Are Museums Safe Spaces or Prisons for African Ritual Sculpture?

Abstract

The perception of museums as iconic spaces for preservation and display of art works, present a significant problem for thorough apprehension of many African arts in museum collection. While new museology advocates for the impute of culture-bearers in the display, labelling and interpretation of cultural objects in museum spaces, that intervention solves only half the problem. To understand the perspective of this paper, it is important to consider the correlation between African arts and ritual practice. The ritual actions associated with many African sculptures, and their function as objects of meditation, faith and communication is obliterated within museum spaces. The paper argues that African ritual sculptures in museums are institutionally confined, as these are not objects for aesthetic consumption, nor do they belong to straight jacket acrylic boxes in the museum space. Because context is lost, the understanding and appreciation of many African arts in museums are colored by valuation instruments alien to the original culture that produced them. In conclusion, the paper opines that although outright removal of African ritual sculptures from museum spaces may not be possible in many instances, culture-based interpretation of objects, and multi-media approaches to the presentation and representation of African ritual sculptures should become institutional requirements for museums, as an important step towards creating authentic cultural contexts essential to the apprehension and appreciation of African ritual sculptures in western museums.