MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    Community Collaborations and Social Biographies of Museum Collections from Colonial Contexts: Meanings of Zulu Beadwork


    Chipangura, Njabulo and Seabela, Motsane Getrude (2024) Community Collaborations and Social Biographies of Museum Collections from Colonial Contexts: Meanings of Zulu Beadwork. Museum Worlds, 12 (1). pp. 16-30. ISSN 2049-6729

    Abstract

    In this article, we look at collections of Zulu beadwork at Manchester Museum and Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History tracing their provenances and social biographies. We present these two institutions as colonial museums founded on similar ideals of presenting objects as cultures of the “other” in absence of object and community agency. In rethinking colonial contexts associated with processes of collecting beadwork, we look at how these museums can be decolonized by collaborating with communities. Decolonization is deployed here as both a theory and a method toward the integration of Indigenous ways of knowing and doing in museum practices. Methodologically, the article highlights decolonial strategies in the form of open, democratic, inclusive, and multivocal engagement that we embraced undertaking the research.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: beadwork; collaboration; decolonization; isimodeni; KwaNongoma; materiality;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology
    Item ID: 21505
    Identification Number: 10.3167/armw.2024.120103
    Depositing User: Njabulo Chipangura
    Date Deposited: 07 May 2026 13:23
    Journal or Publication Title: Museum Worlds
    Publisher: Berghahn Journals
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads

    Altmetric Badge

    Repository Staff Only (login required)

    Item control page
    Item control page