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The Internat ional Journal of the Inclusive Museum addresses the key question: In this time of fundamental social change, what is the role of the museum, both as a creature of that change, and perhaps also as an agent of change? The journal brings together academics, curators, museum and public administrators, cultural policy makers and research students to engage in discussions about the historic character and future shape of the museum. The key question of the Journal is: How can the institution of the museum become more inclusive?

The Internat ional Journal of the Inclusive Museumis peer-reviewed, supported by rigorous processes of criterion-referenced article ranking and qualitative commentary, ensuring that only intellectual work of the greatest substance and highest significance is published.

THE INCLUSIVEMUSEUM

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JOURNALT H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L

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Volume 4, Issue 2

The Power of Objects: Colonial Museum Collectionsand Changing Contexts

Jesmael Mataga and Farai Mudododzi Chabata

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE INCLUSIVE MUSEUM http://museum-journal.com/ First published in 2012 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Publishing LLC www.CommonGroundPublishing.com ISSN: 1835-2014 © 2012 (individual papers), the author(s) © 2012 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the applicable copyright legislation, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact <cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com>. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE INCLUSIVE MUSEUM is peer-reviewed, supported by rigorous processes of criterion-referenced article ranking and qualitative commentary, ensuring that only intellectual work of the greatest substance and highest significance is published. Typeset in Common Ground Markup Language using CGPublisher multichannel typesetting system http://www.commongroundpublishing.com/software/

The Power of Objects: Colonial Museum Collectionsand Changing ContextsJesmael Mataga, University of Capetown South Africa/NationalUniversity of Lesotho, LesothoFarai Mudododzi Chabata, Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences,Zimbabwe

Abstract: The modes of collection, classification and representation of the ‘ethnographic’ object inthe colonial museum in Africa separated it from its cultural, religious and political context. In thepostcolonial period, this framing had most museums in Africa being perceived as tainted archiveswhose African cultural objects were relegated to closed museum storehouses. However some objectsand relics have been identified and pushed into the public sphere and reconnected with a new, extra-polated cultural, political and religious context. This paper presents a survey of colonial collectingpractices in Zimbabwe by outlining a brief history of the making of the human sciences collection ina Zimbabwean museum. It then discusses the contextual mobility of one object, the Ngoma Lungundu,an object associated with the VaRemba, an ethnic group in Zimbabwe, as a way to appraise how colo-nial collecting practices still influence museum function and inclusivity in postcolonial Africa. Thecase also shows that museums can use collections or objects acquired in a colonial context to accordspace in the museum to the numerous, previously silenced voices.

Keywords: Colonial Museum, Objects, Relics, Public Sphere, Restitution

Introduction

DISCIPLINARY PROCESSES AND procedures frame objects. According toKirshenblatt-Gimblett (1998)1, ethnographic objects are created by ethnographerswhen they define, segment, detach and carry them away. Such fragments becomeethnographic objects by virtue of the manner in which they have been detached.

She does not deny the power of those who make and claim these objects to determine theirmeaning and fate but rather suggests that objects become ethnographic through the disciplinaryprocess of detachment and contextualization. While acknowledging the role of disciplinaryprocesses in framing the ethnographic object, we propose that the claims by makers, sourcecommunities and custodians is crucial in the (re)-interpretation and (re)-valuing of objectsin a postcolonial museum. Using the example of colonial collecting practices in Zimbabweand the story of the Ngoma Lungundu, we suggest that in the colonial museum, objects retaina potency to define and revalue themselves, influence discussion and acquire several patinasof value ranging from the personal, ethnic, religious, nationalistic and transnational therebycontributing to inclusivity in the museum.

1 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B, 1998. Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage, University of CaliforniaPress.

The International Journal of the Inclusive MuseumVolume 4, Issue 2, 2012, http://museum-journal.com/, ISSN 1835-2014© Common Ground, Jesmael Mataga, Farai Mudododzi Chabata, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com

Birds, Sticks and Drums: Museum Relics in ZimbabweThe discussion in this paper borrows from Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1998)’s ideas on how thedisciplinary processes of collection, classification, mobility and representation of ethnographicobjects shapes and influences the life of objects. A few objects and relics from Zimbabwehave recently made headlines associated with their collection, their mobility, eventual resti-tution and life in the public sphere. The Zimbabwe soapstone Birds which are the nationalsymbols of Zimbabwe have had a unique and interesting history of mobility from when theywere ‘acquired’ from the Great Zimbabwe in the 1890s. The birds have moved for over acentury to many parts of the world. Part of the carved birds was taken to South Africa endingup with Cecil John Rhodes. Four of the statues were given back to Zimbabwe by the SouthAfrican government at independence in 1980, while one remains at Groote Schuur, Rhodes’former home in Cape Town. Of the eight birds, the second half of the 7th bird was repatriatedback to Zimbabwe in 2003 from the Volkerkunde museum in Berlin, Germany. The returnof the part of the bird was treated with pomp and fanfare and seen as an important episodein national history with an official state welcome ceremony held at the state house and atthe Great Zimbabwe monument.2

The second object is the Mkwati walking stick. This relic is associated with an important19th century spirit medium, Mkwati and was collected by Baden Powell, the founder of theBoys ‘Scout movement in the late 19th century on account of its mystic powers. For morethan a hundred years, the stick was kept in Baden Powell’s collection in the United Kingdombefore efforts were made to repatriate it back to Zimbabwe in 1998. A series of rituals wereheld to receive back the important relic and a one object exhibition installed at the ZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences in 1999.The Ngoma Lungundu, collected from the source community in the 1940s was not moved

out of the country, but stayed dormant in a museum for over 60 years and was ‘rediscovered’in 2007 by Tudor Parfitt who identified the drum like object in the museum as the RembaNgoma Lungundu and linked it to the biblical ark of the covenant. Its retrieval led to diversedebates concerning its history, its custodians and issues of knowledge production. In themuseum, the public media and other forums, the object became the focus around whichdiscussions on religion, knowledge production, restitution, identity, and citizenship tookplace.The repatriation of these objects point to interesting facets on the changing contexts of

collections and the various valorisation they receive with each passing movement. Thecommon thread that runs through the stories of these objects is their influence in stimulatingdebate, raising issues and acquisition of layers of value as they pass from one setting to an-other. The objects’ life histories evoke dialogue concerning the relationship between object,ownership, custodianship, identity, restitution, and the role of the museum in the postcolonialera in Africa. The claims, counter-claims, debates and discussion surrounding these objectshave accorded more voices on the museum and in the public sphere.

2 For a discussion on the historical and symbolic significance of the soapstone birds and accounts of their repatriation,see, Munjeri, D. 2009. The Reunification of a National Symbol,Museum International, 241–242, 61:1–2, p. 12–21;Matenga, E, 1998. The Soapstone Birds of Great Zimbabwe: Symbols of a Nation,Harare: African Publishing Corp;Dewey,WJ, 2006 “Repatriation of aGreat Zimbabwe StoneBird”, http://cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/SAFA/em-plibrary/Dewey, W. Safa 2006.pdf.

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The Making of Museum Collections in ZimbabweZimbabwe’s history of museums dates back to the establishment of the colony by the BritishSouthAfrica Company (BSACo) in the late 1890s. TheMuseum ofHuman Sciences (ZMHS),formerly Queen Victoria Museum is one of the two earliest museums that became centersfor the origin and growth of natural history, archaeological and ethnographic collections.The museum houses archaeological, ethnological and natural history collections recoveredfrom the country since the beginnings of ‘scientific’ inquiry and collecting at the time of thecolonial occupation by the British in the early 20th century. The museum’s largest collectionis Stone Age, Iron Age and Rock Art collections from major archaeological excavationsdating back to the 1900s. The Archaeological Survey, which is an important component ofthe archival record of the ZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences (ZMHS) houses documentsand records accumulated during the archeological expeditions that have been carried out inthe country from the early 20th century. The survey includes a record of all the sites thathave been identified in the country and brought to the attention of National Museums andMonuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ). The archeological collection is categorised based onthe typologies identified above i.e. Stone Age, Iron Age Rock Art etc. while the storage isarranged according to the name of archeological expeditions.The Ethnography collection in themuseum is a diverse and inclusive (by design or accident)

collection of ethnographic objects acquired since the establishment of the colony. The col-lection currently stands at over 8000 objects from the country and elsewhere. Classificationis according to ethnic group, artifact type, province of origin or material. The ZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences collection constitutes the largest collection of Archaeologicaland Ethnographic collection in the country.A look at the documentation process may reveal the process of objectification of the ma-

terials/artifacts. The objects are categorized into purely ‘scientific’ termswhose only referenceto their original context is the name of the ethnic group, the chief or village from which itwas collected. There is very scant reference to the individual or group owners and users ofthe object or how and in what context it was used. By excluding such vital information, de-liberately or otherwise, the collector ‘cleansed’ the objects of its socio-cultural context andthrough its ‘study’ and collection it was placed in a museum collection, shut to the originalowner but open to intellectual scrutiny, scientific and curious enquiry. The question thattherefore begs an answer is how the museum will bring back those muzzled voices into themuseum.The collections were largely assembled from missionaries, antiquarians, travelers and

from district commissioners of the ‘Native’ [African] Affairs Department as well as the police.The 1899 Witchcraft Suppression Act was used to promote confiscation of objects and ma-terials which were suspected or thought to be used for witchcraft. However, all African reli-gions were an anathema to the Christian value and relic system that they were legally demon-ised en bloc. Some objects such as the Mkwati Walking stick (owned by a spirit mediumwho played a part in the earliest form of colonial resistance) were seen symbols of Africandefiance against colonialism. This created a sharp ‘them and us’ divide between the colonizersand the colonized as objects found their way unwillingly into museum spaces and galleriesthat the museum has to confront today.Today, the museum classifies some objects asMaterial medica (objects used for divination)

and it is one of the biggest categories of objects in the collection. This category includes

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objects considered to be associated with witchcraft and traditional healing practices. Theenactment of the Witchcraft Suppression Act in 1899 gave the police force the authority toarrest anyone found practicing ‘witchcraft’ or ‘wizardry’ although in effect this meant any-thing to do with African traditional religion. The objects of the trade were confiscated anda good number of them ended up in the museum. Thus, the museum became a ‘culturalBastille’ that has continued to stand even in the post-colonial era. As it tries to evolve andbecome more inclusive the museum has this colonial cultural repository attached to it. Onthe other hand the communities and objects have largely continued to live separate lives,separated by the museum institution and devoid of contact or interaction.The existence of most of the collections has been in the closed museum storerooms though

open to researchers and the curious enthusiast. Over the years the only public life of thesmall part of the collection in the museum has been a few display showcases in the Ethno-graphy and Archeology sections of the museum and the occasional temporary exhibitions.The permanent ethnographic installation in the museum includes a model 19th century tradi-tional homestead, created in the 1960s, labeled and popularly known as the ‘Shona’ Village.Adorned with material objects associated with a traditional homestead, the display is in astatic fashion, with a static representation of ‘Shona’ lifestyle. Critics have argued that this‘Shona Village’ freezes a ‘tribal’ lifestyle and it homogenizes the “tribes’ into one group,Shona. Yet, Shona is a 19th century colonial creation used to homogenize an otherwise diversegrouping of more than ten ethnic dialects. By representing a Shona lifestyle, the institutionis seen as excluding other groups who politically feel alienated by Shona hegemony. Sucha representation further alienates them in the museum space. More can be read in this install-ation which was put up in the 1950s, probably limited to representing the Shona to the exclu-sion of ‘other’ groups on grounds of technical limitations of space but also demonstrates thedeliberate colonial divide and rule tactic of seeing and relating to the different ethnic groups.Thus, museum exhibition space represented a contact zone between perceived Shona hege-mony and nature; systematically ‘othering’ all non-Shona groups. Moreover, there wasgenerous allocation of the permanent gallery space for natural history collection that seemsto reflect the obsession of the early colonial museum practitioners at the time with birds,reptiles and butterflies.A look at the collections and their documentation would suggest that while the collecting

may not have been systematic, coordinated or organized by an institution, the individualcollectors were purposefully collecting. For instance Harald Von Sicard, a Swedish-Germanmissionary, even went on to write about an object in his 19523 article where he gave a vividdescription of the parallels of the devotional history and spiritual potency of the NgomaLungundu ,that, in his opinion, was Venda with the Jewish Ark of the Covenant. Before theformation of the museums, individuals collected cultural objects from the African societiesthey were in contact with and it is these that later on found a way through donations or pur-chases into the museum.A look at the regimes of classification and organization points not only to colonial curat-

orial practices but also to the value and purposes of the object in the colonial collection.Objects were classified by province or tribe fromwhich theywere collected barelymentioning

3 Von Sicard, Harald, 1952, Ngoma Lungundu: Eine Africanische Bundeslade, Uppsala Studia Ethnographica Up-salliens. It is a photograph of the Ngoma Lungundu from this description by Harald Von Sicard that Tudor Parfittused to identify the Ngoma Lungundu at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human sciences in 2007.

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the details of the individual donors and the context in which the object existed before it wascollected. Objects were not linked to their individual owners but rather to a ‘tribe’ or provinceor district of origin. This ‘tribalising’ of objects in the classification system distanced theobject from the original users thereby completing the appropriation of the object and effect-ively silencing the voices of the people behind the object. Once in the museum, the objectswere identified, named and given an index number in the inventory system and locked awayin the storeroom. Some of the processes of classification raise issues on nomenclature andterminology; for example, object ET5792 ‘Kaffir’4 Orange (leg rattle).Though collection of cultural objects from the African ethnic groups in what is today Zi-

mbabwe had been going on as early as the 1890s and earlier by missionaries, adventurersand other travellers, it is only in 1930s where ethnographic collections started to be system-atically recorded within the museum. From the collections register it is clear that the donorsand sellers of objects associated with African religions and culture were individuals, mission-aries, trusts, colonial administrators and the police. The 8000 plus diverse collection includesobjects such as dressing and ornaments (beadwork, ‘necklets’), domestic tools and utensils,weaponry, ‘material medica’, headrests, musical instruments and textiles. The source com-munities from which the objects were collected cover all the major ethnic groups in thecountry.The collection also holds a substantial amount of objects from other countries in the region.

The collectors of the objects are as diverse as the objects for example G.L. Guy contributeda large selection of spears from the Hutu of Central Africa and bows and arrows from Bot-swana. V, Ellenberger, one of the first missionaries in Lesotho collected from Lesotho,Zambia, Botswana and Namibia while G. Blakewell collected from Nigeria. There are alsoobjects collected from Sudan, Somaliland, India, Fiji, China, Pacific Islands, and the SolomonIslands. This geographic and cultural diversity in themuseum collectionwas achieved throughindividuals who were driven by their vested interests in the colonial context, and not alwayswithout prejudice. In this case an African museum finds itself portraying a there and thenimage at the expense of here and now realities. One of the challenges that therefore facemuseums in Zimbabwe and maybe in most of Africa is how to capture or rescue individualstories, testimonies and experiences with objects that have been tribalised or provincialised.Such stories and experiences could breathe life into the objects and also, at least, animatethem allowing a re-interpretation and re-contextualisation of the material culture in museums.Some major individual contributors to the collection included Captain H.L Botlbee of the

British South Africa Police (BSAP) who collected a mixture of weaponry and adornmentparaphernalia from parts of Mashonaland. A Mrs. Knight contributed a selection of axes,baskets, pipe bowls, stools and musical instruments collected among the Tonga ethnic groupin the Zambezi valley5. Neville Jones contributed mainly archaeological relics from hiscollections and excavations inMatabeleland at Khami and Hope Fountain. Harald Von Sicardspent years in theMidlands region of Rhodesia studying traditions and cultures of the peoplingof Mberengwa. For over 25 years von Sicard made a notable contribution to the history of

4 The word kaffir, sometimes spelled kaffer or kafir, is an offensive term for a black person and most used in SouthAfrica and other African countries during the colonial era. The term was and is still generally considered a racialor ethnic slur.5 Smoking pipe bowls and the Nyaminyami walking stick are the most sacred objects among the Tonga of theZambezi valley and have over the years become the most common forms of visual representation of Tonga identityand traditions.

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Mberengwa District in south western Zimbabwe and surrounding areas from the 1920s untilhis retirement to Sweden in the 1960s. By1971 he had well over 23 articles on several aspectsof this area published in various languages and journals6.Archeologists, while conducting archeological excavations over the years in the various

parts of the country also collected ethnographic objects. For example, besides contributingto a rich archive of rock art copies in the archaeology survey at the museum, Elisabeth M.Goodall also collected ethnographic material during her rock art copying expeditions.Elisabeth Goodall had been a member of the Frobenius Expedition of 1928-1930 led by LeoFrobenius to visit rock art sites in Southern Africa. Elisabeth returned to Rhodesia in 1931and continued copying rock art in Mashonaland and later in 1935 in the Matopos. In 1950Goodall obtained and presented to the museum, the Welcome Collection of ethnographicalitems consisting especially weapons from Africa and elsewhere. These items she personallyselected during one of her visits to London and the British Museum basement from whichshe is reputed to have emerged at the end of the long day sorting looking like a chimneysweep7. On another visit to London in 1965 after the declaration of the Unilateral Declarationof Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith, she was successful in recovering from the closed downRhodesia House, some valuable specimens of pottery that had been lent by the Queen Vic-toria Museum to the Rhodesian embassy.One of the most aesthetically and historically significant collection of ethnographic objects

is the Codrington collection. Robert E. Codrington was a curious collector on ethnologicalaspects of Africa, and collected cultural artifacts during his military operations in Africa.Codrington was, after Cecil Rhodes, one of the chief architects of British rule in centralAfrica. The Codrington collection is a magnificent collection of ethnographical, historicalobjects and artistic objects he collected from present day Zimbabwe, Zambia, Zaire andMalawi. The collecting was carried out between 1893 and 1907, during which periodCodrington was in Southern Africa, first as a Sergeant in the Bechuanaland Police and lateras Administrator of Northern and North-western Rhodesia (now Zambia). He collected fromthe Yao, Wemba, Ngoni, Chewa, Senga and Lunda ethnic groups.While some of these had been taken from their rightful owners by slave traders whom he

had defeated, many valuable pieces including very old works of Luba origin were takenfrom the court of Mwata Kazembe by the British punitive expedition sent by him againstMwata Kazembe X in 1897. The collection consists of weaponry, Chiefs’ stools, ceremonialaxes, clubs all of which were of historical importance and confiscated after conquest of theconcerned chiefs. The aesthetic appearance of the objects in the collection would suggestthat they were either ceremonial/symbolic or high value trade or adornment items. The ex-quisite collection holding objects of historic, artistic and religious importance is now onpermanent display in the Natural HistoryMuseum in Bulawayo away from their geo-culturalcontext, yet profiled for tourist bewilderment and presented in a way that venerates the col-lector (Codrington) rather than the collection or the source community. What is significantis that there seems to have been sustained and systematic efforts in southern and central

6Mazarire, G.C. 2001. First Steps in The Oral Historiography of The Midlands: A Review of The Work of Haraldvon Sicard, Paper Presented to the Historical Dimensions of Development in the Midlands Seminar, Fairmile Hotel,Gweru.7 Elisabeth Goodall (1891–1971), Occasional Papers on the NationalMuseums of Rhodesia Commemorative Issue,December 1971, volume 4, Part 1.

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Africa to not only appropriate African objects of religious and political significance, but toalso harness and contain their associated power in a museum.Not surprisingly, colonial officials working in the ‘Native’ [African] Affairs Department,

particularly the Native Commissioners also collected objects on behalf of the museum. Onesuch collector was F.W.T. Posselt who ‘studied’ many aspects of the local ethnic groups.He joined the ‘Native’ Affairs Department (NAD) in 1908 serving in Gweru, Gwanda, Bu-lawayo, Hwange and Sebungwe districts until 1920 before moving to the Chief NativeCommissioner’s office in Salisbury. He contributed many articles to Native Affairs Depart-ment Annual (NADA) journal, a publication by the department dedicated to research andpublication into local cultures and traditions. By the 1930s Posselt was one of the best-knownwriters on the Shona in the 1950s and when academics began to pay attention to the Shonain the 1950s and 1960s they inevitably made use of his work8. Many academics largely, ifnot exclusively, relied on written colonial documents at the expense of oral sources duringthe colonial period. In any case social science research in Zimbabwe in this period waslargely funded and religiously monitored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Besidesdonating objects to the museum, the likes of Posselt also deposited their written documentsinto the national archives appended with all kinds of stereotypes and prejudices. This fosterednotions of exclusivity as opposed to inclusivity in both museum and archival spaces.

The Regimes of Collecting: A Brief SynopsisMost of the archaeological objects in the museumwere collected as part of expeditions fromthe 1890s to the 1930s, while ethnographic objects and relics, were mostly accumulated byindividual collectors who later sold them or donated them to the museum. The pattern ofcollecting did not change significantly from the 1930s up to the late 1970s. Most objectswere collected by third parties mainly private individuals and donated to the museum.All this collecting was happening in a period when the formalization of an economy based

on racial discrimination through legal instruments was entrenched in the country was takingplace in the new colony. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930, the Maize Control acts of1933-4 the Industrial and Conciliation act of 1934 were passed to control labour and pro-ductivity of the African populations. Follow up legislations such as the Native Land Hus-bandry act of 1951 and the Land Tenure act of 1964 were passed to manage the adverse effectsof dispossession in African areas on one hand and to deeply entrench the dispossession onthe other. This economic dispossession and disenfranchisement was the environment inwhich a parallel cultural appropriation also took place and institutions such as museums canbe seen as active participants in the processes.In the regimes of collecting in Rhodesia, one can also trace a nostalgic approach to acquis-

ition of cultural objects by the settler community from African communities. Though theobject as part of an African culture was considered primitive and anti-modern, the settlercollector felt nostalgic about the imminent disappearing “Native” culture due to emergingcolonial modernity. Commenting on the Codrington collection, Neville Jones remarked:

8 Beach, D and Posselt, F.W.T, 1986. “NADA” and Mafohla: Antiquarianism in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe withspecial Reference to the works of F.W.T Posselt, History in Africa, 13.

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‘It is to be regretted, however, that more information of a scientific nature was notforthcoming, as would doubtless have been the case had the collector been trained asan ethnologist, but this we can the more readily forgive since so much of what wouldotherwise have been irretrievably lost, as has so often been the case in newly occupiedterritories, has now come down to us. One has only to try to collect ethnological objectsin Africa to-day to realize that, the opportunity once missed, it becomes in the truestsense. The establishment of the Pax Britannica throughout South Africa has renderedobsolete everything connected with warfare; the hand-made iron hoe made from ironlaboriously smelted from iron-stone has given place to the imported plough or the ma-chine-made hoe; the native pottery, so frequently beautiful and distinctive in shape anddecoration has been replaced by enameled iron-ware; and even the very charms theyhang about their persons are made in Europe and can be purchased at native stores.The native, once a skilled craftsperson, has become a labourer, and is thus repayinghis debt to civilisation 9.’

The process of collection, classification and arrangement in the museum reinforced the dis-placement and cultural de-contextualisation of the objects. The physical movement of theobject from its original cultural context to the private collector (who more often was a whitesettler or colonial official) to the museum collection meant a new life for the object detachedfrom its users and devoid of its value. In all these stages different meanings were accordedto the object as the distance between it (the object) and its originators increased. In the mu-seum, the curatorial practice deliberately failed to acknowledge the original creators of theobject and they were classified at best as a tribe or province. African ethnic groups wereclassified into ‘neat’ tribal groupings at the time with a clearly distinct material culture as ifit was mutually exclusive. Yet ethnicity is generally understood as a form of social identitythat acquires content and meaning through a process of conscious assertion and imagination.In the post-colonial era, a new museology that reconnects the object with its original

contexts not only empowers the museum but also offers the museum space to segments ofsocieties that were previously not patrons to the museum space. Through the object, whichcommunities still value these communities can have their voices heard. The story of theNgoma Lungundu shows, that in inspite of the tainted nature of the colonial ethnographiccollection, objects in these collections can be cultural capital allowing multiple voices in themuseum and in the public sphere.

Objects and the Public Sphere: The Ngoma LungunduObject ET521810 (Figures 1 & 2), is a wooden drum-like object that forms part of the morethan 8000 ethnography collection at the ZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences. In February2010, the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences (ZMHS) mounted an exhibition titled

9 Jones Neville, 1938, The Codrington Collection in the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia (formerlyRhodesian Museum), Occasional Papers of the Rhodesian Museum, number 7.10 ET5218 is the classification number of the Ngoma Lungundu in the Ethnography storeroom of the ZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences. On the classification card, the object name is identified just as ‘Drum’. All other in-formation is missing i.e. Surface Decoration, Donor/Seller, Provenance, Province, and District. It is Tudor Parfitt,using pictures from an earlier publication by Harald Von Sicard, who in 2007 identifies the seemingly ordinarydrum as the Ngoma Lungundu collected by Harald Von Sicard.

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Ngoma Lungundu: The Lost and “Found” Ark of the Covenant. The exhibition derived fromthe ‘discovery’ by a British Scholar Tudor Parfitt of an object, a wooden drum, the NgomaLungundu in the museum storeroom. Parfitt, a scholar of Jewish Studies who had spent morethan 20 years searching for the ark and researching on the link between the Remba11 andJews concluded that the drum-like object was a replica of the biblical “Ark of the Covenant”.Parfitt who had spent time with the Remba in Mberengwa, south west of Zimbabwe con-sidered an aspect of Remba tradition, a drum-like object called the Ngoma Lungundu to relateto the biblical Ark of the Covenant. According to the Remba, the object was sacred, used tostore ritual objects, and carried by poles inserted into rings. They believed it was too holyto touch the ground or to be touched by non-priests. They also believed it emitted a “Fire ofGod” that killed their enemies. A Remba elder told Parfitt that it “came from the temple inJerusalem. We carried it down here through Africa12.” Linking this with the oral narrationson the migration of the Remba from the Middle East, coupled with scientific investigationresults confirming a genetic the link13 between the Remba with Jews, Parfitt embarked ona long search for the Ngoma Lungundu.

Figure 1&2: The Ngoma Lungundu at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences, Harare,Photograph ©, Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences, Harare

The discovery and photographing of the object in the 1940s, by Swedish missionary HaroldVon Sicard, who attributed it to the Venda would eventually be considered as vital evidencefor Parfitt’s theory. Unfortunately, after von Sicard’s encounter with it in the Museum ofSouthern Rhodesia in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, it disappeared from public sight around 194914.Since then, the sacred drum has been kept at museums in Bulawayo and Harare. It becamean imperative for Parfitt to see if it still existed. Traveling to Egypt, Ethiopia and even NewGuinea, clues finally led him to a storeroom in the Museum of Human Sciences (formerly

11 The Lemba or Lembaa are an ethnic group in southern Africa mainly in Zimbabwe and parts of South Africawho claim a common descent from either Jewish or Arabic ancestry. In this article the term Remba is used as thelocal variation of the name.12 Parfitt, T, 2008. The Lost Ark of the Covenant: The Remarkable Quest for the Legendary Ark. Happer Collins,p. 6.13 Parfitt T, 2003. Constructing Black Jews: Genetic Tests and the Lemba--the ‘Black Jews’ of South Africa. DevWorld Bioeth. Dec; 3(2): pp. 112–8.14 Parfitt, T, 2008. P. 335–336.

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Queen Victoria Museum) in Harare, Zimbabwe in 200715. Here, catalogued under thenumber ET5218, he saw an old round wooden drum. Using descriptions he had heard fromthe Remba elders and a photograph from the 1956 publication by Von Sicard, Parfitt declaredthe drum-like object to be the Remba Ngoma Lungundu.A splinter, which Parfitt took from the drum, was carbon-dated to AD 1350. He concluded

this to be the object that Von Sicard photographed and referred to as the Remba ngoma.Deriving from oral traditions he had collected from the Remba which pointed out that theoriginal ngoma had destroyed itself and had to be rebuilt Parfitt concluded the 14th centuryobject as a reconstruction by the priests, replacing the original Ark of the Covenant. A smallhole in the bottom of the ngoma suggested to Parfitt that it might have been constructedaround a piece of the original Ark. Parfitt would conclude; “there can be little doubt thatwhat I found is the last thing on earth in direct descent from the Ark of Moses. For me itwas the Ark, the son of the Ark or the essence of the Ark16.”Following his discovery, he published a book based on his search for the ark. The book

entitled, Parfitt, Tudor (2008) The Lost Ark of the Covenant: The Remarkable Quest for theLegendary Ark details a gripping adventure narrative on the journey to the ‘discovery’, ofthis object. In the book, details of his personal adventure are interspacedwith details pertainingto the legendary object itself. Front-page articles about his research appeared in newspapersthroughout the world17. In 2008 PBS Nova documentaries discussed Parfitt’s research fol-lowing their 2000 program called “Lost Tribes of Israel,”18which followed Parfitt’s research.The Ngoma Lungundu was also the subject of an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes. Quest forthe Lost Ark directed by Martin Kemp (2008) was a 75-minute documentary for ChannelFour and 90 minute documentary for the History Channel written by Parfitt19.Between Parfitt’s discovery, the publishing of his book and the museum exhibition in

2010 (figure 3), there was virtually no discussion about the Ngoma Lungundu in Zimbabweeither within the museum or in the public media. It was the mounting of the exhibition atZimbabweMuseum of Human Sciences and the academic symposium held at the Universityof Zimbabwe in February 2010 that the subject became of public interest in Zimbabwe. Theopening of the exhibition attracted scores of people, including academics, religious leaders,ministers and historians who attended the unveiling of the “Ark”. A symposium, which onthe day was a prelude to the opening of the exhibition was held at the University of Zimbabwe,and sponsored by the British Council and the Culture Fund. Opening the symposium, theVice President of Zimbabwe, John L. Nkomo, remarked that the discovery of the NgomaLungundu had resulted in a lot of excitement and was testimony to Zimbabwe’s rich spiritualheritage20.

15 Parfitt, T, 2008. P. 365.16 Parfitt, T, 2008, p389. According to Parfitt, the Ngoma Lungundu was radio carbon-dated to 1300 AD and isthe longest surviving wooden object ever discovered in Sub-Saharan Africa. Parfitt claimed that the sacred drumwas the object with the closest resemblance to the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, hence the inference that this couldhave been or had links to the original. The object on display at the ZMHS was about 45 inches by 24 inches indiameter and 27 inches in height, with a pattern of shallow engraving and scorch marks on the base (see figures1&2 in main text).17 A Lead on the Ark of the Covenant, Time, 21 February 2008, (Accessed 11 March 2011).18 NOVA, The lost Tribes of Israel, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/ (Accessed 11 March 2011).19 Channel 4, Quest for the lost ark, http://www.channel4.com/programmes/quest-for-the-lost-ark/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1; https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/4702/ (Accessed 11 March 2011).20 Herald 18 February 2010, Biblical Ark of Covenant Unveiled, Fortious Nhambura.

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Figure 3: Photograph © authors, July 2011, Natural HistoryMuseum, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe,The Ngoma Lungundu Exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

The Ark as an object has been of fascination and importance to many with many stories ofits survival having circulated for many years in academic, adventure and religious writing21

even being subject of creative works in cinema and art. Rider Haggard’s Raiders of the LostArk (1981) and South African artist Noria Mabaso’s sculpture entitled Ngoma Lungunduare just a few examples. However, Parfitt was not the first academic to link the NgomaLungundu to the biblical ark. Harald Von Sicard theorized in the same vein while authorslike Mudau (1940) and Schutte (1978) made this link. At some point Von Sicard linked itwith the Lemba (Wentzel 1983; Sicard 1952). Therefore, one can argue that in 2008 Parfittpopularised and brought into the public sphere one of the lesser known Ark narratives. Inhis book, ‘The Lost Ark of the Covenant’ he told the world that the ancestors of the Rembapeople of South Africa and Zimbabwe carried the Ark away from Jerusalem then hid it inAfrica and that he had successfully identified the ark. The Ngoma Lungundu which forgenerations had been part of the oral and literary traditions and performance among theRemba and Venda groups suddenly became of instant international, religious significance.Zimbabwe, the Remba had one of the most elusive and sought after relic in the world.The news reporting that the long-lost Biblical Ark of the Covenant had been found in Zi-

mbabwe re-ignited interest in its guardians–the Remba tribe who were at the center of theresearch. In his earlier research Parfitt claimed that 52 percent of them carry a Y chromosomeknown as the CohenModal Haplotype (CMH)—unique to ancient priestly Jewish communit-ies22. The electronic media, the print media and the Remba themselves all focused andforegrounded discussions on the identity of the Remba. The conclusions by Parfitt sparked,a myriad of issues around the provenance, reasons and method of collection, its documenta-

21 See for example, Boren K, R, & Boren, LL, 2000. Following the Ark of the Covenant: The Treasure of God,Cedar Fort; Randall, P, 2005. Searching for the Ark of the Covenant, Harvest House Publishers; Joseph F &Beaudoin, L, 2007. Opening the Ark of the Covenant: The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights TemplarConnection, and the Search for the Holy Grail, Career Press.22 Parfitt, Tudor and Egorova, Y. (2005)Genetics, Mass Media, and Identity: A Case Study of the Genetic Researchon the Lemba and Bene Israel. London: Routledge.

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tion, preservation and presentation. In the public domain Parfitt’s conclusions attracted aplethora of reactions and theories. As the co-minister of Home Affairs in Zimbabwe, Mr.Giles Mutsekwa aptly summed up in his speech to mark the official launch of the NgomaLungundu exhibition at the Museum of Human Sciences on 18th February 2010, “everyonehad placed this object in a context of their own23.”Others saw Parfitt’s actions as a resurrection of the ‘foreign origins debate’ associated

with the Great Zimbabwe monument in the early years of the 20th century which denied thelocal origins of the monument and ascribed it to either Arabs or Phoenicians. The debatessurrounding the discovery of the Ark in a museum in Zimbabwe reignited questions on the-ories of foreign origin of the early archeological studies at Great Zimbabwe as well as onthe identity of the Remba. The object and its circulation in the museum and discussion inthe local and international public media raised questions and debates on the role of scholarship.Numerous claims to the object surfaced. The object caught the interest of the political elitesinciting narratives on national identity and the place of Zimbabwe in the current globalpolitical dispensation.

ConclusionThough museum ‘ethnographic’ objects collected in the colonial era have been separatedfrom the cultural, religious and political contexts from which they originate, in the postcolo-nial museum, the objects presumably retain a level of potency. A potency to rise up and in-fluence discussion and acquire several other patinas of value which are now at a larger scaleand range from the personal, to the ethnic, the religious, the nationalistic and the transnational.The story of the Ngoma Lungundu resonates with issues of dissonancy on the provenanceand the symbolic role of material objects and how objects can be used in social, cultural andeconomic claims. Its story demonstrates the yearning among communities to be reconnectedwith cultural objects and use them to address issues of identity, restitution, citizenship amongothers. The African museum, steeped in its tainted histories of cultural dislocation thoughits collecting practices can in the postcolonial moment be a platform for retrieving objectsand using them to offer spaces for the previously silenced voices. This increases the inclus-ivity of the museum, and as in this case the museum will be used to reconnect the previouslysilenced source communities with the objects that were transplanted from them.

23Museum artifact thought to be replica of Ark, June 06, 2010, By Angus Shaw. Associated Press. http://articles.sfg-ate.com/2010-06-06/news/21779307_1_african-culture-african-studies-tudor-parfitt/2

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About the AuthorsJesmael MatagaPostgraduate student with expertise as a museum curator and Lecturer.

Farai Mudododzi ChabataZimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences, Zimbabwe

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Editors Amareswar Galla, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Bill Cope, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Editorial Advisory Board Professor Corazon S. Alvina,

Former Director, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines

Ms. Alissandra Cummins, Immediate Past President of ICOM; Director, Barbados Museums and Historical Society, Barbados

Dr. Ann Davis, Director, The Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Dr. Shahid Vawda, School of Social Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Ms. Adi Meretui Ratunabuabua, Principal Cultural Development Officer, Department of Culture and Heritage, Ministry of Fijian Affairs, Culture and Heritage, Suva, Fiji Islands

Professor Laishun An, China Friendship Museum, Beijing; Secretary General ICOM 2010, Shanghai

Mlle Christine Hemmet, Responsable de l’unité patrimoniale des collections Asie, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France

Professor Henry C. (Jatti) Bredekamp, Former Chief Executive Officer, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South Africa

Dr. Lina G. Tahan, Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK

Lcda Lucía Astudillo Loor, Directora, Museo de los Metales, Cuenca, Ecuador

Professor Pascal Makambila, Conservateur en chef des musées, Brazzaville, Congo

Professor Dr. Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA

Professor Dr. Tereza C. Moletta Scheiner, Coordinator, Postgraduate Program in Museology and Heritage, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro – UNIRIO, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Vice President, ICOM Executive Council

Professor W. Richard West, Jr., Director, Founding Director Emeritus, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA

Please visit the Journal website at http://www.Museum-Journal.com for further information about the Journal or to subscribe.

The Inclusive Museum Knowledge Community

This knowledge community is brought together by common concern for the future role of the museum and in particular how it can become more inclusive. The community interacts through an innovative, annual face-to-face conference, as well as year-round

virtual relationships in a weblog, peer reviewed journal and book series—exploring the affordances of the new digital media. Members of this knowledge community include

academics, curators, museum and public administrators, cultural policy makers and research students.

Conference Members of the Inclusive Museum community meet at the International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, held annually in different locations around the world. The inaugural Conference was held at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, Netherlands in 2008. The Conference was held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia in 2009; the Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2010; and the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2011. In 2012, the Conference will be held at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. Our community members and first time attendees come from all corners of the globe. The Conference is a site of critical reflection, both by leaders in the field and emerging scholars and practitioners. Those unable to attend the Conference may opt for virtual participation in which community members can submit a video and/or slide presentation with voice-over, or simply submit a paper for peer review and possible publication in the Journal. Online presentations can be viewed on YouTube.

Publishing The Inclusive Museum Community enables members to publish through three mediums. First, by participating in the Inclusive Museum Conference, community members can

enter a world of journal publication unlike the traditional academic publishing forums—a result of the responsive, non-hierarchical and constructive nature of the peer review process. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum provides a framework for double-blind peer review, enabling authors to publish into an academic journal of the highest standard. The second publication medium is through the book series On Museums, publishing cutting edge books in print and electronic formats. Publication proposals and manuscript submissions are welcome. The third major publishing medium is our news blog, constantly publishing short news updates from the Inclusive Museum Community, as well as major developments in the museum field. You can also join this conversation at Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our email Newsletter.

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