International Study: Consulting the Things of the Spirits

(Credits: Marleen de Witte)

Today, I bring to our dear readers an international article entitled "Consulting the Things of the Spirits: Evidencing the Invisible Presence in Missionary Collections", which talks about how an entry point to unravel ancient artifacts from Africa in missionary collections.

As part of an international work to unravel the composition of ancient collections of African spiritual artifacts in missionary collections by the Pressing Matter and the Legba Dzoka Project, Marleen de Witte and Birgit Meyer wrote an article entitled “Consulting the Things of the Spirits: Evidencing the Invisible Presence in Missionary Collections”, which was recently published in the journal Museum Anthropology, on March 6th.

An original abstract of the article in question:

Contributing to ongoing efforts to address the colonial legacies of museums, this article takes the question of evidence as an entry point to unravel the multilayered composition of African spiritual artifacts in missionary collections. Focusing on Dutch and German missionary collections of legbawo and dzokawo from the Ewe region of Ghana and Togo, we analyze how such artifacts were subjected to “evidentiary practices” by multiple parties over a period of 120 years. These collections enshrine coexisting and conflicting forms of evidence: multiple possibilities of knowing (about) the items, their trajectories, and their relationships with humans and nonhuman beings. In addition to analyzing the missionary and museum structures imposed on these artifacts, we investigate contemporary Ewe religious practitioners’ ritual technologies of knowing about the presence, identities, and desires of spirits as alternative modes of evidencing invisible presences. We argue that the pluralization of evidence offers opportunities for decolonial critique and for rethinking established museum and research structures.

The article in English can be read here.

Written by Márcio