Fife curators part on review of African & Caribbean collections in Scottish museums

National Museums Scotland’s Reveal and Connect project aims to help staff better understand, care for and make use of these precious artefacts.

OnFife has around 270 of African origin, some of which were assessed by the project’s curator during a research visit last year. Fife curators are now keen to learn more about their provenance. Key facts – including when and by whom items were donated – can be hard to source, particularly if objects were gifted before Fife’s museum service was established.

Kirke Kook, OnFife collections curator, said that was the case with Cupar’s Duncan Institute, which acquired several African objects in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of these items were previously part of the collection of the nearby Castlehill School Museum, which was founded by local man James Bonnar.

“Both institutions collected world cultures material,” says Kirke, “but, so far, we have not found an original inventory list for these collections. It’s the same with the Laing Museum in Newburgh.

“Objects in Laing Museum were bequeathed to the town of Newburgh by Alexander Laing in 1892. We know that other donors also added to the museum's collection thereafter but, as with Cupar, the original inventory eludes us. That makes it difficult to say exactly when or by whom each of the objects was collected but, on some occasions, articles from old newspapers have come to our aid.”

The donation of a Zulu shield in 1879 was reported in the Fife Herald under the headline ‘Presentation of Zulu weapons of war to Duncan Institute’. The article reports it had been “used in actual warfare”, which could indicate that it was acquired during the Anglo-Zulu War.

During her visit to the Kingdom’s Collections Centre last year, the Reveal and Connect project curator viewed and photographed 40 objects more closely. Information about these artefacts has now been shared with specialist curators and researchers around the world for their comments and feedback.

Some of the most significant material in the Laing Museum comes from Zambia and was donated by Robert Andrew Young (1867-1932). Young was born in Newburgh and moved to southern Africa in 1890.

In 1901, he was appointed ‘Native Commissioner’, whose tasks included tax collection and hearing grievances, which brought him into contact with many local people. Over the years, Young sent various artefacts to the Laing Museum, including swords, arrows, charms, cups, water bottles and bracelets.

Only a small number of these have been identified, mainly thanks to information from Young’s personal diaries, a copy of which has been shared by his family members.

The most noteworthy of these artefacts is a Tabwa throne or chair. The Tabwa are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia and the chair is presumed to be one of only eight similar objects known to exist in the world. Young’s diary states that it was gifted to him on 1 December 1901.

“Although we hold some information about the chair, there is still so much to learn about it,” says Ms Kook. “We don’t know anything about the artisan who made it, nor its original owners, nor Young’s relationships with local people in the wider context of colonial structures.”

A small armlet of blue, green and black beads has a very different provenance story. The armlet was most likely displayed at James Bonnar’s museum as it was attached to a display label, signed by Bonnar himself.

The label describes how his brother, John W Bonnar, commanded a regiment of the Amahlengwoni Zulus during the so-called ‘Basuto War’ (1880-81), and how the armlet was looted from the body of a soldier from Lesotho who was killed in the Orange River region.

“It is impossible to identify the owner of this armlet,” says Ms Kook, “but perhaps one day it may find its way back to its source community.”

Some items, such as arrow heads, jewellery and cups, were acquired in such high numbers that it is difficult to match them to a specific donor.

Such challenges, says Ms Kook, are all part of the process: “We’re committed to continuing our research into these collections to try and understand them better and make them more accessible to communities of interest.”

Anyone with information about the origins of the Laing Museum’s or Duncan Institute’s African collections can contact OnFife collections team at [email protected].