116 FIG. 18 (above): Cult hooks offered for sale at Bekapeki village, April River, 1972. Photo courtesy of Barry Craig, image ref BK12:18. FEATURE number of items from the Kjersmeiers after the couple’s trip to French West Africa, including several dance crests.29 His entry in the guestbook includes a fi ne drawing of a dance crest followed by the comment, “With gratitude for many pleasant evenings.” Five of the dance crests that went to Sunde were resold to the Swedish collector Benkt-Åke Benktsson and later purchased by the Kulturen museum in Lund, Sweden (fi gs. 11, 19, and 23).30 FRENCH WEST AFRICA Not content with simply buying from dealers, the Kjersmeiers became interested in exploring Africa and collecting objects within the context in which they were conceived, created, and used. They organized a trip to what was then French FIG. 21 (right): Dance crest, chi wara. Bamana, Mali or Burkina Faso. Before 1932. Wood. H: 55 cm. Collected in situ, French Sudan, 1931–32. Ex Kjersmeier Collection; Lau Sunde, Copenhagen; Flemming Falch Christiansen, 1984. Private collection. Their trip to West Africa lasted from November 1931 to April 1932, and it was a turning point for both of them. Prior to the journey Kjersmeier learned some of the Bamana language through self-study, since it was available in translation via French. As a result, he was able to have limited conversations with the locals. The experiences of their trip were recounted upon their return in Kjersmeier’s 1932 book titled Paa fetischjagt i Afrika : 6000 km. i automobil gennem Fransk Sudan, Øvre Volta og Guinea (On Hunting Fetishes in Africa, 6000 Km by Automobile Through French Sudan, Upper Volta, and Guinea).32 Part of their preparation for the trip included obtaining several written recommendations from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where the Kjersmeiers later exhibited selected African objects from their collection. In discussing the intent of the trip, Kjersmeier states, “The main task of our journey was to study the art of the Bamana, particularly the socalled sogoni koun … They were represented in European museums only in a few numbers and, as strange as it sounds, there had never been a paper written on the subject that one could take seriously.”33 His remarks clarify the purpose behind the journey, which was to bring attention to these then largely unknown dance crests. The Kjersmeiers collected some 300 objects on the journey, including fi fty-six sogoni koun and chi wara dance crests. More than half of these, thirty-four examples, were either sold or given away to private collectors, dealers, and museums. One went to the Musée de l’Homme in FIG. 20 (below): Dance crest, chi wara. Bamana, Mali. Before 1932. Wood. H: 26 cm. Collected in situ, Famana, 1932. Ex Kjersmeier Collection. Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark, inv. G8038. West Africa, focusing on the areas that today are Burkina Faso, the Republic of Guinea, and Mali, with the intent of studying and collecting original and authentic African objects fi rsthand. As Kjersmeier put it: “After fi fteen years of preoccupation with negro art, I would fi nally have the opportunity to study it in its homeland.”31 It was no coincidence that this part of French West Africa was the destination, since Kjersmeier considered the area to be home to the societies that he considered to be the most artistically gifted in Africa, namely the Habbe (Dogon), Bamana, and Baga.
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