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Mrs
Powell-Cotton buying artefacts in Warrap, South Sudan (1933).
Image
courtesy of Trustees of Powell-Cotton Museum.
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I’m pleased to introduce some new research
currently being undertaken on South Sudanese material culture. The first phase
of this is funded by the British Institute in Eastern Africa and is being conducted by Dr Zoe Cormack and
Dr Cherry Leonardi. The aim of our work, still in the early stages, is to establish
plans and feasibility for a substantial research project involving these
collections. We are currently scoping
relevant collections, surveying associated documentary material and developing
institutional links in Europe and South Sudan.
Collections from South Sudan in European
museums were mainly assembled between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth
century. They were created by an assortment of European travellers to Sudan. The
nineteenth century was a period of commercial exploitation in what is now South
Sudan, as the region was incorporated into Ottoman Egypt. Some collections were
assembled by men such as Franz Binder and John Petherick with close links to
the slave and ivory trade. Others where gathered by missionaries – for example
by the Italian order of Comboni Fathers.
Collectors like Maj. Powell-Cotton and his wife, who is pictured above
buying artefacts in the remote village of Panhomweeth, have also left a
considerable quantity of material. So
too have anthropologists who worked in South Sudan during the British colonial
period.
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Decorated
clay bulls, collected by anthropologist Evans Pritchard.
Image
courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum (1936.10.85).
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Broadly reflecting the nationalities of the
collectors, this material is now widely dispersed across Europe. There are
important collections in France, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania,
Slovenia, Holland, Italy and significantly in the UK. Much material is also
housed in ethnographic museums in Khartoum and Cairo. Rich photographic and
documentary sources are also available. Some collections have been studied
individually, but they have never been looked at together.
South Sudan has experienced chronic civil
war. Most international engagements with South Sudan are focused on urgent
responses to conflict and humanitarian emergencies. Cultural heritage has,
understandably, not been prioritised in this context. Yet material culture has
the potential to open up the discussion of the South Sudan’s history and
cultures at a time when the overwhelming focus of national and international
discourse is on war and crisis. One key concern for future work is to address
museological questions about working with collections and communities from
conflict affected areas.
As well as helping to raise the profile of cultural
heritage in South Sudan, we hope that work on these collections will facilitate
sustainable links between Institutions and scholars in Europe and South Sudan. This
will build on successful recent experiences, for example, The Pitt Rivers
Museum’s collaboration with UNESCO to provide historical photographs for a
travelling exhibition in three states of South Sudan.
For more information contact Zoe Cormack
Zoe Cormack
