“Bring the Objects out of the Basement!”: The Wellcome African Collection at Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum (MM), like most museums caring for works from Africa, includes objects with some provenance, but many others that have no collection information at all. MM holdings include more than 300 anthropological objects from Africa that came from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WHMM) dispersal in 1982. The museum is part of the University of Manchester and contains approximately 15,000 African cultural heritage objects that were collected at the height of colonization and wholly connected to the expansion of the British empire to Africa. Further, there are more than 1,000 objects from Africa that are not provenanced.1 These unprovenanced objects do not have any contextual information on where they were collected, apart from labels that only indicate “Africa?” The accompanying question mark on these labels is problematic—and is testament to absent provenance information. Typically, this shows colonial appropriating practices in which collectors did not prioritize context and communities of origin where these objects were made.In this paper, we discuss a public engagement event that we conducted during Africa Day celebrations at MM on May 25, 2024, using selected African objects received from the WHMM as a point of dialogue (Fig. 1). The purpose of this engagement was to initiate future conversation towards conducting collaborative object biography research with African diaspora communities. Aside from object engagement, the other activities on Africa Day included African masquerade dancing, choir performances, drumming, and bead making workshops. Further, Afrobeats music and African wares market stalls marked part of the celebrations, as we sought to make the museum a more welcoming space to the ever-growing African diaspora population in Manchester (Fig. 2). This engagement, particularly the object handling sessions, gave African diasporans2 living in Manchester a rare opportunity to see and touch objects ordinarily kept under lock and key (Fig. 3). The museum's basement storage rooms, where the objects are kept, house approximately 4.5 million objects across the cultural and natural sciences divide, making it the largest university museum in the UK. During Africa Day, we openly disclosed colonial contexts associated with Wellcome's African collection as we engaged with African diasporans in coproducing new narratives and meanings on the objects that we did not have prior to the event. Therefore, when we talk about inclusivity in museums, the starting point is to allow those who suffered from colonialism to be at the forefront of the telling of their own story (Sleigh 2024). Inasmuch as we think of museums as places where objects are conserved for posterity, our approach in reinterpreting these objects together with African diasporans was premised on the understanding that museums are custodians of cultural heritage acting on behalf of communities.Apart from the Wellcome Collection material, the other African objects at MM collected at the beginning of the twentieth century out of colonial contexts are classified and categorized as the Collier, Speaks, Boyd, Halifax, and Salford Collections. To name object groups after the collector who amassed them was a well-established practice of colonial collecting, one that relegated community agency to the category of the “other.” The whole idea of “othering’” comes from a nineteenth century anthropological practice of collecting objects from the colonized as palimpsest representations of their cultures, which were viewed as different and inferior compared to modern British cultures (Kuper 2023). As a result, objects’ biographies were silenced upon being collected and deposited in ethnographic museums as static, frozen, mundane, and timeless “things” waiting to be gazed at within the visual encyclopedias of knowledge about the empire (MacKenzie 2009). At the same time, objects of the “other” from Africa were ordered according to regimes of Western knowledge that erased Indigenous ways of knowing. In respect to this, Sleigh (2024: 27) argues that deep-seated problems of “othering” in museums with ethnographic collections can be disrupted by conversations on what the ethic of care means from an accountability point of view. The dislocation of objects of the “other” from original contexts to the imperial center changed and affected the ways in which they were understood by originating communities (Taiwo 2022; Barringer 1998). Meanwhile, colonial violence took many forms, and while some objects moved legitimately, we need to think broadly about what constitutes colonial violence and engage the public in this wide range of histories. This is because some African objects were collected via trophy hunting, grave robbing, punitive expeditions, salvage anthropology, pseudo donations, and missionary activities. We are particularly careful in the way we use the word “collecting,” as we are conscious of different colonial collecting histories associated with African objects. For example, in the case of looted Benin cultural heritage objects that we hold, we gave our visitors the context surrounding the collection of a tusk, which was on display in our Living Worlds Gallery, as part of the infamous 1897 punitive expedition (Hicks 2021). The provocation point here was when we asked visitors what they thought MM should do with this tusk in view of the outlined violent collecting history: 95% of respondents said we must repatriate the tusk back to Nigeria (Chipangura 2023). We subsequently removed the tusk from display and it's now in the basement awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.For this article, we focus our attention on Africa Day objects formerly in the collection of Sir Henry Wellcome, who in the nineteenth century employed White European anthropologists, colonial administrators, police officers, and missionaries to collect large amounts of material originating from different parts of the world. At MM we have portions of Wellcome's collections from Oceania, Asia, the Americas, and Africa. African objects that we hold came from people from today's Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Lesotho, Ghana, and Nigeria. These include everyday objects like beadwork, mbira musical instruments, headrests, drums, beaded gourds, baskets, mortars and pestles, clay pots, knives, sweeping brooms, axes, spears, snuff boxes, beaded skirts, and necklaces that were part of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WMHM). Following Wellcome's death, the bulk of these ethnographic materials were dispersed, first by auction in the late 1930s, and then via a phased series of transfers to museums in the UK and overseas that continued until the 1980s (Russell 1986).The focus on works from Henry Wellcome's museum for Africa Day emerged as a way to counter several of the inherently colonial aspects of the collection. The collection of Henry Solomon Wellcome, the American-born pharmaceutical magnate, amateur anthropologist, archaeologist, and philanthropist, presents an interesting case for considering the way in which meaning in a collection is bound to the subjective narrative of the collector. This is the case with MM, where all the African objects from Wellcome's collections are classified under his name in the absence of biographical information of the makers. Therefore, our object-handling session during Africa Day was meant to address this lacuna as we sought to generate collaborative dialogue with diasporans in search of new meanings and stories derived from their own lived experiences.Formed between the 1880s and 1930s, Wellcome's collection consisted of over one million objects, five times larger than that of the Louvre and approximately three quarters of which were ethnographic (Hill 2006). His vast and disparate collection was designed to show “the actuality of every notable step in the evolution and progress from the first germ of life up to the fully developed man of today” (Henry Wellcome, cited in Arnold and Olsen 2003: 37). But the collection outlived the man, and the decades that followed his death in 1936 saw its systematic dispersal and fragmentation. By the mid 1980s, the Wellcome collection had become a “widely spread diaspora” scattered among more than 100 museum sites across the globe (Hill 2006: 342).Wellcome's collection included anything from global and Western antiquities, artworks, weaponry, musical instruments, clothing, and “ritual” items3 to archaeological finds and ancestral remains. Wellcome did not publish on his collecting work and was famously evasive about the overall purpose and aim of his collection. His most repeated phrase, reportedly, was “never tell anyone what you propose to do until you have done it” (Turner 1980: 32). The closest he came to defining the nature and purpose of his project was when questioned by the Royal Commission for Museums in 1928. It emerged during questioning that Wellcome had various layers to his collecting project. There was the Historical Medical Museum, established to “illustrate the history of science” by placing modern developments in medicine in their historical and social context.4 This, he informed the Commission, was a “research” institution intended for serious study and only “made available to the public under certain conditions” (Turner 1980: 3). But it became clear during the questioning that the Historical Medical Museum was to be linked to a much more ambitious project, meant to “develop a Research Museum which will deal with anthropological questions in a wide sense” (Turner 1980: 39). At a time when medicine and academic disciplines were becoming increasingly specialized, Wellcome wanted this “Research Museum” to demonstrate that the history of medicine was inseparable from “the study of man” in a wider sense and that knowledge was, in fact, “diverging all the time” (Turner 1980: 1).Wellcome was also clear to the Commission that his Research Museum was guided by evolutionist principles. He declared his nearest counterparts to be Pitt Rivers and Frederick Horniman, who both believed that the story of human progress could be discovered by studying the differences among objects of the same type from different cultures arranged in historical sequence.5 In Wellcome's words, the objects in his museum would illustrate “Human Progress” and “show from the beginning, the evolution and development throughout, the passing on from one stage of progress to another of particular objects.”6 It followed, in Wellcome's mind, that the more objects he amassed, the more complete a picture of human progress he would be able to construct. He collected with tremendous zeal and industry, and in the 1920s, Wellcome's on that of the British He is the of and of the who no can show no in the to a complete category in and every of its and 3). Wellcome collected and His study of anthropology, being a of research cultures and was the of the of by in the late nineteenth and twentieth His were those of a man” as to a (Turner 1980: and he on the and museum to at and from in and He many auction many Wellcome in the up and the on this of objects in Wellcome's collection and the research that conducted the activities of the Historical Medical Museum that Wellcome between and of objects and was not in for of He of objects he them to be for study and a of provenance was not that would a a at the Historical Medical Museum in the 1920s, that were to Wellcome's collecting practices and their with deal of for which they were certain he would use a repeated by Wellcome in the Historical Medical Museum when an object of objects his its purpose was to in the of human as by the of the The Wellcome by the museums that received material after his death demonstrate that all that was at was a of and The do not include any information about an cultural Wellcome believed that as as was would their at a by studying the in the of the collection 2003: in its of collection from information that would it to its provenance, the of the object and its biography was to the of the collection as a Wellcome's life came to an in the and of the Wellcome for the of objects that had during his the of which to the history of The that he had to make for the future of his collection his with a The evolutionist which his collecting when Wellcome his project in the was also becoming increasingly during the and 1930s, the of this vast collection of objects 2003: of the of the collector an object to from in which objects to be than is with Wellcome's project Wellcome's in all its and had to a narrative that could be understood by the its at the Wellcome The the that material not in a sense to the history of medicine would be at auction to museums that could a more Following Wellcome's death, the bulk of the ethnographic material was to new first by auction in the late and then via a phased series of transfers to museums in the UK and overseas that continued until the 1980s (Russell Manchester Museum also from this between and over 1,000 objects in that came from Africa in particular 300 collected from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Ghana, and the history of the Wellcome's collections from Africa as both a and that and and by with originating communities to address and associated with museum practices We this by out objects from the basement where they were and as representations of cultures of the “other” to a dialogue with African diasporans at what care means for their and their with these which are living this engagement with African we did not anthropological knowledge as as a more over the during all the conversations that we we community to their social of the objects and their both and In this approach on Africa Day, we with museum and its at MM as we also fully the of the who are here to and to their by narratives that them from their cultural heritage in ethnographic these museums were on the and of the empire and in of and and and we that meaning in an object collection is and it is to make between objects and the whole idea of for by museums is and within and To communities are inherently with different and museum communities are now as sites of marked by and that in collaborative practices The question then is did we do at MM in view of these The whole idea of Africa Day was thought about from the together with community of and the first to have a at Manchester to in violence in and a for South Manchester in This is a up to life for people in the community by them other than violent and to on work as and as as and within an prior knowledge of with African communities in Manchester was for the of Africa Day, as was able to the African African drumming, and African The was when the first to a talk on the Benin during the Africa Day at the University of Manchester (Chipangura 2023). We saw a for with African we were to the event at Manchester Museum in view of the conversation African collections and their histories of from we also with in together for Africa is a community and who is about making a to to make people their and a At community he is the of African UK of Africa of the and is the and of the He done vast work in the of heritage and Africa we are here is that there was a sense of from the with different community and all of the activities on Africa Day were not on them by MM but upon as a were between and May in as we the of the The had an African African masquerade African drumming, an African collections object-handling African wares and an Africa Day public with these Africa Day activities at MM were in to collections that were in the basement and new collaborative and biographies from lived as part of knowledge The was by activities that the of African cultures using objects for engaged Therefore, lived museum objects and subsequently dialogue with diasporans (Sleigh 2024). In view of this we that and of with the people their in museum practices that them and 2023). like these the for museum practices in that they who and who and in this we also with who argues that a informed by community the of colonial and the of For example, during this collaborative engagement, stories on the cultural of African and their in different emerged as people to them as which are not as they in museum the of objects from the Wellcome collection and them out to the handling on Africa was informed by the of this collection and prior conversations that the first with in the Zambia, Ghana, and who are also with collections under their the an was among the Museum, Manchester Museum, Wellcome Museum of Museum of Zambia, Museum of and Museum at to ways to the objects with originating communities in Africa. as the of what the which is different from the colonial museum in that it and is to cultural and community The museum is linked to and of the which is a for collaborative and the development of with all social nineteenth century collectors like Sir Henry Wellcome objects from their of origin to be in museums by that they were them from and and 2006). this of which was by salvage at that time, objects were thought to in the of the museum under the of Museums also became sites of and public in which was from museum visitors who were to be as to as not to not to not to It be that museums have in some of the collecting from and colonial violence in the ways in which objects were collected and in the As by the the museum increasingly as a in the British imperial 37). During Africa Day we also came to with the that museums have the to using objects as Day at Manchester Museum was within the of an African that of and that all We the of the in Africa of the of the of African as the African on May 25, For on the and in the Africa Day in being and an opportunity to their heritage by and on of and Manchester is an for because it the African in intended to address the of Africa from Western imperial at The an to colonial and as as the of human and of opportunity for all of African We out social and the of this Africa Day at MM was to be an event. and conversations by diasporans as they were selected objects from Wellcome's African collection for the first time with it and new that will progress our collaborative provenance and biographical of the up to be in future conversations on African everyday objects like headrests, drums, beaded gourds, baskets, and snuff from the Wellcome African we were by a at the for and the Museum, by In that and with and a the and objects to storage attention to and Indigenous the narrative as a project of that were from the basement at gave a to out of the basement and Wellcome's African diasporans to have a conversation with We took this engagement a step by by the diaspora As Africa Day celebrations at MM on May 25, were by conversations with who the to out to African diasporans during the them to this event as as These were from from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Nigeria. By the same objects from Wellcome's Africa collections were selected from the basement to be on the handling with a focus on these at the handling a of as diasporans they could be in future biographical questions on the who on the and we have after the event (Fig. people Africa Day celebrations at and of the were diasporans who in within Manchester there were other places where Africa Day was also being For example, the African an event at the University of and the Manchester had a event in on the of Africa Day celebrations by and social at MM, we diasporans to with selected objects from Wellcome's collections that came from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. We the do the objects make you think you any of these objects are of African cultural heritage at Manchester were asked to their on of that were collected at the of the object handling Following are some of the that we from this on the meaning of Africa and what it means being African in the diaspora in of one it across by in the from the that we it's clear that the diasporans the objects to be out of the basement and to with them more Africa This would to a display that the of African cultural which is absent at the that were on the handling include drums, headrests, beaded gourds, and which have as they are in about repatriation were also asked by many of the who said that they the objects to back to African communities. In the case of the Wellcome which provenance information on the these objects came their would a engagement with originating communities to unprovenanced objects that are as will both and originating communities to be a conversation that can the way for collaborative provenance research informed by their and lived Meanwhile, our with African diasporans the anthropological category of as that were collected by Sir Henry Wellcome in the the and as as as silenced and the biographies and meanings in these with African diasporans during this event in a sense of understanding of Wellcome's African collection that had not in were the objects for the first time and did not have the idea that MM had many African objects in the Therefore, telling and openly with diaspora communities can the in the of towards collaborative dialogue that biographical meanings of community become a museum there is no of what this means in of of For this same argues that no much we think of knowledge in museums the will in the of collaborative of and knowledge because in most the community no over the information (Chipangura 2024). the of making a it can the same in research and (2024: more than are designed to the of museums, are as and not As during the of Africa Day with our community we were conscious of the of that could their in what as This was by being from the and back to dialogue with diasporans on to all the and being this we were able to practice its now and use as a and objects that are part of the Wellcome Collection from the basement among many other Africa Day activities was a informed by and in with communities. we that the story of Africa Day will our to future a new space at MM together with African diasporans that will the of African cultural heritage by using objects from the collection as for more the our approach was premised on the colonial as we were all that one a museum its colonial of The practice of collecting and objects is in colonialism which the museum institution as we it By being we were of the colonial of MM by that museum is no premised on but to be informed by and and 2023). We that to the “other” must their and narratives in colonial museums and 2023). This was from the that colonial museums like Manchester to of the the of the colonized and their cultures as frozen, and in 2023). argues that is not that is in museum as a but must be as a and an towards and and social To as an the ways that colonial museums can be by communities and in and (Chipangura and 2024). The Wellcome African collections engagement during Africa Day at MM was a step towards an

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