Mew, Sophie (2012) Rethinking heritage and display in national museums in Ghana and Mali. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/14700 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Rethinking Heritage and Display in National Museums in Ghana and Mali Sophie Mew Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD in the History of Art and Archaeology 2012 Department of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 Abstract The research project explores the trajectories of cultural heritage institutions in Mali and Ghana and their relationships with their publics in a range of contexts. The principal case studies are the National Museums of Mali and Ghana. Following on from cabinets of curiosities and the formation of modern public museums in Europe, periods of intense salvage ethnography in West Africa in the early 20th century enriched collections in Europe and shaped the organisations of collections of the future national museums in post independent West Africa. Within the conceptual frameworks of the civilizing missions of museums, indigenous material culture was displayed and positioned within rapidly changing societies as testimonies of pre-colonial pasts, albeit framed by colonial assumptions and contingencies. These re-presentations of cultural heritage are one of the many legacies that continue to haunt the museums today in West Africa. I examine whether the institutions have emerged from their colonial foundations to occupy a space in local African discourses and to what extent they are indeed able to do so. Colonial legacies associated with these institutions have incited a re-evaluation of the roles of the museum as appropriate avenues for stimulating local cultural knowledge according to a closer association with local audiences’ perceived needs. Interesting initiatives have been set up across Mali and Ghana to foster local participation. As part of these initiatives, attention has focused on some rejections of museums by local groupings. Conceptually in this thesis I consider the category of the non-visitor as a means to analyse this phenomenon. The initiatives also serve to explore tensions over the management of cultural 3 heritage(s), state agencies and the economic pull of tourism in the realm of museums today. Within the wider contexts of transnational museums, the thesis concludes with concerns over existing concepts of a universal heritage, questioning to what extent access to world cultures is universal within the framework of museum settings in West Africa. 4 Acknowledgements I would like to express full gratitude to my supervisor Dr Charles Gore for his unfaltering support, feedback and clear sense of direction throughout the research project. Thanks to my Master’s tutor, Prof. Michael Rowlands (UCL) who read chapters and showed interest in my research topic and encouragement since completion of my MA in 2003. Ex-colleagues from the British Museum have been kind and generous with their enquiries after my research. Thanks to Aurélien Gaborit (curator of the African collections) at the musée du Quai Branly (MQB) in Paris and I am grateful to Dr Claude Ardouin (former director of the musée national du Mali) who accorded me a lengthy interview sharing insight into his period at the musée. This research project would not have been possible without the generosity and support of colleagues, friends and other individuals in Mali and Ghana. I am indebted to the kindness and enthusiasm of the director of the musée national du Mali (MNM), Dr Samuel Sidibe and to the former deputy director, Dr Abdoullaye Sylla. I also thank the acting director of the National Museum of Ghana (NMG), Mr Maisie and his team of staff (Mr Agbo, Mrs Naana Ocran and Mr Gymfri) for their support, time and patience. Also thanks to Kodzo Gavua at the University of Legon and to Joe Nkrumah. Former NMG director, Dr Yao Dzamefe (head of culture at the Ministry for Chieftaincy and Culture) was especially helpful during repeated interviews. I am grateful to my research assistant in Ghana, Derek Madjitey. The consideration I received from colleagues and friends in Mali and Ghana helped get me through what can sometimes be lonely and difficult times in the field. Thank you foremost to Violet 5 Diallo for her kindness since we first met in September 2003. To Ibrahim Diallo, Fatou Sacko, Kadiatou Santara, Nene Sangare and Balla Bombere (from the musée national), to Daouda Keïta, Aldiouma Ongoiba, Seydou Koumare and to Tidiane Ndongo and Ahmed Fofana for taking me out to enjoy Bamako’s nightlife! Outside of the capital cities, I would also like to mention Aldiouma Yattara, musée du Sahel (Gao), Mr Okpei and Alex Kjedje of the Volta Regional Museum, Baga Cisse and Djadjie Ongoiba for their hospitality and generosity in Fombori, Eddie, curator at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Mamadou Samake, a long time friend at the Mission Culturelle in Djenné and Osei Kwadwo, Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum. I am grateful to Paul Voogt and Lydia Kitungulu of the Tropenmuseum for inviting me to present and publish my work in 2008, as well as to Sylvester Ogbechie, editor of Critical Interventions. To staff in Humanities 2 at the British Library for all their assistance, as well as the archivists at the National Archives of Kew, Aix-en-Provence (les archives nationales d’outre mer), Accra, Bamako, Kumasi and the Manhyia Palace Archives, and to Arianna Fogelman for sharing her early work with me. The project would not have been possible without the support of funding bodies the Central Research Fund, SOAS additional fieldwork research fund and the Radcliffe-Brown and Firth Fund (Royal Anthropological Institute). In London, I am indebted to my family for their support and patience as well as to Rod and Evelyne Cargill. I am grateful to friends and colleagues, Gabriel Klaeger, Bianca Murillo, Charlotte Joy, Laurence Douny and Mark Knight for their support and feedback. 6 I dedicate this research project to former colleagues and friends who are no longer with us, in fond memory of Mamadou Goita, Haoua Ongoïba, Joe Nkrumah and Claude Ardouin. 7 Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 5 Contents 8 List of appendices and figures 11 List of abbreviations and acronyms 13 A note on orthography, translation, photography and ethics 14 Chapter 1 Introduction 16 How I became involved in the research topic 19 Literature Review 21 Methodologies 29 Inside the museum 31 Outside the museum 32 Considerations on cross-cultural museum studies 36 Mali: country profile 41 Ghana: country profile 45 Exhibition and gallery overview: le musée national du Mali (MNM) 48 Exhibition and gallery overview: The National Museum of Ghana (NMG) 52 Chapter 2 Shifting paradigms of cultural heritage in 17th – 19th century Britain and France 55 2.1 From curiosity cabinets to museums 57 2.2 Social changes and the diffusion of knowledge in Britain and France (1750-1850) 65 2.2.1 Stately homes and national heritage in Britain 66 2.2.2 Class distinction and the civilising mission of the museum in Britain 67 2.2.3 Between the monarchy and the state: public access to the arts in France 70 2.3 “The exhibitionary complex” (Bennett 1988): International Exhibitions in London and Paris (1850-1900) 74 2.4 Anthropology and ethnography museums at the turn of the 20th century 82 2.5 Colonial administrators and anthropologists at the turn of the 20th century 86 Conclusion 88 Chapter 3 Formations of National Museums in the French Sudan and the Gold Coast 90 3.1 French West Africa 96 3.1.1 Ideologies of ‘assimilation’ and of ‘association’ 96 3.1.2 Ambiguities of the commandant de cercle cum collector 98 3.1.3 Collecting material culture in the early 1930s 103 3.2 British West Africa 105 3.2.1 The implementation of indirect rule in the Gold Coast 105 3.2.2 Contradictions, flaws and paternalism in the British Gold Coast 107 3.3 Collectors, IFAN and le musée Archéologique et Ethnologique du Soudan Français 113 3.3.1 The Dakar-Djibouti collecting mission in French Sudan (1931-33) 113 8 3.3.2 Early formations of le musée Archéologique et Ethnologique du Soudan Français in Bamako 118 3.4 The formation of the National Museum of Ghana (NMG), Accra 123 3.4.1 Key actors that were involved in the formation of the museum at Achimota College,