ART on View 100 It is the outcome of the project “Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks, and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone,” directed by anthropologist Paul Basu. Another is the Indiana University Liberian Collections project, which has attempted to recreate, in part, the Liberian National Archives that were largely destroyed during that country’s civil wars. The collections were started informally in the early 1990s at the university’s Archives of Traditional Music by the ethnomusicologist Ruth Stone and have grown with the donations of archives assembled by Liberian specialists, including anthropologists Svend Holsoe and Warren d’Azevedo and, most recently, by Bill Siegmann. History has shown that culture is always in flux and that the past and “tradition” are in a perpetual state of redefinition. Some changes are for the better. For example, the practice of clitoridectomy has traditionally been performed on pubescent girls during the seclusion phase of their initiation into the Sande Society. In recent years, both Liberia and Sierra Leone have officially restricted the practice— Liberia by banning it altogether and Sierra Leone by outlawing it for females under age eighteen. Other aspects of the initiation practices of Liberia and Sierra Leone have also been experiencing ongoing change, and the accompanying masks and accoutrements have been evolving to take on new forms and roles. The objects Bill Siegmann collected and preserved thus present a singular opportunity to reflect upon the balance achieved between honoring the past and adapting to the future. Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone 20 September 2014–8 February 2015 Minneapolis Institute of Arts Minneapolis, MN artsmia.org 7 March 2015–20 May 2015 Indiana University Art Museum Bloomington, IN www.iub.edu Summer 2015 High Museum of Art Atlanta, GA www.high.org Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone Edited by Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers and Alexander Bortolot Published in English by University of Washington Press, 2014 240 pp, 8.7” x 10” ISBN-13: 9780989371810 Softcover, $39.95 FIG. 13 (left): Couple. Sapi peoples, mahen yafe style, Sierra Leone. Probably 14th–17th century. Stone. H: 25.4 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Used with permission. FIG. 14 (below): Figure, pomdo. Kissi, Guinea or Liberia. Probably 14th–17th century. Stone. H: 15.2 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Used with permission. FIG. 15 (facing page bottom left): Amara, also known as Pa Jobo (c. 1900–1970), female figure. Mende, Sierra Leone (town of Mano-Penubo, Bo District). Mid-20th century. Wood. H: 44.5 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Gift of William Siegmann, inv. 2011.70.47. Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Arts. his death in 1970. While at least twenty masks by Pa Jobo are known, only four of his figures, including this one, have been identified to date. According to Siegmann’s notes, the figure was probably kept by a chief or prominent female elder as a symbol of their role in protecting and promoting the women’s Sande Association. Also fascinating is the information Siegmann collected about a Dan entertainment mask in the Liberian town of Nyor Diaple (fig. 16). He photographed the mask in 1983 (fig. 17) and learned that it was called “Hawk” and that it had been made to replace a mask called “Eagle.” “Eagle” had been banished from the town because its owner had sold a mask from his family without having the right to do so. “Hawk” was made as a copy of “Eagle” and it took on all the musicians and attendants of “Eagle.” In the end there was a reconciliation between the owner of “Eagle” and the townspeople, after which it was agreed that both masks would be sold. “Hawk” was bought by Siegmann, who preserved both the object and its story of origin. Other important preservation efforts in the Sierra Leone/Liberia region include a large body of photographs documenting art and social practices—both historical and contemporary—being utilized through several initiatives whose aim is to foster better understanding of the cultural legacy of the many peoples who live there. One such initiative, SierraLeoneHeritage.com, is an online digital archive of Sierra Leonean artworks in museum collections in both that country and the United Kingdom.
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