Merging Past and Present in the Museums ofHarar, Ethiopia

BELLE ASANTE TARSITANI
Kyoto University

This research involves the fields of socio-cultural anthropology, material culture studies, andmuseology, and employs a multifaceted conceptual framework to view the nature of transactions
between people and the objects in their environment. Specifically, this research documents theinteractions among community members pertaining to the cultural objects managed by the museums ofHarar, Ethiopia. In Harar, the multi-ethnic community has worked cooperatively andwith limited resources to effectively manage tradition and modernity in the museum context.
Based on case studies of four museums, the findings illustrate that the management of material
culture in local Mrican museums need not be storehouse practices, without intended goals, atboth the individual and communal levels. The objects in Harar's collections are, in fact, catalysts
through which people define and redefine themselves. The present analysis also demonstrates
that not all Mrican museum collections have been initiated or maintained with Western models
in mind. Instead, the present study reveals that the formal and informal activities that were
initiated indigenously and integrated into the custodianship of local museums in Harar exemplify contemporary adaptations of cultivating practices that were built upon indigenous aesthetic
preferences and local systems of alliances.
Keywords: museums, heritage, community participation, Harar, Ethiopia

1. INTRODUCTION
Historically, studies of Mrican museums have tended to focus on activities in national capitals, andin-depth studies of museums in smaller municipalities are infrequent and recent. The present article
is based on research0 > that attempts to illustrate local-level cooperation between institutional, community, and individual actors involved in heritage management in Mrica through the documentationof heritage conservation in publicly accessible museums in Harar, Ethiopia, located 525 km east of
the capital Addis Ababa.
It is the author's premise that the collections of material culture in Harar's museums reflect aspectsof a dynamic and significant urban culture. The relevance of these museums to their visitors is especially pronounced because of the perceived connection between the heritage collections and the contemporary culture of the city. Perhaps it is no coincidence that regional officials often promote Hararas "a living museum", giving voice to a view of the city as a cultural mosaic that merges past traditions
with modem practices. In Harar, one finds a multi-ethnic community that holds in high regard boththe traditional artifacts of the city and the innovative creations of contemporary artisans. Indeed,material heritage is typically reflective of the wider socio-cultural characteristics of its intended audience. Likewise, the esteem given to a variety of traditional arts in Harar, be they antiques maintainedin a local museum or decorative and functional household objects in the city, reflects the community's

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies 13: 1-16 (2009)
Copyright© 2009.Japan Association for Nilo-Ethiopian Studies

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desire to maintain these objects and, to various degrees, the valuations associated with them. At
the same time, the willingness of local artisans, curators, and administrators to adopt agendas thatapproach modernization and promote current cultural trends also reflect the community's desire to
draw alongside competitors in the global arena, where the "economics of culture" invite participation.
In essence, the museums of Harar have served, in part, as community-sanctioned forums of publicmemory and venues for the expression of contemporary aspirations.
In the course of this paper, the author will show ways in which local actors have worked cooperatively and with limited resources to effectively manage tradition and modernity in the museum context. Based on examples from Harar, this study will argue that national and international proposals
for museum expansion or modification should take a cautious approach to introducing new schemes,
and should not prioritize tourist-market preferences in creating new models for museums that mimicWestern archetypes. Moreover, this study makes the claim that it is imperative that cultural development proposals incorporate sustainable programs that do not undermine indigenous systems of alliance, which have, heretofore, exemplified the grass-roots conservation of material culture in Mrica.

2. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONSThis multidisciplinary research involves the fields of socio-cultural anthropology, material culture
studies, and museology, and employs a multifaceted conceptual framework to view the nature oftransactions between people and the objects in theirenvironment.<2 > Rochberg-Halton's (1979, 1980)
concept of cultivation, which concerns the modes of meaning that engage people with objects, is acentral idea in this study, where subject matter disciplines (art history, material culture, anthropology), museum practices, and social organizations are all equally considered. As Csikszentmihalyi andRochberg-Halton have succinctly explained,
Cultivation involves both senses of the verb "to tend": to take care of or watch over ... , in otherwords, "to attend to"; and also to proceed or be directed on some course or inclination ... , thatis "to intend" some aim. Indeed, cultivation-the improvement, development, refinement, or
resultant expression of some object or habit of life due to care, training, or inquiry-comes closest to the original meaning of the term culture, although most contemporary theories of culture
exclude this aspect in favor of a rather static "symbol system" approach ... (Csikszentmihalyi andRochberg-Halton 1981: 173)
The concept of cultivation is pertinent to this study of an urban Mrican community because, contrary
to popular misconceptions, conservation and management of material culture in local museums need
not entail simple storehouse practices that have no intended goals at individual or communal levels.
This said, neither have all Mrican museum collections been initiated or maintained with Westernmodels in mind. On the contrary, the educational programming, craft activities, and community involvement that have been indigenously initiated and integrated into custodianship at local museums
in Harar exemplify contemporary adaptations to cultivating practices that are built upon indigenous
systems of alliances and organizations. Similarly, the collections in Harar were gathered according tolocal aesthetic preferences, and traditional methods of arrangement and maintenance were employedin these facilities long before the intervention of international groups, who have recently influenced
the management of the collections.

TARSITANI: Merging Past and Present in the Museums ofHarar, Ethiopia

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3. MUSEUMS IN AFRICA VS. MUSEUMS FOR AFRICANS
3.1. BackgroundThe early establishment of museums in places like America, India, and Mrica followed colonial visions of what constituted a museum and were based on the precedents set in the early museums ofwestern and northern Europe. As such, their collections tended to reflect conventional Western
art-historical assumptions. (J) In fact, the historical role of museums in an Mrican context is tied tonotions of "collecting the other" for a selected, often elite audience. Indeed tropical Mrica's early
public museums were formed during the colonial period and were very much reflective of a colonial
mentality that objectified the exotic (or fantastic) otherness of peoples of the area, while serving asforums for justifying colonial prerogatives (Visona et al. 2001, Gaugue 2001).
The early curators of museums in Mrica were European, and only occasional, rudimentary museum work was assigned to indigenous persons. Later, with the independence of Mrican states in the20th century, the museums were transferred to indigenous management, the agents of which lacked
museum administrative and curatorial experience. As a result, even decades after independence,
visitors to Mrican museums continued to be elite persons, and the style of exhibitions and captions
for displayed objects retained references to the "tribalism" of the material heritage. It appeared that
Mrican museums were destined to inherit the forms ofinstitutional presentations of artifacts, as wellas colonial constructs of which items were appropriate for a museum context.
3.2. Post-colonial Trends
There have been efforts made to transform Mrica's colonial era museums into centers that promoteresearch into national customs and cultures and, in recent decades, Mricans have established entirely
new museums at the national level, opting to promote patriotism or national agendas. As Anne
Gaugue explains:
Following the independence of Mrican states, their leaders used museums as instruments topromote Mrican unity, or in most cases, national unity, to serve their geopolitical plans. The
history museum became an idea of nationhood. However, the description of events after independence was usually limited to the actions of the president or the party in power at the timeof inauguration. Museums thus became places devoted to the self-legitimization of power andinstruments of political propaganda. (Gaugue 2001: 26)
Of late, changes have been introduced, albeit slowly, aimed at breaking away from an emphasis on acabinet of curiosities and initiating, instead, a shift toward presenting regional and local perspectives
in the museum context. With this important restructuring in native Mrican museology, and witha long history of complex association between vernacular arts and communities in Mrica, it is nowonder that contemporary Mrican museums now often have collections that are endowed with arange of such cultural craft objects. Although the collections themselves were often built upon theearly colonially-influenced compilation of artifacts, the post-colonial trend has increasingly favoredalternative indigenous presentations of museum holdings.
Certainly, by the last two decades of the 20th century, Mrican museum specialists (on the continent and around the world) had expanded the question of how to recreate Mrican collections
in order to move beyond the colonial legacy. In the early 2tst century, Mrican museum specialists
continue the initiative to authenticate the intellectual complexity of Mrican forms, recognizing what
Csiksentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981) have articulated, that cultural objects, especially thosethat are intentionally displayed, constitute emotionally-laden and important aspects of social behavior and that, "The things with which people interact are not simply tools for survival, or for making
survival easier and more comfortable. Things embody goals, make skills manifest, and shape theidentities of their users" (Csiksentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981: 1).

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3.3. Imminent Challenges
Despite recent advances in African museology discourse, persistent misconceptions and mistaken
evaluations remain regarding the current nature, missions, and concerns of museums in Africa, especially among social scientists. But, as Irvine (1999: 54) has apdy noted, "The worldwide museum
community is relatively small. The common concerns and issues are often widespread while theconditions in which they exist may be very different." Likewise, many topics of interest in the worldwide museum community are simultaneously being debated among African museologists; African
museum specialists are actively contributing to these global debates, as well as initiating their own
continent-relevant discourses among themselves.
Not only are today's African museum specialists shunning colonial models and expanding educational programs (Irvine 1999; Ginsburgh & Mairesse 1997) they are also aiming for community-relevant displays. Constructive attempts are being made within Africa and from the international community of museums to help facilitate situations in which African curators, educators, and community
members can work toward developing indigenous expressions that are inclusive of living traditions,in a dynamic museum context that reflects the outstanding, but also the everyday experiences, of thecommunity. In short, African museums, like their counterparts around the world, are questioning thesocial relevance of museums and museology as an academic discipline in the local and global context.
They are asking, what is and what should be the role of the museum in the community?

4. EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS OF ART IN ETHIOPIA
When considering the more recent 201h century developments in African museums, it is importantto point out how Ethiopia differs from its African neighbors in some important respects in order
to avoid overgeneralizations that might result from a too-general supposition of commonalities. Asa case in point, Ethiopia has maintained notable exceptions to African patterns, which (granting
temporary occupations by Egyptians, Italians, and others, as well as waves ofimmigration from contiguous lands) has allowed for the relatively undisturbed cultivation and transformation ofindigenous
cultural features among its plethora of ethno-linguistic groups, which to this day display a wealth of
unique cultural clusters throughout the country. Yet, despite Ethiopia being the exception to colonization by western powers in Africa, early Ethiopian museum collections in the former imperial
capitals still reflected an elitist mentality.<4>
Of course, aesthetic appreciation of vernacular arts by Ethiopians is not new. Indeed, the diversityof art forms in Ethiopia represents the creative materialization of culture, serving as tangible expressions of ideas held by individuals and communities. Moreover, these artistic materializations areclosely linked with intangible manifestations of heritage. For centuries, these arts have been craftedby men and women who have dynamically applied their skills, learned via formal and informal apprenticeships, to provide functional and symbolic objects to their community. Various informed communities have appraised these works and afforded higher or lower status to both the objects and theirmakers. Thus, the artisan as "producer" and the community as "consumer" have traditionally been
joint custodians of material heritage.< 5> As customary custodians, the artisans and the community
chose to "store" vernacular arts within the private settings of homes or religious buildings when they
were not in use for routine or ceremonial activities.
However, the institutional presentation of art, both antique artd contemporary, in Ethiopian museums and public places only began in the last half-century. As Silverman makes clear:
The concept of "art" is a recent introduction to Ethiopia even though objects of exceptional
aesthetic quality have been produced in all Ethiopian societies for a long time. The reason that"art" has appeared in Ethiopia only recendy is because prior to the present century there were no
traditions that isolated specific things to serve primarily as objects of aesthetic contemplation.
(Silverman 1999: 5)

TARSITANI: Merging Past and Present in the Museums of Harar, Ethiopia

5Regardless of the innovation involved in the institutional housing of arts in Ethiopia, this new formof display has taken root and is being mimicked throughout the country by community groups, individuals, and government bodies. Currendy, there are attempts to integrate contemporary and historical aspects of material heritage in venues accessible to community members living outside of thenation's capital. In the city of Harar, the latest trend in Ethiopian museums is thriving, i.e., everyday
arts found in local communities are the focus of many collections, reflecting the interests of the local
community, curators, and museum visitors. Harar's four museums illustrate Ethiopia's new mode: local museums that allow regional communities to express their own agency in heritage management.

5. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN MUSEUM ACTIVITIES:CASE STUDIES FROM HARAR
5.1. Ada Gar, Harari Culture House(6)In the late 1970s, local mosques took on the task of arranging celebrations ofHarari cultural activities
as part of their charitable contribution (Wakj). According to Ahmed Zekaria (n.d.), initially, a provisional Waifcommittee solicited financial and material endowments from the community to contribute to an exhibition ofHarari material culture, music, and dance, which traveled between Harar, Dire
Dawa, and Jijiga and coincided with the anniversary of the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie I
on 12 September 1974. These traveling cultural tours were so successful that the organizing committee decided, by 1980, that a permanent display based on this traveling exhibit should be establishedwithin the town itself, so that Harari culture might be publicly celebrated throughout the year. Thus,a permanent community-run cultural project was founded in the former home of a religious judge(qadi) ofHarar, whose office dated back to c.1865-1899.(7)Much of the responsibility for the research into traditional Harari architecture and material culture
required for the establishment of this permanent collection fell to local historian and Harari scholar
Abdulmuhaymin Abdulnasir, who spent six months drawing up a plan for renovating the building,located just east of the ]ami Mosque on the main road to the Argo Beri gate. Mter thorough researchand six months of renovation, the historic residence was transformed into '~da Gar"
 (Harari culture house), which was dedicated to exhibiting the material culture of the Harari ethnic group. Mr.
Abdulmuhaymin's commitment to this project went beyond his interest as a scholar; for several years
he served as dedicated curator to this, Harar's first, community-run public museum.
By all accounts, although men and women, young people and elders were active in organizing andparticipating in these Harari cultural shows, the afocha (voluntary women's associations) were thelargest contributors of material support to the collection. Women's afocha donated not only intricately
designed antique textile items and jewelry belonging to the Harari elite, they also contributed to a
stockpile of everyday items ranging from baskets and wooden bowls (Fig.1) to gourd containers andwoodwork (see Table 1).
Upon visiting the Ada Gar museum soon after its completion, Ahmed Zekaria (n.d.) took noteof the museum's commitment to education and its role as a community and tourist center. One cancertainly still observe these functions at work today. The grand hall in the Ada Gar compound has
periodically served as a venue for lectures, such as that by Sheikh Abdullah al-Harari in 2003; themuseum compound is used for the presentation of Harari dances during community celebrations;the staff office doubles as an informal basket weaving workspace for female employees; and the entire
compound is used for wedding promenades and photography sessions for Harari brides. Today, it isduring occasional activities like those above that local community members are most likely to engage
in touring the museum collection itsel£
Despite the early enthusiasm for community participation in the museum, over the years thecommunity-run aspect of this museum faded, leading to the withdrawal of its long-time curator
and organizer, Mr. Abdulmuhaymin. After the establishment of the Harari regional administra-

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Fig. 1. Basketry and wooden bowls cover the walls of Ada Gar museum

tion under ethnic federalism, Ada Gar was transferred to the administration of the Harari People's
National Regional State's Office of the Bureau ofCulture,(9) which continues to arrange contemporary
activities there, including gatherings for public festivals (Shawwal Eid and Ashura) and community
seminars, as well as landscape renovation designed to bolster interest in the museum milieu. Still,programs that engage visitors are scarce. As a case in point, Ethiopian language-speaking visitors canlearn about the contents of the collection from the two Harari women museum workers. However,
because many of the labels (which largely consist of local names without further explanations) are
written exclusively in the Harari language, using Ethiopic script, most foreign visitors must rely on
the assistance of a hired local guide.<10> In addition, while community activities still frequendy takeplace upon the premises, the current administration faces the challenge of reviving interest in what
has become a static, though historically valuable collection. It is also important that the Bureau of
Culture find creative means to expand community engagement with the collection itself, balancing
the interface among visitors, the architecture, and the museum's material/historical contents, perhaps
through expanding explanatory labels or creating multi-lingual pamphlets.
5.2. Harar National Museum
In 1991, a second public museum, the Harar National Museum (HNM), was established by the local
government administration and built on property held by the former government in the years following the 1974 revolution. The museum is located in the complex of the Harari Bureau of Culture, justeast of Feres Magala, the central square of the city.
The HNM collection consists of examples of vernacular arts (see Table 1) produced by the diverse
ethnic groups in the region, with collections representing Harari, Oromo, Somali, Argobba, Mar, andAmhara groups. Under the administration of the regional Bureau of Culture, since its founding as apublic space, the museum collection has grown with sporadic purchases fro m the local community.
In an attempt to stem the trafficking of precious heritage items in the tourist market, the regional
Bureau of Culture has intervened with community members. For example, in cases where a third
party or someone in actual possession of rare cultural items makes known the intention to sell an
item outside of the community, the Bureau tries to negotiate the transfer of the object to the museum
instead. However, the Bureau's budget does not always allow for adequate compensation, compared
to what a tourist might offer, and individuals have been known to sell to the highest bidder, usually
the tourist. As part of the effort to deter the tourist trade in heritage objects, the Bureau of Culture
also works with local postal and customs officials to curb the illicit export of"precious" cultural items
such as traditional basketry and manuscripts (Asante 2005: 1012).
Unlike at Ada Gar, the HNM employs its own guides who speak local and foreign languages.
Moreover, simple labels accompany most of the items in the collection (Fig. 2), with the native namesin Ethiopic script and English translations, facilitating general understanding of the objects' utili tar-TARSITANI: Merging Past and Present in the Museums of Harar, Eth iopia

7

ian and decorative functions. However, fewer visitors have been observed at this museum, perhaps
owing to the fact that the museum is not advertised and is located in a building that, from street-level,
is only identifiable as a regional administrative complex.
5.3. SherifPrivate Museum
Since the early 1990s, some of the most precious examples of Harari tangible and oral cultural heritage have been collected and preserved in a private home-cum-museum located in a traditional private house southeast of Gidir Magala market on Aw M erkeba Uga street. Qyinquagenarian Abdulahi(Abdela) Ali Sherif is a self-taught conservator and curator of his self-named museum. He is recognized locally as the person most responsible fo r the preservation and storage of the most varied
collection of cultural artifacts in the town.
In 1991, M r. Sherif began collecting reel and cassette tapes of songs fo r the celebration of the 25'"
anniversary of Haywan Mugad, a musical association of young Harari men who gathered to sing together in their leisure- time and especially during wedding celebrations. Sherif borrowed tapes fromhis friends and made recordings himself Mter the Hayway Mugad celebration, he continued collecting and within a few years he had gathered more than 600 recorded songs. With the encouragement of many Hararis, Sherif soon started widening the extent of his interests. H e began collecting avariety of musical repertoires, old manuscripts, and other cultural artifacts. O ver the years, his reputation for collecting and preservation became well known, and in May 1996, the regional government
granted him official "permission for collecting". Two year later, in 1998, he was granted permission tohave a museum, and his residence became the first private citizen's museum in Ethiopia.
While Abdela Sherif is often viewed a one-man-inspiration in heritage preservation, Sherif himself is quick to point out that, although his collection was individually initiated, it soon became afamily-supported museum project. In fact, he has received invaluable assistance and support from his
wife, children, relatives, and neighbors in the city. Undoubtedly, maintaining Harar's largest multicul tural collection (see Table 1) of ceremonial clothing, jewelry, manuscripts, and coinage requires theconstant dedication and physical labor of many local actors (Fig. 3).
By 2006, the Sherif Private Museum exemplified the great potential of indigenous resourcefulness in creating opportunities not only for the preservation but also for the public presentation offolk customs in a locale that is easily accessible to, and frequently accessed by, the local community.
Mr. Sherif's knowledge of the history of the region, religion, languages and his unconventional but
effective, needs-based conservation strategies have earned him much respect in his community andabroad. The Sherif Private Museum is much more than a collection of antiques, because informal
contemporary activities are integrated in the structure of venue itself, which is an occupied home. Infact contemporary traditions are brought to life in his home museum, where, on any given day, a visitor might share tea over stimulating conversations about the history of the collection (Fig. 4) and even

F ig. 2. Simple white labels arc affixed to most of theobjects in the HNM col.lection

F ig. 3. C lothing, jewelry and furn iture are included
in Abdela Sherif's col.lcction

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observe Sherif working on museum objects as he (the last bookbinder in Harar) binds a book in the
traditional manner. The informal but invaluable exchanges between community members and local
and foreign scholars have occurred daily in the context of this museum which, until 2007, was not
only open to the public but was the only museum in Harar with free admission, although donations
were welcomed and often received.( II )5.4. Rimbaud Culture Center

Finally we come to the most recent museum in the city. The R.imbaud Culture Center (RCC) is administered by the regional Bureau of Culture, which is responsible for its organization and financial
management. This Center, housed in a c.1890 residence02> located in the middle of the walled city,
between Makin a Girgir and Amir Uga streets, underwent restoration in 1999 and remains an excellent
example of the influence ofindian craftsmanship on local architecture (Fig. 5). Although the building itself was originally constructed a few years after the French poet Arthur R.imbaud's departurefrom the town in 1891, the residence, locally referred to as Rimbaud Gar (R.imbaud's house), has been
designated as a memorial to this poet. In 2000, the house was transformed into a museum with thehelp of the national Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage and the regional
government (Harar Culture & Sports Bureau, n.d.).
In the immediate post-renovation stage, this memorial-cum-museum contained photographs andphotocopies of items related to R.imbaud himself or to life in the city during the late 19'" century. A
limited library was also established on the premises. In the intervening years, the photographs, copies,
and bibliographical resources have been expanded through cooperation with the French Embassy andlocal and foreign scholars. In addition, temporary exhibits of paintings and drawings by contemporary artists<13> have been arranged in the building, which is now referred to as the Arthur R.imbaud
Culture Center.
Very few material objects related to the life of the city are displayed at RCC (Table 1). The few
items of pottery and basketry on display in the documentation room are on loan from the collectionof the H arar National Museum; this is an easy arrangement, as a single curator manages all three
Bureau-administered museums in H arar. The dearth of older vernacular arts at this museum is morethan compensated for by the on-site presentation of contemporary cultural practices: the Enayasia
women's weaving association (Fig. 6) gives daily demonstrations of traditional basketry (Asante 2004:
61) in the annex to the museum, and their gift shop offers a variety of jewelry, textiles, and basketry.
The on-site presence of the weaver's guild not only entices tourists to RCC, but their mercantile activity, namely buying and selling baskets, does much to entice locals to occasionally visit the property.
Because of its association with the celebrated French poet, this is the most highly publicized mu-

F ig. 4. Abdela Sherif (center) discusses a manuscript's contents with visitors to his old
museum

Fig.5. The fa~ade of the Rimbaud Culture Center

TARSITANI: Merging Past and Present in the Museums of Harar, Ethiopia

9Fig. 6. A member of Eunynsin weaver's guild creates a basket in the museum's annex

seum in Harar, if not in all of Ethiopia. Especially since 2000, with the cooperation and donationsof international organizations (UNESCO, French Embassy in Addis Ababa, the city of CharlevilleMezieres, and others), regional administrators and scholars have worked to diversifY the activities of
the Culture Center. Contemporary activities ranging from craft workshops to community lecturesand government-sponsored celebrations all take place on the premises. In addition, the museum entered the new millennium I.T.-advanced when the UNESCO-sponsored telecommunication center
was inaugurated on the first floor of the Cultural Center in August of 2005, offering access to fiveinternet-connected personal computers at highly competitive rates.
Certainly the management of RCC has been commendable, having turned a dilapidated building
into a memorial space and a thriving arena of activity. Also noteworthy are the museum guides ofthis establishment, who are knowledgeable and articulate in connecting the divergent activities foundat the Center. Nevertheless, more effort is needed to link the cultural resources in a meaningful, interactive way. This could be achieved by arranging the library resources in digital format, along withdetails about the art and architecture found in the museum, information on the history of the city, andinformation about Rim baud himself. Once digitized, the information could then be readily accessed
via the computers that are already available on-site.

6. VERNACULAR ARTS IN LOCAL MUSEUMS REFLECT PROMINENCE IN
COMMUNITY
The tradition of objects as symbolic representations has existed throughout modern human history
and among peoples the world over. All through history, objects have been tangible manifestationsof human beliefs and cultures, as well as functional and symbolic elements that have changed overtime. Comparative studies of cultures, and even chronological studies within the same culture, haveinformed researchers of the complex cultural interactions that have yielded creations that express,on the one hand, a permanence of skill in vernacular arts and, on the other, the dynamism and reinterpretive ability of artisans who, over generations, have adopted and adapted craft techniques andforms to match their developing socio-cultural realities. Indeed, this idea of durability of skill andcreative variety in forms and meaning can be identified in comparisons of archaeological finds with
contemporary traditions around the continent of Mrica. Thus, in isolated as well as well-connected
communities in Mrica, we find a seemingly unlimited variety of crafts involving ivory, bone, horn,clay, fiber, metal, wood, hide, stone, and other materials, fashioned into personal adornments, buildings, weaponry, and icons. These arts have been used for millennia, not only as decorative objects forceremonial occasions but also for daily activities.
The international community is familiar with some of the more famous aspects ofEthiopian tangi-

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies

10

ble heritage, like the World Heritage list's monumental obelisks of Axum or the rock-hewn churchesof Lalibela. The ancient monumental architecture and archaeological relics have been appropriately
recognized as important not only to Ethiopian, but also to humankind's cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the international community is less familiar·with the variety of other aspects of Ethiopian
material culture, 0 4> especially vernacular arts. Nonetheless, a wealth of significance can be found in
the more common expressions of material culture, which remain a vital part of the living heritage ofcommunities throughout Ethiopia.
Notwithstanding the social politics that have historically constrained the position of many artisans,aesthetic appreciation of vernacular arts by Ethiopians is not a new phenomenon. This appreciation
can be linked to the many dimensions that characterize the vernacular arts: a combination of functionality (everyday utility, as well as ceremonial purpose), form {shape and pattern), and symbolism{formalized embodiment of values). In sum, indigenous admiration for cultural objects can be said toflow from an appreciation of the combination of form with context, i.e., the tangible and the intangible aspects of culture, as can be found in the collections in Harar.
In Harar, the women's craft guilds and afochd- 15> are undoubtedly the major contributors to the current knowledge base regarding vernacular arts in the walled city, particularly as regards the ceremonial
uses of that art. These organizations have historically been crucial to producing, arranging, and promoting the vernacular arts in Harar's museums, a fact that should be considered in any restructuring
plans. As we have seen in the previous case studies, the community in Harar, especially as represented
by women's groups, has been instrumental in contributing objects to the collections oflocal museums.
Moreover, curators have displayed these objects with the intention of showing them to be representative of various cultures of the city. Upon closer inspection, it is clear that these locally donated andlocally arranged collections are strongly based on vernacular arts, as is shown in Table 1.<16>
While the collection data presented here show the strong presence of vernacular arts, objects inother categories could be similarly reclassified based on their folk craft characteristics. For example,
the manuscripts, with their calligraphy, leather binding, embossing, and parchments, illustrate thevariety of craft skills used in their creation. Furthermore, a perusal of the museum spaces shows thatthese objects are not simply present in large numbers, they are also displayed prominently, becoming
the visual focal point in all of the museums (Figs. 1-3), with the exception of the Rimbaud Culture
Center. It is reasonable to assume that the prominence of these folk crafts collections in publicly accessible museums does indeed reflect the high value given to such objects within the community, as
well as the community's resourcefulness and self-reliance in establishing cultural displays in which
they choose to represent themselves and their lives (to themselves as well as to others).

Table 1. Number of heritage objects on display in Harar's museums, 2005/2006

Folk crafts
Historical objects

Ada Gar

Harar National
MuseumSherif Private
Museum

Rim baud
Culture Center

605

296

726

81

55 (includes 21

258 (includes 71
manuscripts)

4,104 (includes 950
manuscripts)

36

manuscripts)
Farming instruments

014Archaeological objects

01(Fine) Art objects

2

1

0

49

Photos

9

0

0

111

Total objects

671

570

4,837

277

Percentage of folk crafts

91%

53%

15%

29%

7
(unknown fraction offolk/historical objects)

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11

7. WHO BENEFITS FROM LOCAL MUSEUMS IN HARAR?
The previous section's discussion of the volume and variety of folk arts housed in local collections
shows the preferences of the collectors and donators. But who are the visitors to local museum exhibits, and what are their reactions?
Fig. 7 provides the most detailed statistics on museum visitors available in August 2006.0 7> Although extensive statistics were only available for the Harar National Museum, from these it is possible to extrapolate some important visitor trends within a diachronic perspective. These numbers
show that Ethiopian nationals0 8> account for about half of all visitors to this museum. Furthermore,interviews with staff of Ada Gar and the Rimbaud Culture Center indicated that about half of all
visitors to those museums are Ethiopian, while Mr. Sherif reported that visitors to Sherif's Private
Museum are predominantly Ethiopian.
In order to supplement the formal data on museum visitors, further insights were gleaned fromguestbook entries, which were available for every museum in Harar. (t 9> Table 2 lends support to thepredominance of Ethiopians among visitors to local museums. In addition, the content of the entries
themselves revealed that Ethiopian expatriates wrote a significant portion of the foreign language
entries.
But the guestbook entries reveal much more than who is visiting; they also reveal visitors' reactions
and help us to understand the extent to which these museums are relevant to the local community.
In the more than 4,000 guestbook entries, there is minimal criticism; negative comments are usually
f2J Foreign Visitors to HNM

D Ethiopian Visitors to HNM
DTotal Visitors to HNM, Ada Gar, and RCC2500 r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -... 9000
8000

2000

7000

~

.9

6000

>

5000

-

4000

§

3000

·u; 1500
0

....
CIJ

.r:l

1000

z

2000

500

1000
0

0
09/9508/96

09/9608/97

09/9708/98

09/9808/99

09/9908/00

09/0008/0 I

09/0108/02

09/0208/03

09/0308/04

09/0408/05

Fiscal Year

Fig. 7. Visitors to Harar National Museum (HNM)

Table 2. Guestbook entries from the museums of Harar
Range of dates

Ethiopian language

Foreign language

Ada Gar1998-2006

174

Harar National Museum

1991-2006

283

79
124

SherifPrivate Museum

1997-2006

1,736

455

Rimbaud Culture Center

2000-2006

752

1,045

12

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies

limited to calls for the creation of more systematic explanations and more organized displays. However, predominant themes throughout all of the entries include an overwhelming emotional responseto the objects and their historical and contemporary significance, as well as reflections on how objects
relate to the diversity of Ethiopia's ethnic groups, and similarities between museum holdings and avariety of international folk customs.
Moreover, the entries give evidence of how vernacular arts, when made easily accessible in local
museums, can prompt positive emotional responses from the intended audience. Even more, the exhibition of these folk arts actively engages and stimulates the community in their quest to {re-)define/refine themselves, as the following examples illustrate:I, myself, am a Harari. My knowledge, however, of my own community is very shallow. Today isa day which has great significance in my whole life. All the things that I have seen are arresting,dramatic, and incredible.... This museum should be given all possible attention by the region
and by the people themselves.-M.Z.Y. (11 May 2002)
I have seen a lot [of] places and some historic places in my country, but today holds the greatest
value. My visit with my [family to this museum] has the greatest value of all. Words could not
express how much we are happy to come back here and [are] proud of being Ethiopian.... What
I have seen should be preserved with the highest prestige.-F.N.M., Bahir Dar {30 July 2005)
Heritages that [are] collected and transferred to generations like Harari will be exemplary for
Siltie people. [This is] not only history about Hararis, it is really a history of Islam in Ethiopia
and a lesson which teaches [us] the resemblance of[our] ancestors.-A.K., Siltie Zone (January
2006)
The above examples and the plethora of others demonstrate that objects in Harar's collections are notstatic artifacts; they are a catalyst through which people define and redefine themselves. This researchsuggests the need to further evaluate visitors' feedback, which has not previously been considered agoal in cultural development practices in Ethiopia. Visitor responses need to be taken into account inorder to create exhibitions and public programming that combine heritage and living cultural practices to create engaging, locally-based museums.

8. VULNERABILITY OF INDIGENOUS AGENCY IN PRESERVATIONENTERPRISES
Finally, we must take into account the fact that in July 2006 the cityofHararwas listed as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site. In conjunction with this recognition, several changes are imminent. Amongthem, UNESCO, along with Norwegian Funds-in-Trust, the Harari regional government, and Abdela
Sherif, signed an agreement leasing Sherif's collection to a new city museum, thus effectively transferring the private collection to government administration for the next fifty years. Of course there
are potential benefits arising from this project: new equipment in the form of storage shelves weredelivered to the regional administrators in September 2006; the Centre for Heritage Development in
Mrica (CHDA) has provided training in inventory and documentation to local curators, including
Mr. Sherif; and plans to produce catalogues of the collection have begun. <20> Without question, these
are all important steps aimed at raising standards in local museums.
However, some recent developments suggest a cautionary addendum to the present study. In July
2007, the SherifHarar City Museum was officially opened in the former home ofRas Tafari {Haile
Selassie) in the center of the city (Fig. 8). Although construction of another building had alreadybegun to house the new "city museum", the celebration of the Harar Millennium in July 2007 forced
the Bureau of Culture to find another accommodation quickly. At present, the Tafari house offers a

TARSITAN I : M erging Past and Present in the Museums of 1-Iarar, Ethiopia

13

Fig. 8. 'The f.'ls;ade of the Ras Tefari house, home of the new Sherif C ity M useum

spacious alternative to Sherif 's own private home. On the other hand, the additio n of an armed guard
and new entrance fees t hat are the highest of any museum in E thiopia have added a t roubling note:the welcoming feel o f a home-cum-museum has certainly been lost, along with the exceptional andinviti ng quality of"free access for alJ."<21> It is unclear what instigated the recent dramatic changes.
Was it the international recognition brought on by the World H eritage Site designation? Was it
the competition between cosignatories fo r rights to a significant share of proceeds? Perhaps it was a
combination of these factors and others, including the ambiguity of both ow nership and management
entitlements between the regional government and the private citizen.
W hile the future of community participation in Harar's museums remains uncertain, one can only
hope that sustainable programs w ill be d eveloped that do not underm ine the indigenous systems ofalliances that have been integral to the development of these institutions. For example, previously,
as much as forty percent of Sherif's collection was given to him in trust. Certainly that "trust" was aspecial accolade, acknowledging the integrity and dedication of an esteemed private citizen, who was
entrusted with the maintenance of the objects. In some cases, like t hat of precious manuscripts ormusic recordings, the items were not given but lent to Sherif, with the resultant expectation that theywould remain th e property of the donor. This special relationship that Sherif built up with his commu nity helped his museum collection grow when other collections like that of Ada G ar suffered fromstagnation after the initial large donations of afocha groups. There is no certainty that such a trust willremain after the official change in the management of these local collections. Equally important, thefu ture autonomy of private custodians of material heritage may now be compromised. Is it impossiblefor international donors and regio nal officials to give significant ince ntives to private collectors that
do not involve the conditional w holesale transfer of collections fro m the private domain?

9. CONCLUSION: LIN KING PAST AND PRESENT THROUGH COMMUNITY
INTERACTIONS WITH MUSEUM COLLECTIIONSIn studying the opportunities for community interaction with objects in museum settings, a chance
to investigate th e motivatio ns behind individual and community appraisals of the works, by exploring
local residents' perceptions of the histor ical significance of the museums and the future aspirations of
the group, emerges. That is to say, investigating how an individual or community uses objects to tell astory of the past, and to contextualize the self (or group) in the present, can co ntribute sig nificantly tofu ture comparative anthropological studies dealing w ith notions of communal and national cultural
identity. For this reason, this study attempts to understand material objects withi n the framework ofcultural institu tions, community organizations, and adm inistrative organs of the state, all of which are
influential actors in material heritage preservation in Ethiopia.

14

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies

I suggest that local participation in Harar's museums has been facilitated by a high degree of community cultivating activity, that is, the intended accumulation and presentation of, and engagement
with, material culture through collective effort. In Harar, community cultivation of heritage has been
facilitated by 1) social alliances that support the inclusion of established indigenous networks inheritage management initiatives, and 2) a commitment of resources which, given the limited availability of material and monetary sources, has required collective ingenuity to create presentations ofhistorical objects in a context that is relevant for contemporary communities. As these case studies
have shown, local awareness of the importance of community engagement in local museum projects
has not been an imported strategy; it constitutes an indigenous methodology that may serve as aprototype for similar enterprises in Ethiopia and beyond.
While the commendable efforts of the community have been recorded here, an imminent challenge still faces the community, administrators, and donor organizations with regard to collectively
managing these venues in the rapidly developing cultural market of a city whose new World Heritage
Site status will surely influence cultural commodities and the institutions that house them. The question for the future is: Can indigenous praxes and international standards of material heritage management merge in Mrica without negating the agency of local custodians when it comes to managing
local collections?

NOTES(1) This paper is part of a doctoral dissertation that contextualizes the management and conservation ofvernacular arts in Ethiopia from a historical and socio-political perspective, while introducing the artistic
heritage and custodianship of material culture in Harar. Research for this article was carried out with generous support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS);Japan's Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; the Kyoto University Foundation; and the ASAFAS 21stCentury COE Program.
(2) Several methods were employed for data collection in this study. For data on material culture, semi-structured
interviews were conducted with professional artisans in Harar; elder groups of women belonging to local
neighborhood associations (afocha) were consulted for their knowledge of traditions involving folk crafts.
Information on museums was obtained from interviews with personnel of the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies (IES); the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH); andmuseum owners, curators, and visitors.
(3) Even in the latter half of the 201h century, museums created that were not directly infuenced by colonial
paradigms, were often still modeled on American or European standards.
(4) Certainly, the socio-political history and oscillating hegemonic tendencies of Ethiopia's ruling parties
have contributed to the nature of heritage conservation. Further discussions on this topic can be found in
Asante (2008), Alemseged Abbay {2004), and Aleme Eshete {1982).
(5) While local communities may maintain de facto custodianship of the arts of Ethiopia, the legal mandate
for cultural custodianship lies with the federal government {FDRE 1994, 1997; Negarit Gazeta Proclamation No. 36/1989).
(6) Historical data on Ada Gar is from personal communication with Abdulmuhaymin Abdulnasir in 2006.
(7) According to Ahmed Zekaria (n.d.), the home was previously named after its owner, Faqih Abdullahi ibn
Faqih Abdulrahman, a local qadi {whose office Ahmed Zekaria assigns to c.187Q-1897).
(8) Alternatively referred to as Harari National Cultural Center.
(9) The regional government has managed cultural activities under various administrative departments, which
are referred to as the "Bureau of Culture" throughout this paper. In post-election (2005) restructuring, theHarari office of cultural affairs officially became a section of the Regional Bureau of Culture and Tourism,
which was replace by the current Culture, Tourism and Information Bureau.
(10) In 2004 the regional Tourism Commission and the National Tourism Commission in Addis Ababa, offered a 2-week training program for local tour guides at the Rimbaud Culture Center.
(11) In 2007, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi donated one million birr {$112,000 US) to Abdela
Sherif for his private museum work.

TARSITANI: Merging Past and Present in the Museums of Harar, Ethiopia

15(12) According to Revault and Santelli (2004: 229), this late 19'h century house is the most remarkable example
oflndian type architecture in Ethiopia and was built by the Indian trader Jivagee Nazarela.
(13) Recent exhibits included the artwork of Kerima Ahmed, Carlos Marine, and Mesfin Tadesse.
(14) General introductions to the varietyofhandicrafts and artisanal activities in Ethiopia are beyond the scopeof this study, but may be found elsewhere in several publications (e.g., Pankhurst, R. 1992; Henze 2000;
Karsten 1972; Silverman (ed.) 1999; Silverman & Sobania 2003).
(15) The particulars of the variety of religious, secular, traditional, and recent social organizations in Harar
have been dealt with elsewhere by Waldron (1975), Koehn & Waldron (1978), Gibb {1996}, Carmichael(2001), Asante (2004) Desplat (2005), and Tarsitani (2006).
(16) Data reflect items on display in the museums in 2005/2006. Objects kept in storage were not counted, but
may account for a significant additional portion of the collections. Items are categorized as follows: Folk
crafts are applied arts including textiles, basketry, art tools, etc.; Historical objects are connected to famous
past events and include items from famous persons, historic weapons, currency, and manuscripts of pasttimes; Archaeological objects relate to buried items and buildings from previous eras; (Fine) Art objects
have to do with what would be considered art in an academic context, including paintings, sculptures, andprintmaking. The distinction between folk arts and fine arts does not reflect the author's preference, but
serves as a tool with which to do comparative analysis of the collection of the National Museum in Addis
Ababa, whose categories are similarly divided.
(17) Source: Harari People National Regional State, Office of the Bureau ofCulture,August 2006.
(18) Ethiopian expatriates are counted as "Ethiopian Visitors" by museum staff.
{19) Ahmed Zekaria (n.d.) noted that the first guestbook of the Ada Gar museum contained more than one
thousand entries, all accumulated in less than two years. Guestbooks prior to 1998 could not be located.
(20) Source: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID==32729&URL_DO==DO_TOPIC&URL_
SECTION=201.html (accessed on 15 January 2009)(21) Since 2005, the Harar National Museum, Rimbaud Culture Center, and Ada Gar have charged 1 to 3 birr
for Ethiopians and 3 to 10 birr for foreigners. With the opening of the SherifHarar City Museum, accessto Abdela Sherif's collection, which was previously free, now costs 5 to 10 birr for Ethiopians and 30 birr
for foreigners, with an additional 10 birr fee for camera or video use. Even the well-known IES Museum
in Addis Ababa charges a relatively modest rate of 3 birr for Ethiopian adults and 20 birr for foreign
adults.

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