Selling Authenticity in the Bamum Kingdom in 1929–1930

In February 1930, Eugène Pittard, the director of the ethnological museum in Geneva, sought to expand his museum's collections in an unusual manner. Instead of sponsoring an expedition to Africa or acquiring objects from former missionaries, instead of buying from established dealers in ethnographic specimens or the newer galleries that specialized in l'art nègre, Pittard wrote to an African man in Africa, a Bamum man named Mosé Yeyap (Pittard 1930) (Fig. 1).1Yeyap was the head of the relatively new artisanat in Foumban, a school and artists' cooperative founded in 1927, and he was known as a key figure for collectors seeking to acquire works of art from the Bamum kingdom. Pittard's letter explained that he “would like to assemble ... as true a picture as possible of the population of which you are a part, that is to say of the material life of this population. I am sending you by the same post [a list of] the kinds of things that would be the most interesting to have” (Pittard 1930). Pittard explained pointedly, “I insist on one point: Our intent is to have the oldest objects; those which have not been subjected to European influence.” He then listed for Yeyap the kinds of objects he had in mind: “sculpted wood masks, statues, sculpted horns, etc.... sculpted drums with carved animals or other designs. Miss Debarge [a physician known both to Pittard and Yeyap] showed me drawings on paper that you made of sculptures. Is it possible to have these sculptures themselves?” (Pittard 1930).Pittard's letter, of course, epitomizes how European arrogance and fantasy informed the collection of African art in the first decades of the twentieth century. Pittard condescendingly and absurdly schooled Yeyap about Yeyap's own culture and, by privileging his desire for “the oldest objects,” those supposedly untouched by “European influence,” Pittard revealed his adherence to the chimerical “ideal” of African cultures as isolated in time and space.In a fascinating twist, however, we also have Yeyap's response to Pittard. Yeyap answered back:Yeyap did not challenge Pittard head on. Instead, his letter adopted and reflected back some of Pittard's points of view—such as the idea that older Bamum objects were particularly “rare and precious”—while also subtly shifting the discursive terrain. Instead of making available older objects, Yeyap offered to provide Pittard with newer works from the artisanat, such as drawings.3The exchange between the two men provides a concrete example of how African actors, in this case Mosé Yeyap, were enmeshed as coproducers in the elaborate fantasies about authenticity and African objects that Europeans and North Americans were so eager to spin in the first decades of the twentieth century (Osayimwese 2013). These fantasies, of course, have been a significant factor in shaping art historical scholarship and the preferences of individual and institutional collections of African art in Europe and North America. Although art historical discourse has paid more attention to how and why such fantasies were projected onto Africans and objects from Africa, this article, by examining a group of works from the Bamum kingdom from the late 1920s, centers the field of inquiry on the strategies African actors used to shape those fantasies, reinforcing and confirming them.During the 1910s and 1920s, the quantity of African objects that became available for collectors in Europe and in the Americas increased dramatically. This sparked new concerns and generated new discourses for distinguishing among African objects based on criteria of “authenticity” (Monroe 2012:454). Earlier collectors of African objects largely took for granted that the objects they collected, purchased, or plundered reflected the cultures and aesthetic sensibilities of the people who made and used them. Therefore, for example, the German ethnologist Bernhard Ankermann, who traveled to western Cameroon in 1908, worried little about whether the objects he collected and commissioned were “authentic” (Ankermann 1910:305–306).Shortly thereafter, “authenticity” became a concern, and Europeans began distinguishing between more and less desirable objects from Africa based on new criteria.4 For instance, in late 1915 or early 1916, the New York art dealer Marius de Zayas wrote to Paul Guillaume asking him to guarantee the authenticity of a number of African objects (Biro 2010:n. 665). Multiple discourses undergirded the new concern with “authenticity.” Some theorists linked the undesirability of recent African works to ideas about degeneration (Monroe 2012:454, Coombes 1994:43–62), which had its roots in Lombroso's medical studies (Harpham 1976:288). In other circles, the discourse centered on “disruptive foreign influences” (Monroe 2012:454) as summed up by Henri Clouzot and André Leval, who succinctly asserted that “the arrival of Europeans [in Africa] has broken the chain of traditions and dried up the sources of native art” (Clouzot and Leval 1919:313, Monroe 2012:454–55).Regardless of the reasons that were given, dealers, curators, and collectors came to desire what they considered to be “authentic” African objects according to new criteria. The most desirable objects were older, preferably “precolonial” works. The most common bases for distinguishing objects that were supposedly authentic from those that were not were age and use, which supposedly left telltale traces on the surfaces and in the condition of the objects in question (Monroe 2012). Objects seen to be contemporary were disparaged. Crucially, these ideas about authenticity elided a number of separate issues. They made age synonymous with use, and use synonymous with ritual. That is, old objects were to be seen as ritual objects, sacred and powerful and hence “real.”The new criteria of “authenticity” created a paradox for African artists. The objects that were most sought by Western collectors were, by definition, the ones that African artists could not continue to make, regardless of how brilliant, talented, creative, or skilled they were.5 It was simply impossible in the present to create more old objects. By extension, works that were new were suspect. If old objects were authentic, new works had to be inauthentic, fake. By establishing criteria that differentiated between supposedly old works and more recent ones—automatically suspect as souvenirs or fakes in the galleries of Paris—art dealers were able to charge comparatively high prices for African objects (Monroe 2012:458). Similarly, collectors could feel more at ease paying the amounts demanded.6 Creating an economy of scarcity was a necessary factor in transforming African objects into expensive and desirable masterpieces.African artists, craftspeople, and dealers, such as Yeyap, were not unaware of the changing preferences of European collectors, even if they did not necessarily know the reasons behind their customers' new desires. Indeed, as Yeyap's exchange with Pittard clearly shows, European clients were not shy about voicing their wishes. They asked for old objects, preferably carved works, representing supposedly “traditional” subjects. In response to these demands, African artists and dealers—who could not make or commission more such works—pursued clearly discernible strategies to meet the changing demands of their customers with the objects that they could make.Two of these strategies can be seen at work during an exceptional series of events that took place in the last week of December 1929. Mosé Yeyap organized a number of grand festivities over three days to celebrate the visit of the French governor, Théodore Paul Marchand, and to mark Christmas for the prominent minority of Bamum people who had converted to Christianity. The festivities included a mass baptism, masquerades, and a grande manifestation in the main market square of the city across from the royal palace. King (Mfon) Njoya,7 the charismatic Bamum monarch whose relations with French colonial officials had soured since 1918, also made an appearance, arriving at the events with a large armed and mounted retinue which was dressed in vividly colored costumes. Governor Marchand arrived late. But he took the time after his arrival to tour stall after stall of work by Bamum artists as well as displays of local agricultural products.8 The next day, the staged festivities continued with more “old dances with costumes and jujus” (Huguenin 2006:329).The festivities organized by Yeyap likely served multiple purposes. They reinforced the presence and power of the Bamum Christian minority, they entertained the governor and other guests, and they presented a spectacular display of Bamum culture. But whatever their other purposes, the events were also an unparalleled opportunity to sell works by Bamum artists and artisans. Examining the events therefore provides an excellent opportunity to scrutinize the strategies Bamum artists employed to market their works.One strategy was to fashion new objects for sale in self-consciously antiquated—one could say historicist—styles. A series of photographs taken in Foumban over Christmas in 1929 by the American missionary and anthropologist George Schwab shows the kinds of objects offered for purchase at the time. The selection is not markedly different from the what was available in the late 1950s (cf. Hirschberg 1962). There was a tremendous variety on display: figural stools, masks, shields, carved figures, drums, embroidered fabrics, beaded calabashes, ivory, fantastical cast brass works, and musical instruments (Figs. 2–3). The vast majority of the pieces were not older objects, but contemporary works. Nonetheless, they resembled the kinds of objects that were known as representative of royal art from the kingdoms in the Cameroon Grassfields during the German colonial period (roughly 1900 to 1915). But by 1929 in the Bamum kingdom such objects had become anachronisms.Royal taste and patronage had and about the time that King first his own of Bamum and with and and then this to the same a large of the Bamum the also converted to or Christianity. and as a of the older of beaded figures, masks, from objects largely to be and not of the were the in the of royal patronage new art and to and These in King to a new in at the of the city of The of the employed the majority of artists and over a period of and its on not be The a from the and that had the Bamum for King had been for with new (Osayimwese as during the the French that the German colonial King his and and of the culture of the Bamum this period the of and to place and the that were largely for in the kingdom and which their own dances and were or became largely By the of the the most of his time in in his at on the and events the between I and Objects that had been made for the royal the to objects that had to expand the royal to provide objects for the or to objects that King could or sell to German and in large their and Instead, a number of works in other and such as carved with and spectacular drawings new and objects that royal taste after were not prominent among the objects for sale in Foumban in the late and early for the artisanat in the (Fig. listed objects for sale such as carved stools, sculpted beaded calabashes, and cast brass objects. The also listed such as and which the artisanat also made available in different for purchase at Although Schwab took a large number of photographs of the objects for sale in his comparatively objects or works of art in the that reflected Bamum royal taste after the photographs objects in newer or the works to a for instance, historical Bamum from masks, as well as such as the which had been on older royal objects that Schwab purchased, like his also the kinds of things that were for The missionary a of works of art and of were A were But the majority of the objects to which Schwab resembled royal objects from such as a (Fig. which resembled a of the beaded that were with Bamum at since the of King King in the Similarly, Schwab a with a of a figure embroidered with and (Fig. which is as to the royal with the to be but by 1929 the had not been in of new objects for sale that resembled older, works shows the to which artists in Foumban by 1929 to over the of more recent royal and European to create works that an in Bamum art The of these objects their to the and therefore to the demands of European and North American strategy was to use or display objects in that them. This strategy centered not on the of the objects but on in that their age or in that to their ritual The of this of course, the of age with “authenticity” by that if an was used seen to be then it be so in local culture or that it could not have been made to be to Europeans or this artists and dealers in Foumban to to fashion or to of that could be seen to to the “authenticity” of the objects they were Christmas in for instance, of the objects for sale were used in the festivities French missionary Eugène the events as dances with old the of and be it would be necessary to the of the the of the and the of the (Huguenin Schwab the events in more photographs that of the objects that were used in the festivities could also be or with that were offered for sale (Figs. instruments were and then they like were available for and so can that the use of the objects in the festivities at in part, a Although it is impossible to be it is that the masquerades, and dances were in Bamum masquerades, or from of the of the festivities in however, of the that or is to that they By the grand had to place for a number of and the also to have to for instance, that the to or It is more that the Christmas on and of and new that to like established ritual. on the however, it is not possible to what the Bamum people who in the events or about what was Nonetheless, one can that what was staged in 1929 was an of Bamum objects that were used in 1929 were not the same objects that had been used in The used in 1929 of the of Bamum masks, such as the use of and (Fig. A number of the objects had been or to German collectors, the of the Bamum collection objects and the that to were by German missionaries, and Indeed, these objects and have become sources for the art and of the Bamum kingdom in the German colonial period and The masks, and costumes that Schwab in 1929 were not the same objects in the royal collection or that had collected or a or more It is more likely that the from 1929 were to or were the objects were presented in 1929 was key to establishing their authenticity and for the foreign and It was the use of the and other objects in the festivities that their as transforming from recent works into things that were to Western collectors, or from objects into objects that could be to to the royal This can be by examining one example in The 1929 festivities mark the first of a carved and (Fig. The but not the is in the collection of the traditions in Foumban (Fig. Schwab the and In one they at the of the market the for sale were But in they are the of an elaborate (Fig. the his on the He a beaded figural and is a and an elaborate In of the man on the are two with the left are on his is a man a and a in a The to photographs of the the as a Bamum and his The is “the and The are “the and the man the is a first the and to the grand of the Bamum (Fig. The like the of a carved that as a and is by two figures, and carved and Similarly, the people Schwab in with the to to what a Bamum or have like in a with a and elaborate by people with such first are also The in a number of from royal in the Bamum kingdom. For is it was to be and the of the is of of carved The and of the and are a and of its to the that are of Bamum The of the people the is also a The costumes what to be older with newer man is his and his is an of the (Fig. The men the figure are in a that had become since the German colonial and it would have been for from the royal or to to be after King had converted to The photographs of of the Bamum royal of and of ritual taken during the German colonial as well as contemporary of fashion in the kingdom clearly that of the people Schwab in 1929 was is also that that Schwab have known that what he was could not be as he and that the of the on the by his and a was a about his time in Foumban that he had a of the in the the relations between Yeyap and King and he King a and embroidered He have known that the man on the was not the the as it were a royal it in the of an elaborate but and in that to the Bamum were that created a for the new and for the other objects in the The and that as a was to to the objects an an of “authenticity.” The photographs also created that that The the of the and the people the between and things that were made in the present to be and seen as to the staged festivities of the authenticity of the objects used in them. If the festivities were then the objects that were used in and for sale were as The festivities that the objects for even if were also to historical Bamum culture and art and could be by collectors seeking “authentic” African of festivities and the of objects in historical to have largely the Europeans and Although the foreign that the events had been for the of Governor Marchand, this did not also from that what they to Bamum for instance, wrote that the events were their and their authenticity (Huguenin Schwab back to his in the missionary in that he was the of and men clearly to have to the the in which they were the events was of the things they were the of and objects. the even as a one that their old and it a If Mosé Yeyap organized this it was to this their Yeyap's according to the to ... old that the of the (Huguenin in the that the festivities were older was The foreign these missionaries, were by a the one they were and that they to be staged with objects that had been made and were for the festivities had been organized to celebrate the visit and the Christmas not it was the time and place for Bamum the other the for the events to be more staged and the objects to be other fantasy things created to sell to them. By that they were the and of Bamum and objects, from Europe and the were able to their for the of Bamum to be the objects, and had to be In their the foreign to that the for the events was Bamum people who had not converted to or who could be from the that they that the festivities were staged for the governor and for the at to their that they were an They to the that the were shaping their about the events and the objects in them. The of the for the foreign in to Bamum that the and dances the objects with were and not in making the that the and objects were and the other were by their own fantasies, and the other Western in such as could have known whether the dances they were or the costumes Schwab Foumban for a period at the of and in the Bamum kingdom was also In of the in Foumban by 1929 had been in the Bamum kingdom for more a and those with the period in which Bamum and masquerades, as they had been between and had not taken The simply were not in a to know whether what they were were old old old or of had or the and with the it is that they were with the photographs that German had taken of and Similarly, the Western in 1929 also could not have known whether the and they were presented with were in objects. could was and the other Americans and Europeans present the events on what they have been or on their own and They could have have their festivities were a prominent of an economy of authenticity that a of the that was at with the of the art and patronage had the had been of and the Bamum had of and Christianity. Bamum art and over the period of then French colonial was by and not the strategies that Bamum artists and art dealers to the changing demands of their foreign clients and customers on an of This to authenticity made possible a of a of the paradox created by the fantasies of about African art that objects made by African artists and but if they had not been made by contemporary It made it possible for the artists of the Foumban artisanat to the new demands of Western and to market their work the new of economy of authenticity and the strategies by Bamum artists to their works George Schwab did not a works of art in Foumban in he an an by a carved shields, stools, masks, carved a brass a carved figure representing a or as well as other objects. These objects made their into the collections of as Yeyap's with Pittard the American missionary was not in to Yeyap and his artists to assemble a collection of art from the Bamum kingdom. of the photographs Schwab took in Foumban in 1929 a number of objects that were to or by Europeans and North Americans that have their into other For instance, the two such objects, a and a one other an also in one of it is not possible to be would other objects in other collections as strategies for objects that were on display over Christmas in 1929 an by Bamum people of what and a back onto European and North American of their own onto Africans in an This also African to on their and sell the objects they The of this however, Bamum artists and to be not of the historical the kingdom but also of the of their new Western clients and was the of this to objects from the Bamum kingdom or Cameroon There in to Bamum artists from also making “authentic” objects with other in the artisanat of Foumban is known not for making contemporary objects that older Bamum works of art but for its of objects that like art from other of brass in the of works from the that works from with like those from and new such as brass are made in in and the Bamum one a of the strategies that were so prominent in 1929. some of the first concrete of this extension, Bamum artists began making objects that to be from other of Africa, also can be in a exchange between Schwab and his from Foumban, Schwab wrote to his at that in to purchase the objects it was not to in “I had to him a with in or of which he and on African Yeyap to what other objects from Africa Europeans and North Americans also the letter he was able to make on his the director of the wrote back to Schwab on in 1930, he included of African also of ... as of to native 1930)

Art · Biology · Business · Kingdom · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

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