Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture, and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian EnglandBetween 1890 and 1918, British colonial expansion in Africa led to the removal of many African artifacts that were subsequently brought to Britain and displayed. Annie Coombes argues that this activity had profound repercussions for the construction of a national identity within Britain itself--the effects of which are still with us today. Through a series of detailed case studies, Coombes analyzes the popular and scientific knowledge of Africa which shaped a diverse public's perception of that continent: the looting and display of the Benin "bronzes" from Nigeria; ethnographic museums; the mass spectacle of large-scale international and missionary exhibitions and colonial exhibitions such as the "Stanley and African" of 1890; together with the critical reaction to such events in British national newspapers, the radical and humanitarian press and the West African press. Coombes argues that although endlessly reiterated racial stereotypes were disseminated through popular images of all things "African," this was no simple reproduction of imperial ideology. There were a number of different and sometimes conflicting representations of Africa and of what it was to be African--representations that varied according to political, institutional, and disciplinary pressures. The professionalization of anthropology over this period played a crucial role in the popularization of contradictory ideas about African culture to a mass public. Pioneering in its research, this book offers valuable insights for art and design historians, historians of imperialism and anthropology, anthropologists, and museologists. |
Contents
The Case of the Benin | 7 |
Critics of Empire | 29 |
Aesthetic Pleasure and Institutional Power | 43 |
Expansionism and Philanthropy at | 63 |
Exhibitionary Narratives | 85 |
The Museum and its Publics | 109 |
Ethnographies on Display | 129 |
Common terms and phrases
A.R. Horniman A.R. Liverpool Museums African Exhibition African material African societies annual reports Anthropological Institute anthropology Anti-Slavery Ashanti aspects associated Balfour Ben Shephard Benin bronzes Benin City Benin material Black in Savage Boer and Black Britain British Museum Briton carved catalogue chapter Church Missionary Society civilisation colonial exhibitions Congo context curators decorative art degeneration discourse display Earl's Court educational emphasised Empire ethnographic collections ethnographic material European evidence evolutionary example feature Franco-British Exhibition Haddon Horniman Museum Ibid Illustrated London imperial interest Lagos Weekly Record lecture London Missionary Society material culture ment mission missionary exhibitions Missionary Society Library Museums Journal native objects official organised Orient in London ornamentation Oxford photographs Pitt Rivers Museum popular produced race racial recognised reinforced relation representation Ridyard Royal Savage South Africa scientific significant social Stanley and African tion trade Village visitor West African women Zulus