The Vigango Affair The Enterprise of Repatriating Mijikenda Memorial Figures to

Joseph Nevadomsky

n January ,   the California State were dident, and Kenyan consular ocials had no clue. Experts University, Fullerton (CSUF), repatriated I contacted—American anthropologists Monica Udvardy and twenty-seven Mijikenda vigango memo- Linda Giles and Kenyan ex-curator John Mitsanze—were as puz- rial wood posts. Ten days later the vigango zled as I was. gures were air-freighted to Kenya, their is is the story of that repatriation, a project complicated by place of origin. e success of this endeavor law, bureaucracy, advocacy, international marketing, Kenyan depends on one’s point of view. University administrators and internal aairs, and the Mijikenda. Although vigango are KenyanO embassy ocials in  had signed the transfer doc- listed as “protected objects” by the NMK (National Museums uments with a no blame proviso. Bureaucratic procedures and of Kenya) and recognized as the cultural patrimony of peo- unanticipated hindrances delayed the repatriation and almost ples in the Republic of Kenya under the  Antiquities and thwarted it. Assisted by the US State Department, repatriation Monuments Act of Kenya, Kenya until recently had not ratied went ahead, concluding a process begun in . Aer nearly a the  UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and decade success at last! A job well done! Mission accomplished! Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership But where in Kenya? And where are the vigango? of Cultural Property (Prott : –; Kouroupas : –). Donated in  to the Department of Anthropology at CSUF, No international laws prevent Westerners from owning many people had a hand in the repatriation eort. Mitch Avila, vigango and Kenyan law does not prevent their sale. ey may then associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social be purchased “with impunity,” anthropologist David Parkin tells Sciences, noted, “… it took three deans, a couple of [CSUF] pres- us ( : ). Available in Nairobi and art galleries and idents, several provosts, and lots of faculty and sta involvement tourist cra shops, they are objects nobody initially made any to pull this o.” Ultimately, it included the Kenyan ambassador bones about. Joseph Murumbi, rst vice-president of Kenya and and a United States congressman. co-owner (with Alan Donovan) of African Heritage Gallery, a My involvement began as a casual observer. My curiosity was popular shop in Nairobi for upscale tourists and collectors, dis- piqued, however, by discussions about the eventual placement played and sold them (Kasr : g. ). ey appear in Nairobi of this disused collection—keeping it, giing it to a suitable coee shop window displays. In March  Kenya gazetted museum in the United States, or repatriation to Kenya—and by vigango as protected objects, but restrictions on exporting them in-house debates about repatriation, an issue that looms large are weak. Wiped clean by legerdemain—cash transactions, fake in museum epistemology. As discussions became heated, the receipts—vigango reside in museums and private collections administration dropped a blanket over the vigango issue, then outside Kenya (Udvardy  ). Actors Gene Hackman, Powers renegotiated repatriation. Aer the vigango arrived in Kenya, I Boothe, Linda Evans, Dirk Benedict, and Shelly Hack are among became more curious because no one knew or cared where the the Hollywood celebs who have owned them (Udvardy et al. gures were located. Colleagues had lost interest, administrators ). ree vigango were in the Sotheby’s catalog for Andy Warhol’s estate (Lacey ). ey are a collectible cultural art. J  N  is the California State University, Fullerton 2000 H&SS Distinguished Professor. He has also taught at the University of VIGANGO MEMORIAL SPIRIT MARKERS Lagos, University of Benin, UCLA, USC, and the University of Zimba- e Mijikenda live between Mombasa and just inland bwe. His focus is on Benin kingship rituals, brass-casting, prehistory, from the Kenyan coastal plain. Known as the “nine tribes” and palace architecture. [email protected] (Giriama, Rabai, Ribe, Kambe, Kauma, Jibana, Chonyi, Duruma, and Digo, although the latter two, heavily Islamized, do not carve

 african arts SUMMER 2018 VOL. 51, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 Vigango are Mijikenda commemorative spirit markers. ese representational egies, four to six feet high (Fig. ), are sacred reminders of deceased ancestors (Brown : ). Unlike the identifying headstones of Western internment practices, vigango honor the dead but are not grave markers. Solicited by mem- bers of an elite group known as Gohu (Wolfe : –) they memorialize powerful men of this society (Fig. ). e posts are placed near a Gohu member’s house in or near a thatched shelter (Fig. ). Linda Giles likens the Gohu to a fraternity not unlike the socially responsive Rotary Club in the United States (Giles  : ), while Nancy Ngowa likens them to clergy in the traditional religion of the Mijikenda ( : ). e posts form a visual link between the world of the living and the memorable dead, and interfacing these worlds is important to a family’s welfare. An unhappy spirit is blamed for crop failure, illness, even death. Spirits may appear in a dream; a healer may suggest erecting a kigango (the singular of vigango) or—if for an ordinary citizen—a koma, half the size, plain, little more than a stick gure. Koma are generalized ancestral spirits more widely distributed than vigango. As long as the ancestor is remembered,

1 Map of coastal Kenya from the CSUF exhibition, showing names and locations where the vigango originated. Photo: Lisa Gonzalez

2 CSUF exhibition showing several vigango exhibit- ed in buckets of sand. Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), Courtesy Ernie Wolfe III. Photo: Lisa Gonzalez

The foregrounded post is from Sokoke village (col- lected by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.). The post has no facial features other than the notched rectangle that depicts the nose. Starting slightly above the waist, both sides of the torso are edged with interconnected triangulated chip work.

vigango), they are mostly Muslims or Christians, girdled by local animist traditions. ey share economic niches and a coalesced identity derived from colonialism (Willis : –). ey are said to have migrated from what is now southern Ethiopia, nd- ing a safe haven in the rolling hills of southeastern Kenya, along the Indian Ocean, with sucient rainfall for farming (Wolfe : ). e map in Figure shows the original village locations of CSUF’s repatriated vigango.

VOL. 51, NO. 2 SUMMER 2018 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 | 3 Kigango installation ceremony, Mijikenda Group, , Matembeni Village, Northern Kilifi district. Sacrifices mark the high and concluding point of the ceremony. August 1981. Photo: courtesy Ernie Wolfe III

4 Mijikenda Group, Msumarini area, Giriama People. The large figure to the right with typical carved, incised, triangular designs is a kigango, representing a Gohu member. The four smaller round-headed and uncarved figures are vibao representing Gohu members who have been previously depicted by a kigango at another loca- tion. The six smallest posts are koma, brothers or wives of the Gohu member. This arrangement represents a visual kinship chart of a deceased Gohu member. The thatched background structure is a communal grain and cooking area. Between it and the posts is a barely distinguish- able grave marked by a large rock. Photo: courtesy Ernie Wolfe III

family and Gohu members make oerings to these gures. WHAT ABOUT EXPATRIATED VIGANGO? Flat, two-dimensional, chip-carved boards, vigango follow a for- ey are also subject to the. Vigango are illicitly removed as mulaic simplicity but vary in detail. Some have faces with rounded part of an inside job, by somebody in the household or a neighbor. naturalistic heads (Fig. ), or discs with highly schematized designs Posts are clumped, in haphazard fashion, not dicult to identify (Fig. ). Also common are oblong (Fig. ) and rectangular heads and not easy to sneak up on. Vigango posts are now sometimes (Fig. ), and ones with minimal facial features (Fig. ). ey are embedded in concrete or protected by a wire cage (Udvardy et usually elaborated with incised triangular motifs (Fig. ) that may al. ). represent ribs or incisions that are indicative of other body fea- Because the vigango have commercial value, family arguments tures. Many are notched to represent the waist (Fig. ) or other arise over selling their vigango or continuing to honor them as anatomical features (Fig. ). Some are painted (Fig. ) with ancestral markers. As a rule, elders care more about tradition, white pigment and red vegetation stains, charcoal or soot black, while the young opt for sale. Nancy Ngowa is very clear on this even modern laundry bluing. Some are adorned with a twist of matter: Youths collect the vigango, seeing these gures as a busi- cloth at the neck or waist (Fig. ). Some have unusual architec- ness opportunity “in supplying tourists … and failed to take into tonic markings (Fig. ) and show unusual congurations (Fig. ). Incision marks and paint do not carry a load of meaning, but identify an individual. (e absence of markings indicates a leper.) Modern or refurbished posts supplant the traditional paint palette with foreign or imported oil- based pigments (Sieber : –; Wolfe : –). “Planted” near local homesteads, they are le there when these seminomadic agricultural landholders move. Udvardy says that “ey are nearly always in a homestead, mostly at the edge … to pro- tect them from the elements … [and] if one is found outside the homestead it has probably been le behind when the homestead moved.” In a slash-and- burn environment, they are sometimes destroyed by re or a tractor plow (Parkin : ). Made of hardwood from the muhuhu tree, they are also subject to rot and rain, but not termites.

 african arts SUMMER 2018 VOL. 51, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 5 Kigango memorial effigy Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; weathered patina; erosion to bottom; carving on verso; H: 185 cm Collected in Roka Tezo by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.) Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2,1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III Photo: Justin Stewart

Geometric incised forms in asymmetrical patterns across the disc-like head and torso, above a notched waist. The head on its elongated neck is articulated with incised eye- consideration the religious and cultural implications of their actions” ( : ). brows above circular eyes and notched mouth. Two arcs on She says there was “a booming trade … in the s when tourists would buy either side of the head refer to ears. The torso is carved with the carvings and take them abroad” (Ngowa  : ). For some, the vigango incised triangles, alternately inward and outward directed. are a sacred patrimony; others see these gures as a negotiable commodity 6 Kigango memorial effigy (Brantley  :  –; Willis : –). Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Ernie Wolfe, an art dealer in Los Angeles, says that local Mijikenda are Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; red, white, nonchalant about their vigango, while Udvardy says their the is a source of and black polychrome; carved on verso; H: 168 cm consternation to Mijikenda elders. Generational dierences and shis in cul- Collected in Marafa by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Caption adapted tural focus have created a cultural cleavage for much of the twentieth century from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III (Willis : –), but is now more pronounced. Some Mijikenda have less Photo: Justin Stewart need to tap into the collective memory of their ancestors in times of stress.

The polychrome is an element of design and emphasizes Mijikenda are small-scale farmers and casual laborers, but those more receptive the geometric work with the chip work painted in alternat- to change work in hotels and for the coastal tourist trade (Kusimba ), and ing areas of black and white in different schema in each of are indierent. Although it is considered “bad form” to uproot them, Parkin the two torso areas. There is also a deeply notched, vertical line in the center of the chest. The face is delicately carved; says there is little adverse reaction ( : ). the head is bordered with doubled, triangulated chip Most of the art world’s information about vigango posts and the Mijikenda work indicating hair. The face retains painted arced black came from Wolfe’s exhibition book on the Giriama Mijikenda, which has eyebrows over small, notched eyes, nose, and mouth. The painted eyebrows relate the facial features to the general extensive eld photographs of vigango, Mijikenda initiations, meetings of shape of the head. elders, and the setting up of a shrine. It includes his essay “Collector’s Note and Acknowledgments” ( : – ) and essays by Africanist art historian Roy 7 Kigango memorial effigy Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Sieber ( : –) and anthropologist Parkin ( : –). It includes an Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) endorsement from the Kenyan ambassador to the United States. A subsequent Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; weath- version focuses on the sculptural tradition (Wolfe ). ered patina; traces of polychrome; light erosion to bottom; H168cm. Collected in Kibaokiche by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Wolfe sees the vigango through a curator-collector’s eyes, which regards them Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), as “the wonderful cross-cultural ambassadors that they have become. ey are courtesy Ernie Wolfe III Photo: Justin Stewart truly pan-humanistic representations of the human form. ey are human abstractions and are the most beautifully common denominators.” This figure has a rectilinear form that makes it look carpen- Udvardy’s talking points focus on the social contexts of the vigango and pil- tered. The flat vertical rectangle of the head is incised with eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth in a relatively detailed laged cultural heritage. She and Giles urge their return to the Mijikenda owners. fashion. The post is bordered above the notched waist with Cultural ownership is paramount, as is their advocacy, although it may be hard incised, interconnected triangles. to nd the original owners.

VOL. 51, NO. 2 SUMMER 2018 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 | 8 Kigango memorial effigy Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; traces of red polychrome; erosion to bottom; H: 185 cm Collected in Marafa by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III Photo: Justin Stewart DUELING POINTS OF VIEW The head is an horizontally oriented rectangle. The face is elaborated with horizontal pointed ovals as eyes and Vigango have become art collectible commodities because of their aesthetic min- mouth, and with arcs as eyebrows and nose. Above the imalism and Wolfe’s pivotal eorts. From the late s through the early s, notched waist, torso sides are edged with large, intercon- the Los Angeles dealer created an international market for them. An enthusiastic nected incised triangles. dealer and amateur anthropologist, Mr. Wolfe holds a degree in art history. He is 9 Kigango memorial effigy what in the trade is called “a picker.” He can spot or create a trend (e.g., Ghanaian Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, movie posters, Wolfe  ). His writings on the vigango (Wolfe , ) high- Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; weath- light the cultural art history of the Mijikenda (see Cole : –). ered patina; erosion to bottom; aluminum repairs to head; Wolfe was not the only dealer of note selling vigango. James Willis in San H: 173 cm Francisco and Reginald Groux in Paris handled sales of related types of objects. Collected in Bamaba by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.). Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy However, Mr. Wolfe was the most newsworthy. e Wall Street Journal (Keates Ernie Wolfe III ), e New York Times (Spindler ), and other major newspapers com- Photo: Justin Stewart mented on the divergent views of celebrity gallerist Wolfe and repatriation The grain shows effects of weathering, especially by champions Udvardy, Giles, and Mitsanze. windblown sand. There is mottled discoloration from Udvardy, Giles, and Mitsanze say that the vigango Wolfe sold were illegally lichen growth. The tab-shaped head with minimized neck is articulated with incised notches for the eyes and mouth. removed by unemployed kids; in Udvardy’s words: “probably stolen or acquired Aluminum repairs to the head suggest that the post has through ethically controversial means.”  Wolfe says he bought most of them from been repaired. souvenir shops in Mombasa. Uprooted vigango are sold by runners contracted 10 Kigango memorial effigy by souvenir shops or sold by thieves directly to shop owners. Wolfe negotiated a Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, few with elders who, he says, approved the sale. Wolfe defends collecting, selling, Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) and exhibiting them. ese vigango were “deactivated” with “limited tempo- Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; weath- ered patina; erosion to bottom of post; fissures in head; ral power” and “ritually obsolete” (Lacey ), their spiritual powers spent. H: 193 cm Anyway, they were abandoned, Wolfe says, and, at the times he visited Kenya, Collected in Goshi by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie hardly regarded as cultural icons. Wolfe III Udvardy, Giles, and Mitsanze say the vigango are not throwaways. Buying them Photo: Justin Stewart from youths who uprooted them, elders who proted from the sale but do not An unusually tall kigango that follows the traditional form. own them, or souvenir shops does not mean they had become socially defunct The disc-like head is articulated with incised, arced eyes or spiritually inactive. ey claim that most were removed without authoriza- over a horizontally notched mouth. Above the notched tion and illegally bought by dealers and tourists. Udvardy says the Mijikenda waist, the post is edged with deeply cut interconnected double rows of isosceles triangles. Two rows of similar oen move their homesteads in search of arable or grazing ground but may later chip work border the torso. Weathering has leached the return. ey disagree with Wolfe, who sees relocation as validation for reframing color from the surface. the vigango as marketable “international art commodities” (Lacey ).

 african arts SUMMER 2018 VOL. 51, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 VIGANGO IN MUSEUMS 11 Kigango memorial effigy Some twenty institutions in the United States own about  Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu)  vigango. In  Udvardy, an anthropologist at the University Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; weathered pati- of Kentucky, discovered a kigongo in a collection at Illinois State na; traces of plaster; lightly eroded bottom; H: 145 cm Collected in Kazingo by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Caption adapted from University (ISU) at Normal that she had recorded as stolen while Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III conducting eld research among the Giriama in  (Giles et al. Photo: Justin Stewart ; Udvardy et al. , Udvardy  ). In  Giles, then a Beneath the neck, three outward facing incised arcs on either faculty member at ISU, discovered a collection of vigango among side indicate pectoral muscles. Similar incised features above the the artifacts rescued from the holdings of the ISU Museum aer notched waist indicate the pelvic bones. Post is bordered with the Museum shut down permanently the year before. triangular chip work, here retaining much of its plaster inlay. Udvardy and Giles teamed up, documented vigango in US 12 Kigango memorial effigy museum collections, and realized that some were illegally Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu acquired. Journalist Mark Panz in Kenya also raised the issue— Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; remains of poly- his Christian Science Monitor and Daily Telegraph articles (Panz chrome; erosion to bottom; H: (total) 196 cm a, b) brought worldwide attention to vigango. ese, together Collected in Mariango by Ernie Wolfe (n.d.). Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III with an almost full-page article about their the in e New York Photo: Justin Stewart Times (Lacey ) and the later report by Udvardy et al. ( ) in American Anthropologist, brought media fame for the vigango. This large kigango appears massive because of the small scale of the geometric incisions. Above the notched waist are doubled, ey uncovered a transatlantic trade in these memorial gures interconnected isosceles triangles, forming elevated zigzag lines. (Giles, Udvardy, and Mitsanze ; Udvardy and Giles  ). Chip work trisects the torso. A few museums surrendered a few gures. In , the Illinois 13 Torso detail of kigango seen in Figure 6. State Museum and the Hampton University Museum in Virginia (Lacey , Udvardy and Giles  ) surrendered one each from their collections (the Illinois State Museum had thirty-eight, the Hampton University Museum had ninety-nine) aer the NMK requested that they be returned to the Mijikenda families they had been removed from, based on photographic evidence that Udvardy supplied. In  Boston University repatriated nine vigango in a ceremony that was held at the United Nations (CBC ) and cre- parallels that of CSUF in time and procedure, if not intention. ated a museum exhibit for educating the public about repatriation. Packed and ready to go, the vigango never le Denver, however.  All in all, about a dozen vigango have been repatriated. e CSUF collection was not on Udvardy’s tally of US institu- Recently, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) tions holding vigango. CSUF’s repatriation was never really about opted to return thirty vigango gied in  by actor Gene returning the vigango to their rightful owners, the Mijikenda. It Hackman and movie producer Art Linson. Repatriation com- was about legal ownership and political liability. Administrators menced in . “It took the museum ve years to negotiate” feared creating a publicity scandal for the university that might the deal, “details of which remain under negotiation” (Mashberg aect its federal funding. And so CSUF ocials notied the  : C–). Approved for return to Kenya on February , NMK and Kenyan consular ocers that they wanted to repatriate  , the DMNS eort (Nash and Colwell-Chanthaphonh  ) the university’s vigango.

VOL. 51, NO. 2 SUMMER 2018 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 | 14 Kigango memorial effigy Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised facial features; erosion to bottom; H: 188 cm Collected in Kinago by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.). Caption adapted from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III Photo: Justin Stewart THE CSUF DONATION A disc-like head, narrow notched waist, and incised interior In December  , the CSUF Division of Anthropology details. The head is minimally articulated with horizontally received a donation of  vigango, arranged by Los Angeles art notched eyebrows and eyes above a similar incised mouth. The chest area of the torso is edged halfway with an incised triangu- dealer/collector Ernie Wolfe III on behalf of Joseph and Laura lar line, a shortcut for chip work. An X of horizontally notched Ciaramella.  Mr. Wolfe had eld-collected the posts, and he smaller lines alludes to an illness. Trade cloth round the neck. gave invaluable information on them and the Mijikenda. About 15 Kigango memorial effigy the same number of posts were donated to Mesa College in San Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Diego. Wolfe freely admits that he introduced a market for the Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); incised eye; losses to left side of vigango aer one of his many trips to Africa. By the s the head; highly eroded bottom; traces of kaolin; H: 201 cm posts had become trendy in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Collected in Ganza by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.). Caption adapted Records show that the Ciaramellas had the vigango appraised from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe III for , (Scheinberg ) just before they donated them; Photo: Justin Stewart a year earlier they had been appraised at  ,. A decade later they had assessed art market values of ,–, each. Triangulated chip work forming sheins of guilloche patterns horizontally and vertically. May relate to Swahili architectural Vigango sold at a   Paris auction for , and at a   features, especially veranda posts, and may be associated with Sotheby’s auction for  ,. About  ,–, is a rea- status. The torso is carved with these patterns above and below sonable present-day assessment of market value for these vigango. the notched waist. The head is eroded at the top edge; on the right a horizontal notch delineates the surviving eye. The minimal facial features emphasize the architectonic features. NAGPRA, THE NSF AWARD, AND CSUF The surface has a mottled patina, with areas of surviving white e repatriation eort at CSUF ts in an atmosphere of other polychrome. events. One was the Native American Graves Protection and 16 Kigango memorial effigy Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted November . In  Southeastern Kenya, Mijikenda Group, Giriama People, Gohu Museum Anthropology published a thematic issue commemo- Society (chama ya Gohu) Hardwood (muhuhu tree); highly weathered patina; discolor- rating the twentieth anniversary of NAGPRA that focused on ation from lichen growth; fissures; central splitting to torso; remains stored as museum specimens (Colwell-Chanthaphonh bottom highly attenuated; H: 140 cm Collected in Bachoma by Ernie Wolfe III (n.d.). Caption adapted and Nash  ). Although NAGPRA focused on Native American from Alfred Scheinberg (August 2, 1990), courtesy Ernie Wolfe historic artifacts and human remains, it resonated widely as a III model for the return of objects and artworks illegally acquired Photo: Justin Stewart from colonial times to the present. The weathering, prominent graining, fissures in the wood, and American natural history museums were alarmed for their mottled gray patina imply an early post. The head is articulated holdings of human remains of Native American groups. In with two large, incised circular eyes; deeply incised triangulated chip work lines both sides of the torso. There is no waist notch the early s, the German Museums Association beefed up and the post has an evident S curve. its ethical guidelines for the return of remains. e Economist

 african arts SUMMER 2018 VOL. 51, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 A second event was the National Science Foundation (NSF) infrastructure award, a  ,, matching grant to add lab space for a new Department of Anthropology at CSUF. is arrangement t nicely into the typical four-eld approach for the department’s BA and MA programs. e award funded a museum and computer lab, as well as labs for archaeology, oste- ology, and primatology. An NSF enhanced teaching award of  , allowed for a visual anthropology lab as a teaching and service unit. NAGPRA and the NSF awards spurred a rethinking of the anthropology department. Was the museum a collections facil- ity, or a teaching facility, or both? Department sta recongured the museum as a training and research facility in museum stud- ies (Parman ). Citing Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett ( ), Susan Parman, who developed the NSF grant, noted that

It is not objects themselves in an exhibit that connotes class status but the role of curators who manipulate category relations when they generate inventories and arrangements … e [Department of Anthropology museum] is a training ground for experiments in representation and self-reection. It is not so much composed of material objects that represent the culture of others, but explora- tions of acts of construction (:  ).

THE CSUF EXHIBITION AND REPATRIATION e postmodern turn in the social sciences helped to recon- ceptualize an undergraduate university anthropology museum as “collectionless,” focused on virtual exhibitions and ideas about museum collections. e brochure for the anthropology’s vigango exhibition states: “Our mission is to teach students how to develop museum objects, rather than to collect ethnographic objects.” Because this would be a collectionless museum, there was no reason to keep the vigango. Repatriation eorts were com- bined with a museum science course in  that focused on the vigango. e campus and community could see the vigango before their return to Kenya and be made aware of issues around repatriation and cultural patrimony.  Titled Closer to Home: Repatriating Kenya’s Vigango, the exhibition brochure had these 17 Vigango set in covered buckets of sand for the instructive headings: CSUF student exhibition. The foregrounded figure • Who Are the Mijikenda? is also seen in Figure 5. Photo: Lisa Gonzalez • Why Are Vigango Made? • For Whom Are Vigango Made? • What Is Repatriation? • How Did ese Vigango Get to CSUF? • Why Are the Vigango Going Back to Kenya? ( : ) reported that a Berlin hospital returned the body parts With a paltry  ,, students placed vigango in covered buck- of thirty individuals to Australia and New Zealand. Trade in ets of sand (Fig. ); others were set in a sandbox with lighting human remains still occurs, however. e same magazine article suggesting a dusky gray day, to symbolize ambivalence (Fig. ). reported the arrest of an Italian in central Africa caught export- Wall displays showed where the CSUF vigango came from, village ing forty human skulls from Burundi to ailand. Other major by village (with information provided by Ernie Wolfe), the his- newspapers reported Native American artifacts like Hopi and tory of Kenya, and the issue of repatriation. Simple but eective. Apache ritual objects had appeared at a Paris auction, although To facilitate repatriation, the department contacted archae- increasing publicity about tribal artifacts has given a fresh impe- ologist Chapurukha Kusimba. en Curator of African tus to restitution. Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago and a Research Following NAGPRA guidelines, CSUF archaeologists item- Associate at the NMK, he researches Swahili and Giriama peo- ized their collections. Bones and ritual items were set aside for ples on the Kenya Coast. Dr. Idle Farah, then Director General return to legitimate descendants. Items for Hawaii and Southern of the NMK, also agreed to assist. Kusimba would meet the ship- California Native American groups were decorously returned. ment at International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi,

VOL. 51, NO. 2 SUMMER 2018 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 | sea. en, suddenly, the vigango le CSUF for LAX to Kenya on January ,  . Associate dean Avila explains,

As it turns out, two serendipitous events occurred. First, as a result of the sequester [the Obama budget sequester of funds imposed January  ] the State Department had a fund of money that had been set aside for returning cultural artifacts such as the vigango and those funds need[ed] to be dispersed by Sept  [ ]. Second, [Congressman] Ed Royce became the chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee [in January  ] and inuence from his oce now commands respect even in the far corners of the globe. Money for the return of the vigango was transferred to Kenyan National Museum, and US Embassy personnel in Kenya have been helpful in moving this process forward. 

Orange County Kenyans had a jaundiced view. e shipment would disappear in Nairobi, they said, or be hijacked on the road from Nairobi to Mombasa, and the vigango would be recycled into the artifact commodity market. Udvardy and Giles ( ) admit that the NMK is porous and attention to heritage sites lax, a situation noted by others (Karoma ; Kusimba ; Mturi ; Wilson and Omar ).

VIGANGO: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY Heritage collection ethics is a thorny, grainy issue. Repatriation is convoluted. It is “never straightforward” says Chip Colwell- Chanthaphonh, the curator at the DMNS. “But,” he adds, “just because a museum is not legally required to return cultural property does not mean it lacks an ethical obligation to do so” (Mashberg  ). Ethics or not, the vigango raise legal, political, and proprietary issues. Immediately evident are the rights of those who acquired the objects against those demanding repatriation or restitution, equations that include national heritage and patrimony laws, the sovereignty of specic objects, and the politicization of cultural heritage.  At issue are the concerns of art historians and the excavation practices of archaeologists, the pedagogical goals of public and university museums, the desire of the institution to protect its collections and honor its promises to benefactors and to satisfy 18 Student Curator Justin Stewart arranges a the imperative claims on those objects. ere are the proprietary Kinago Village kigango (also seen in Figure 14). rights of those who lay claim to the objects. It is a contested arena, Photo: Lisa Gonzalez from James Cuno’s () pious assertion that the West protects the heritage of the rest of the world to Kwame Okopu’s ( ) persistent missives demanding return to origin. Defenders of their collections see their domain as a “curato- reum” that, like a crypt, preserves the dead; repatriation activists see these depositories as a “curatorium” that destroys cultural clear it through customs, and the NMK would truck the vigango identity just as a crematorium destroys the dead. To complicate to the Museum at Mombasa. Working with colleagues matters, at around the same time the world of Southern California and village elders, they would identify the owners of the vigango. museums was roiled by accusations of illegal acquisitions. e A laudable if optimistic plan. Divergent schedules sank it, as Getty’s statue of Aphrodite illuminated the ethical pitfalls of did departmental contention. e administration set up a com- acquiring antiquities (Frammolino  ; Felch and Frammolino mittee that had its own tack and contacted US Congressman Ed  ). e case resonated with CSUF because the then president Royce and the State Department. In April  Royce met with and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Barry Munitz, who oversaw the Kenyan ambassador, the Honorable Elkanah Odembo, in the Getty Center in Los Angeles, had earlier served as a contro- Washington, DC. On November  ,  , Royce, university o- versial chancellor of the twenty-three-campus California State cials, and Kenyan consular ocers met on campus and signed the University system. transfer documents. e twenty-seven vigango were then crated.  In  an undercover investigation by federal agencies Negotiations dragged on for more than two years over ship- focused on four southern California museums—the Los Angeles ping and costs. Piracy o the Somali coast ruled out shipment by County Museum of Art, the Pacic Asia Museum in Pasadena,

 african arts SUMMER 2018 VOL. 51, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 19 District Cultural Association Chairman Joseph Mwarandu is among those campaigning for the release of the CSUF repa- triated vigango held by Kenyan customs at JKIA. , September 14, 2016.

the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, and the Bowers WHERE ARE THE VIGANGO? Museum of Art in Santa Ana—and raided them as part of Was the CSUF enterprise a successful repatriation? For the the inquiry. e Bowers had ties to the CSUF Department of CSUF administration, absolutely: ey got rid of the vigango. Anthropology through internships and guest lectures, but had no For the NMK, it was an unasked-for and dubious gi, while the connection to the “so-called Bang Chiang culture” of ailand, Mijikenda still sit in the wings. Blowback about the vigango came the focus of the federal investigation. In the end, the Bowers was from Kevin Brown, a BBC reporter stationed in Nairobi. He determined not to have violated any laws.  learned that Customs refused to release the crate of vigango until is murky atmosphere and series of morally ambiguous deals, a tari of ,, Kenya shillings (= US,) was paid. as well as a national swirl of federal investigations at other muse- Nobody has paid the tari, so the vigango languish in a JKIA ums—the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Museum of cargo shed. Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Museum, etc.—plus interna- e tari was a big surprise! Import regulations now impose a tional demands for repatriation—the Elgin Marbles and Benin tari even on repatriated items, a policy shi that neither CSUF bronzes from the British Museum, the Getty Aphrodite—pro- nor the Kenyan consulate in Los Angeles knew anything about. vided ample cautionary notes about the pitfalls of acquiring Vigango had got through before without duty, setting an easy antiquities and other patrimony . precedent for future repatriations. (In the nick of time, the NMK Udvardy et al. point to Shelley Errington’s revealing statement sent a message to the DMNS not to ship their crated vigango.) that “Art was invented simultaneously with collecting, and the e CSUF response was “Shame on Kenya.” CSUF ocers were two are inconceivable without each other” (Udvardy, Giles, and surprised by what they saw as a lack of transparency. e NMK Mitzanze : ; see Errington , especially chapter ). expressed disinterest and said they had enough vigango on local e issues are not a simple conict between avaricious deal- display and in museum storage, and there were no funds to pre- ers and heritage crusaders. Roderick McIntosh ( : –) serve more. e Department of Finance, through the Kenya and Michel Brent ( : –) describe the “web of networks Revenue Authority (KRA), refused to budge. Government agen- in which auction houses, art journals, laboratories, and muse- cies had more pressing priorities, like border security. Besides, ums contribute to service an obscure but scandalous form of the Mijikenda constitute only  of Kenya’s population. e commerce” (Schmidt and McIntosh : ). Colin Renfrew’s Giriama, especially, have been relegated to the economic and () book on loot and legitimacy focuses on illicit archaeo- political backwater throughout much of the twentieth century logical digs. However these objects are acquired—pillaged from (Brantley  : ). excavations, chipped from shrine facades, lied from temples, Purity Kiura, Director of Museums, States, and Monuments at purchased from locals, dynamited o facades—cultural objects the NMK, conrms that the CSUF shipment is stuck at the JKIA. on the art market today have a murky provenance and are the e NMK cannot approach the KRA directly but must work products of illicit trac, duciary transactions, the collusion of through the Department of Culture. e two departments have collectors and museums on a no-questions-asked basis. Barbara exchanged letters but nothing has come of it. e new Director- Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, General of the NMK, Mzalendo Kibunjia, is aware of the situation, and Heritage ( ) implicates everyone from the museum visi- having authorized previous repatriations. e governor of Kili tor and the casual tourist to the indigenous seller and the wealthy County and other dignitaries from the coast visited the DMNS collector, the museum curator and the scholar. in August  . Freda Nkirote, the interim Director of Cultural

VOL. 51, NO. 2 SUMMER 2018 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar_a_00403 by guest on 24 September 2021 | Heritage at the NMK, suggests pressure on the district governor e vigango exist in the contexts of postmodern theory and of Nairobi. e snarls of bureaucracy continue operating infallibly. global realities, conveying diverse meanings (see Kasr ), Initial interest by the BBC has lapsed. Articles in from the CSUF administration’s equivocations, to Hollywood’s of Kenya headlined Mijikenda cultural appeals for the posts chic vision of them as conversation pieces, to tourists who and questioned the government’s rationale on imposing a tari. bought them as decorative pieces for display, to Mijikenda care- “Kenya Elders Protest Taxation of Stolen Artifacts,” one head- takers, and Kenyan bureaucrats. Vigango are palimpsests, each line blared. Spearheaded by John Mitsanze, now a Mijikenda gure initially incised with cultural meanings of the Gohu elite spokesman aer leaving the NMK, the Mijikenda marched and but now inscribed with external discourses, practices, politics, petitioned. Mitsanze announced their demands at an August and economics.   All Denominations Peace Conference in Nairobi. Mitsanze CSUF dreamed the vigango would be housed at Fort Jesus, has sent the case to the Kenya Watch for Justice Implementation Mombasa, a late sixteenth century Portuguese fort, now a heritage Committee. More recently, Nancy Ngowa, a lecturer at Pwani site and museum with a permanent exhibition on the Giriama University, Kili, wrote an extensive newspaper article ( ) group of the Mijikenda (Willis : ). Fort Jesus is near the that mentions the CSUF eort, the DMNS collection, and local farming communities where the vigango were carved. But if and eorts to retrieve the vigango, not only from overseas museums when the vigango will get to Fort Jesus, or to the Mijikenda, is but also from collections in Kenyan museums, and return them anybody’s guess. to their rightful owners (Fig. ).

Notes 11 Ernie Wolfe III, personal communication, March repatriation movement (Mashberg 2014). 2, 2016. 20 e chair of the anthropology department at the 1 Mitch Avila, email to CSUF sta, January 16, 12 Monica Udvardy has been interviewed on BBC DMNS, Stephen Nash, while willing to give up vigango 2014. World’s program Outlook, NPR’s All ings Considered, and oer guidance to other museums on ethics, agree- 2 I wrote this essay as a cautionary tale. I have used Kenya National Television, as well as about y news- ing that these posts are spiritual and cultural property, real names rather than pseudonyms in accordance papers (Monica Udvardy, personal communication, felt stymied by institutional barriers to giving up objects with the wishes of the people in Kenya I contacted. August 3, 2015). or proper return mechanics (Mashberg 2014). Linda Giles, John Mitsanze, and Monica Udvardy 13 e Government of Kenya currently regards 21 Kelvin Brown is a photographer and producer stressed publication of this essay, in a form that would vigango repatriation as a low priority item, oen ignor- with twenty years of experience in journalism working give it exposure. Udvardy has reread the essay and its ing repatriation. Both the DMNS and CSUF shared for the BBC based in Nairobi and responsible for revisions, oering information and encouragement. some of the procedures that brought them success: (1) East and Southeast Africa news coverage. An email She is now writing an extensive report on the vigango soliciting a politician (or celebrity such as an athlete or from Kelvin Brown opened the way to investigating and the Mijikenda. Material is culled from reports dignitary) for assistance; (2) paying for crating and / what had happened to the vigango aer they arrived provided by the CSUF Department of Anthropology. or shipping costs; (3) providing publicity with Kenyan in Nairobi. e only information up to then was that Most is unattributed. I would like to thank the follow- ocials in attendance; and (4) giving Kenya most of of the CSUF administration, which simply noted that ing whom I think contributed to these reports, from the public credit for the repatriation. there had been a hitch at Jomo Kenyatta International which I have drawn freely: Nancy Jenner, Julie Perlin 14 Art collectors Laura and Joseph Ciaramella were airport. Lee, Brenda Bowser, Lisa Gonzalez, Jack Bedell, Justin sued by the Santa Monica Rent Control Board with a 22 Kelvin Brown, personal communication, Sep- Stewart, Joan Miller, Stacy St. James, Tannise Colly- court-appointed arbitrator awarding the tenants and tember 15, 2015. more, Debra Redsteer, and the students in the Fall the board nearly $40,000 for art the tenants said they 23 One can understand the CSUF disillusionment. Semester 2008 Museum Studies class taught by Julie were forced to buy—memorial posts from Kenya as From November 2012, aer the nal agreement between Perlin. I have also drawn on the email correspondences reported—as an end run around rent control and in CSUF, Congressman Ed Royce, and General Consul of Mitch Avila, Associate Dean, Humanities and Social exchange for lower rents (Los Angeles Times 1993). Wenwa Akinyo Odinga Oranga was signed, to August Sciences, California State University, Fullerton. Monica 15 Julie Perlin Lee, seconded from the Bowers 2013, nearly twenty pieces of correspondence were sent Udvardy replied to all my queries, as did Linda Giles. I Museum in Santa Ana to the anthropology department by F. Owen Holmes, Jr., Associate Vice President (Public am very grateful to John Mitsanze for his insights and on a part-time basis, taught the course in museum Aairs and Government Relations) requesting action by biography. anthropology and curated the exhibit. Joseph Neva- the consulate to pick up the crated vigango. No action 3 Samson Ngwono, a chemistry lecturer at CSUF domsky photographed the vigango exhibit and the was taken and the correspondence virtually stopped tells me that “Mijikenda specically refers to the nine individual gures. e background information on until CSUF agreed to bear all costs. tribes native to the Kenyan coast. Miji means village provenance pieced together by Nancy Jenner, archae- 24 Dr. Purity Kiura said that the artifacts had no and kenda means nine” in Swahili (personal communi- ology curation technician, would provide a record commercial value and questioned the rationale of cation, February 3, 2016). because the CSUF collection was not on Udvardy’s list imposing a tax. As she said, “Culture and heritage are 4 Many of the twenty-seven vigango repatriated by (Udvardy, Giles, and Mitsanze 2003: 569). the basis of any nation and we do not understand why CSUF have a dierent village of origin, some may no 16 e 1,217-pound wooden crate featured slide- tax should be imposed on such items.” She appealed to longer exist, or may be dicult to nd in a slash-and out drawers and special cushioning for each piece of governors in coastal counties “to intervene and secure burn/herding village economy. the collection, a work of real crasmanship. the vigango at the airport due to the huge tax placed on 5 Monica Udvardy, personal communication, 17 Mitch Avila, email, January 15, 2014. them” (Beja 2015). September 25, 2016. 18 Maxwell Anderson, director of the Dallas 25 John Baya Mitsanze has worked hard to raise 6 Monica Udvardy, personal communication, Museum of Art and chairman of an Association of public awareness in Kenya of the imposition of the September 25, 2016. Art Museum Directors task force on archaeological tari on vigango, bringing attention to the fact that 7 Ernie Wolfe III, personal communication, March and ancient artifacts, said institutions should evaluate the vigango from CSUF are in an airport warehouse. 2, 2016. repatriation claims on a case by case basis, with an eye Mitsanze’s eorts are the reason for the headlines in 8 Ernie Wolfe III, personal communication, March toward returning objects even at the risk of alienating Kenyan newspapers. As a Giriama (Mijikenda), Mit- 2, 2016. donors (Mashberg 2014). Mesa College in San Diego, sanze worked with Linda Giles and Monica Udvardy 9 For over a decade Ernie Wolfe III traveled the institution that received the other half of the Cia- collecting data on the vigango and as a strong advocate Africa’s West Coast in search of hand-painted movie ramella donation and unaware of eorts made by the of cultural heritage escorted journalists into the eld posters that originated in Ghana. His Extreme Canvas CSUF and the DMNS, plans to auction o its vigango. and has been interviewed by them about missing (2011) is a juxtaposition of traditional and 19 Increasing publicity about tribal objects with a artifacts. modernity. spiritual signicance, including Native American arti- 26 Mitsanze took part in a conference workshop on 10 Monica Udvardy, personal communication, facts like Hopi and Apache ceremonial items recently bringing African Traditional Religion into the Kenyan August 18, 2015. auctioned in Paris, has given a fresh impetus to the school curriculum.

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