Jim Chuchu: Why are stolen African artifacts still in Western museums? | TED

翻译人员: chuuy Chen 校对人员: suya f.

If you live in New York or London or some other so-called cultural capital,

如果你住在纽约、伦敦 或者其他所谓的文化之都

it’s likely that you visited an art museum

那你很有可能去过

that features a collection of African art.

以非洲艺术藏品为特色的博物馆

These collections usually consist of masks and sculptures,

这些藏品通常有面具、雕塑

but also include weapons and ceremonial dress,

也包括武器、节日服饰

cutlery, jewelry, and even toys.

刀、珠宝、玩具。

These objects are markers of traditions and cultural beliefs,

这些物品不仅是传统和文化信仰的标志

but also of adaptation and ingenuity, science and spirituality.

也是人类的适应性与独创性， 科学与精神的标志

Cultural objects are the way that human beings say, “We were here.”

文物是人类表达“我们存在过”的方式

Have you ever wondered how these African objects ended up in museums?

你是否想过为什么这些 非洲文物会出现在博物馆里？

Some were bought by traders and tourists,

有些是商人和旅行者购入的

some gifts exchanged in acts of friendship

有的是展示友谊而交换的礼物

and some were excavated in archaeological digs.

还有的是考古现场挖掘出来的

But then there are many others that were looted during raids,

但是还有很多的文物是被抢劫掠夺，

confiscated by colonial forces and stolen at gunpoint.

被殖民者没收，在枪口下被偷走的。

I’m an artist and I tell stories for a living.

我是一个艺术家，以讲故事为生。

To tell stories you need imagination and memory.

讲故事需要想象和记忆。

And in Kenya, we have a gap in our memory.

在肯尼亚，我们的记忆里有一个缺口。

So much of what happened in between the late 1800s

从19世纪末期到 1963 年肯尼亚取得独立，

until our independence in 1963 is missing

期间发生的许多事都被人遗忘了。

because too many of the objects that tell the stories from that period are gone.

因为能讲诉这段时期故事 的很多东西都遗失了。

According to a 2018 report on African cultural heritage,

2018年发布的一份关于 非洲文化遗产的报告表示，

90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy

90%的撒哈拉沙漠以 南非洲国家的物质文化遗产

is housed outside the African continent.

都没有留存在非洲大陆。

What does it mean for a society to lose so many objects?

这对一个丢失了这么多文物 的社会来说意味着什么呢？

It means that we forget our religions and our spiritual practices.

这意味着我们忘记 我们的宗教信仰和精神修行。

It means that we forget the names of our kingdoms and heroes.

这意味着我们忘记 我们过去的国家和英雄的名字。

It means that we forget our music, our crafts and our languages.

这意味着我们忘记 我们的音乐、技艺和语言。

We forget our stories.

我们忘记我们的故事。

And as a result, we adopt other people’s religions

最终，我们以他人的信仰为信仰，

称自己的信仰为巫术。

We start to eat burgers and pasta and look down on our indigenous foods

我们开始吃汉堡和意面， 看轻我们的传统饮食，

and our children begin to believe in their hearts

我们的后代开始打心底相信

that other societies have richer cultures.

其他社会拥有更丰富的文化。

Where do you begin to fix something like this?

你要从哪里开始修补如此破碎的社会呢？

One place to start is to find out exactly

这个工作的一个起点是

which objects are missing and where they are.

找出哪些物品遗失了并找到它们在哪儿。

In 2018, as a member of The Nest Collective

2018年，作为“巢组织“的成员，

and together the coalition of Kenyan and European museums,

通过与肯尼亚以及欧洲的博物馆、

artists and researchers,

艺术家、研究员合作。 我们共同创立了“国际清单计划”，

we co-founded the International Inventories Programme,

which began creating a database of Kenyan cultural objects

该项目开始创建流落在外国的

that are held outside our country.

肯尼亚文物数据库

We called and e-mailed museums across North America and Europe,

我们向北美和欧洲博物馆 致电、发送邮件，

asking them if they had any Kenyan cultural objects in their collections.

询问它们的藏品中是否有肯尼亚文物。

We hosted public debates about object restitution

我们举办了以文物归 还为主题的公开辩论，

and created exhibitions to bring the debate into the public sphere.

开办了相关展览， 把这场辩论带到公众视野中。

And that was the easy part.

这是我们工作中容易的那部分。

The more difficult part for us Kenyans

更加困难的部分，是我们作为肯尼亚人

was having to read through the most troubling historical texts and records

阅读那些让我们痛苦的历史文本和记录

from a time in history

它们来自一个特殊的历史时期，

when Africans were on the receiving end of colonial force,

那时的非洲是殖民统治、

暴力和歧视的对象。

Those texts are still difficult to read even today.

即使在现在，阅读那些 文本还是会让人痛苦。

In two years, we collected data

在两年内，我们收集了 超过 32000 件

on more than 32,000 objects held by these institutions,

北美、欧洲博物馆馆藏文物的数据，

and that might seem like a huge number,

这看起来似乎是很大的一个数字，

but there are many other institutions that haven’t yet replied to our requests.

但是还有很多博物馆 并没有回复我们的请求。

And that’s just Kenya.

这仅是肯尼亚的现状。

They are 46 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa

在撒哈拉以南的非洲， 还有 46 个国家的文物

that have experienced a similar extraction of objects.

也流落在外。

Our next step is to publish this database online,

下一步，我们将在线上发布数据库。

so the data is accessible to community leaders

不管是积极督促丢失 圣物回归的社区领导者，

who have been campaigning for the return of sacred objects,

还是想要弄明白我们遗失了什么，以及

but also for every teacher, researcher and citizen

我们遗失的东西在哪儿 的教师、研究员、民众，

who wants to find out what we are missing

都可以查看这些数据

and where it can be found.

We are not the only initiative of our kind.

我们并不是唯一一群寻找丢失文物的人。

Across Africa and Asia, there are other projects

在非洲和亚洲，还有很多项目

asking similar questions about their cultural heritage.

都在对本国的文化遗产提出相同的问题。

Our hope is that we can provoke institutions in North America and Europe

我们希望我们的行动 可以让北美和欧洲的博物馆

to rethink the morality of their collections.

重新思考它们拥有的藏品的道德性。

We are asking them to account for the violent histories

我们要求这些博物馆为 部分文物附上真实的介绍，

of some of the objects in their collections

说明它们身上所承载的暴力历史。

by labeling their collections more truthfully.

We are asking them to return objects that were improperly acquired

我们要求这些博物馆把通过 不正当手段取得的文物

back to the communities that need them.

还给需要它们的社群。

We are asking them to trust African museums

我们要求这些博物馆相信非洲的博物馆

to store objects on behalf of the people of Africa.

可以代表非洲人民保存这些文物。

There can be no collective identity without collective memory.

没有集体记忆，就没有集体身份。

So we are asking for our objects to help us remember who we are.

因此，我们需要我们的文物 来帮我们记住我们是谁。

谢谢。

Thank you.