FEATURE
the collection continued to be displayed at these
shows, but often in precarious conditions, simply
lined up on tables or hung on wall panels alongside
slogans vaunting the mission’s progress and
achievements. It was not until the 1960s that the
Spiritans, moved to do so by African independence
movements and decolonization, took the positive
step of disassociating ethnographic collections and
mission propaganda. The museum would henceforth
be a place of remembrance and exchange.
Instability and Renewal in the Spiritan Museums
After the Exposition coloniale internationale of
1931, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost deemed
it useful to move the Musée de Chevilly to Paris,
where it occupied the buildings of the Orphelins
Apprentis of Auteuil, an organization devoted to
helping young people in diffi culty. In 1960, the
Orphelins Apprentis had to move, and the Abbaye
Blanche in the town of Mortain in northwestern
France, where there was already a scholasticate, became
its new home. A museum was installed there,
but it was unfortunately soon emptied of its contents.
The abbey’s roof needed to be replaced, and
in 1968, the decision was made to sell some of the
objects to fi nance the renovations. The Spiritans left
Mortain defi nitively in 1984, and what was left of
the collections was transferred to the nearby Abbaye
Notre-Dame de Langonnet, where a new museum
was created in 1989. Not all of the Spiritan
collections were there however. Parts of them were
FIG. 23 (far right): Reliquary
guardian fi gure. Ndassa,
Gabon. 19th century.
Wood, brass, copper, iron. H: 56 cm.
Reportedly acquired in Franceville in
1916 by André-Édouard Martin.
CSSp collection.
© CSSp. Photo: Vincent Girier
Dufournier.
FIG. 24 (right):
Inscribed “Fétiche des Batégué
144
et case fétiche.”
Pencil on paper.
From Alexandre Le Roy, En passant,
croquis de route (Gabon), 1895.
© CSSp.
FIG. 25 (facing page):
Reliquary fi gure. Ambete,
Gabon/Congo. 19th century.
Wood, pigment, cowries, vegetal fi ber,
bones. H: 75 cm.
CSSp collection.
© CSSp. Photo: Vincent Girier
Dufournier.