Prevention over Cure: The Museum of Civilization of Côte d’Ivoire

PREVENTION OVER CURE: THE MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE

Sarah Hugounenq

Sunday, November 28, 2010. As the second round of presidential election voting came to an end, Côte d’Ivoire retired for the night with two presidents. The political crisis was deep, and violent clashes would go on to rock the country for five months. Against this backdrop, the situation for the Museum of Civilization of Côte d’Ivoire elicited little interest. With its particularly poor location at the entrance of the Plateau district, where the presidential palace is situated, and next to the military headquarters, Côte d’Ivoire’s most important museum was nevertheless a sizeable collateral victim. Looters walked off with 121 works, including sacred objects, royal insignia, ornaments, traditional textiles, and Sénufo and Wè statuettes and masks. Even worse, the entire collection of solid gold objects – 17th century Baoulé pendants, crowns, and fly whisks – were stolen and most likely melted down. “An entire part of Ivorian history was erased, as this material was closely tied with life of our country,” deplores Dr. Silvie Mémel-Kassi, the museum’s director. She continues: “My greatest fear is that history will repeat itself with the elections planned for fall 2020. I have flashbacks to the 2010 scenario, with its electric environment, incendiary speeches, and political turnarounds. In 2018, in front of the museum’s wooden doors, so easy to kick in, I started seeking out ways to forestall another potential crisis.”

“An entire part of Ivorian history was erased, as this material was closely tied with life of our country.”

Dr. Silvie Mémel-Kassi, Director of the museum

While the state-run museum lost a portion of its flagship objects, the collection still holds some 16,000 pieces retracing Ivorian artistic history from prehistoric times to today, and draws nearly 100,000 visitors annually, as opposed to a mere 8,000 in 2006 and 30,000 just prior to the post-electoral crisis. Over the course of conversations with professionals from international museums, ALIPH’s name was mentioned to Mémel-Kassi. “I was told that it was a new foundation based in Switzerland. I knew that there were organizations in the field of museums and heritage, but to be honest, it’s hard to gain access to them. I sent a letter without getting my hopes up, and ALIPH got back to me within a few weeks!” All of the ingredients were there – a proven threat, an emergency context, heritage-related significance, the involvement of local actors including the Ministries of Culture and Francophonie – for the Genevabased foundation to step up in the blink of an eye. Well-versed in protection and reconstruction efforts in war-torn Middle Eastern countries, ALIPH took advantage of this operation in West Africa to recall the importance of prevention and responsiveness as the building blocks of its action. The project benefited from the exceptional emergency relief procedure, allowing for the quick unblocking of a budget of up to USD 75,000. The partnership initiated with the Fondation TAPA, an organization providing support for the development of African museums, led to the installation of eight security doors to exhibition galleries and storerooms between August and December 2019.

“Without ALIPH, nothing would have changed. Their grant was more than the amount of our annual budget! Their intervention will go down in the annals.”

But what good is a state-of-the-art lock if inside the works are not conserved in the best possible conditions? “Our wooden cabinets dating to 1942 were infested with xylophagous insects that were contaminating the works,” the director relates. “Without ALIPH, nothing would have changed. Their grant was more than the amount of our annual budget! Their intervention will go down in the annals.” The decrepit storage furniture was removed and are being replaced with more practical and suitable metal shelving and carts. The storerooms were reorganized by object type. Although the COVID-19 crisis has halted operations, this new organization will facilitate the research and digitization projects undertaken each year by 350 international students, including students from the Sorbonne. At a time of debate on the restitution of African heritage held in Europe, the improvement of conservation standards is a substantial argument. The securing of the Museum of Civilization of Côte d’Ivoire has made an impact with its pragmatism, responsiveness, and simplicity – demonstrating that there is no need to launch multimillion-dollar projects to be quickly effective in the field for the long term.