Carlotta - the museum database

P02 :: Afrika i Amerika

Object description

År 1797 sände läkaren och ämbetsmannen Samuel Fahlberg till Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien i Sverige föremål från Saint Barthélemy och andra platser i Karibien. Ön var då en svensk koloni. I frihamnen vid Gustavia köptes och såldes slavar från Afrika.

Genom den transatlantiska slavhandeln tillfångatogs totalt så mycket som tolv miljoner afrikaner som mellan 1500 och 1800 skeppades till den Nya Världen. De svarta utgjorde mer än hälften av befolkningen på Saint Barthélemy när Fahlberg bodde där, resten var européer. Liksom på andra öar i området hade ursprungsbefolkningen taino-arawak redan upphört att existera.

Två föremål ur Fahlbergs samling påminner oss om regionens täta kontakter med Afrika genom den transatlantiska slavhandeln. En dolk avslöjar genom form och utförande att den antingen är tillverkad av afrikanska hantverkare på plats i Västindien eller importerad från Västafrika.

Stränginstrumentet banjo är ett av de kulturuttryck som slavhandelns enorma folkförflyttningar gav upphov till. Med kropp som en afrikansk kora och hals som en europeisk gitarr användes den av den Nya Världens afrikanska ättlingar till dans och underhållning.

I linje med traditionell antropologi har museets samlare ofta letat efter det typiska för en viss region och ofta inte sett eller intresserat sig för det som faller utanför normen. På Etnografiska museet förknippas Amerika främst med indiankulturerna. Kanske finns det ännu oupptäckta föremål med kopplingar till Afrika i samlingarna från Amerika!

Data elements
References (14)

Monterdel

P02

Magasinet - id

P02

Titel

Afrika i Amerika

Titel, engelska

Africa in America

Beskrivning

Beskrivning - engelska

In 1797 Samuel Fahlberg, doctor and clerk, sent some items from Saint-Barthélemy and other places in the Caribbean to the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm. The island of Saint-Barthélemy was then a Swedish colony. Slaves from Africa were traded in Gustavia’s free port. Between 1500 and 1800, no less than twelve million Africans were caught and sold in the transatlantic slave trade and were shipped to the New World. The blacks formed over half of the population in Saint-Barthélemy when Fahlberg was living there, and the rest were Europeans. Like the other islands in the area, the indigenous population, the taino-arawaks, had already ceased to exist.

Two objects from Fahlberg’s collection remind us of the close contacts with Africa as a result of the transatlantic slave trade. A dagger reveals through its shape and how it has been made that it either was produced by African craftsmen in the West Indies or was imported from West Africa.

The string instrument banjo is one of the cultural expressions created by the enormous displacement of people in the slave trade. The banjo, with a body like an African kora and neck like a European guitar, was used by the New World's African descendants for dance and entertainment.

In keeping with traditional anthropology, the museum’s collectors have often been looking for what is typical of a certain region. They have not observed or been interested in what is outside the norm. In the Museum of Ethnography America is mostly associated with the Indian cultures. Maybe there are still undiscovered objects related to Africa in our American collections!?

Belongs to Del av utställning

Magasinet - P :: Tiden går och samlingen består

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