Colonial Collecting and Display: Encounters with Material Culture from the Andaman and Nicobar

museum sees its mission as extending beyond the Zambezi to all of Africa: “Museum Africa is not about revisionist African history written by biased Afrocentric writers . . . rather, it is a journey back to the glory years of the African continent’s past.” Byala does an admirable job of setting this history in terms of contemporary museological theory. Following Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, “There is no Africana Museum without modern South Africa and, to a certain extent, the converse” (p. 4). As noted above, the very physical location—its placement and relocations—and the definitions of the museum at each stage of its development have mirrored the societal conflicts as to which group was dominant. One tantalizing question arises: South Africa is the richest and most powerful country in sub-Saharan Africa. It is not the most populous—Nigeria is. If the museum sees its role as presenting a vision—its vision—of this vast region, will it present a vision that is acceptable to the other countries as well? Time will tell. This book offers museum anthropologists an analysis of the relationship between the changingmission of this museum and the changing nature of South African society itself. Byala shows in sharp detail that the nature of power redefines the nature of exhibits and their format. Originally, the mission of the museum was to portray and heal the rift between the English and the Boers. The museum recognized that blacks were important, but they were viewed as a background and “timeless” element in South Africa. The museum’s mission has changed to one where black Africans were and are now seen as historical, dynamic, urban as well as rural, and in control of a newly evolving multiracial society. Museum anthropologists will also find in this case study descriptions of the specific relationship among exhibits both in terms of format and content and the relationships among these exhibits, staff politics, and national politics. In addition, readers will gain an understanding of how the continuing redefinition of “cultural” work has been integrated into this museum. What role, for example, should music and street art play in exhibits and how should they be formatted? Finally, as noted above, museum anthropologists, along with other sociocultural anthropologists, art historians, historians, and contemporary analysts, will find the book to be excellent background to understand how the museum and South Africa attempt to extend to itself a leadership role culturally, economically, and politically throughout the continent and the world.