Sieges d'Afrique Noire du Musee Barbier-Mueller.

This exhibition of eighty seats from sub-Saharan Africa, on loan from the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, opened on November 29, 2003, at the Ensemble Conventuel des Jacobins in Toulouse, France, under the curatorial supervision of director Monique Rey Delque. The exhibition ends its run on March 22, 2004. It will eventually be shown at the Barbier-Mueller Museum, and arrangements are pending for venues in the United States in 2006.

The pieces on display in Toulouse were selected from 140 works featured in a catalogue of the same title, edited by Purissima Benitez-Johannot, curator of the Barbier Mueller Museum, and Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, the museum's founder and president (5 Continents, Milan; French and English editions, 332 pp., 110 full-page color plates, 187 b/w field photos, 14 maps, 33 drawings, bibliography; index in English ed. EUR 65 hardcover, EUR 40 softcover). Contributions written by specialists from Africa, North America, and Europe are accompanied by photographs by Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini and Diane Bouchet.

Among the settled peoples of the south [in Ghana], the acquisition of a stool was regarded as a prime necessity. The first gift to be made by a father to his child when the latter begins to crawl was a stool. Crawling signifies that the child has come to stay. A young girl undergoing the rite to mark her attainment of puberty was placed on a stool and it was customary for a husband to present his newly married wife with a stool to make sure of keeping her. It was on the stool that a deceased person was bathed before being laid in state. Because of this close association between a person and his stool--there is a saying that there can be no secret between a man and his stool.

(Kyerematen 1964:11)

Writers on the Asante, including the anthropologist Alex Kyerematen, have long regarded seats as pivotal to the domestic, ceremonial, and ritual life of what was once the most powerful state in Ghana. In many parts of Africa today, stools, as well as thrones and chairs, have remained important reminders of the power and prestigious histories that accompany monarchs and others in positions of both secular and religious leadership (Figs. 1, 2). In central Africa they signal the attainment of rank by the community's elders and by initiated members of secret societies. Among the Luvale of Zambia, knowing where to sit and how to sit is among the conventions of conduct that define a person and advance his or her rise in the community. In the Barnum kingdom in western Cameroon, only seats that have undergone certain rituals may be regarded as thrones. Those on the lower hierarchical rung employ simpler stools: plainer stools traditionally accompany women in their daily chores, and woven mats serve the basic purpose for children and ordinary persons (Figs. 3, 4). In many instances, observance of these traditions permits the processes of education, healing, and governance in African secular and religious life to be carried out in an orderly way.

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It is, however, the intricately carved and often patinated and decorated chairs and stools of rank and leadership that are most prevalent in museum and private collections today. (1) These seats of authority dominate the selection of objects on exhibit in "Sieges d'Afrique Noire du Musee Barbier-Mueller" (Sub-Saharan African Seats from the Barbier-Mueller Museum). Of the eighty examples seen in the Toulouse installation, two-thirds stood witness to the owners' political, social, and religious positions in their cultures. The remainder, no less striking in appearance, were employed for domestic and utilitarian purposes (Fig. 5).

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The task of selecting seats for inclusion in the catalogue was given to Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, and that of choosing pieces for display was undertaken by Monique Rey-Delque, director of the Toulouse museum. The objects are presented by geographical region and divided into walled sections, following a visual and stylistic logic. They are installed in vitrines, under subdued but focused lighting. Visitors begin their tour of the show viewing pieces from western Africa (Guinea Coast and Voltaic regions, Cameroon Grasslands, the interior and coastal regions of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Gabon), then proceed to central Africa (northeastern Congo, southeastern Congo, Angola, and Zambia), and end with eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania). There are no examples from southern Africa: in the Barbier-Mueller collection, furniture used for repose from this region is represented mostly by neck- and headrests. Because one must exit the large hall through the same portal used to enter the exhibition, one is allowed a second look at the display.

Although the primary medium is wood, the objects on exhibit take myriad forms (Fig. 6). Judging from the 140 seats illustrated in the catalogue, circular stools appear to be the most widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa (Figs. 7-10), rectangular stools are more commonly found in western Africa (Figs. 11, 12), tip stools (stools in the form of a "T") are more prevalent in central Africa (Fig. 13), and neck- and headrests-cure-stools predominate in eastern Africa. This brief overview does not attempt to present a distribution of styles but rather highlights the diversities and similarities across sub-Saharan Africa. In the descriptive captions for the catalogue and in the exhibition labels, scholars variously cite several factors among those that influence the forms and functions of these pieces: available material, religious exigencies, and economic, political, and historical links with other cultures.

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Investigations into the morphology and iconology of seats--why and how certain forms evolved--are not offered in the exhibition and catalogue. However, six essays look closely at specific histories and traditions of stools, chairs, and thrones that make certain cultures unique. On a peripheral level the editors have attempted to use these furniture forms as a way to address the larger dialogue that concerns many scholars today. The essays cover issues such as the appropriation of Western-type furniture, self-identification with a state stool, the value of tracing the personal history of a seat, thrones as carriers of collective memory, and seats as a means of defining and determining one's position in the social hierarchy.

Among the more exceptional pieces on display is a king's stool embellished with glass beads, cowry shells, and copper plating (Fig. 28). In honor of their friendship, Sultan Ibrahim Njoya (r. ca. 1886-1933), king of the Bamum people of Cameroon, presented it to the German Captain Hans Glauning in 1908. (2) Another noteworthy example is a rare sedan chair (Fig. 14), almost identical to one used to transport the Abetifi chief (Ghana) during processions within his realm and visits outside his borders. Fried rich August Louis Ramseyer, a Swiss builder-turned-minister who was detained as a prisoner by the Asante from 1865 to 1874, photographed the Abetifi sedan sometime between 1888 and 1890 (Fig. 15). Also on display are elegant stools, their seats supported by anthropomorphic figures and heads, that accompanied persons of authority among the Luba, Hemba, and Songye of southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Fig. 16) and the Mbunda and Chokwe of Angola (Fig. 17). It is, however, a small, nonfigurative chief's stool, probably dating back to the Chokwe period of expansion in the nineteenth century, that is the gem of the Barbier-Mueller Chokwe holdings (Fig. 18). The four inward-curving supports represent the four cardinal points, among other things: the regions of the rising and the setting sun, and the connection between the realm of the living and the ancestors (Jordan in Benitez-Johannot & Barbier-Mueller 2003:246). Such objects carry with them a wealth of symbols important to understanding the critical role of seats in preserving collective memory and representing leadership in these regions (Roberts in Benitez Johannot & Barbier-Mueller 2003:59).

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The Collection

Monique and Jean Paul Barbier Mueller, owners of the Barbier Mueller collection in Geneva, are personally connected, in various ways, to twenty-nine of the African works in the exhibition catalogue. Monique Barbier-Mueller's father was Josef Mueller, whose collection of non-Western art was the starting point for the Barbier-Mueller Museum when it first opened its doors to the public in 1977. Numerous photographs show African and Oceanic chairs or stools in the corners of Mr. Mueller's Paris apartment and Solothurn home (Figs. 19, 20). Such pieces have been with Mrs. Barbier-Mueller at various stages in her life: a Ngombe monoxylous back rest, for example, graced her boudoir when she was single, and a Pende two-piece stool, along with other objects in her father's collection, followed her into her married life (Benitez-Johannot & Barbier-Mueller 2003: cats. 51.1, 84). Seats have continued to serve as functional objects in the couple's homes--such as bases for art objects, side tables, and stanchions--but in all cases they are regarded as things of beauty and accorded places of visual prominence.

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In his foreword to the catalogue, Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller challenges the reader to regard the African seat as a product of artistic endeavor imbued with a perfection of form that is frequently overlooked by scholars in their discussions of material culture. At the very onset of the "Sieges" project, he proposed to open the exhibition with the Texas artist Robert Wilson's Queen's Chair, a finely painted black sculpture, juxtaposed with the museum's Asante rainbow stool to which it bears a striking resemblance. Although the two works share many formal aspects, there remain fundamental functional differences. Stools were traditionally used to assist in domestic chores, to mark important transitions in people's lives, to distinguish status or rank, and, covered with powerful substances during ritual, to appease or petition revered ancestors. The Wilson sculpture, on the other hand, is a wholly nonutilitarian rendering of an Asante stool. Exhibited at a gallery in Paris, it was admired as a work of art. Wilson's wanderings through the Barbier-Mueller storerooms follow the paths of other modern artists in the early twentieth century through the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, the Museum of Mankind in London, and the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin. Queen's Chair and other works by Wilson continue to bear witness to Africa's hold on the imaginations of Western artists.

In this exhibition, the Barbier-Mueller and Toulouse museums invite viewers to see the eighty African seats not only as functional objects-turned art but also as answers to questions about origin and manufacture; as a repository of history and memory; and as a celebration of the tradition, skill, and inventiveness with which Africans have embellished their lives.

The Catalogue

Who made these seats? Who used them, and for what purpose? Did those who made or used them have anything to say about them? These were some of the first questions we asked ourselves in embarking on this project. Mr. Barbier-Mueller suggested that specialists be invited to write about each seat type, much as he had invited scholars on Nigeria to write about the museum's Nigerian collection in 1996. Along with descriptive captions for individual works, the catalogue would offer precise field information, highlight some of the unique practices related to stools and chairs that have focused attention on certain African cultures, and illuminate the traditions of lesser-known peoples. (3) Thirty-three specialists from Africa, North America, and Europe agreed to contribute one-page descriptive captions; six of them wrote longer essays. Wall labels--shortened versions of the catalogue captions--accompany the objects on display in Toulouse, and maps locating the African peoples connected to these objects begin each section of the show.

Many of the authors have seen these seat types in their original settings and within the events that gave them meaning. In cases where seats lacked field information, authors linked their styles to those of similar examples in other publications and collections. In the first catalogue essay, Nigel Barley, former Assistant Keeper in the Ethnography Department of the British Museum, outlines how seats have evolved in Africa and continue to do so today. Typical of the publication's Africa-centered perspective, he stresses not Westernization--European forms influencing African seats--but rather appropriation--Africans reinventing Western forms to meet local needs.

Examples abound in "Sieges" (Fig. 22). In the seventeenth century, the Portuguese cadeira de sola (leather chair) arrived in Angola and inspired what is now the most celebrated art form produced by the Chokwe: the chief's chair (Fig. 23). Rectangular stools carved in Douala (Cameroon) in the nineteenth century bear the names of their owners carved in openwork designs, marking them as objects of personal possession (Fig. 24). Among the Guro, Dan, and Mano (Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia), the chair was reduced in height and used by village chiefs and women's societies, the latter for dances by initiates (Fig. 25). In Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and many countries in west Africa, the canvas folding chair--standard issue in colonial military camps, missionary stations, and administrative outposts--evolved into the elegant two-piece collapsible wooden chair (Figs. 26, 27), standard issue in local villages and market stalls today.

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In the Bamum capital of Foumban (western Cameroon), the completion of a seat intended to function as a throne occasioned a human offering, which was made in strict accordance with tradition. Such a seat could leave the royal court--and even be sent abroad--only if the populace was first consulted. In the catalogue, Prince Aboubakar Njiassee Njoya, Professor in the Department of History, Arts, and Archaeology at the University of Yaounde, traces the individual histories of several seats, including a famous throne, now in Berlin, given by Sultan Ibrahim Njoya to Captain Hans Glauning, commander of the German military post in Bamenda from 1905 to 1908. Professor Njoya also reviews a range of other royal seats and their corollary traditions. An elaborately carved and beaded stool, one of the jewels of the Barbier-Mueller collection (Fig. 28), came from Foumban, where it had been used exclusively by the Sultan. King Njoya bestowed it on the Captain as a token of his friendship. Alter the German officer died in battle, the stool became part of the estate of the Glauning family. From there it began its journey: Arthur Speyer, the eminent German collector and dealer, acquired it in 1928; the French collector Charles Ratton purchased it in 1936; and in 1985 it came to the Barbier-Mueller Museum through the Guy Lad tier auction house. Because of its de tailed carving, beadwork, and colorful past, the stool has since been included in numerous publications and exhibitions and has become associated with Barnum leadership insignia. (4) In recent years, local traders in Cameroon have schematicized and printed this image on, among other things, tablecloths: in April 2003, by chance, I had the opportunity to dine on one during a visit to Bamenda, Northwest Province, Cameroon. Thus, after about a century, the stool, appropriated in another form, has returned to Africa in this unexpected twist of local entrepreneurship (Fig. 29).

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In my own essay for the catalogue, I attempt to retrace the history of one of the dominant states in Ghana by presenting the narrative of the Golden Stool of the Asante, recounted in Ghanaian history books and printed on government posters and travel guides. At the start of the eighteenth century, a golden stool is said to have miraculously descended onto the lap of Osei Tutu, chief of Kumase (r. 1697-1718), and disparate Asante states formed a confederacy under the chief's leadership. The process of statehood that unfolded was centered on the upkeep and protection of this stool. When the British defeated the Asante and demanded the surrender of the Golden Stool, thousands of Asante--under the leadership of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother and acting chief of Edweso--joined forces against them. The telling and retelling of these stories by Ghanaian writers, high school teachers, and local historians reveal a nation defining and reaffirming itself through the hallowed image of the Golden Stool.

Few Africanist specialists are as closely associated with the study of a particular group--in this case, the Lega of Eastern Congo Basin--as Daniel Biebuyck, H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Humanities at the University of Delaware. In his essay Biebuyck writes that the kisumbi and 'ecumbe stools of ranking members of the bwami voluntary associations found among the Lega and Bembe represent a wealth of cultural values (Fig. 30). The shape of these stools, their generic names, the type of wood used, the choice of carving tools, and the various stages of carving all contribute to revealing the essence of Lega and Bembe moral principles. Biebuyck describes utebe stools of the Nyanga as the focus of numerous proscriptions and prohibitions, knowledge of which leads to deeper understanding of that culture. Citing specific examples, he describes how stools serve purposes other than repose in central African societies and why they stand as complex expressions of well-grounded philosophical values.

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Early public and private collections reflect the longstanding preference for things anthropomorphic, such as Luba and Luba-related caryatid stools from southeastern Congo. The essay by Mary Nooter Roberts, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, shows how many layers of meaning underlie the attractive appearance of these stools, and how sociopolitical and economic histories relate to the works' forms and functions. The exhibition includes a broad range of figurative and nonfigurative stools of leadership from the historically related Luba, Songye, and Hemba peoples (Fig. 31). Roberts writes that Luba royal stools, as well as those of their neighbors, are symbolic embodiments of authority, conduits for collective memory, and envoys that extend geographic and cultural borders. By explaining why, she opens up the possibility of viewing other African stools in a similar fashion. Her 1996 book Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History, written with Allen F. Roberts, surveys the institutions and forces that have shaped Luba thought and, thereafter, Luba art. Her essay and descriptive captions further enhance our understanding of this culture.

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Boris Wastiau, Curator at the Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Tervuren, grounds his essay in his personal experiences among the Luvale of Zambia. When he visits a family, he is welcomed and immediately invited to sit. What he sits on will usually depend on his relationship with the "owner of the village." In a men's meeting house, individuals are seated in order of age and importance; food and drink are always offered to the oldest first and then served down the hierarchical ladder. To sit well--kutwama kanawa, one of the most common Luvale expressions--is to enjoy both physical health and mental well-being. Wastiau explains that aspiring to a better seat is an accepted social behavior, an indication of truly "sitting well" within the hierarchy of Luvale society.

The Exhibition

Although the essays are based on fieldwork and scholarly perspectives, many of them Africa-centered in their approach, the exhibition was curated with aesthetics primarily in mind. This approach may well be viewed as a Western one. However, preference for what is aesthetically pleasing is not unique to the West and probably does not stray far from the expectations of many Africans who commissioned the pieces. Although tradition determined the general form of these chairs and stools, it will be difficult to deny that aesthetics, balance, and a fine finish were also considered in their manufacture. The concept of art, as defined in the West, may not be found in most languages of sub-Saharan Africa, but there certainly exists a deep understanding of and appreciation for what is beautiful. (5) The fine seats on display in Toulouse, the majority of which were commissioned and used by persons of authority and rank, emphasize this point.

Twenty-seven years after the Barbier-Mueller Museum opened its doors to the public, it is worth remembering that a collector's gaze provided the impetus for the formation of the initial collection, and it continues to do so today (Fig. 32). Moreover, many such ensembles of non-Western art have significantly contributed to the growth of art and anthropological museums--a trend that will continue. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that numerous art objects in public and private museums, even those in long-standing collections, largely reflect not only the temperaments of those who commissioned these pieces but also the tastes of collectors and donors to these institutions. Many of these objects are products of great artistic invention and endeavor, equal to or surpassing furniture forms found in the West. The responsibility lies with museums to situate these pieces in an objective and knowledgeable way, allowing public access to information about the peoples and traditions that prompted their manufacture and use. The collector's immediate rapport with an object--his or her gut experience of it--is often the starting point for a much larger adventure of appreciation and understanding that, through exhibitions such as this one, engages ever larger numbers of people.

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This exhibition preview is based on my introduction in the accompanying catalogue. I am indebted to James Rush and Asuncion Benitez-Rush, whose fine editorial changes considerably transformed that piece. I am particularly grateful to Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, who challenged me to take on this project and made it possible, over the last three years, for me to conduct research in the storerooms and libraries of many institutions in Europe and the United States. He also insisted that I take two trips to Africa to allow me brief but important field contacts. I thank Anne Dresskell for her professional editing of the text.

Notes

(1.) Publications on the general subject of seats and seating traditions include, among others, Brachear & Elbers 1977; Dagan 1985; Signs and Seats of Power 1986; Bocola 1995; Vendryes 1999. Among these, Vendryes's introduction offered the most insightful and useful overview.

(2.) Interview by Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller with the son of Arthur Speyer; an eminent Carman collector (May 7, 1985, Wiesbaden). The son (also named Arthur Speyer) explains that his father purchased King Njoya's stool (Fig. 28) in 1928 from Hermann Glauning, brother of Captain Hans Glauning. Archives Barbier-Mueller. See also Jean Padi Barbier-Mueller's article on this interview in Tribune des Arts (Geneva), May 7, 1986.

(3.) Sandro Bocoba edited African Seats (1993), an exhibition catalogue that included a large number of pieces from the Barbier-Mueller Museum and the Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Tervuren. The cover featured the Barbier-Mueller's beaded stool from Sultan Njoya. Although the essays are highly informative and insightful, the book provides little information on individual seats and seat traditions.

(4.) King Njoya's beaded stool appears in Bocola 19925:179, fig. 75; Falgayrettes 1993; Harter 1986: pl. 14; Meyer 1991:70; Newton & Waterfield 1995:137; Petrols 1994:23; and Schmalenbach 1988:289,

(5.) Susan Vogel writes that for many African cultures, beauty is recognized in the artists' concerns with restraint, balance, and proportion, much as it is in the West (1986:X-XII).

References cited

Benitez-Johannot, Purissima. 2001. "Art, Artifact, or Polemic? Entangled Objects on Display," Arts & Cultures 2:25-30.

Benitez-Johannot, Purissima, and Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller (eds) 2003. Sieges d'Afrique noire du Musee Barbier-Mueller. Milan: 5 Continents. English ed. forthcoming.

Bocola, Sandro (ed.) 1995. African Seats. Munich and New York: Prestel. Orig. pub. 1994 as Sieges africains (Munich and New York: Prestel).

Brachear, Robert, and Johan Elbers. 1977. Seating. New York: Tribal Arts Two.

Dagan, Esther. 1985. Man at Rest=L'Homme au repos: Stools, Chairs, Thrones, Foot-rests, Back-rests, Benches/Sieges et meubles de repos. Quebec: Centre Saidye Bronfman and Galerie Amrad Art Africain.

Falgayrettes, Christine. 1993. Formes et couleurs: Sculptures de l'Afrique noire. Paris: Dapper; La Chaux-de-Fonds: Nouvelle Imprimerie Courvoisier-Attinger.

Harter, Pierre. 1986. Arts anciens du Cameroun, Art d'Afrique noire (suppl. to vol. 40). Arnouville.

Kyerematen, Alex Atta Yaw. 1964. Panoply of Ghana: Ornamental Art in Ghanaian Tradition and Culture, London: Prager.

Meyer, Laure. 1991. Afrique noire, masques, sculptures, bijoux, Paris: Ed. Terrail.

Newton, Douglas, and Hermione Waterfield. 1995. Tribal Sculpture: Masterpieces from Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific in the Barbier-Mueller Museum, London: Thames & Hudson.

Perrois, Louis. 1994 Arts royaux du Cameroun. Geneva: Barbier-Mueller Museum.

Roberts, Mary N., and Allen F. Roberts 1996. Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History. Munich and New York: Prestel for The Museum for African Art, New York.

Schmalenbach, Werner 1988. Arts de l'Afrique noire. Munich: Prestel for Fondation Maegh, Saint-Paul de Vence.

Signs and Seats of Power: An Exhibition Organized by the Graduate Students in the Museum Practice Program, 1986. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Vendryes, Margaret Rose. 1999. "Africa in Repose: Stools and Headrests," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 88, 1-2:38-53.

Vogel, Susan. 1986. African Aesthetics: The Carlo Monzino Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams for The Center for African Art, New York.