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

譯者: Sin Hang Sophia Leung 審譯者: Shelley Tsang 曾雯海

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

如果你住在紐約、倫敦， 或者是其他所謂的文化首都，

it’s likely that you visited an art museum

您很可能參觀過藝術博物館...

that features a collection of African art.

...收藏非洲藝術品的藝術博物館。

These collections usually consist of masks and sculptures,

這些藏品通常包括面具和雕塑，

but also include weapons and ceremonial dress,

但也有武器和禮服，

cutlery, jewelry, and even toys.

餐具、珠寶，甚或玩具。

These objects are markers of traditions and cultural beliefs,

這些物品是傳統和文化信仰的標誌，

but also of adaptation and ingenuity, science and spirituality.

也包括適應和獨創性、科學和靈性。

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

文物是人類說「我們曾經在這裡」的方式。

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

你曾否想過這些非洲物品是如何被送到博物館的呢？

Some were bought by traders and tourists,

有些是由商人和遊客購買的，

some gifts exchanged in acts of friendship

有些是在友誼的交流中作為禮物互贈的，

and some were excavated in archaeological digs.

而有些則是在考古發掘中出土。

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

但還有許多其他物品是在搶劫行動中被掠奪的。

confiscated by colonial forces and stolen at gunpoint.

被殖民軍隊沒收，或是在持槍威脅下被盗走。

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

我是一名藝術家，而我靠講故事維生。

To tell stories you need imagination and memory.

要講故事，你必須得有想像力和記憶。

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

在肯尼亞，我們的記憶中存在一個空白。

So much of what happened in between the late 1800s

有很多在19世紀末到1963年我們獨立的時期之間發生的許多事情...

until our independence in 1963 is missing

...都失蹤了。

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

因為那時候很多講述故事經過的物件都不見了。

According to a 2018 report on African cultural heritage,

根據2018年關於非洲文化遺產的報告，

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

撒哈拉以南非洲90%的物質文化遺產...

is housed outside the African continent.

...都位於非洲大陸之外。

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

對一個社會來說失去這麼多物品意味著什麼呢？

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

這意味著我們將忘記我們的宗教和靈性實踐。

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

這意味我們將忘記我們王國和英雄的名字。

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

這意味我們將忘記我們的音樂、手工藝和語言。

We forget our stories.

我們將忘記我們的故事。

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

結果是，我們接受了其他人的宗教，

並將我們自己的宗教稱為巫術。

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

我們開始吃漢堡包和義大利麵，然後貶低土著食物。

and our children begin to believe in their hearts

而我們的孩子亦將從心地相信...

that other societies have richer cultures.

..其他社會有著比較濃厚的文化。

Where do you begin to fix something like this?

如何開始修復這樣的情況呢？

One place to start is to find out exactly

我們可以從了解..

which objects are missing and where they are.

...到底是什麼物品消失了，而他們在哪裡。

In 2018, as a member of The Nest Collective

在2018年，作為 “The Nest Collective” 的成員之一，

and together the coalition of Kenyan and European museums,

和肯尼亞以及歐洲的博物館聯盟一起，

artists and researchers,

藝術家和研究人員，

we co-founded the International Inventories Programme,

共同創立了國際清單計劃。

which began creating a database of Kenyan cultural objects

該計劃開始建立現在位於非洲大陸之外的肯尼亞文化物品...

that are held outside our country.

...的數據庫。

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

我們通過電話和電子郵件聯繫了北美和歐洲的博物館，

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

詢問他們的收藏中擁有沒有任何肯尼亞文化物品。

We hosted public debates about object restitution

我們舉辦了關於物品歸還的公開辯論活動，

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

並創建展覽，將辯論引入公共領域。

And that was the easy part.

而那是簡單的部分。

The more difficult part for us Kenyans

對我們肯尼亞人來說，較為困難的部分是...

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

...閱讀最令人不安的歷史文獻和記錄。

from a time in history

那是來自歷史上的某個時期。

when Africans were on the receiving end of colonial force,

當時非洲人處於殖民力量的接收端，

受盡暴力和歧視。

Those texts are still difficult to read even today.

即使在今天，閱讀這些文本仍然很困難。

In two years, we collected data

在兩年內，

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

我們從這些機構收集了超過32000物件的資料。

and that might seem like a huge number,

那看似是大數目，

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

單還有很多機構還沒有給我們回覆。

And that’s just Kenya.

而那只是肯尼亞。

They are 46 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa

在撒哈拉以南非洲還有其他46個國家...

that have experienced a similar extraction of objects.

...也經歷了類似的物品流失。

Our next step is to publish this database online,

我們的下一步是將這個數據庫在網上發布，

so the data is accessible to community leaders

以便一些一直為物品歸還進行運動的社區領袖...

who have been campaigning for the return of sacred objects,

...可以輕易地存取這些數據。

but also for every teacher, researcher and citizen

也是讓各位希望知道我們遺失了什麼物品...

who wants to find out what we are missing

...在哪裡可以找到物品的

and where it can be found.

...老師、研究人員和市民可以閱取資料。

We are not the only initiative of our kind.

我們不是唯一的這類倡議。

Across Africa and Asia, there are other projects

在非洲和亞洲，還有其他類似的項目...

asking similar questions about their cultural heritage.

...也有著相似的文化傳承問題。

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

我們的希望是能夠激勵北美和歐洲的機構...

to rethink the morality of their collections.

...讓他們重新思考他們收藏物品的道德。

We are asking them to account for the violent histories

我們要求他們...

of some of the objects in their collections

...透過更真實地表示收藏品...

by labeling their collections more truthfully.

...來解釋其收藏中某些物品的暴力歷史。

We are asking them to return objects that were improperly acquired

我們要求他們歸還以不當方式獲得的物品，

back to the communities that need them.

讓它們回到需要它們的社區。

We are asking them to trust African museums

我們要求他們信任非洲博物館...

to store objects on behalf of the people of Africa.

...可以代表非洲人民儲存物品。

There can be no collective identity without collective memory.

沒有集體記憶就沒有集體身份。

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

因此，我們要求我們的物品幫助我們記住我們是誰。

Thank you.

謝謝大家。