Why a Kenyan art exhibit spotlights empty cases
The "Invisible Inventories" exhibition at the Nairobi National Museum, seen on its launch day, spotlights art and artifacts taken by Europeans during the colonial era.
Lamek Orina/Inventories Programme
In a display hall at the Nairobi National Museum, a row of glass cases at the center of a new exhibition sits empty.
That鈥檚 by design. They display an absence, representing the tens of thousands of objects taken out of present-day Kenya by Europeans during the colonial period 鈥� many of them stolen. At least 32,000 of those pieces, including works of art and other pieces of great cultural significance, remain in museums in the Western world, according to a database compiled by the International Inventories Programme (IIP), a collective of Kenyan and European scholars, archivists, and artists.
The group put together this exhibition, called 鈥淚nvisible Inventories,鈥� to examine what that empty space means 鈥� the holes it has left behind in communities and countries robbed of their heritage.
Why We Wrote This
When you walk into a museum, you don鈥檛 expect empty cases. But in this exhibit, you do 鈥� and that鈥檚 the point. It honors the visceral loss of heritage in countries whose art was plundered during the colonial era.
鈥淔or us, these missing objects are just the beginning,鈥� says Njoki Ngumi, a member of The Nest, a Nairobi-based artists鈥� collective that co-organized the exhibition. 鈥淭hey are a symbol of something much larger.鈥澛�
The debate about who should be the custodians of Africa鈥檚 art and artifacts 鈥� the countries and communities that produced it, or the Western institutions where as much as 95% of it resides 鈥� stretches back more than a half-century, to the era of African independence.
But the movement for restitution of African art has garnered renewed momentum in recent years. In 2018, by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian B茅n茅dicte Savoy, and commissioned by the French presidency, recommended that France begin repatriating items it had taken without consent during colonial rule. Germany, meanwhile, to assist with repatriation, and several European museums have pledged to return their collections of Benin Bronzes, iconic brass sculptures plundered from the Kingdom of Benin in modern-day Nigeria.聽
鈥淭he movement is snowballing,鈥� says Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a Senegalese philosopher and professor of French at Columbia University, who advised Dr. Sarr and Dr. Savoy on their report. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a public pressure now that wasn鈥檛 there before.鈥澛犅�
But even as conversations and negotiations continue, the absence is still viscerally felt, say the organizers of 鈥淚nvisible Inventories.鈥�
鈥淲atching people interact with this exhibition, we鈥檙e seeing the anger and the pain,鈥� says Jim Chuchu, The Nest鈥檚 director. Many Kenyans, he says, have never seen this history of dispossession 鈥減ut on the record. So this exhibition goes some way to telling people their feelings of loss are valid. It鈥檚 OK to feel wronged.鈥澛�
The empty glass cases form only a small part of the exhibition, which also features works by a wide variety of Kenyan and European artists addressing the legacies of the loss.
One piece, for instance, is made up of thousands of shipping labels strung together, each bearing data about a Kenyan artifact currently held overseas.
The title of that piece, 鈥�31,302,鈥� comes from the number of Kenyan pieces held in about 30 European and American institutions that the IIP had cataloged by the time 鈥淚nvisible Inventories鈥� opened in mid-March. It鈥檚 a way, Mr. Chuchu says, of visualizing 鈥渆ach and every object鈥� 鈥� except that so many objects were identified that only the labels for around 2,000 could be displayed.
Elsewhere in the exhibition are panels with descriptions and photos of six 鈥渙bjects of national importance鈥� 鈥� all of them Kenyan cultural pieces held by overseas museums. They include the Ngadji, a sacred drum of the Pokomo people a Norwegian wood trader. The drum is held by the British Museum, where it has sat in storage for more than a century, never once put on display.聽
鈥淭he loss that鈥檚 been experienced is much larger than just these objects 鈥� it鈥檚 about a loss of value systems, of history,鈥� says Sam Hopkins, a member of the Shift Collective, a group of European artists involved in the exhibition. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 not just about giving back the objects and saying we鈥檙e all square. It鈥檚 much more complicated than that.鈥�
After its run in Nairobi, 鈥淚nvisible Inventories鈥� will be displayed in two museums in Germany, where its organizers hope it will continue to inspire visitors to think about larger questions of loss and redress related to colonialism.
鈥淐olonialism created a global system based on injustice and inequality 鈥� how do you right that?鈥� Mr. Hopkins says. 鈥淏ut if you can return objects to communities that need and miss those objects, that鈥檚 a clear step and it鈥檚 a start.鈥�