ochieng, Jane Otieno, Lydia Muthuma (Kenya), Elizabeth Asafo-Adjei, Malik Saako (Ghana), Ernst Wagner, Silke Schmidt (Germany), Paul-Henri Assako Assako (Cameroon); Fazil Moradi and Runette Kruger (South Africa), and current and possible museums that will fall within the scope of research project comprise the Nairobi Museum, the National Museum of Ghana, the Freedom Park Museum (SA), Museum Fünf Kontinente … and more to be included as the final focus is established. It might be possible that some objects selected for inclusion in the final stages are found outside of museums, if the case can be made that these articulate with the overall project.

 

Aim

The aim of this transnational project is to explore the narratives and intangible heritage embedded in the objects of the participating museums, in order to ‘hear’ and convey the (un)told stories they embody. Of particular interest will be exploring dialogues ‘between’ the objects. The task of the research group will be to hear the intertextual narratives that speak to our current societal concerns. A mid-term goal is to present findings at the 2026 ACASA conference and other knowledge exchange platforms in 2026 (or before).

 

An important outcome of the project will be a digital ‘Museum without Borders’ which will showcase the objects and their stories. Assisting with this will be Silke Schmidt of XR HUB Bavaria (https://xrhub-bavaria.de/) as partner of the project. The museum is envisaged to be virtual and interactive, with the objects and findings (narratives) accessible to the public. Different media formats such scans of the objects as 3D models, photos, audio files or videos are envisaged to facilitate the narration of the stories from multiple perspectives. Discussions could be held in such a virtual museum as well.

 

Overview

Current possible objects suggested by our Kenyan colleagues include Luo stools, textile art (kangas, shukas), Turkana headdresses and contemporary ceramic production by women in Kenya. The researchers ask: What indigenous techniques in pottery-making and gourd decoration remain undocumented in academic research? Are there hidden narratives within the decorative patterns and inscriptions on traditional Kenyan stools, headrests and headdresses? What role do kangas and shukhas from the Kenyan coast play in encoding women’s voices and cultural identity? How do the symbols and inscriptions on Kenyan kangas reveal hidden narratives about colonial resistance, spirituality, and feminism?

 

Ghanaian colleagues have proposed sounding the narratives embedded in Koma terracotta figurines from the 6th to 14th centuries, abstract and figurative Akan brass weights used in the trans-Sahara trade routes to measure gold dust, and Roman Catholic architecture from the early 20th century found in the Northern regions of Ghana. Questions one could ask include who made these figurines, to what end, and how did they come to be in Western museum collections, linking to this year’s official African Union theme of reparations.

 

From Germany proposed objects for consideration include a 17th century bed with Islamic pattern inlay, an 18th century table clock and the relief Adoration of the three wise men (1523), all from the Bavarian National Museum. From the Museum Fünf Kontinente possible objects include the Blue Rider Post and the contemporary Tam Tam stools by postmodern designer Matteo Thun, inspired by stools from Africa (2002).

 

It is interesting that both ‘objects’ – one from Cameroon that inspired Modern art (notably the Blue Rider movement and its members Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc in Europe), one from Europe inspired by ‘Africa’ – are culturally decontextualised. It is also notable that the Cameroonian post has taken on the name of the Western art movement it inspired.  These might be a valuable threads of inquiry hidden in their currently untold stories.

 

From South Africa, suggested objects include a photograph and two prints from the Pan-African Archive of the Freedom Park Museum. The photograph from 1979 shows five members of the Medu Art Ensemble printing the poster ‘Unity in Power’. The poster itself is juxtaposed with the image of its production, setting up a tension between what is and what might be. The second poster is titled “Now you have struck a rock,” created by the Medu Art Ensemble in 1981. The Medu Art Ensemble was established by cultural workers in exile in Gaborone in 1977 in response to the Soweto Uprising in the previous year. The group was attacked on the 14th of June 1985 by the SADF (South African Defence Force) and the surviving members scattered (South African History Online, 2019).

 

In the background of the photograph showing the printing of the ‘Unity is Power’ poster, four unfinished posters are drying, and Thami Mnyele is holding a fifth print. In the foreground, more posters are being printed by members of the Medu Art Ensemble. The un-printed hands on the posters in progress (with reference to the final poster showing four hands clasped in a strong formation of unity), provide an opportunity to ask how Africa’s liberation might be re-imagined in the neocolonial present.  This ‘unfinished project’ of liberation symbolised by the hands not-yet-there, could be the focus of the research question “how can history be remade in the neocolonial present?” This is asked with reference to theorist Édouard Glissant’s questions to the Occident: “The history you ignored – or didn't make [or destroyed] was it not History? … Might you not be more and more affected by it, in your fallowness as much as in your harvest? … Just as l was affected by the history l wasn't making, and could not ignore?” (Glissant, 2010, p. 23; original emphasis). The link between the Medu Art Ensemble’s unfinished work and Glissant’s poignant questions was made by members of the Johannesburg Research Group as part of their work with Another Roadmap Africa Cluster (ARAC). (See Johannesburg Working Group, 2019).  

 

The last ‘object’, a poster of a woman holding up a broken chain and the text “NOW YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE WOMEN YOU HAVE STRUCK A ROCK; YOU HAVE DISLODGED A BOULDER; YOU WILL BE CRUSHED” was created for Women's Day 1981 to commemorate the 1956 Women’s March in Pretoria. On the 9th of August 1956, over 20 000 women of all races marched on the Union Buildings to hand over a petition to the then South African prime minister Hans J.G. Strijdom. They were protesting pass laws which required black South Africans to carry pass books outside of their designated areas of residence. The wording on the poster is an elaboration of the phrase Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo (Strike a woman, strike a rock) (MOMA, 2010; South African History Archive, n.d.). The research question linked to this object could be what role have women played and do they continue to play in strengthening women’s rights in a Pan-Afrikan context?

 

Which stories will we hear and tell?

Common themes emerging from the objects currently include, but are not limited to the following: How do the objects encode women’s voices and cultural identity? Are there common, hidden narratives about colonial resistance, spirituality, and feminism? Do the objects elicit conversations between Africa and the global North about culturally de-contextualised objects (historical and contemporary), cultural appropriation, and repatriation of collections? Are there stories about migration and displacement embedded in objects that speak to our current poli-crisis? How can history be ‘re-made’ in the current neocolonial moment in which Africa finds herself?

 

The project is a work in progress and the research group hopes to provide updates as it unfolds.

 

 Runette Kruger – (Un)known Stories Research Group

 

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