Mambo! - Exhibiting the ethnographic object and mise-en-scène of the nation: The uncertain museography of community museums in Kenya
Chloé Josse-Durand
Naïrobi, Ifra-Naïrobi, Mambo, Volume X, n° 5, 2012, 6 p.
Version anglaise du Mambo précédemment publié en français
Introduction
Largely initiated in West Africa(1), African community museums are often perceived as poorly interesting vestiges of the colonial period. However, since the 1990s, peripheral museums have been multiplying across the continent. Usually referred to as 'inland museums', 'regional museums' or 'community peace museums', they derive from former colonial museums or result from local impetus or official responses to the increasing demands of the tourism sector, and contribute to the development of cultural tourism in the region.
However, it would be simplistic to view these museums only as an economic resource; hardly studied by political science, they nevertheless constitute genuine "socio-cultural puzzles"(2) participating to national and local identity construction, hence playing an active role in the recognition of tangible and intangible African cultural heritage. In Kenya, community museums face a specific problem(3), that is, how to represent communities and cultures historically marginalised by the central government and hardly associated with the national dialectic, in a country that is profoundly redefining its administrative structure(4). Under the responsibility of local curators employed by the National Museums of Kenya(5), the Kenyan institution in charge of heritage, community museums, mausoleums and other places of memory reveal the complex articulation of local and national memory(6). In this perspective, this paper presents the first results of a four-month research mission (February–June 2012) conducted in the framework of a PhD in political science. It explores the place of heritage in the (re)construction of the Kenyan nation, interrogating the role played by museums, particularly community museums, in this process.
Community museums between fusion and confusion
There is a great disparity in Kenyan community museums, as these institutions have not been targeted by a comprehensive and effective public policy. For example, the prominence of exhibition boards funded by Trust for African Rock Art – TARA, an influential NGO in the Kenyan sphere of the protection and conservation of heritage, points out the lack of funds, in spite of the fact that such funds are essential for the implementation of a rich and varied museography, as these boards providing information on rock painting often constitute the only descriptions available besides the explanations provided by museum guides. Organizing temporary thematic exhibitions or carrying necessary maintenance work and renovations is a difficult task regardless of the geographical location or the importance of the museum considered. In fact, the value of the collections exhibited in these peripheral museums depends as much on the quality of the design as on the involvement of guides and the NMK educational officers in their educative mission. All interviews with the curators employed by the NMK show that inequalities in museums relate to the central role given to the museum head by the Kenyan heritage authority. Indeed, the curator not only decides on how collections should be used within the institution but also how budgetary resources are to be allocated. The motivation of a curator – considering that he is appointed for a short period, being transferred every three or four years– as well as his/her ethno-regional affiliation and transparency do affect the continuity of priorities of internal museum policies of the institution s/he leads.
(...)
1 For example, the cultural banks in Mali. For this subject: Anne-Marie Bouttiaux (ef.) Afrique : musées et patrimoines, pour quels publics? Paris: Karthala, 2007.
2 Neino Chaibou, former director of Nigeria's Heritage and Museums, in "Le musée national du Niger : un exemple symbiotique entre la culture et l'environnement", Le patrimoine culturel africain, Laval: Maisonneuve&Larose, 2001, p. 41.
3 See Anne Gaugue, Les États africains et leurs musées. La mise en scène de la nation , Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997 and more recently, Karega-Munene, "Museums in Kenya, Spaces for Selecting, Ordering and Erasing Memories of Identity and Nationhood", African Studies, 70 (2), 2011, pp. 224-245.
4 The new Constitution entered into force on august 2012, transforming the 8 provinces in 47 counties.
5 The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a state corporation established by an Act of Parliament, the Museums and Heritage Act 2006. NMK is a multi-disciplinary institution whose role is to collect, preserve, study, document and present Kenya's past and present cultural and natural heritage. This is for the purposes of enhancing knowledge, appreciation, respect and sustainable utilization of these resources for the benefit of Kenya and the world. NMK's mutual concern for the welfare of mankind and the conservation of the biological diversity of the East African region and that of the entire planet demands success in such efforts. www.museums.or.ke
6 Marie-Claire Lavabre, "L'usage de la notion de mémoire est connotée par le national et le politique", Critique internationale, special issue "Usages et mésusages de la notion de mémoire", 7, 2000, pp. 48-57.
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