The Junod collection. The man, the objects: A colonial collection explored in contemporary times

Abstract

Collections which owe their origins to the colonial period in Southern Africa present unique curatorial challenges to the museum staff in whose museums’ they are stored today. The motives of the collector are often difficult to ascertain. It is also difficult, and often impossible, to establish the original creators of the pieces in current collections. How does one incorporate the complex relationship between coloniser and colonised into the current study of these collections? How is their exhibition in the present affected and moulded by the characteristics of the time of their collecting? Using the insight of Clifford (2000), Clifford (1988), Harries (1986-2007), Leibhammer (2007), Byala (2013), O’Hanlon (2002) and others, this research report seeks to illuminate the context of a particular collection, the Junod Collection, which resides at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of South Africa in Pretoria.