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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 27 december 2018

At new Museum of Black Civilizations, a call to come home

By AMELIA NIERENBERG might be unable to care for
Associated Press their own heritage, point-
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — ing to the new museum’s
The Museum of Black Civi- humidified, air-conditioned
lizations in Senegal opened storage space.
this month amid a global The history of some of the
conversation about the objects in the opening ex-
ownership and legacy of hibition is grim. Pointing to
African art. The West Afri- the saber of El Hadj Umar
can nation’s culture minis- Tall, a 19th-century West
ter isn’t shy: He wants the African thinker who fought
thousands of pieces of against French colonialism,
cherished heritage taken Bocoum described how
from the continent over the French troops fighting him
centuries to come home. stripped local women of
“It’s entirely logical that their elaborate jewelry by
Africans should get back cutting off their ears.
their artworks,” Abdou Latif Contemporary works in the
Coulibaly told The Associat- exhibition touch on both tri-
ed Press. “These works were umph and tragedy. There
taken in conditions that are black-and-white pho-
were perhaps legitimate at tographs of African night-
the time but illegitimate to- clubs in the 1960s shot by
day.” Last month, a report In this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, an installation by Haitian artist Philippe Dodard’s “La famous Malian photogra-
commissioned by French Movement en Memoire,” stands like a ship inside a gallery of contemporary African art and pher Malick Sidibe, and a
President Emmanuel Ma- contemporary art during the inauguration in Dakar, Senegal. stark mural by Haitian artist
cron recommended that Associated Press Philippe Dodard depicting
French museums give back World Black Festival of Arts by the fact that countless a skull discovered in pres- African religions and the
works taken without con- in 1966. artifacts have been dis- ent-day Chad. Like others, middle passage. Works by
sent, if African countries At the museum’s vibrant persed around the world. Bocoum is eager to see ar- Yrneh Gabon Brown, based
request them. Macron has opening, sculptors from Los Both the inaugural exhibi- tifacts return for good. The in Los Angeles, reference
stressed the “undeniable Angeles, singers from Cam- tion, “African Civilizations: exhibition includes 50 piec- slavery and contemporary
crimes of European coloni- eroon and professors from Continuous Creation of Hu- es on loan from France, in- race relations in America.
zation,” adding that “I can- Europe and the Americas manity,” and the museum’s cluding more than a dozen “Sometimes I feel like a
not accept that a large came to celebrate, some curator take a far longer from the Quai Branly muse- motherless child,” Brown
part of African heritage is in in tears. “This moment is view than the recent cen- um in Paris. More than 5,000 told the AP. “And here, as
France.” historic,” Senegalese Presi- turies of colonization and pieces in the Quai Branly a member of Africa’s Eng-
The new museum in Dakar dent Macky Sall said. “It turmoil. Current works high- come from Senegal alone, lish-speaking diaspora, I am
is the latest sign that wel- is part of the continuity of light the continent as the Bocoum said. proud, reaffirmed.”
coming spaces across the history.” Perhaps reflecting “cradle of civilization” and “When we see the inven- France, whose president in
continent are being pre- the tenuous hold that Af- the echoes found among tory of the Senegalese recent weeks has pledged
pared. The museum, with rican nations still have on millions of people in the di- objects that are found in to return 26 pieces to Benin,
its focus on Africa and the their own legacy objects, aspora today. France, we’re going to is just one of many coun-
diaspora, is decades in the the museum will not have a “Colonization? That’s just ask for certain of those ob- tries loaning works for the
making. The idea was con- permanent collection. Fill- two centuries,” curator jects,” Bocoum said. “For new museum’s opening
ceived when Senegal’s first ing the 148,000-square-foot Hamady Bocoum told the the moment, we have not exhibition. Bocoum now is
president, internationally circular structure, one of AP, saying that proof of Af- yet started negotiations.” working with dozens of insti-
acclaimed poet Leopold the largest of its kind on the rican civilization is at least He brushed off concerns tutions around the world to
Sedar Senghor, hosted the continent, is complicated 7,000 years old, referencing that African institutions plan future exhibits. q

Art historian Sister Wendy Beckett has died. She was 88

Associated Press taries including “Sister Wen- of arts Jonty Claypole said.
LONDON (AP) — Sister dy’s Odyssey” and “Sister “She was a hugely popular
Wendy Beckett, an art his- Wendy’s Grand Tour.” BBC presenter and will be
torian and critic who rose The BBC said it commis- fondly remembered by us
to prominence on TV late sioned Beckett in 1991 to all.”
in life, has died. She was 88. host a TV documentary on Close friend Xinran Xue said
The Carmelite Monastery the National Gallery in Lon- Beckett’s death was “a
of Quidenham said Beck- don. She stood in front of huge loss for the art world.
ett died at the monastery the paintings dressed in a She was a brilliant art critic.”
Wednesday afternoon. black nun’s habit and dis- Beckett was born in South
She was a sister of the Cath- cussed the paintings with- Africa and raised in Scot-
olic Church who became out a script or teleprompt- land. She joined a convent
prominent in the 1990s pre- In this Thursday, Sept. 4, 1997 file photo, Sister Wendy Beckett, er. at 16 and started studying
senting BBC shows about a Roman Catholic nun of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who lives “Sister Wendy had a unique fine art in the 1980s.
in Colinton, England, and is a well-known art critic, stands near
art history. an unidentified sarcophagus at the Isabella Stewart Gardner presentation style, a deep She taught in Cape Town,
Her work included a series Museum in Boston. knowledge of and passion South Africa, and Liverpool
of well received documen- Associated Press for the arts,” BBC director in northern England.q