Nicola Kritzinger’s talk focuses on an unassuming, seemingly rudimentary ceramic figure that sits in storage for years, surrounded by innumerable objects also relegated to containers. Even in its apparent silence and obscurity, the presence and displacement of this object reveals something of an expansive history; various social histories, including a number political eras from the imperial, to the colonial, and eventual democracy; and relates something of the construction of value systems for art, objects and museums across these periods. It hints at the work implicit in every museum object.
Furthermore, Felix Chami relates about his attempt to gather information about the ancient coast of East Africa and actually to verify Greco Roman documents about East Africa and how he found many archeological sites of that time through archeological surveys. Excavations of the sites produced a good amount of local ceramics and other materials, and few imported materials such as beads which were recovered in association.