Interview with Benjamina Efua Dadzie (17/10/2023)

Interview

17th October 2023

12

Co-Editor-in-Chief Eve Attwood Writer and Researcher,

It’s no secret that museums and galleries possess the power to shape and present knowledge to the world, informing the public on major historical and cultural periods.

Benjamina Efua Dadzie, a Ghanaian Italian writer and researcher here at the Sainsbury Research Unit, is actively considering these issues through her PhD work focusing on missionary presence and collections gathered in 19th century Abeokuta (southwestern Nigeria). She has been studying at the University of East Anglia at the Sainsbury Research Unit since her Masters, where she studied Akan gold weights in extensive detail. As a first year PhD student, she reflects on how her time studying her Undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester led to her interest in anthropology and the process of “what happens to objects once they’ve been excavated and they’re out in the world”, as well as “the museum aspect of presenting knowledge to the world”.

When asked to elaborate on her current PhD project, Benjamina affirmed it dealt with missionaries, specifically “British missionaries in West Africa” from the Church Missionary Society, and the work they began in West Africa in the early 19th century in Sierra Leone, and then in what is now considered Nigeria. She emphasised that her focus is “to learn about the missionary encounter and enterprise in this city, how it unfolded through the collection of about 40 objects[...] currently at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.” The collection she cites was gathered by Henry Townsend, a notable church missionary at the time. Benjamina described being struck by the “processes through which [Townsend] was able to collect these materials, and what those processes say about the people he was dealing with[...] what it says about how the people he was dealing with thought of him”.

She added that the 19th century collection contains materials which would have been considered “very important for the religious and social life of people”, therefore “one wonders how someone culturally outside this society was able to gain such access and get hold of these materials”.

As she spoke, I could sense the intrigue and fascination with which she approaches this topic. The issue of church missionaries in non-Western countries brings up

many moral considerations. Benjamina considered these herself, considering how “the presence of these objects in the museum brings up other questions about how material culture is displayed”, particularly when keeping in mind that the collection was donated by a missionary with all the associated “documents and ideas and agendas”. She spoke passionately about her interest in encouraging a more holistic approach to the way we “curate knowledge about different cultures”, that we should be asking, “What are the sources of knowledge that we are approaching to be able to present to visitors and people looking to engage with other peoples?”.

I posed the question to Benjamina about whether items such as glass cases are necessary for African art objects such as traditional masks, or Akan gold weights, especially as these items were intended for daily use and rites of passage celebrations. Benjamina suggested that if the aim is to preserve items, we need glass cases, labelling, photography and conservation, despite this being “different from what the people that created these materials conceived of”. However, she also added that many communities who created such materials “didn’t intend for them to live in perpetuity” and many of the items in the collection she is studying are around 150 years old and still intact after all that time. For instance, she spoke of the durability of Akan gold weights and that in their context of use, “people use the same sets of weights sometimes for generations. If they were lost or destroyed or broken, they would be remade” and that even the objects with metaphysical properties “would be remade and their spirits imbued in those objects again”.

An approach Benjamina supports is when galleries and museums offer teaching collections whereby they “take some of the collection and accession it and make it part of the museum object” whilst a portion of the collection is made “flexible and accessible to the public, to be touched and transported around”. This approach, she argues, is often “far more important than the desire to maintain its pristine state in perpetuity” as it’s a method of “bringing the museum to the people”.

On the subject of art and ownership, I asked Benjamina about how we can tow the line between homage and advocacy towards other cultures, instead of leaning into cultural appropriation. Her response was that it is “always a question

of power and benefit. [...] Who gets to benefit from the material culture and cultural heritage of a people? Who gets to retain the benefits of that power?”.

A great example she points to is that of institutions such as the British

“[It is] always a question of power and benefit. [...] Who gets to benefit from the material culture and cultural heritage of a people?

Museum, the Louvre and The Uffizi whereby “people flock to these museums to see certain collections”, including the African galleries, “and pay tickets and contribute to the economy of London and the UK in one way or another”. In this way, “the presence of these materials has a material benefit to these institutions and these nations”. She then asks the question which many of us will have wondered: “And so what if that benefit and power were to go to the nations from which these materials come from?”, instead of countries such as the UK.

Photo: Benjamina Efua Dadzie With October being Black History Month, I also felt compelled to ask Benjamina about her thoughts on the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, and whether this has encouraged more interest in African art objects and archaeology.

“Yes, definitely,” she said, “For me, May 2020 and everything that came out of that period was a bizarre experience[...] almost like an out of body experience. It was very strange because I was observing things that I knew already and it was strange to see people coming to the realisation of, ‘Oh, racism exists!’”. But she also spoke about the performative nature of many of the responses to the BLM movement, with “a lot of people and institutions professing how they stand by whatever, when their previous actions have been demonstrably against those values they are now professing to stand for.”

I found myself agreeing with much of this, how many took to Instagram to repost black squares or add ‘BLM’ to their bios, before forgetting about all the associated issues a year later.

“It just felt a bit pretentious,” she admitted, “like people have been asleep at the wheel. [...] During those months, there were many times where I wished there were more of us in this

17th October 2023

13

concrete-online.co.uk/category/interview/ | @ConcreteUEA

in conversation with Benjamina Efua Dadzie sector to be able to meet the occasion.

You never knew when this fervour would disappear, which I think now it has.”

I questioned whether she shared similar views about Black History Month, to which she expressed more positivity. She claimed there is “value in acknowledging certain history” particularly when we live in a society “where the default is the clean British history”. Benjamina emphasised that Black History Month allows us to deep dive into figures who have been historically forgotten and dismissed, such as “the black women in the medical sector who worked as nurses” in this country. She adds that rediscovering these histories is a way of educating ourselves on the “formation of specific cultural moments and occasions”. October is an opportunity to be “deliberate about those histories”, but as Benjamina points out, “the ideal would be to be deliberate about these histories everyday, but we have to work with what we have”.

Looking to the future, Benjamina discussed how the learning we do within Black History Month should be better “incorporated in the curriculum” so that it is “always[...] a part of the history that we engage with”, instead of an afterthought.

Being a minority in the heritage sector, I also wanted to better understand how Benjamina looks to encourage others to follow in her footsteps by pursuing careers they may not have otherwise considered. She admitted that you have to be passionate to go into the heritage sector, as it’s “competitive, but in the sense that there are a lot of us and not enough jobs for all of us.” When addressing why those from workingclass or immigrant backgrounds are far and few in the sector, she argued, “It’s like teaching, you don’t go into [the heritage sector] if you want to be wealthy and successful, so that makes it difficult to be a naturally attractive space to want to be in[...] when you are responsible for yourself and your family.”

For immigrants, “There is a greater expectation on your resources. [...] It’s a difficult space to come in and stay in if you have those demands on your resources.”

So how can we address these issues?

For Benjamina, the key is visibility, when people can see a version of themselves within the sector. “What 2020 did is to start the creation of an enabling environment,” she argued. “The fact that people are expected to volunteer their life away to be able to be in the museum sector is absurd. You can’t do that if you don’t have a family or someone to care for you. The development of paid internships and programmes to enable people to

learn is valuable.” She summarised it matter-of-factly by claiming: “You can love history from the beginning to the end, but if you cannot pay your bills, nobody will be interested in that”.

In the context of the current cost of living crisis, I couldn’t agree more.

My final question to Benjamina was about who continues to inspire and influence her as she researches. She highlighted Ava Duvernay, a film-maker who Benjamina claimed was a “huge inspiration”. It was Duvernay’s work process that inspired Benjamina the most, by doing “the sort of thing that I strive to do: telling the stories that matter to me, that I think are important to people and that everyone should know[...] using my time and resources to invest in meaningful projects that are useful to our collective learning”.

In addition, she describes Duvernay as a creative who gives “space to young talent”, platforming those who might not otherwise have an opportunity to explore their talent. It is arguable that Benjamina is doing just that herself, by giving a voice to African artists, archaeologists and peoples, and changing the narrative around the way African art objects are discussed and exhibited.

Photo: Royal Albert Memorial Museum -carved figure of Eshu (carved figure of Eshu (one of a pair)).

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Akan gold weights, Ghana

“[The approach of teaching collections] is often far more important than the desire to maintain [the collection’s] pristine state in perpetuity[...] bringing the museum to the people.”