Carlotta - the museum database

Q11 :: "Köpt är köpt"

Object description

De allra flesta föremål i museets samlingar har donatorerna köpt eller bytt till sig i ursprungsländerna, medan några är gåvor. Endast en mycket liten del införskaffades genom stöld eller tvång. Men i många fall har köpet inte skett mellan två jämbördiga parter på en marknad. Vi påminns om att huvuddelen av de etnografiska museernas samlingar kom till under kolonialtiden då européerna ansåg sig överlägsna de koloniserade och dessutom hade maktmedlen att få sin vilja igenom.

Richard Sundström var kristen missionär i Eritrea kring sekelskiftet 1900 och han arbetade delvis bland Ad Shek - en folkgrupp som är fromma muslimer. Sundström berättar själv i en tidningsartikel hur han tvingar en koranskola att sälja sin skrivutrustning till honom, trots att imamen motsätter sig att sälja.

Särskilt känslig är en skrivplatta med avskrift från koranen. Efter köpet kommer imamen till Sundström och ber att få tvätta bort de heliga orden från skrivplattan, men svensken vägrar: "Hvad jag köpt, har jag köpt."

Data elements
References (8)

Monterdel

Q11

Magasinet - id

Q11

Bildarkivnummer - exemplifieras av

0044.0048

Titel

"Köpt är köpt"

Titel, engelska

"What´s bought is bought"

Beskrivning

Beskrivning - engelska

Most objects in the museum collections were bought or swapped by the donors in their countries of origin, where some of the objects also were given to them. Only a very small part was once acquired by theft or by force. In many cases, though, the purchase was not made between two equals in the market. We are reminded that the main part of the collections in museums of ethnography were formed during the colonial period, when Europeans considered themselves to be superior in relation to those who were colonized and in addition, they possessed means of coercion to get their will through.

Richard Sundström, a Christian missionary in Eritrea around the turn of the century 1900. He partly worked with the Ad Shek – an ethnic group of pious Muslims. In a newspaper article, Sundström himself tells us how he forces a Koran school to sell him its writing equipment, though the Imam is against selling.

A particularly sensitive object is a writing tablet with scripture from the Koran. After the purchase the Imam comes up to Sundström and asks to be allowed to wash off the holy words from the writing tablet, but the Swede refuses: “What I have bought, I have bought.”

Belongs to Del av utställning

Magasinet - Q :: Donerat, upphittat, överblivet

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