Munich, September 2024.
‘When is a work of art colonial?’ This is the subject of the special exhibition Colonialism in Objects, which takes a critical look at the past of the Museum Fünf Kontinente.
On display are unique historical artefacts that came to Munich in the colonial era, many of which are now rated as masterpieces. In addition to key works that feature in the post-colonial debate, such as the ship’s beak from the Bele Bele community in Duala (Cameroon) and the Benin bronzes from Nigeria, the exhibition shows art and cultural artefacts from Tanzania, Namibia, India and Pakistan, China, New Guinea, the Philippines and Samoa. The selection includes both everyday objects and works of great spiritual, political or artistic significance.
Colonialism in Objects documents how these objects were looted, bought, exchanged or accepted as gifts by Europeans in colonized territories. What it reveals in the process is the violence, racism and attempt to stamp out the cultures of the colonized peoples that went hand in hand with colonial appropriation.
The exhibition is divided into three historical eras. It first addresses the early colonial appropriation in the mid-19th century, before Germany had itself become a colonial power. Here the focus is on typical representatives of this epoch such as the Munich explorers Hermann, Robert and Adolf Schlagintweit, as well as the missionary Sister Xaveria Berger and the pharmacist Heinrich Rothdauscher. They amassed collections in British-dominated India and the Philippines that had been colonized by Spain.
The second, central part of the exhibition concentrates on the era of the German colonial empire (1884–1918). The objects from colonial wars in Cameroon (1884), China (1900/01), Namibia (1904/05) and Tanzania (1905/08) show how many societies were affected by the advent of colonialism, which went hand in hand with the looting of large quantities of cultural artefacts. Important collections of objects reached Germany via the gunboat crews of the Imperial Navy. The exhibition turns the spotlight on this group of people and their acts of violence (‘punitive expeditions’) in Oceania. In 1881 the journalist Hugo Zöller described the cabins full of ethnographica as ‘a higgedly-piggeldy mixture of sabres, tunics, revolvers, photographs, books and ethnographical rarities’.
At the same time this section looks at personalities from the colonized societies who put up resistance or adapted to asymmetrical power relations as far as it was possible to do so.
The third part of the exhibition shows a museum in transition which is endeavouring to deal responsibly with its history and its collections. Impetus from outside, from postcolonial societies in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania, as well as a critical civil society in Europe, has initiated a process of reckoning with our own colonial past and its continuing presence today.
In addition, Colonialism in Objects traces the way the Museum Fünf Kontinente turned into an institution of German colonialism in the decades around 1900. Historical photographs and documents provide evidence of the way objects were used in the colonial era museum context to substantiate racist ideologies and legitimize colonialism. The works originally displayed as trophies of colonial conquest testify to the museum’s regional links within Bavaria and convey colonial conceptions of masculinity. Objects such as the dagger belonging to Abushiri ibn Salim al-Harthi, carried off during the conquering of the East African coast, were exhibited as proof of colonial heroism.
Pivotal contributions to the exhibition have been made by researchers in Cameroon and Tanzania. The Germanist and cultural scientist Prof. Dr. Albert Gouaffo and the archaeologist Dr. Nancy Rushohora explain the effect the colonial epoch had on their communities and shed light on the significance of individual objects. The historian and poet Alma Simba from Dar es Salam has provided the exhibition with a lyrical intervention entitled Cold Hubris, which represents a unique connection between art and remembrance. The cultural loss in the former German colonies resulting from the looting of large quantities of cultural assets is still felt today.
Publication about the exhibition
Richard Hölzl/Museum Fünf Kontinente (ed.) with contributions by Moritz von Brescius, Albert Gouaffo, Anne Hartig, Christopher Kast, Stefanie Kleidt, Thoralf Klein, Godwin Kornes, Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, Nancy Rushohora, Markus Seemann, Alma Simba, Hilke Thode-Arora: Kolonialismus in den Dingen. Das Museum Fünf Kontinente und seine Bestände aus der Kolonialzeit, Schnell und Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2024.
Events accompanying the exhibition
Events accompanying the special exhibition can be found in the programme section on the museum's website.