Collecting and Projecting Identity Barotseland's Arts in International Arenas

Abstract

On September 21, 1906, Lozi king Lewanika of Barotseland (western Zambia) signed a contract with New Jersey trader Richard Douglas. With this document, he bequeathed the rights to cattle, wild game, ivory, and more than 2,000 objects that would come to reside in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The works in question ranged from a few lumps of tobacco to a feather-crested wooden mask. On their own, each object serves as an ambassador of Barotseland and the Lozi culture from which it came. As a group, these art works and cultural artifacts illustrate one African king's ability to discern the power of collections and collecting. King Lewanika understood that by sending the material evidence of his kingdom abroad, Barotseland would be represented and known to audiences far from Africa's shores. By examining the extraordinary journeys through which Lozi objects arrived in such prominent collections as that of the American Museum of Natural History and Oxford University's Pitt-Rivers Museum, this paper chronicles the visionary leadership of King Lewanika and the power of collections in shaping cultural identity.