The University of Cambridge has identified approximately 350,000 African artefacts in its collections, ranging from human remains and manuscripts to natural history specimens and photographs. Most of these items, many acquired during British colonization, have remained in storage for decades, largely unseen by the public.
Dr. Eva Namusoke, the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Senior Curator of African Collections Future, led a 15-month project to locate and catalog these items. Her work involved collaboration with librarians, curators, and archivists across the university. While it is common for large institutions to keep the majority of their collections in storage, Dr. Namusoke expressed surprise at the scale and diversity of the findings, which span the entire African continent.
A Colonial Legacy
The artefacts include Maasai armlets donated by colonial administrators, a gold necklace looted from Ghana during the Third Anglo-Asante War (1873-4), and objects linked to the 1897 British-led punitive campaign in Benin. Many items were stolen, confiscated, or looted, though others were purchased, gifted, or commissioned.
One notable example is a spring hare collected during the Boer War (1899-1902), a bitter colonial conflict between the British Empire and Afrikaans-speaking Boers. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology also holds 116 objects connected to the Benin Kingdom’s plunder.
“The 19th-century scientific method of collecting was deeply intertwined with colonization,” Dr. Namusoke noted. Relationships between colonial administrators and researchers often facilitated the transfer of artefacts, such as dodo skeleton bones from Mauritius.
Contributions of African Labor
Dr. Namusoke’s research highlights the overlooked contributions of African labor and expertise in gathering many of these specimens. African workers served as translators, trackers, hunters, and preparers of artefacts, often using their local knowledge and skills.
For example, in 1930s Cameroon, men tracked animals and spent hours collecting spiders and snails for scientific study. “The focus has been on European scientists, while the intellectual, physical, and creative labor of Africans has been largely ignored,” she said.
Moving Forward
The university hopes the project will encourage further research and collaboration with African scholars. Dr. Namusoke aims for these artefacts, currently dispersed across eight museums, the Botanic Garden, and university archives, to be more accessible and widely studied in the future.
This effort is part of a broader initiative to address the university’s relationship with colonization and its role in the exploitation of African resources and knowledge.
