FIKSE OG TRIKSE, ORDNE OG MIKSE! Etnografisk Kongosamling i tre epoker

Abstract

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.