Exhibition on stolen artefacts takes stock of past, peers into future

Kenyan cultural objects in possession of cultural institutions in Europe and the US need to be accessible in Kenya. Calls for the repatriation of plundered cultural artefacts are consistently growing louder, with many rejecting the infantilising ideology that former colonies cannot be trusted to preserve their cultural heritage. 

They deny us our identity.

The International Inventories Programme, an international research and database project investigating a collection of Kenyan objects held in cultural institutions across the globe. To date, the database comprises over 32,000 objects and, on March 17, 2021, it shall be made accessible to the public online.

Ten empty display cabinets will represent objects absent from the collection of the National Museums of Kenya, yet found in those of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and the Weltkulturen Museum. Video documentaries represent the different voices from host communities who have been involved in the process. 

Peer into the future

Accompanying the first exhibition in Nairobi, several panelists from different local communities were invited to Nairobi to exchange views with Juma Ondeng’ of the National Museums of Kenya on the consequences of the absence of their objects. A catalogue in the form of a magazine has also been published in conjunction with Iwalewa books (Bayreuth/Johannesburg) and Kwani (Nairobi).

Sam Hopkins and Marian Nur Goni (SHIFT collective) present a sound installation about the manifold narratives of the so-called Man-Eaters of Tsavo. These two legendary lions managed to bring the British imperial machinery to a halt at the turn of the 19th century, during the building of a railway in East Africa. Since 1925, they have been taxidermied exhibits in Chicago. Who gets to tell their story today?

Juma Ondeng’, once posed this question to the audience: “The queen of England wears a crown. What do you think will happen to any African country if we could sneak in, pick that crown and come back home with it?”. That crown signifies lots of things and is part of English identity; the moment they steal it and run away with it, they deny us our identity.”

The objective is to peer into the future: What other stories can these objects narrate today? And to fully take into account past, present and future stakes, in all their own material, technological and emotional dimensions.