The awareness of colonialism is very present in historical and cultural studies and discussion in today's parlance. It is a term that is sometimes hurled at someone as a summary judgement with or without merit. I'm not going to go in this direction, however. In this post I'll offer some thoughts on colonialism and the artifacts of it. Bear in mind here that although I am writing about European colonization of significant parts of the world I don't see my own country, the United States, as innocent of similar activity. We stole land that wasn't ours, committed genocide, and bulldozed a continent, stripping natural resources for consumption on a gargantuan scale. We're all in it hip deep.
States have been establishing colonies for a very long time. The type of colonization that began in the 16th century and picked up steam in the 17th century is of a different type, however. It was not just the setting up of trading posts and ports on the coast of a region and trading for exotic materials. The European colonization of much of the world took on a diabolical bent as time progressed. Interiors of continents were conquered, such as the division of the interior of Africa in Berlin in the 1880's, leading to unspeakable atrocities such as the slavery in the Belgian Congo, in the production of rubber.
Slavery was not new by this time, but as colonization grew so grew the demand for slaves. The occupation of the islands of the Caribbean led to the establishment of sugar plantations and the insatiable hunger for African slaves. The English settlement of the coast of North America soon developed a demand for slaves to grow tobacco.
I won't rehearse the long history of atrocities here because they are well known, but it is important to refer to them here.
A by-product of colonization was the discovery of exotic materials. In the Caribbean mahogany, initially a tree used for construction, was discovered to have a distinct beauty and became the fashionable wood for furniture in the 1700's. It needed to be cleared to make space for sugar plantations so planters reaped a double profit with the sale of the wood. Mahogany was clear cut to make room for sugar plantations at a furious rate, depleting or completely eradicating completely the tree in many areas.
Once Brazilian rosewood was discovered in the interior of South America it quickly supplanted the dwindling supply of mahogany for furniture in the mid-19th century. Fashions changed periodically not only because tastes changed, but because ready supplies of desired materials were extracted with impunity, as if the supply were endless. It didn't occur to merchants of exotic woods that the supply might dwindle at some point. Perhaps they realized that something else would take its place.
In Africa, establishment of a European presence made possible the export of two desirable materials used in the manufacture of fine furniture and goods: ivory and ebony.
The ivory trade dominated Africa for many centuries. Ancient Egypt sent expeditions down the Nile four thousand years ago and more in search of this exotic material. Despite competition with walrus ivory during parts of the Middle Ages and shortages about a thousand years ago, ivory remained a most desirable luxury good. In a fit of colonial acquisition in the early 1840's, when they went to war over Algeria, France acquired what is now Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The small region with several rivers that gave access to the inland rapidly became a gateway into the trade in ivory. The harvesting of ivory, involving the killing of elephants whose bodies were left to rot once the precious ivory had been extracted, claimed on average one human life for each pair of tusks brought out of the interior of Africa. The human cost was tremendous. That was the nature of colonialism, the domination and exploitation of a human population and their home, and the extraction of natural resources with little or no return to the indigenous peoples.
Ebony was also harvested almost to extinction, and today it is extremely expensive although similar alternatives from India and China have filled the gap.
So how do I feel about this instrument that has wood that was harvested nearly to extinction, and material that cost animal and human life? It's complicated.
I didn't kill the elephants whose ivory was used in my instrument. Nor did I cause the loss of human life. This organ was made more than a century before I was born. Having said that, I consider it with some humility. It contains materials with a price tag from the environment, a price we continue to pay now. But all of our contemporary existence is built on the exploitations and compromises of the past. I'm not willing to eschew an artifact of beauty from the past, but instead will make it a living, breathing musical instrument again, and when I play it I will do so with humility in the full knowledge of its cost. I could choose to isolate it and make a it a focal point of concerns about colonialism but to be honest, every aspect of our lives today bears that burden. The thing to do is to learn, and to do better now and in the future.
Having said that, watch for more soon.
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