museum matters

Lost to Fire The African Collection of the National Museum of Brazil

Daniel B. Domingues da Silva In the evening of September 2, 2018, residents of São Cristóvão, a popular neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro’s suburb, spotted smoke in the horizon near the lush municipal park of Quinta da Boa Vista. Later that evening, a stream of text messages, telephone calls, and 1 Front façade of the Palace of St. Christopher, television reports confirmed their fears: the Elias Antônio Lopes, a wealthy slave trader, to the Portuguese royal family, which used it in the Quinta da Boa Vista Park, where the National Museum was on fire. Upon notifica- National Museum of Brazil was located. tion, the city’s fire department rushed to the as its court and primary residence through- Photo: Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, 2011. place only to discover that the neighborhood’s out much of the nineteenth century (Soares Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons on January fire-hydrant system did not have enough pres- 2015: 23). The museum’s transfer had thus the 22, 2019. Licensed under the Creative Commons dual purpose of providing more space to its Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. No significant sure or water to power their hoses. Some of the modifications were made. museum’s researchers and staff also appeared collections while at the same time erasing, or at on the scene and, with local assistance, braved least diminishing, the country’s historical ties the flames in a risky and desperate attempt to Portugal, the royal family, and the imperial to salvage whatever they could before the fire government. consumed everything. The fire’s intensity, Given its relatively long history, the museum however, grew quickly over the night and accumulated a small but exquisite collection turned the museum into an impenetrable of African artifacts. Thanks to the diligent raging inferno. Due to social media and other work of scholars including Mariza de Carvalho Soares, Michele de Barcelos Agostinho, and means of communication, Brazilians every- permanent exhibit displayed a selection of where stood horrified, watching their oldest Rachel Correa Lima, we have fairly accurate knowledge of the extent, nature, and relative 185 objects from that collection, organized and one of their greatest museums burning to into six thematic panels in the northern wing the ground. Firefighters eventually managed importance of the museum’s African collec- tion. In 2003, the Brazilian federal government of the second floor of the institution’s palace. to control the fire but, by the morning, all The most interesting items were no doubt a that remained were the museum’s walls and issued new legislation enforcing the teaching of African history as well as Afro-Brazilian number of gifts that King Adandozan of Da- a few fire-resistant artifacts, like the Bendegó homey, in present-day Benin, gave in 1810 to Meteorite, which crashed on the Earth’s surface culture at public and private schools through- out the country (Presidência da República do D. João, Prince Regent of Portugal. Brazil was thousands of years ago. an important market for slaves from Dahomey. The National Museum of Brazil was initially Brasil 2003). As a result, institutions such as the National Museum, which was administra- In view of Great Britain’s attempt to suppress conceived as a natural history museum. How- the traffic in the early nineteenth century, King ever, over the years it amassed a huge collec- tively subordinated to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, took the opportunity to Adandozan wanted to ensure good commer- tion of ethnological artifacts, thanks in part to cial relations with Portugal and its colonies. a series of directors trained or very interested review its African collections and reorganize their exhibits. Mariza de Carvalho Soares, The gifts were originally received by the Count in anthropological studies. The institution of Arcos, then governor of Bahia, the Brazilian itself was created by decree of June 6, 1818, then a history professor at Fluminense Federal University, led the process at the National province most directly involved in the slave about ten years after the Portuguese royal trade with Dahomey. He probably forwarded family landed in Rio de Janeiro, escaping Na- Museum by invitation of its directors and staff. This effort culminated in an entirely the gifts to the Count of Galveias, Secretary of poleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Portugal. It was Portugal’s State Department in Rio de Janeiro, originally named the Royal Museum. After new exhibit, launched on May 14, 2014, titled Kumbukumbu: Africa, Memory, and Patrimony along with a letter from King Adandozan independence in 1822, it changed its name to himself describing each item in detail. The the Imperial Museum, according to the new (Museu Nacional 2014). The vast majority of the museum’s ethno- letter is currently located in the archives of the form of government adopted in Brazil, headed, Brazilian Historical and Geographic Institute ironically, by the heir of the Portuguese crown. logic collection consisted of artifacts created by the indigenous populations of Brazil. in Rio de Janeiro (Araújo 2012: 9–12). In 1889, following the proclamation of the King Adandozan’s gifts constituted the republic, the institution gained its most recent However, out of a total of approximately 40,000 artifacts cataloged, some 700, compiled foundational collection of the then Royal name, the National Museum, and moved Museum and provide a rare look into African from a building in downtown Rio de Janeiro under the name “National Museum Africana,” were brought from different sub-Saharan art and craftsmanship free from the Western or to the Palace of St. Christopher in the Quinta colonial gaze. Not all objects described in the da Boa Vista Park, far from the city’s cultural African regions between 1810 and 1940 or were made by Africans or their descendants in letter have been located, but some of the items center. The transfer was, however, a clever and displayed at the museum truly stood out. One strategic one. The palace had been donated by Brazil between 1880 and 1950. The museum’s

VOL. 52, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2019 african arts 13 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00476 by guest on 01 October 2021 | 2 View of one of the rooms exhibiting the African art collection of the National Museum of Brazil. Photo: Mariza de Carvalho Soares, 2014. Published with permission.

and introduced visitors to the cultural and artistic legacies of Africans brought to Brazil through the transatlantic slave trade. “Africa, Past and Present” situated the geographic provenance of the several items displayed in the exhibit, arguing that these objects “talk about the past and how this past deeply marks the history of the modern-day countries of Africa” (Soares, Agostinho, and Lima 2016: 27). “Africans in Brazil” showed how Africans on this side of the Atlantic sought to recreate of them was a throne or stool made of carved and 1900s. Some of these objects were sold to their world in Brazil, particularly in Bahia and wood, a type of object regarded as a symbol of the museum in 1902 by Albert Mocquerys, Rio de Janeiro, from the end of the nineteenth power and royalty among several West African a French traveler and collector who visited century. The objects displayed in that panel monarchies of the time. Another included a Africa before coming to Brazil (Soares 2015: came from apprehensions made by the Police “flag showing the wars I waged, the people I 24–25; Soares, Agostinho, and Lima 2016: Department of the Imperial Court of Rio de caught, and the heads I cut, for my Brother to 34). Another part, particularly the artifacts Janeiro, the collection of an anthropologist, Dr. see and to carry in front of him when going attributed to the Zulu, came from other Heloísa Alberto Torres, who was also a former outside for a walk” (Araújo 2012: 12). The collectors in Brazil (Soares 2015: 29). “The director of the museum, and from reproduc- flag on display was actually an identical copy Peoples of the Equatorial Forest” displayed a tions as well as reconstructions made by the made by Rachel Lima. The original was in the variety of artifacts originally made by Africans museum itself. Most of them were religious storage, which burned along with the rest of who lived in territories also once occupied by artifacts associated with Candomblé, the the museum. It is unlikely, however, that the German as well as French and Belgium forces Brazilian religion of West African origin. They king made the flag or captured the people in Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the included wood statuettes of orixás (African de- depicted there himself. Nevertheless, the gift and Democratic Republic of the Congo. They ities), musical instruments like the agogô, dolls does convey the message of Dahomey as a included calabash gourds, wooden statuettes, dressed in the fashion of early twentieth-cen- strong militaristic and slave-trading power. caps made of cloth, and elephant tusks beau- tury Bahian women, and a number of stools, The flag shows an army of black severed heads tifully decorated with hand carvings made by among other objects (Soares, Agostinho, and as well as people tied by their hands on a people as different as the Bali, Fang, Vili, and Lima 2016: 59–61). white rectangular canvas. At the center of the Kongo. It is difficult to ascertain how exactly The burning of the National Museum is no banner is an individual surrounded by three these objects entered the museum’s collection, doubt among the greatest tragedies of the cul- blood-dripping swords, lifting a red basket but they appear to have been exchanged for tural history of Brazilians. Not only is a signif- containing two additional severed heads. other artifacts with museums in Germany and icant part of their past forever lost, but future Other interesting objects making the gifts that France (Soares, Agostinho, and Lima 2016: 37– generations will grow up without ever being were on display include a pair of royal sandals 43). “Angola After Atlantic Slavery” showed exposed to the art and culture once made made of leather, a cap of cloth embroidered a variety of pieces collected from two peoples available through the museum. Although with cowrie shells, a purse to store tobacco in the interior of that country: the Chokwe originally built as a country house for mem- decorated with indigenous motifs, smoking and Umbundu. The former were well-known bers of the Brazilian colonial elite, the palace pipes made of wood with their respective wood carvers and the museum had several of that eventually housed the museum became leather cases, walking sticks or canes, and hand the staffs they made decorated with religious surrounded over the years by communities of fans apparently made of ox tail, another article motifs (Soares, Agostinho, and Lima 2016: modest means—people representative of the closely associated with royal power throughout 45–48). The latter are less famous craftsmen country’s population, who could relate to the West Africa. but, thanks to a donation made in 1936 by objects on display. Giovana Xavier, a professor Three other panels also exhibited interesting Celenia Pires Ferreira, a Pernambucan teacher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s African artifacts, although not particularly and congregational missionary to Angola, the Pedagogical School, clearly makes this point. different from similar collections available in museum had a unique collection of domes- “For many people in my family, it was the first other museums. “The Colonial War” contained tic utensils like baskets, sieves, hatchets, and and only museum they ever visited,” she noted. several blade weapons, such as knives, axes, spoons decorated with geometric patterns “Along with the museum’s collection, which and machetes, collected from the Herero, (Soares, Agostinho, and Lima 2016: 50–51). is immeasurable, there is the important loss Nama, and Zulu in present-day Namibia, The remaining two panels contextualized of building historical awareness in children” Botswana, and South Africa between the 1880s the artifacts displayed in the African collection

14 african arts AUTUMN 2019 VOL. 52, NO. 3 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00476 by guest on 01 October 2021 Smithsonian Institution, in particular, with the support of the US Diplomatic Mission in Brazil and the Fulbright Commission, offered opportunities for students who were studying the collections of the Brazilian institution to complete their work by studying similar col- lections at American museums (US Embassy 2018). Several governments also pledged support to help the museum recover from the destruction (Neuendorf 2018). The staff of the National Museum as well as their academic collaborators started a campaign asking the public to send them images of the museum’s artifacts to create a digital repository of the ob- jects that were once on display (Phillips 2018). Politicians as well as the public in general have also become better acquainted with the value of having an institution like the National Museum (Barbon 2018). Yet, however nice or heartwarming these gestures are, the museum’s burning raises sev- eral challenging questions. Will Brazil ever be able to build another National Museum? What will it look like? Will Brazil be able to sustain it into the future? How will Brazil repair its reputation and approach donors? How will it guarantee the nation’s access to its own decreasing support from the federal govern- 3 Copy of the flag King Adandozan of Dahomey cultural heritage? While primarily concerning gave to the Prince Regent of Portugal, D. João, in ment (Canônico 2018). Earlier that year, the Brazil, these questions have in fact broader 1810. museum had celebrated its 200th anniversary implications, now that museums in Africa Photo: Mariza de Carvalho Soares, 2015. Published with a ceremony organized by the institution’s with permission. and elsewhere are increasingly demanding staff. Coincidentally, Brazil was preparing for the repatriation of artifacts inappropriately a highly contested presidential election, but removed from their territories during colonial no government officials, figures, or dignitar- or earlier times. (Andreoni, Londoño, and Moriconi 2018). The ies cared to attend the event (Andreoni and causes of the fire are sill under investigation. Londoño 2018). Only two out of the thirteen A recent report indicates that a short-circuit candidates at that point had plans for the Daniel B. Domingues da Silva is an in the museum’s air-conditioning system preservation of museums and other similar assistant professor of history at Rice Universi- started the fire, but the police is still working institutions (BBC 2018: 13). ty and the author of The Atlantic Slave Trade to determine whether that short-circuit was Since the burning of the National Museum, from West Central Africa, 1780–1867 (New caused by accident or criminal action (Sera- several sister institutions around the world York: Cambridge University Press, 2017). pião 2019). In any case, the museum had long have sent messages of solidarity to Brazilians [email protected]. been struggling to keep a balanced budget with and the museum’s staff (Verbeke 2018). The

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