Kenya

The Murumbi’s African art collection finds a home

Text & photographs by Emmanuel Mwendwa

^{_{“As serious collectors of African art and artifacts we have always felt we should make it possible for local people and tourists to appreciate artistic objects not only as decorative pieces for adorning their homes but also as a good investment. I have been trying to lobby the government for several years to allocate land for construction of a Nairobi Art Gallery without much success… yet both the present and future generations require us to do so.}”}

<sup><sub>You may think that this is a recent statement by a philanthropic resident of one of Nairobi’s wealthier suburbs. It resonates of the speech given by Dr Lumumba as recently as eighteen months ago. It certainly would not be uttered by a politician.

Or would it?

For the first time in two decades, the Africana Collection of the late Joseph Murumbi 1911-1990 former Kenyan vice-president and Pan Africanist, can be viewed in public. Unveiled recently in Nairobi, the Murumbi Gallery is the latest addition to the Kenyan capital’s artistic attractions. And significantly, it marks the coming to full circle of this African art collector.

Murumbi’s collection has been described as “Africa's best-known collection of priceless heritage and artifact For over twenty years, Murumbi spearheaded a campaign seeking to cajole the Kenyan government into establishing an art gallery in Nairobi’s central business district. His vision was captured in a speech made on 31 January 1973, at the opening of the now defunct African Heritage gallery. Perhaps ahead of his time, it is from this speech that the quotation above emanates.</sub></sup>

<sup>The bulk of his eclectic collection, which he sold to the government in 1976, ranges from oddball dabbles of art to some eye-catching etchings, pencil drawings, striking collages, captivating ceramics, beadworks, soap stone, clay, wooden sculptural art, masks, grave totems common on Kenyan coast, carved Swahili chairs, brass studded chests and rare traditional musical instruments.

A Ford Foundation grant worth US$ 50,000 facilitated the Murumbi Trust’s quest to restore, interpret, preserve and label the unique, historic collection of political, artistic, textile, material and cultural artifacts, now displayed in permanent glass showcases.

And the new gallery allows locals and visitors to Kenya to learn about and experience the continent's array of creative and cultural diversity.

Murumbi had a keen eye for now extinct African artifacts such as the timeless mono print titled ‘Young Girl’ by renowned Nigerian Muraina Oyelami. Once a sign painter, Oyelami still works with a roller, layering splashes of bold colours onto soft pastels. His work is often identified as a contemporary idiom continuation of traditional African art which had immensely inspired Pablo Picasso and other modernist European artists.</sup>

<sup>Equally impressive are the wooden masks whose gigantic heads are elongated in a traditional style. The Gelede mask was used during special ceremonies held to worship the beauty of womanhood and witchcraft among the Yoruba community. Curved and decorated with crown-like designs, these were worn as headgear at the dance ceremonies.

Also part of the collection are Yatenge masks and clay pots styled in human form common among the Bobo community from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast’s Baoule and Senoufo masks, Nimba masks from Guinea, female masks from Sierra Leone used by the Mende during young girls’ initiation rites – one of the few ceremonies in which women were allowed to wear masks.

Several cotton appliqué pieces of Nigerian artist Samuel Ojo are on display alongside the ‘Mammy Wata’ carvings, which represent a water spirit used for the purposes of entertainment and cult masquerades in eastern Nigeria. Produced by Ibibio carvers, the appliqués have mermaid-type tails while others would be wreathed in shapes of snakes meant to depict priestesses or diviners.

Paintings by one of Africa’s acclaimed living artists, Bruce Onobrakpeya, can also be viewed. The Nigerian is renowned as an innovator of varied artistic techniques such as ‘plasto casts’ or bronze lino, where cast artworks are made on print plates or low-relief linoleum finished with a bronze coating.

“Although his artistic imagery is deeply rooted in Urhobo world view, the messages conveyed through his paintings bear a universal appeal”, reads a note next to a painting dated 1973, when Onobrakpeya worked with Kenyan soap stone sculptor Elkana Ongesa prior to the opening of the African Heritage gallery.

Closer to home are Makonde ivory, stone and ebony sculptures whose distinctive shapes depict men or women in varied suggestive poses. These pieces were acquired by Murumbi from neighbouring Tanzania.</sup>

<sup>One of Kenya’s pioneer wood sculptors Francis Muthuri Amundi is represented by a piece relating the genesis of the Kikuyu community. At its base is the primordial woman in throes of childbirth while the shape of nine breasts symbolic of the females who gave birth to Mumbi and her ‘sisters’.

The maternal theme is also present in veteran Kenyan artist Rosemary Karuga’s clay sculpture ‘Mother and Child’. Other compatriots include the ceramist/clay potter Magdalene Odundo, and little-known Louis Mwaniki, whose hilarious pencil work sits besides Elkana Ongesa’s soap and granite stone sculptures.

Other sculptures from west Africa include the Guinean Anok’s bird-like pieces, soap stone sculptures from Sierra Leone,; Ivory Coast’s Senoufo sculpture depicting a Calao ancestral bird regarded as symbol of leadership, a Bawa owl mask from Burkina Faso and terra cotta clay sculptures from Cameroon. And from the other side of the continent are the Ugandan Francis Nnagenda’s gigantic wooden sculptural art and John Odoch’ameny’s molten metal sculptures.
Uganda is also represented by Eli Keyune’s oil on canvas portraits dated from 1965-67, and Sudan by gouache on goatskin art pieces by Salih Mashamoun, a former diplomat based in Nairobi in the mid-1970s.

Ethiopian ancient religious art in mural-like designs is displayed next to rare pieces of Coptic etchings.

Unofficial estimates place Murumbi’s collection at about 6,000 items and artifacts including original paintings and sculptures. But a note pinned to his personal display case points out “the collection herein is still in progress, still awaiting more memorabilia and awards given to the revered collector …these items are still in limbo in a warehouse near [Nairobi’s] Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after being stopped from being shipped out of the country…” Kenya has much to thank Joseph Murumbi for.</sup>

The Murumbi Gallery is on the ground floor of the historic Kenya National Archives building, previously occupied by the Bank of India. It is situated opposite the Hilton Hotel and next to the Ambassador Hotel. Allow yourself at least an hour to visit it.