Open AccessFIKSE OG TRIKSE, ORDNE OG MIKSE! Etnografisk Kongosamling i tre epoker
Author(s) -
Esben Wæhle
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
antropologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2596-5425
pISSN - 0906-3021
DOI - 10.7146/ta.v0i43-44.107420
Subject(s) - exhibition , emblem , ethnography , democracy , geography , power (physics) , ethnology , history , humanities , archaeology , art , political science , law , politics , physics , quantum mechanics
While doing fieldwork in the Democratic
Republic Congo (1982-83) the author
assembled a collection of objects from the Efe
(Mbuti Pygmy) and neighbouring Lese Dese
cultivators of the rain forest. This collection
was to contribute to the permanent African
exhibition of the Ethnographic Museum of
the University of Oslo, Norway. Secondly,
it was directed primarily at objects which
reflected the daily life of the inhabitants of
the area so as to contrast to the collections
of weapons, religious objects and emblems
of power made by Norwegians in the epoch
of the Congo Freestate and the early Belgian
Congo (1885-1918). If given the chance to
collect in this region again, the author would
delve into the fascinating and humorous
strategies applied by the bricoleurs of the
large cities of the Congo. The two existent
and the hypothetical collection may not
be so different after all. Seen in a historic
perspective, all collections attest to material
and social strategies for survival and to
strategies for making life beautiful and
pleasant. Congolese producers have had
various sources of inspiration and broad
frames of reference for their invention and
production of material culture.