ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTING AND AFRICAN AGENCY IN EARLY COLONIAL WEST AFRICA, a study in trans-imperial cultural flows

305pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, First UK Edition, London, 2021

First published in the USA in 2019.

Zachary Kingdon on several thousand artefacts from western Africa that were transported to institutions in northwest England between 1894 and 1916 by the Liverpool steam ship engineer Arnold Ridyard. He uncovers the identities of many of Ridyard's West African collaborators and examines their interests, predicaments and agendas under the colonial dispensation.

“Kingdon's timely efforts help to challenge our understanding of UK museums and their histories. Close archival reading and attention to complex socio-economic context illuminates the material and intellectual contributions of a fascinating group of West African individuals. This is essential reading for scholars of museums and collections, of West Africa and beyond.” Claire Wintle, Senior Lecturer, History of Art and Design and Museum Studies, University of Brighton

“With impressive command of highly original and hitherto unused sources, Kingdon breaks with the culturalist essentialisations that reduce African history to a tale of unnamed powerless 'Africans' dominated by European imperialists. While never losing sight of how power inequalities influenced interactions and negotiations, Kingdon's book is a history of named individuals whose characters and strategies are reconstructed in their full complexity and, at times, ambiguity. Lucidly written and engaging, this book is not only a major contribution to historical knowledge, but also an absolute pleasure to read.” Benedetta Rossi, Associate Professor in the History and Anthropology of Africa, University College London, UK

Zachary Kingdon is Curator of African Collections at National Museums Liverpool, UK.