FIKSE OG TRIKSE, ORDNE OG MIKSE! Etnografisk Kongosamling i tre epoker

Resumé

While doing fieldwork in the Democratic

Republic Congo (1982-83) the author

assembled a collection of objects from the Efe

(Mbuti Pygmy) and neighbouring Lese Dese

cultivators of the rain forest. This collection

was to contribute to the permanent African

exhibition of the Ethnographic Museum of

the University of Oslo, Norway. Secondly,

it was directed primarily at objects which

reflected the daily life of the inhabitants of

the area so as to contrast to the collections

of weapons, religious objects and emblems

of power made by Norwegians in the epoch

of the Congo Freestate and the early Belgian

Congo (1885-1918). If given the chance to

collect in this region again, the author would

delve into the fascinating and humorous

strategies applied by the bricoleurs of the

large cities of the Congo. The two existent

and the hypothetical collection may not

be so different after all. Seen in a historic

perspective, all collections attest to material

and social strategies for survival and to

strategies for making life beautiful and

pleasant. Congolese producers have had

various sources of inspiration and broad

frames of reference for their invention and

production of material culture.