Fostering Nationhood

Kenya Sun 28-09-2008

Fostering Nationhood
By Betty Caplan

Two important cultural institutions, the National Museum of Kenya and the RaMoMa Gallery have reopened in the past few months with little pomp, circumstance or media attention.

But it seems that serious discussion on the arts has been overtaken by politics to such an extent that only John Kariuki in this paper took the trouble to point out that no provision for it had been made in the last budget a short-sighted calculation since, if wisely handled, the arts can make big money.

'Bull Fight' by Peterson Kamwathi

Nor do arts and culture feature large in Vision 2030. Don't forget that they are also valuable tools in the promotion of tourism.

Yet contemporary art in Kenya has been flourishing in the past few years in spite of government indifference, which does not mean the lack of budgetary allocation.

Hands up those MPs who have bought a single work of Kenyan art? How many rich businessmen would even contemplate such a thing?

Some are beginning to catch on the new Safaricom House which is filled with commissioned paintings by Kenyans and the Java House Coffee Shops which has made a practice of promoting the hugely talented Jimnah Kimani, making them even more inviting.

Does President Mwai Kibaki have fine sculptures by Elkana Ongesa or Irene Wanjiru at State House? Not when I've had a glimpse of it via my TV screen. How many artists has the Kenyatta family supported? What do you put it down to...lack of education? Some members of our elite have been to the best universities in the world but their education appears to be limited in certain areas.

To return to my original subject: the museum has re-opened at a time of great turmoil in this country there is heated discussion everywhere about the meaning of heritage, tribe, history, and ethnicity.

Problems surrounding the totally foreign idea of a museum are explored at great length and depth by Prof Ali Mazrui in Kenya Past and Present, Issue No 35 2005, a scholarly publication of the Kenya Museum Society.

Here is the crux: "Because of the oral tradition, African history is particularly prone to the forces of myth-making and legend-building.

Tribal founders like Kintu of the Baganda or Mumbi of the Kikuyu are often elevated to the status of historical figures. Museums often have to preserve the physical documentation of cultural beliefs without taking sides between mythology and history."

Mazrui goes on to point out "the comparative weakness of the archival tradition in Africa and its devastating consequences for the history of our people."

Elkana Ongesa sitting near his work titled 'Bird of Peace'
commissioned by the Murumbi Foundation

One might also add the fact that Africans were largely the subjects of conquering nations like the British, the French and the Portuguese who looted the finest works of art freely and whose own museums would now be empty without such treasures as the Benin Bronzes or the much fought-over Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, kindly held in trust for the Greek people indefinitely despite their regular protests.

Take these away from the British Museum and all you have left of local origin are some exquisite ivory carvings of chess figures (and where did the ivory come from, pray)? or the Sutton Hoo collection of Anglo-Saxon objects found in the shipwreck of the above vessel. Not enough to draw crowds from near and far, you'll agree.

Mazrui bemoans the lack of an archival tradition which he defines as "a cultural preoccupation with keeping records and preserving monuments, a tradition of capturing the past through preserved documentation... Because the archival tradition is weak in Africa, the scientific tradition became weak, our languages atrophied and so did any philosophical tradition with ghastly consequences for our peoples across the centuries."

This deficit has led people to assume that Africa was a continent without history.

Mazrui even intimates that slavery and colonialism were closely linked to this perceived lack of culture and recorded memory. But then Bible-wielding colonialists of every hue have arrogantly taken it upon themselves to "educate the heathen" and to bring them up to their own standards, never questioning the moral or ethical implications of their actions. Civilisations that valued concrete remains or written records did not appreciate Africa.

Mazrui speaks about the false memory that Africa was one before colonisation, but he reminds us that it need not be a false hope.

"Museums all over Africa are likely to be called upon to reinforce Africa's false memory that it was once united before European colonisation."

We need to keep this in mind when we contemplate the new museum, funded largely by an EU grant. Not all the galleries have opened yet, but there is enough to be getting on with, what with several fascinating temporary exhibitions such as, Rock Art, pictures by various photographers, and in the Creativity Gallery, contemporary art by lesser-known.

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