Reflections on "African voices" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of natural history.

Unless you know the road you have come down, you cannot know where you are going.

--Temne proverb, Sierra Leone

In December 1999 the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History celebrated the opening of "African Voices" (Fig. 1). It had kept its promise, made seven years earlier, to open a new permanent hall of African history and cultures. Developed with substantial community involvement, this exhibition expresses a broad consensus about how to represent Africa and the African Diaspora to Americans.

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Its title is emblematic of the philosophy behind its creation. The central voices of authority that tell about the exhibition's themes and "stories" are African and African Diasporan. Some voices appear as texts; others resound in recorded excerpts. All are drawn from either literature, songs, poems, proverbs, scholarly essays, or interviews, both contemporary and historical. These voices make the visitor's experience much more personal and immediate. At the same time they are joined by more than 400 objects, most belonging to the museum, in telling the story of Africa's long and dynamic history as well as its contemporary relevance and vitality. Through thematic galleries the exhibition explores Africa's diversity and global impact. This portrait of the continent, the result of a powerful partnership between the museum's research and exhibition staff and the various publics the institution represents, is unlike any other. (1) The following offers our reflections on the creation of "African Voices"--the process, intentions, and strategies.

PUBLIC CONTROVERSY

"African Voices" was born out of a 1992 public controversy surrounding the museum's previous permanent African exhibition, the "Hall of African Cultures." The latter had been developed in the 1960s to replace an African display that stood relatively unchanged since the opening of the National Museum building (now the Museum of Natural History) in 1913. While the Hall was a distinct improvement over its predecessor, whose framework was based on nineteenth-century theories of social evolution, by the mid-1980s it too began to be embroiled in controversy. Its anthropological interpretation and style of display were deemed by the museum staff and by a concerned public to be at best out of date and at worst offensive to Africans it represented. (2)

Throughout 1990 and 1991 the museum regularly received written criticism of some of the displays and label copy from Africanists, African diplomats posted in Washington, and local African American organizations. While the museum administration was not blind to the problems in the exhibition, its long-range plans did not call for renovation until 2004. (3) This situation, however, changed dramatically in September 1992, when a House of Representatives Subcommittee called the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Dr. Robert McCormick Adams, to testify on the National African American Museum. During that hearing Secretary Adams was asked directly about offensive and racist labels in the "Hall of African Cultures." (4)

The exhibition was closed in December 1992. The administration originally planned only to remove the offensive label copy, but in 1993 it acceded to its curators' strong argument for a complete renovation of the installation. It constituted a Core Team of museum staff (5) whose members were to work in concert with a diverse Extended Team composed of Africans, African Americans, Africanists, and community leaders. The counsel of the Extended Team, which numbered about 120 during the project's early years and about 60 in the later phases, resulted in a better final product. (6)

In 1994 the two teams agreed broadly along the following lines: the exhibition needed to highlight Africa's history, diversity, and dynamism; Africa's connections to the wider world; and African agency both historically and in the present. Moving from these general themes to a specific exhibition script and design would be a significant undertaking.

CHALLENGES

The initial exercise was to determine the target audiences for the exhibition. Two were identified. The first, constituting the majority of the National Museum of Natural History's ten million visitors each year, is composed of intergenerational family groups from around the United States. They spend an average of about an hour in the museum as part of their day-long visit to various destinations in the Smithsonian complex; many of them would be likely to devote only fifteen minutes to the Africa Hall, if they visited it at all. The second group includes local, regional, national, and international "stakeholder" audiences--Africans, people of African descent, and others interested in Africa--who would make "African Voices" a primary destination when they visited the museum. Our challenge was to hold the interest of both audiences.

Another problem we faced was the physical limitations of the Africa Hall--a long rectangle with 6,500 usable square feet of exhibition space interrupted by a colonnade that runs down one side, effectively dividing the hall lengthwise. The space is further complicated by two entryways (one at each end), meaning that there is no entrance or exit in the traditional sense. (7) The location is not central to the museum's traffic flow, and the space is sandwiched between the Asia Hall on one side and an exhibition devoted to the Ice Age on the other. Consequently visitors to the previous African installation sometimes became confused about where they were in time and place as they moved from one exhibit hall to the next.

To address these spatial and conceptual constraints, we developed both entrance and exit messages for each of the entrances. We also chose an open design plan that makes maximum use of limited exhibition space and allows visitors to move through the hall along a number of pathways, stopping at objects and stories that interest them (Fig. 2). Focusing on the continent and African history at the entrance closest to the Asia Hall, and on the contemporary world-wide African Diaspora at the entrance closest to the Ice Age exhibit, helps to alert visitors that they have entered a new culture hall.

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Most of those who come to our museum have only a general knowledge about Africa drawn largely from depictions of exotic, "timeless" cultures popularized in television programs and magazines or through media coverage that tends to emphasize Africa's problems. The team decided to increase understanding of the continent's modernity and its contemporary relevances by devoting three galleries to contemporary continental stories, a fourth to "Global Africa" with both historical and contemporary themes, and one to African history.

The last-mentioned space, a history pathway called the Walk Through Time, constitutes the spine of the exhibition. It is flanked, two on each side, by the contemporary spaces, which one can enter at various points along the pathway. We decided to organize the contemporary galleries thematically rather than by the geo-ethnic categories that served as the framework for the museum's older anthropology exhibits. A thematic organization, we hoped, would subvert the static representations of African societies that dominated the "Hall of African Cultures," where they were imagined as self-contained and unconnected to one another through time and in space. It also allowed us to explore overarching themes relevant to present-day societies across the continent, and at the same time develop specific stories that address locally and regionally distinct ways that these themes are articulated.

We chose three broad themes for continental Africa--Living in Africa, Working in Africa, and Wealth in Africa. Overall, contemporary stories are emphasized, but they are historicized and complement those with a more historical bent. We fashioned narratives from both urban and rural settings throughout the continent and within the African Diaspora to provide a balanced representation of contemporary life.

OBJECTS, TEXTS, AND PHOTOS

One of our first curatorial challenges involved examining the museum's collections to determine what objects were available for the exhibition. The African holdings are relatively large. Well over 60% of the 15,000 works date from before the mid-twentieth century, with a significant number dating from the late nineteenth century. In building the collections over the last decade, curators had sought to add contemporary objects, such as a Somali nomadic house; a Chewa antelope body mask from Malawi; children's wire toys from Congo, Ghana, Mali, and Rwanda; mudcloth textiles (Fig. 3), paintings, and haute couture fashions from Mali; baskets from Sierra Leone; and Sowei masks from Liberia and Sierra Leone (Fig. 4).

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For the history pathway we selected appropriate works such as a 1906 Ethiopian painting of the 1896 Battle of Adwa (Fig. 5) and a Moroccan oudh (Fig. 6). Other historical objects, such as early-twentieth-century Zanzibar doors (Fig. 7) and nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century pottery and metalwork (Figs. 8, 9), are included in the contemporary galleries. All objects in the displays, even the more contemporary ones, are dated on the labels. In order to remain faithful to our charge to highlight contemporary Africa, we historically contextualized the stories that the older pieces tell. These selections are meant to highlight consistencies or changes over time in objects' forms or in social practices.

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As the conceptual script developed, it became clear that additional contemporary works would be needed. We developed contemporary stories with particular objects or constellations of objects in mind, which were then acquired through intermediaries. These include items from Bamako made of recycled materials, industrial housewares and textiles from Ghana, raffia ritual regalia for the Candomble oria Omolu, and other Candomble religious objects from Bahia, Brazil. We also commissioned or purchased major works from artists in Africa and the Diaspora, including a palm-wine clay container in the shape of a gerry can by Gaddah Julien from Cote d'Ivoire (Fig. 10), paintings by Ismael Diabate from Mali (Fig. 11), an airplane coffin made by Paa Joe from Ghana (Fig. 12), a winnowing basket woven by Janine Cohen from South Carolina, photographs taken by Chester Higgins from New York, and a Candomble caboclo altar object by Jose Adairio dos Santos (Fig. 13) and regalia for the orixa Oxum by Eneida Sanches (Fig. 14), both from Brazil.

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Through the generosity of donors and lenders we were also able to acquire or borrow critical historical objects. These include a Kongo Christian staff finial (Cover) and loans of Jenne terracottas from the National Museum in Mali; 25th Dynasty Nubian shabtis, or tomb figures, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; nineteenth-century slave shackles from the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum; and nineteenth-century rifles from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Among the contemporary works donated or on loan are a glazed casserole from the Abuja pottery works in Nigeria; ephemera from the 1994 South African elections; Mossi dolls from Burkina Faso; ciwara headdresses by Siriman Fane from Koke, Mali (Fig. 15); a Somali wedding basket; a glass painting by M. Lo of Dakar, Senegal; a painting by Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu of Lubumbashi, Congo; carved doors by Richard Aimuadasu of Benin City, Nigeria; a gold-leaf linguist staff and finial from Ghana (Fig. 16); and currency bills from throughout the continent. Nearly 70% of the objects in "African Voices" were made between 1960 and 1999, and we tried to select pieces whose maker's identities are known in order to counter the prevailing stereotype of the anonymous African artist.

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The main messages of the exhibition--Africa's diversity, dynamism, long history, contemporary relevance, and global reach--are supplemented with layered information designed to enhance the experience for repeat visitors and those who spend a longer than average time in the hall. The text hierarchy reflects these layers of information. "Gallery texts" highlight the main themes of the gallery and reinforce one or more of the overarching messages of the hall. "Main texts" provide specific information about major stories in each gallery. "Subtexts" provide additional information about a particular topic. Object labels narrow the focus further and encourage visitors to learn something specific about the work's form, function, or maker. Captions identify the article's function or significance in its local context.

Though the text hierarchy helped us organize our thinking on the different topics and prioritize the information for each text, its impact on the audience appears to be minimal. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most of our visitors are not aware of the different kinds of texts in the exhibition, and most do not seek out the gallery text to get the main messages of any particular section. Similarly our efforts to develop way-finding aids and to distinguish between thematic galleries by color-coding the labels goes relatively unnoticed.

Major objects or images are located along critical lines of sight to reinforce the main messages of the exhibition and to surprise visitors with something unexpected, thus challenging their preconceptions about Africa. For example, as they move along the history pathway, the contemporary suddenly intrudes with a high-fashion mannequin sporting a mudcloth miniskirt ensemble created by the noted Malian designer Chris Seydou (Fig. 17). The mannequin stands before a color photomural of a model on a catwalk in Dakar.

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Dramatic objects--like the KLM airplane coffin by Ghanaian artist Paa Joe (Fig. 12)--likewise appear in areas that encourage conversations and intense scrutiny. An exquisite eighteenth-century head of an Oba from the Benin kingdom, Nigeria, is coupled with a photomural of the current Oba and his biography along the Walk Through Time, but opens onto a story on the palace in Benin City in the contemporary thematic gallery Living in Africa.

Several areas are geared particularly toward children. Low cases feature wire toys made by children, and there is a case of toys and games accompanied by a soundscape of children playing (Fig. 18). Computer interactives--enjoyed by young and old alike--introduce visitors to mudcloth artist Nakunte Diarra, identifying mudcloth patterns and encouraging visitors to learn about the process by designing their own. A second computer interactive in the metals section features footage by the filmmaker Mamadou Samake on the history and organization of recycling in Bamako.

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We also wanted to communicate major messages through photographs. For example, large color photomurals ringing the top of the Work in Africa gallery show people engaged in a wide variety of contemporary occupations, from manufacturing to mining, from classroom teaching to dentistry. They serve as an important contemporary counterpoint to the cases below that are devoted to Africa's long history of agriculture, metallurgy, and ceramic production. We spent an enormous amount of time carefully choosing photographs, but they unfortunately are often blocked by the object displays. The designers tended to treat the photographs as contextual wallpaper instead of objects in and of themselves that convey aspects of the exhibition content. A less frantic schedule for the final design and installation might have avoided what in our opinion is a regrettable design flaw.

AUDIENCE TESTING

Formal interviews with a cross-section of museum visitors conducted at critical stages in the process had a significant impact on the hall's design and content, allowing us to test sensitive or complex concepts that might not interest or be easily grasped by visitors within the limitations of a museum exhibition. Originally we imagined that a series of "challenges kiosks" arranged down the central corridor would offer opportunities to explore multiple perspectives on thorny issues central to scholarly discourse--issues of representation, what it means to be "African," the ownership of history, and the difficulties of balancing community and ecological concerns in contested environments. But testing revealed that our general public was not especially interested in these topics. The idea was scrapped, but it re-emerged in the form of smaller challenge labels within narratives in the thematic galleries. We also developed a story in the Working in Africa gallery that presents the challenges of and multiple perspectives on the use and ownership of the land in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, and we dedicated the Contemporary History moment along the history pathway to issues of children's health in Kenya.

Testing also told us that many of our visitors had no idea that as members of contemporary global economies, Africans use modern paper currency. Dismayed by this discovery, we changed our planned installation of the museum's historical collection of African currency to a family-oriented, low-tech interactive in which visitors match political, cultural, educational, technological, and ecological scenes with those found on the paper currency on display (Fig. 19).

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Testing conducted with photographic images and nearly completed gallery texts resulted in a dramatic shift in approach and design. Originally the texts began with evocative short phrases intended to convey the multiple dimensions of the thematic galleries. According to the evaluations, many people were angered by the ambiguity of the statements; they felt manipulated. These museumgoers wanted information stated clearly and concisely; they wanted a more direct correlation between the opening statements on this panel and the actual case installations they would see inside the gallery.

Though we preferred the poetic leads, we acquiesced to the wisdom of our visitors. Now, an opening paragraph sets the conceptual frame for the gallery and provides straightforward statements about what visitors will learn through specific stories. Similar text-and-image testing for other levels of exhibition texts led to greater clarity and at the same time allayed our fears about unintended messages that might be suggested by contextual photos. For example, would visitors read only poverty into images of Ghanaian markets instead of taking away the message of vitality that we had intended to convey?

Less than six months before our opening date, we conducted a final round of testing for which we created a life-size mock-up of two exhibition components. This time visitors complained of graphic clutter. They also insisted on having labels placed closer to the objects and voiced their expectation that these labels tell something about the work's form or function. Based on these responses, we replaced a Mondrian-like grid design element favored by our designers with subtle graphic images--concentric circles, spirals, and other geometric motifs--drawn from objects in the exhibition. Labels are now located directly adjacent to the works they identify and include a one-sentence description of their form, design, or function.

The second mock-up was for the section of the history pathway that deals with the transatlantic slave trade. We knew this story would be of particular interest, and we wanted to ensure that it would be understandable to the general public and yet substantive and sensitive enough for stakeholder audiences. Trying to convey something of the complex forces, both within and outside the continent, that contributed to this terrible history, we juxtaposed gold-covered objects of Akan regalia with real and replica shackles and a branding iron dating from the time of the slave trade. But testing showed that visitors did not understand the point we were trying to make. We then drafted a text--What does gold have to do with slavery?--to unite these two seemingly disconnected sets of objects and to set the stage for a discussion of the political instability and the dynamics of trade in the seventeenth-century Gold Coast.

Some visitors were also disturbed by the robin's-egg-blue color scheme designers chose for the history pathway, regarding the hue as much too happy for the tragic subject matter. Their visceral reaction led us to rethink the color scheme for the entire hall. We substituted terracotta and indigo for the history pathway to give these stories added weight and dignity, and we reserved the brighter palette of yellows, greens, blues, and fuchsias for the accent colors on labels in the contemporary galleries.

EXHIBITING STRATEGIES

"African Voices" helps to redress the inadequacies of outmoded culture-hall exhibitions, which tend to bypass history and controversial topics. For audiences particularly invested in the representation of Africa in exhibitions, the history pathway is critically important. Brief texts titled "History Matters" emphasize the contemporary relevance of historical events, and stories of resistance are told, especially as part of the historical record of enslavement, colonialism, and apartheid. We selected narratives for the thematic galleries to resonate with our diverse audience in the hopes that they would connect their lives to those of Africans. Quotes and recordings come not only from high-profile political leaders but from ordinary people--market women, children, secondary-school students, artists, immigrants--who voice the hopes, dreams, and challenges that unite peoples worldwide.

Some of the design elements meant to encourage comparisons of objects or connections between adjacent thematic galleries are not sufficiently explicit to achieve the effects we had in mind. For example, the Somali nomadic home is placed next to an installation of a Zanzibar carved door to convey the diversity of lived space within a region. This idea is lost on most visitors, largely because there is no exhibition text that articulates this contrast.

Similarly, our crossroads spaces--31 December Makola Market and the Kongo Crossroads--are unique and appealing, but visitors largely overlook the reasons for their location. Linking the Living in Africa gallery with the Global Africa gallery, the Kongo Crossroads connects with the African Diaspora, where African religions were creatively transformed and still remain vital. Makola Market unites the underlying concepts of the Working in Africa and the Wealth in Africa galleries by celebrating the market as a place where people, ideas, and the products of their labor come together in creative ways. The crossroads spaces are given a distinctive treatment: their flooring is different from the patterned carpet of the rest of the hall, and their ceiling heights and light levels are also unlike those in adjacent galleries. Both spaces vary the tempo of visitor experience. The Kongo Crossroads fosters quiet contemplation: it has fewer objects, subdued lighting, and elegant floor and ceiling elements reinforcing the symbol of a cross within a circle. The space is designed to encourage visitors to consider religious beliefs and practices that sustained Africans, including those who made the terrible Middle Passage to the Americas, and that sustain them today.

By contrast, the design of the Market Crossroads evokes the lively atmosphere of its subject, incorporating a multimedia video of the bustling urban market, three listening stations featuring a musical tour of Africa by the radio personality and producer Georges Collinet (Fig. 20), furnishings that suggest market stalls, and large photomurals and life-size cut-out photos of the women whose stories are told in this space. Again, these touches contribute to an enjoyable experience, but it is doubtful that visitors are conscious of the conceptual connections we fought so hard to reinforce during the planning process.

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It seems increasingly fashionable to develop exhibitions with all the technological bells and whistles but to give little thought to how audio-visual and computer-interactive elements enhance the visitor experience and reinforce the major ideas. "African Voices" uses audio and video components selectively to enliven the space and emphasize the main messages of diversity, dynamism, modernity, and global connections. Multiscreen video monitors at both entrances provide an immediate orientation. The kaleidoscope of images of people, objects, and places, set against a background of contemporary African music and voiced narration (Fig. 21), alerts visitors that they have entered a new and exciting section devoted to present-day Africa. Smaller monitors throughout the hall feature short videos, and because the space is relatively small these elements compete with each other at times. For some visitors, the effect is cacophonous, and audio levels and resolution of video footage continue to be adjusted even now. That said, the decision to fill "African Voices" with energizing sounds and moving images was a calculated one, meant to offer an approach to African history and culture that is anything but quiet and passive. As one of our colleagues said to us on opening night, "This hall is rich, lively, and complex--just like Africa."

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THEMES

History

If I walk tall, it is because I stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.

--Akan proverb, Ghana

The initial exhibition plan, proposed in 1993, called for a separate gallery for presenting Africa's long and dynamic history. However, as work on the themes of contemporary Africa and the African Diaspora evolved, this idea was abandoned for both design and philosophical reasons. A distinct gallery space would provide a certain clarity to the presentation of linear historical events, but it would make it much more difficult to realize a main goal of the exhibition: to reveal the critical connections between complex political, economic, and social histories and contemporary Africans' lives. We wanted to find a way to communicate African agency through time by articulating the specific ways that history provided opportunities, choices, and constraints to Africans actively engaged in negotiating their immediate lives and their futures.

The team wrestled with the idea of creating a history time line that would weave throughout the entire installation, establishing concrete connections between past and present, highlighting global connections through time, and making history omnipresent. Again, the physical limitations of the large rectangular space worked against this plan and led to the decision to make history the central spine of the exhibition.

To make the experience manageable for the visitor, we decided to feature ten discrete stories. The broad themes of these narratives mesh with those in the sections on contemporary Africa and the Diaspora. In addition, these history "moments" make explicit the nature of Africa's global connections at the time.

A major problem was how to help visitors appreciate the fact of Africa's long history while physically moving them only several hundred feet through the hall. The design team imagined the history moments as discrete units installed on either side of a central pathway. They unified the presentation by creating a distinct color palette and graphic look. Each history moment is installed within a freestanding curvilinear space whose fifteen-foot ceiling gives it a monumental presence (Fig. 22). An ancillary time line within the story highlights significant events that took place in the same region before and after it. Located on the main text label, the time line includes short texts and photographic images.

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The challenge was not in finding ten important history moments, but in choosing only ten from thousands. We were determined to select stories that had broad themes but were regionally specific and would highlight the continent's great diversity. As curators, we also wanted stories that could be effectively told through objects and images as well as texts. The ten history moments emphasize political, economic, and social history.

The first half of the Walk Through Time covers more than 230,000 years, from the emergence of humankind in the Rift Valley to the eleventh-century moment "African Muslims Rule Spain." In the second half the tempo shifts dramatically; time is more compressed, with stories following more closely upon one another and covering a period spanning only 500 years, from the rise of the Asante confederacy and the Atlantic slave trade in the seventeenth century through nineteenth-century colonialism, twentieth-century resistance and independence, to the 1994 South African elections. The last story on the pathway is on children's health challenges in Kenya in 1999. This final history moment, Contemporary Challenges, is scheduled to change annually--a strategy to keep the exhibition current.

Dynamism

The theme of Africa's dynamism and vitality is woven throughout "African Voices." The contemporary galleries address issues of continuity and change in objects and in practices. In the Wealth in Africa gallery, for example, one display explores how people use objects to register a change in status: a Luba chief's staff from the late nineteenth century, a Tunisian bride's costume, a Mende Sowei mask from the mid-twentieth century, and a contemporary graduation cap and gown from the University of Ghana (Fig. 23). The label for the chief's staff and the Sowei mask discuss how the Luba and Mende still use identical or similar works for this purpose. We note that the Tunisian wedding ensemble has largely been replaced in current practices, while the graduation cap and gown introduce a new category of objects that mark a status change in contemporary Africa.

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The Somali Aqal--An Object of Memory

   The camels are packed and ready
   for the weary trek
   And men's thoughts dwell on
   distant destinations.

--Axmed Ismaaeiil Diiriye, Somali poet, 1975

The diorama has been a popular genre in museum exhibitions for nearly a century. Despite its representational problems, the team decided to retain the form in "African Voices," hoping to reconfigure and refashion it in ways that would mitigate these problems and still allow us to exploit its dramatic and interpretive potential. We freely borrowed a number of successful strategies from other museums. In the Living in Africa gallery we installed an aqal, a Somali nomadic house, which had been collected in northern Somalia in the early 1980s and later donated to the museum (Fig. 24). The house and its contents allowed us to feature aspects of a contemporary nomadic lifestyle as well as a centuries-old architectural form that remains viable in the early twenty-first century. Designed for portability, the aqal serves as an example of technological sophistication, economy of form, and ingenuity. By using photomurals to suggest the larger nomadic camp within the diorama, we could explore how gendered work organizes domestic life.

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As the idea for the story took shape, a number of our American and African advisors became uneasy about using the house. They felt that visitors would misread the installation as an example of a "primitive" dwelling. Abirahman Dahir, a Somali member of the Extended Team, had grown up as a nomadic herder and spoke eloquently in favor of exhibiting the aqal. He explained how it is a central symbol of Somali family life, marriage, history, and cultural identity. His discussion of the aqal as an object of cultural memory was compelling, and it inspired the team to shift the interpretive perspective. If we could communicate the centrality of the aqal in the Somali imagination, we would help transcend the "primitive" trope.

Mary Jo Arnoldi began working with Hassan Gure, a Somali, who secured the participation of several knowledgeable women from the Washington-based Somali community. (9) They came to the museum and worked with museum staff to do a first rebuilding of the aqal. The women and other Somali advisors helped us select the domestic objects in our collections that would be installed in the house. Intended to be a representative sample, these works include carved wooden headrests as well as woven-grass water and milk containers that have been made and used in nomadic households for generations. A short-wave radio, a brass tray and coffee pot, and textiles imported from the city are also part of the display. The women were eager for us to include a spear and shield, which they identified as potent symbols of Somali heritage. Although they appreciated the symbolism of the shield and spear, other Somali scholars and members of the community insisted that we also incorporate a modern automatic rifle, which men use today to protect the herds and the family's camp.

Two large color photomurals surround the house: one of a group of aqals in the northern Somali landscape, and the other of the camp's camel herds. The front and side of the house are left uncovered in the installation, so that the structural materials, engineering, and internal spatial organization are visible. In front of the house is a text rail with a series of labels, each one including a Somali proverb or an excerpt from a poetic text along with photographs and a didactic text. Information about Somalia, its geographic location, and its population appear on one label together with a brief discussion of one of the most critical challenges for Somalis--securing a lasting peace. Other labels draw attention to the organization of the space in the camp and to the gendered division of labor. There is also a graphic label which identifies the contents of the house.

No mannequins people the scene. Instead, a life-size video screen located next to the house shows short film sequences. Abirahman Dahir and another Somali American, Faduma Mohammed, both of whom grew up as nomads, worked with the team and the filmmakers from Northern Light Productions to create a script based on their memories. Abdi and Faduma appear separately each dressed in contemporary Western attire. They speak directly to the museum visitor.

Abdi describes the house's adaptability to the harsh environment, its construction, and the changes it has undergone in the contemporary period. His presentation is personal, as he identifies the aqal, camels, and poetry as the most important symbols in Somali life, ones that he will always hold dear. For Abdi the aqal is an emblem of his family life. He talks of the role it played in his marriage celebrations and suggests the value Somalis place on hospitality by reading a poem in which a man welcomes strangers to his aqal.

Faduma shares her memories of growing up in a nomadic camp. She recalls learning to make her first mat, and she compares the artistry of Somali women's mats to the artistry of American women's quilts. Faduma observes Somali traditions in her Washington home so that her children will understand their heritage.

It was our goal to move the installation of the aqal from a static diorama to a dynamic dialogic display. By using objects, texts, and film, we are able to tell different stories about the house--as a technologically sophisticated dwelling which has undergone change, as a gendered object, as a focal point for key cultural values and social practices, and as a central object of memory in the Somali imagination. Anecdotal evidence and scientific observation of visitors reveal that the life-size video is hard to ignore and that the personal testimonies of Abdi and Faduma engage the visitor. Most people spend some time at the display when visiting the exhibition. (10)

Diversity

The curatorial team paid special attention to representing regional diversity by developing stories highlighting communities in north, west, central, east, and southern Africa, as well as from the global diaspora. The selection of objects reflects both urban and rural narratives. Within a thematic gallery and occasionally within individual stories themselves, men and women, adults and youths, and people from different segments of society present their perspectives. Some narratives feature the voices of women, like that told by Afro-Brazilian artist Eneida Sanches. One that concerns the interpretation of the Chewa Kasiyamaliro mask centers on the commentary of several high-school boys in Malawi, who wrote essays about what they would like Americans to know about the mask (Fig. 25). (11)

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Work in the Ngorongoro Crater

   The Conservation Area Management should seek to understand the
   socio-economic aspirations and needs of local Maasai.

-- Deo-Gratias Gamassa, ecologist, Mweka, Tanzania, 1998

"Work in the Ngorongoro Crater" explores the diversity of work in the crater and the competition for space among Maasai herders, wildlife conservationists, and the tourist industry. The story developed with the participation of three colleagues from Kenya and Tanzania: Naomi Kipury, a Maasai anthropologist living in Nairobi and working on development issues in Tanzania and Kenya; Deo-Gratias M. Gamassa, ecologist and professor at Mweka College of African Wildlife Management; and Paul Mshanga, Head of Tourism at the Ngorongoro Crater.

Our intention was to present the different points of view in this contemporary debate without suggesting any final outcome. Quotations derive from extensive conversations with each of the participants, who were given the opportunity to comment on the development of the story line, to edit their quotes, and to choose how they wanted to be represented within the display. The objects on view feature the material culture of each type of work, while the text panels set up a conversation among the three participants.

Unfortunately this section of the exhibit falls fiat, marred by a large and fuzzy video and too many competing photos and objects jammed into too small a space for so complex a conversation. In hindsight, the website and the Resource Center would have provided greater room for the detail this important story deserves.

Agency

Presentations throughout the exhibition highlight Africans actively engaged in shaping their own lives. African and Diasporan voices carry the authority within the stories, and they provide the primary interpretation for the displays. The exhibition also introduces our audiences to real people. Where possible, we built the narratives around objects from the existing collections whose makers were known. The Working in Africa gallery contains a signed pot by Voanya of Congo from the turn of the century and glazed pottery made by Ladi Kwali of Nigeria from the early 1970s. The Living in Africa gallery features Swahili urban culture and includes house doors from Zanzibar carved by Ali Mohammed Helewa of Lamu, Kenya, in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. We also commissioned or purchased objects, and provide the names and artistic biographies of the African men and women involved in the creative enterprise.

31 December Makola Market -- Accra, Ghana, 1996

   The work is very difficult. Some come to buy and some want you to reduce
   the price. Because we need our money, we have to convince them to buy from
   us.

--Ernestina Quarcoopome, Ghana, 1996

The four prominent marketwomen featured in the exhibition's Market Crossroads graciously agreed to participate in developing their own representations (Fig. 26). The decision to include a market space in "African Voices" arose from the desire to convey both the cultural and economic value of people's work. (12) We wanted visitors to come away with the stories--self-told--of individuals who earn their living in the vibrant urban context of 31 December Makola Market.

[FIGURE 26 OMITTED]

Several years into the exhibition planning process, Christine Kreamer, accompanied by textile specialist Mary Impraim of Ghana's National Museum, made an exploratory visit to the Accra market. She met with Ernestina Quarcoopome, a vendor of blue and white factory-print cloth, and her daughter Marjorie Botchway (13); Adama Salifu, the market's "kola queen"; Adjoa Kwakyewa Dwamena, a successful young housewares vendor managing her father's shop; and Comfort Kwakye, the market's assistant "yam queen." (14) The market authorities readily granted permission for the research. However, in separate meetings, three of the four women initially rejected the proposal outright. All recounted experiences of tourists coming through the market with cameras, taking pictures of them without their permission. Because they were dressed for work, and thus not properly attired for photographs, the women imagined that when the tourists returned home, these snapshots would be discussed in ways that suggested that the market was a dirty, disorganized, and impoverished place. The women were proud of their work and their contributions to their communities, but they felt that photographs and uninformed opinions by foreigners did not afford them an opportunity to tell that story.

Kreamer and Impraim addressed these concerns with each woman. They discussed the work and educational role of museums and how innovations in museum practice counter anonymous accounts of African cultures with the real-life accounts of individuals. Speaking for the "African Voices" team, Kreamer assured the women that they would control what information would be conveyed about themselves and their work in the exhibition text, and that they would determine how they wanted to represent themselves photographically. (15) Three days later, when Kreamer returned for their decision, she was met with genuine enthusiasm and support for the project. Over the years that followed, Kreamer and Impraim revisited the market and kept the women informed about the slow but steady progress being made on the new hall and shared with them preliminary exhibition designs and texts. The latter include quotes about hard-earned income that pays for a family's home or children's educational expenses and about the pride in work that contributes to family and community life. A climate of friendship and mutual respect flourished through the collaboration, and the members of the "Makola Market team" remain friends with Kreamer, exchanging Christmas cards each year and news about family.

Global Africa

   We're related--you and I,
   You from the West Indies,
   I from Kentucky.

   Kinsmen--you and I,
   You from Africa,
   I from the U.S.A.

--Langston Hughes, 1924

The presentation of the Diaspora as a key chapter in the long history of the continent distinguishes "African Voices" from most other exhibitions on Africa. From the beginning of the planning process, both the team in the museum and the extended team of advisors worked on how to articulate the global African presence. All agreed that several key points must be made: 1) with the dispersal of Africans around the globe, African cultures have significantly influenced other world cultures, regardless of ethnic or racial heritage; 2) the Atlantic slave trade was a terrible part of this diaspora; and 3) Africans and their descendants resisted oppression and created thriving new communities and cultures around the world. After some debate, the team agreed to define the Diaspora as broadly as possible and thus to include the greatest number of peoples and cultural forms in the exhibition.

These abovementioned points appear throughout the exhibition. In addition to a separate Global Africa gallery devoted to exploring these ideas, every gallery contains stories that reflect the cosmopolitan nature of Africa past and present. For example, the Wealth in Africa gallery includes a large fiber-optic map showing the history of trade in and beyond the continent. Another installation shows the transformation of Malian mudcloth (bogolanfini) into an international symbol of African identity and a universally recognized graphic style. The installation begins with Bamana artist Nakunte Diarra, who learned the form from her grandmother and is widely known for her innovative work. It explores the use of the cloth and its graphics by haute couture designers and contemporary visual artists. Finally, it highlights diverse examples of mud-cloth-inspired objects from the contemporary United States; these include coffee cups, designer bed sheets, backpacks, and wrapping paper.

Within the Global Africa gallery, the overwhelming story of the Atlantic slave trade perhaps posed the greatest challenge. All involved acknowledged that the trade had to be featured but should not be the only story in the gallery. Thus a fiber-optic map shows the great diversity of African journeys beyond the continent, beginning with Hannibal leading his North African army against Rome, including the Middle Passage, and ending with recent migration of Africans to Europe, Australia, and the United States. Another installation tells of the violence, indifference, and cruelty of slavery: visitors can hear the voices of people who were enslaved in the United States, their stories collected by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. The Freedom Theater's video titled The Atlantic Slave Trade tells of "the Other Mayflower," a slave ship that sailed to Virginia in the 1720s, and of a Muslim rebellion in Bahia, Brazil. Both stories focus on the ways in which enslaved people created community and resisted their oppression.

The theme of resistance also comes to the fore in the other video, The Struggle for Freedom, about the Pan-Africanist movement and its ultimate triumph over European colonialism. It also explores the commonalities between the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the antiapartheid movement in South Africa. The videos emphasize the human dimensions of these powerful stories--the struggle for freedom and self-determination. The museum does not have strong collections related to these subjects, so the videos allow a wider and deeper presentation than would have been possible otherwise.

Tenda Omolu, Bahia, Brazil

   Candomble ... has as its objective the worship of Orixas ... spirits of
   nature originating in earth, fire, water, and air.

--Mae Estella de Oxossi, Bahia, Brazil, 1993

The creative use of African cultural forms and values by Diasporan people informs the story on Afro-Brazilian religion. Most Americans believe that the horrors of the Middle Passage destroyed all African culture in enslaved peoples. However, recent research has shown conclusively that whole systems of thought were transplanted to the Americas. The hall includes a large display about the African-based religion Candomble thriving in Brazil today. The display is anchored by a religious shop, Tenda Omolu (Fig. 27). Michael Mason conducted research in Bahia, and he collected the objects for the tenda installation. The objects and narratives introduce visitors to the African deities of tradition. Quotes from the leading priestess, Mae Stella de Oxossi, and from artist Eneida Sanches convey Candomble's traditional meaning and dynamic vitality. Within this story is a video on other African-based religions. Created with practitioners of Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Umbanda, it shows ritual and social practices as they existed in New York City in 1999.

[FIGURE 27 OMITTED]

At the opening of "African Voices," excited guests arrived in tuxedos and the national dress of many African countries. Everyone who contributed during the life of the project had been invited. Somali families pushed up against the installation of the aqal. The Ropers from South Carolina brought their extended family and posed in front of the story where their voices discuss living with the legacy of slavery. Colleagues from the Extended Team wandered through the exhibition pointing out where they could see their influence. Some people danced, others wept. As an Italian curator said a few months later, "It is so moving. Africa is not an object of study here. Africans are the subjects."

[This article was accepted for publication in April 2001.]

(1.) Hundreds of our Africanist and Diaspora colleagues on the continent, in the Caribbean and Brazil, and in the United States participated in the content development of "African Voices." They generously shared their sources and expertise, and they read and critiqued the script at various stages. We are also most grateful to the many colleagues who allowed us the use of their photographs and films and who lent or donated objects for the exhibition.

(2.) For an analysis of the history of permanent African exhibits at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History see Arnoldi 1992:428-57; 1999:701-26; 1999:701-26.

(3.) Among the formal letters criticizing the outmoded and offensive qualities of the Africa Hall were those from members of the Southeast Regional African Studies Association, the Embassy of Zaire, and Tu-Wa-Moja African Study Group, based in Washington D.C. In response to this growing public critique, Africanist curators Ivan Karp and Mary Jo Arnoldi sent a memo (May 12, 1991) to the Director of Exhibits at the Museum, urging the administration to rethink its timetable for renovation. They wrote:

   The hall still represents Africa as a space occupied by peoples and
   cultures without the same capacities or equal achievements of the peoples
   and cultures of the Western traditions. We believe that a hall of African
   culture and peoples must assert the dignity of African peoples and
   challenge the image of Africa too often presented in "objective" scholarly
   traditions. Our exhibiting strategies must find a way to respond to
   visitors such as those in one focus group we ran--"Another time, another
   place--wouldn't want to be there": We must challenge the assumptions which
   the hall's audiences--both black and white, carry across the hall's
   entrance. No meaningful conversation between exhibit makers and audience
   can occur unless we recognize that our assumptions and prejudices guide the
   interpretation of what we see in our halls of other cultures.

(4.) During the hearings Representative Gus Savage, Head of the Congressional Black Caucus, drew special attention to a label in the case on "Control of the Supernatural." The label read: "SECRET SOCIETIES of prophets, diviners, medicine men, and others are politically powerful in Zaire. Members, sometimes in costume, assemble in clubhouses where they chant, dance, and participate in secret rites such as orgies, cannibalism, and the eating of exhumed corpses--all to acquire supernatural powers" (HR 129 [Sept. 15,1992]) p. 46).

(5.) The Core Team included the curatorial team, the designer(s), a project manager, an educator, a community research specialist, and a writer

(6.) For a detailed discussion of the "African Voices" team process see Kreamer 1997:50-55. The roles and responsibilities of the Core and Extended Team members were articulated and agreed upon early in the process. We developed a clear understanding with the Extended Team that not every suggestion would find its way into the exhibition and that some topics and ideas are better suited for scholarly articles, public programs, a website, or a resource center. There were tensions, of course, in negotiating the extent to which the Extended Team would influence decisions. Final decision-making rested with the Core Team and with the museum administration. Several individuals who did not agree with this position or with the consensus reached within the Extended Team itself eventually resigned from the project.

Embracing an Extended Team model added years and dollars to creating "African Voices." The seven years of development were a few, too many, and the process partially broke down as Core Team members periodically left and new ones came on board and had to be brought up to speed. Design fees increased with each change in design direction. The institution's budgetary problems led to the administration's reluctance to keep to a firm opening date; this extended the development phase of the hall beyond its natural life-span and made it difficult to move the project forward to completion. It is hard to sustain the creative energies of a team of people much beyond three years, and those of us who remained with the project throughout the seven-year process wondered at times if we would ever see the hall open.

There were four critical stages in the development for "African Voices": the Idea Statement (1993); Concept Script and Design (1995), Final Script and Design (1998), and Audio-Visual Development (1999). Because this process took place over a seven-year period, people moved in and out of the Development Team. Content development: Mary Jo Arnoldi (1993-99), Mark Auslander (1995-99), Linda Heywood (1994-99), Ivan Karp (1993-97), Christine Mullen Kreamer (1993-99), Michael Atwood Mason (1994-99), Sulayman Niang (1995-99), Fath Ruffins (1993-94), Theresa Singleton, (1994-98), John Thornton (1994-99). Designers: Jim Simms (1993), Bennie Welch (1994-95) and Main Street Design (1994-95), Douglas Gallagher (1995-99). Scriptwriters: Sharon Barry (1993-96), Bee Wuethrich (1996-99). Community specialists: Philippa Jackson (1994-95), Frieda Austin Johnson (1995-98). Educators: Laura McKie (1993-95), Stephanie McKissic (1995-98). Evaluators: Science Learning, Inc. (1993-99), Smithsonian Office of Institutional Studies (1999-00). Audio-visuals: Northern Light Productions (1999). Interactives: Squid Country Safari (1999). Website: Terra Incognita (1999-ongoing).

(7.) Visitor surveys told us that the majority of visitors would likely use the entrance off the Asia Gallery on the Constitution Avenue side of the building. We treated this as the major one, but knew that both entrances had to function as both entrances and exits.

(8.) The Core Team benefitted from "Beyond the Elephant," a study completed by the Smithsonian's then Office of Institutional Studies that established the general demographics and behavior of visitors to the museum. A variety of specific studies provided additional front-end evaluation (1992-94), with an emphasis on visitors' knowledge base and expectations. Formative evaluation (1994-98) of the exhibition as it developed focused on testing the affective, cognitive, and behavior goals of the exhibition; the unintended messages communicated by images of Africa; and appropriateness of proposed text copy and design graphics.

(9.) Several projects of the Smithsonian Institution have focused on the social and cultural life of African immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The African Immigrant Project, organized by Diana N'Diaye at the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, supported "African Voices" in many ways. That project, in turn, was based on an earlier model that Mason and N'Diaye had developed for the Black Mosaic Project at the Anacostia Museum. Both projects included extensive training and active participation in exhibition development for community scholars.

(10.) Just months after the opening, members of the local Somali community brought the celebrated Somali poet Mohamed Hadrawi to visit the exhibition. He was delighted with the display and inspired to write a poem about the aqal, which he has shared with the museum. It underscores the central role the aqal plays in Somali life and memory. A translation of the poem and the poet's biography as well as the circumstances of the poem's creation, will be added to the exhibition and to the "African Voices" website (www.mnh.si.edu / africanvoices).

(11.) David Gainer, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, put the team in touch with teacher Adam Michaelides at the Dowa Secondary School in Mporela, Malawi. Michaelides ran an essay contest asking students to write about what they would like Americans to know about this masquerade. The winning essays were sent to the team. Excerpts provide the interpretive content for the masquerade display. A photograph of the winning essayists is included in the installation. At a later date we hope to put the full texts of the students' essays on the website.

(12.) Various examples of markets in recent exhibitions exist: Tahitian and Kano markets at the Field Museum in Chicago; a somewhat anonymous market in the Africa Hall at the Tropen-museum, Amsterdam; and a northern Vietnamese market at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi, to name only a few.

(13.) Friend and colleague Nii Quarcoopome facilitated the process by providing an introduction to Ernestina Quarcoopome, his aunt.

(14.) Focusing on these vendors allowed us to convey a sense of the diversity of market commodities and to emphasize attendant economic and cultural aspects.

(15.) As members of the "African Voices" Extended Team whose expertise helped shape the exhibition, each of the women received a modest honorarium at the conclusion of the text and design work on the Makola Market story though this was discussed at a later stage in the process so as not to influence their decision to participate.

References cited

Arnoldi, Mary Jo. 1992. "Distorted Mirror: The Exhibition of the Herbert Ward

Collection of Africana," in Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture, eds. Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine, pp. 428-57. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Mary Jo Arnoldi. 1999. "From the Diorama to the Dialogic: A Century of Exhibiting Africa at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History," Cahiers d'dtudes africaines 39, 3-4:701-26.

Kreamer, Christine Mullen. 1997. "African Voices," Museum News (Nov.-Dec.) 50-55.

U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Public Works and Transportation. 1992. "H.R. 1246. National African-American Museum" (Sept. 15) 43-51.

MARY JO ARNOLDI, Lead Curator for "African Voices," is Curator of African Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. She has conducted extensive research in Mali.

CHRISTINE MULLEN KREAMER is a Curator at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. From 1993 to 1999 she was an Exhibit Developer at the National Museum of Natural History and Content Coordinator for "African Voices." She has conducted extensive research in Togo and has developed museum exhibitions in Ghana and Vietnam.

MICHAEL ATWOOD MASON, an anthropologist and a member of the "African Voices" content team, has conducted extensive research on African-derived religions in Cuba and Brazil.