The themes covered in this chapter are by no means unique; the biases, beliefs, and harms put forth by these participants can be found in participants’ discourse in subsequent chapters. These themes hold significance here due to their illustration of 1) the historically-situated context of viewpoints that continue to persist in the discourse of current Africanist
professionals, 2) the complexity of this particular generation’s perspective, which is all too often over-simplified by later generations as monolithically colonialist, and 3) how
geographical positionality is strongly correlated with participants’ ideological positionality.
Throughout this study, there is a strong correlation between the length of time one has spent living and working in African countries and the extent to which one is likely to condemn or condone Western, and more specifically colonialism’s, role in creating and feeding the illicit market for non-Western cultural objects. Though this participant group is miniscule, and is not representative of their generation as a whole, the contradictorily similar backgrounds and disparate experiences of Noah, Jacob, and Elijah offer a high-contrast demonstration of how length of time and strength of affiliation with particular institutions influence ideology and behaviour.
Noah’s and Jacob’s discourse is strongly characterised by their national identity. Their positionality is repeatedly affirmed as geographically and ideologically British, operating out of inherently imperialist institutions. Though they, like many of their colleagues, spent an average decade living and working in West Africa, they did so explicitly as agents of British governmental departments and British-founded institutions. The silencing, justificatory, distributive, and representational epistemic violence exhibited by them reflect the forms of epistemic violence used by their institutions to historically justify both the violent occupation of much of the Southern Hemisphere by the British Empire and the retention of cultural objects that were obtained as part of that occupation. While their actions are well-intentioned, their perception of good or helpful behaviour leans heavily on Western, not West African, definitions of positive involvement. As a consequence, they not only preserve harmful colonialist ideologies assumed from their predecessors, but appear to have passed on such ideologies to subsequent generations of students.
Elijah’s discourse, on the other hand, is characterised by his significant work experience and personal connections to the African countries that made up his home for many years. Unlike other European expatriate academics of the mid-century period, Elijah’s identity and
consequent positionality shifted drastically to replace deeply ingrained Eurocentric beliefs with a more informed and radical Afrocentric ideology. In contrast to Noah’s and Jacob’s inherited, unconscious, and apparently unquestioned biases, Elijah’s searing condemnation of the systemic injustices of the Western academy and their relationship to European colonialism indicates that his time spent outside of British institutions has given him a larger perspective
on certain issues that his peers lack.
This correlative relationship of geographic positionality’s effect on ideological positionality will be one of the most critical variables within this study, and the significance of its origin within this participant group will be expanded upon in later chapters.
VII. Conclusion
The participants within this group demonstrate the extent to which colonial ideologies are far from monolithic. These perspectives, while wide-ranging, are all representative of the ways in which such ideologies are challenged, perpetuated, and, most often, concealed within inherited normative practice. In the following chapter, I explore how the normative practices of this generation and their harmful effects have evolved and persisted amongst Africanist art historians.
Chapter 6
The Art Historians: Entitlement and Liability
I. Introduction
In this chapter, I explore the perspective of the second group of participants, consisting of five art historians who began their careers between the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. Unlike the immediate post-colonial generation, who typically spent between three and ten years working in West Africa for West African institutions, the participants within this group have had more limited periods of fieldwork in Africa, never for more than a year. As a result of their
Western-based practice, their discourses are dominated by Western-centric ideologies that affect their perception of who is harmed and who is harmful, and, most prominently, the perpetuation of harmful tropes regarding the capabilities of Indigenous peoples and
institutions in comparison to the perceived superiority of standards and resources in the West. Much of this group’s approach is shaped by Africanist art history’s struggle in the 1970s and 1980s to receive validation as a legitimate sub-field within the art historical canon.
At a time when African art was not taken seriously as art, the role of the market in legitimising objects through high sale prices and demand was critical in fighting the marginalisation of the field. I believe that this sense of marginalisation has led the majority of participants within this group to perceive their positionality as radical and inherently anti-racist, which gives them a sense of entitlement in their practice. As a result, problematic views and practices are obscured and normalised under the guise of an inherently progressive worldview. The narratives in this chapter are driven by themes of entitlement and liability: the entitlement exhibited by Western scholars in controlling the representation and keeping of African objects, and the liability they wrestle with in maintaining relationships with an art market that comes under increasing scrutiny.
In the following sections, I introduce the participants in this chapter and provide historical context surrounding the development of the Africanist art historical field. Analysis is divided into three sections: in the first, I explore the ways in which these art historians’ ideological positioning and normative practice perpetuate past harms of colonialism, and how they identify and position themselves in relation to harms committed in the course of curatorial
practice. In the second section, I examine how participants conceptualise wrongdoing in illicit trade involvement within West African countries, as perpetuated by both West African and Western actors. In the third and final section, I explore the ways in which these participants perpetuate harmful beliefs surrounding their perception of Western institutional superiority and the inability of West African countries to properly care for repatriated works.
II. The Participants
This group contains two generations of art historians; the three oldest participants trained under the tutelage of Roy Sieber, as did many of their generation of art historians and museum curators. The youngest two began their careers in the late 1980s/early 1990s, on the cusp of the early awareness of African archaeological looting. All combine teaching with curatorial work, though primarily university museum curatorial work.
Harry began his career in the mid-1970s and has worked primarily as a professor, whilst engaging in some university curatorial work. He has previously enjoyed a longstanding relationship with private collectors in an advisory role and then as caretaker of the collection developed from their donations to his university.
Abeo began his career in the mid-1970s. Originally from West Africa, his career is largely based in the US and has combined work with traditional and contemporary arts.
Nancy began her career in the late 1970s and has worked primarily as a professor whilst engaging in some curatorial work in both university and public/private museums. She
occupies the most powerful institutional position within this group in terms of the seniority of her role and the recognition of her stature by others.
Jack began his career in the late 1980s and has focused largely on anthropological aspects of art history with extensive fieldwork in Africa. He too has occupied university curatorial positions.
Charlie began his career in the late 1980s; his work focuses on anthropological aspects of art history and the art market. Within this group, he has the least amount of experience doing fieldwork within West Africa.
While all participants were generous with their time and patient with my questioning, Nancy was the least cooperative and at times borderline hostile, showing particular impatience, mistrust, and disdain for my line of questioning.