The African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds obj... more The African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds objects of everyday life from the Bambuti people from the Ituri forest, in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The items were collected by the anthropologist Paul Joachim Schebesta, possibly during his expeditions around 1930. The objects containing wood were selected for wood identification by using microscopic wood identification, with the help of the InsideWood database and reference samples from the xylarium of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The investigated musical instrument, a wooden zither, was made of wood of Musanga cecropioides, the handle of the shield of Alstonia sp., the dagger and sheath of Autranella congolensis or another high density species of Sapotaceae, and the crossbow of Nauclea diderichii (bow) and Xylopia sp. (stock). Wood identification helped us to gain additional information on the origin, knowledge of wood, a...
Im Jahr 1985 wurde auf Plešivica bei Adlešiči in der Bela krajina ein Bronzemedaillon mit 4,5 cm ... more Im Jahr 1985 wurde auf Plešivica bei Adlešiči in der Bela krajina ein Bronzemedaillon mit 4,5 cm Durchmesser entdeckt (Abb.l, Taf. 1: l).1 Auf dem Avers ist ein bartiges Mannerantlitz mit Stirnbinde dargestellt, das wir wegen der Tierohren und der charakteristischen Widderhorner an den Schlafen mit Jupiter-Ammon identifizieren.2 Das Medaillon wurde in einer Gufiform gegossen und auf der Vorderseite wurden nachtraglich noch einzelne Details sorgfaltiger ziseliert, so z. B. die Haar- und Bartlocken, die gerippten Horner, die Brauen und Augenhohlen mit den Pupillen. Unter den nachtraglichen Beschadigungen sind noch die gequetschte Nase und das deformierte rechte Horn zu erwahnen. Die Darstellung des Antlitzes entspricht der »pathetischen« Variante, die Matz anhand der Lauersforter Phaleren (Taf. 2: 2) definiert hat.3 Den Gegenstand haben wir als Pteryx (lat.pteryx) interpretiert, worauf Jupiter-Ammon als sehr haufiges Motiv erscheint, er schmiickt namlich am haufigsten die Pterygen, di...
IZVLEČEK V članku je predstavljenih šest do sedaj neobjavljenih palic iz afriške zbirke Slovenske... more IZVLEČEK V članku je predstavljenih šest do sedaj neobjavljenih palic iz afriške zbirke Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja. Prispevek je osredotočen predvsem na dogonske obredne palice iz Malija. Članek obravnava pojav in razvoj palic vse od starega Egipta, Mezopotamije, Etrurije, Grčije pa do zgodnjekrščanske Irske ter medkulturno povezavo s palicami iz afriške zbirke Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja. Raziskava je bila narejena na podlagi zapisov, ikonografije in arheoloških najdb. Preučevanje tovrstnih palic je pomembno, saj so imele v starih kulturah, ponekod v Afriki vse do danes, družbeno in versko vlogo, v Evropi pa so pozabljene, z izjemo uporabe v krščanskih obredih in ob kronanju monarhov.
Ključne besede: afriške palice, medkulturna povezava, Dogoni, Mali, Egipt, Hetiti, Mezopotamija
ABSTRACT The article presents six to date unpublished staffs from the African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Its main focus is on the ritual staffs of the Dogon from Mali. The artic...
Slovenski etnografski muzej in projekt SWICH (Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Obdobje gibanja neuvrščenih-p... more Slovenski etnografski muzej in projekt SWICH (Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Obdobje gibanja neuvrščenih-priložnost za nastanek afriških zbirk v Sloveniji (Marko Frelih, Anja Koren) Slovenski Afričani: o njihovih predmetih v prepletu identitet (Tina Palaić, Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Contents Preface The Slovene ethnographic museum and the SWICH project The non-aligned movement-a period that provided the opportunities for the origin of African collections in Slovenia African Slovenes-about their personal objects and intertwined identities 3 4 7 24 Africa and Slovenia A web of people and objects Uvod Vključevanje v evropske projekte je za Slovenski etnografski muzej (SEM) izjemnega pomena. Na ta način preverjamo in nadgrajujemo naše znanje, sooblikujemo nove metode dela, si na mednarodni ravni izmenjujemo muzejske izkušnje in v evropskem okviru kontekstualiziramo dediščino, ki jo hranimo v muzeju. Projekt SWICH pa nam ponuja še dodatne, izjemno aktualne izzive z muzeološkega področja. Zunajevropsk...
Summary - The Mythological and Religious Substratum of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures in Motifs o... more Summary - The Mythological and Religious Substratum of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures in Motifs of the Situla from Vače
A BLACK SUN IN A WHITE MIND: IN MEMORY OF SUDAN MISSION 1848–1858
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, m... more A BLACK SUN IN A WHITE MIND: IN MEMORY OF SUDAN MISSION 1848–1858
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, missionary activity, African studies, Sudan, Khartoum, the Nile, Egypt
Abstract Ignacij Knoblehar (1819–1858) worked as a Catholic missionary in southern Sudan, in particular among the Bari people. He sent regular reports home about his work and many newspapers also published his letters. Above all, he became known when he sailed beyond 4° north latitude. He was the first European to carry out systematic measurements of the White Nile and his discoveries were reported in both Europe and America. While he lived there, Slovenians became acquainted for the fi rst time in their history with a part of Africa. In 1850 he brought a large collection of diverse artifacts from the Nilotic peoples back to Ljubljana. These artifacts are preserved in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum today, and part of the collection was put on display in a temporary exhibition entitled “Sudan Mission 1848–1858” at the museum in May 2009. The arrival of a number of African children in Ljubljana arguably constituted the highpoint of this early Slovenian contact with Africa. Missionaries bought the children at a slave market and brought them back to Europe with the intention of training the boys to be priests and the girls to be nuns. However, the plan fell through because the children all died of pneumonia and tuberculosis. The public baptism of the African children and the relationship of the general public to them in the mid-nineteenth century helped shape stereotypical representations of Africans as well as certain forms of racial discrimination that are still present today.
Slovenes travelled to Egypt for a variety of reasons and their numbers increased greatly during t... more Slovenes travelled to Egypt for a variety of reasons and their numbers increased greatly during the first half of the 19th century when a line voyage was established between Trieste and Alexandria. Even though most travellers remained in northern Egypt, certain individuals travelled further south. One such noteworthy example was the missionary Ignacij Knoblehar and his co-workers, who worked in the area of present day Sudan. In the mid 19th century a lot of Slovenes travelled across the territories of former Nubia and interesting records and visual materials have been preserved from this period. In the 20th century Nubia was visited by few Slovenian travellers, however the restorer Miha Pirnat from Ljubljana deserves special attention. In 1963 and 1964 he was a member of the Yugoslav team within the frame of the international mission that was working on the preservation of monuments in the area which was to be flooded once the large Aswan dam was completed. Pirnat photographically documented his fieldwork and thus created an important photographic archive of archaeological sites such as Wadi es-Sebua, Abu Hodah, Abdallah Nirqi and Abd el-Ghadir.
Abstract
AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN S... more Abstract AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN SOUTHERN SUDAN AND RESEARCHER OF THE RIVER NILE Keywords: Knoblecher, Africa, Sudan, Nile, Nilotic people, African collections, Slovene ethnographic museum, Catholic mission, colonialism, ethnography, anthropology
Ignatius Knoblecher was born in 1819 in Škocjan in Lower Carniola (today in Slovenia) and he died in Naples in 1858 and was buried there. After his studies in Rome the Congregation of Propaganda chose him for the Mission in the Vicariate Apostolic for Central Africa (erected 1846) with its headquarters in Khartoum. In autumn 1849 Knoblecher started on a journey up the White Nile to southern Sudan. He searched for new suitable locations for organizing a Mission. In 1852 he founded a Missionary Station Gondókoro (near today`s Juba) among the people of Bari and two years later St. Cross Station started to operate in the territory of the Dinka people near Angwen. In ten years Knoblecher spent four years and a half on the Nile. He travelled six times from Khartoum 1500 km away to Gondókoro and at that time he was fully legitimately known for being the best connoiseur of the mighty African river. He was the first white man who reached almost as far as lat. 3° N. (in May 1854) and the first one who systematically set about the researches of the Nile as the Geographic Society from Vienna equipped him with various measuring instruments in 1850. As an expert for Nile he was highly appreciated by American traveller and writer Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) who stayed inKhartoum in 1851 and 1852 and visited Knoblecher on various occasions. Knoblecher`s expertise in hydrographic characteristics was also appreciated by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) who visited Knoblecher in Khartoum. Famous German zoologist Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884) also mentioned the high level of Knoblecher`s research, evident above all from his notes in his diary. Scientific diary, various notes, sketches and pictures disappeared after his death. Fortunately a collection of objects brought by Knoblecher to Ljubljana and Vienna in 1850 is still preserved. There are still about 200 preserved objects in Slovene ethnographic museum and about 60 objects in Ethnographic museum in Vienna. Knoblecher collected these objects among the Nilotic people in the south of Sudan (Bari, Shiluk, Chir). Systematically collected material is one of the oldest African collections in Europe.
The African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds obj... more The African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds objects of everyday life from the Bambuti people from the Ituri forest, in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The items were collected by the anthropologist Paul Joachim Schebesta, possibly during his expeditions around 1930. The objects containing wood were selected for wood identification by using microscopic wood identification, with the help of the InsideWood database and reference samples from the xylarium of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The investigated musical instrument, a wooden zither, was made of wood of Musanga cecropioides, the handle of the shield of Alstonia sp., the dagger and sheath of Autranella congolensis or another high density species of Sapotaceae, and the crossbow of Nauclea diderichii (bow) and Xylopia sp. (stock). Wood identification helped us to gain additional information on the origin, knowledge of wood, a...
Im Jahr 1985 wurde auf Plešivica bei Adlešiči in der Bela krajina ein Bronzemedaillon mit 4,5 cm ... more Im Jahr 1985 wurde auf Plešivica bei Adlešiči in der Bela krajina ein Bronzemedaillon mit 4,5 cm Durchmesser entdeckt (Abb.l, Taf. 1: l).1 Auf dem Avers ist ein bartiges Mannerantlitz mit Stirnbinde dargestellt, das wir wegen der Tierohren und der charakteristischen Widderhorner an den Schlafen mit Jupiter-Ammon identifizieren.2 Das Medaillon wurde in einer Gufiform gegossen und auf der Vorderseite wurden nachtraglich noch einzelne Details sorgfaltiger ziseliert, so z. B. die Haar- und Bartlocken, die gerippten Horner, die Brauen und Augenhohlen mit den Pupillen. Unter den nachtraglichen Beschadigungen sind noch die gequetschte Nase und das deformierte rechte Horn zu erwahnen. Die Darstellung des Antlitzes entspricht der »pathetischen« Variante, die Matz anhand der Lauersforter Phaleren (Taf. 2: 2) definiert hat.3 Den Gegenstand haben wir als Pteryx (lat.pteryx) interpretiert, worauf Jupiter-Ammon als sehr haufiges Motiv erscheint, er schmiickt namlich am haufigsten die Pterygen, di...
IZVLEČEK V članku je predstavljenih šest do sedaj neobjavljenih palic iz afriške zbirke Slovenske... more IZVLEČEK V članku je predstavljenih šest do sedaj neobjavljenih palic iz afriške zbirke Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja. Prispevek je osredotočen predvsem na dogonske obredne palice iz Malija. Članek obravnava pojav in razvoj palic vse od starega Egipta, Mezopotamije, Etrurije, Grčije pa do zgodnjekrščanske Irske ter medkulturno povezavo s palicami iz afriške zbirke Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja. Raziskava je bila narejena na podlagi zapisov, ikonografije in arheoloških najdb. Preučevanje tovrstnih palic je pomembno, saj so imele v starih kulturah, ponekod v Afriki vse do danes, družbeno in versko vlogo, v Evropi pa so pozabljene, z izjemo uporabe v krščanskih obredih in ob kronanju monarhov.
Ključne besede: afriške palice, medkulturna povezava, Dogoni, Mali, Egipt, Hetiti, Mezopotamija
ABSTRACT The article presents six to date unpublished staffs from the African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Its main focus is on the ritual staffs of the Dogon from Mali. The artic...
Slovenski etnografski muzej in projekt SWICH (Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Obdobje gibanja neuvrščenih-p... more Slovenski etnografski muzej in projekt SWICH (Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Obdobje gibanja neuvrščenih-priložnost za nastanek afriških zbirk v Sloveniji (Marko Frelih, Anja Koren) Slovenski Afričani: o njihovih predmetih v prepletu identitet (Tina Palaić, Bojana Rogelj Škafar) Contents Preface The Slovene ethnographic museum and the SWICH project The non-aligned movement-a period that provided the opportunities for the origin of African collections in Slovenia African Slovenes-about their personal objects and intertwined identities 3 4 7 24 Africa and Slovenia A web of people and objects Uvod Vključevanje v evropske projekte je za Slovenski etnografski muzej (SEM) izjemnega pomena. Na ta način preverjamo in nadgrajujemo naše znanje, sooblikujemo nove metode dela, si na mednarodni ravni izmenjujemo muzejske izkušnje in v evropskem okviru kontekstualiziramo dediščino, ki jo hranimo v muzeju. Projekt SWICH pa nam ponuja še dodatne, izjemno aktualne izzive z muzeološkega področja. Zunajevropsk...
Summary - The Mythological and Religious Substratum of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures in Motifs o... more Summary - The Mythological and Religious Substratum of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures in Motifs of the Situla from Vače
A BLACK SUN IN A WHITE MIND: IN MEMORY OF SUDAN MISSION 1848–1858
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, m... more A BLACK SUN IN A WHITE MIND: IN MEMORY OF SUDAN MISSION 1848–1858
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, missionary activity, African studies, Sudan, Khartoum, the Nile, Egypt
Abstract Ignacij Knoblehar (1819–1858) worked as a Catholic missionary in southern Sudan, in particular among the Bari people. He sent regular reports home about his work and many newspapers also published his letters. Above all, he became known when he sailed beyond 4° north latitude. He was the first European to carry out systematic measurements of the White Nile and his discoveries were reported in both Europe and America. While he lived there, Slovenians became acquainted for the fi rst time in their history with a part of Africa. In 1850 he brought a large collection of diverse artifacts from the Nilotic peoples back to Ljubljana. These artifacts are preserved in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum today, and part of the collection was put on display in a temporary exhibition entitled “Sudan Mission 1848–1858” at the museum in May 2009. The arrival of a number of African children in Ljubljana arguably constituted the highpoint of this early Slovenian contact with Africa. Missionaries bought the children at a slave market and brought them back to Europe with the intention of training the boys to be priests and the girls to be nuns. However, the plan fell through because the children all died of pneumonia and tuberculosis. The public baptism of the African children and the relationship of the general public to them in the mid-nineteenth century helped shape stereotypical representations of Africans as well as certain forms of racial discrimination that are still present today.
Slovenes travelled to Egypt for a variety of reasons and their numbers increased greatly during t... more Slovenes travelled to Egypt for a variety of reasons and their numbers increased greatly during the first half of the 19th century when a line voyage was established between Trieste and Alexandria. Even though most travellers remained in northern Egypt, certain individuals travelled further south. One such noteworthy example was the missionary Ignacij Knoblehar and his co-workers, who worked in the area of present day Sudan. In the mid 19th century a lot of Slovenes travelled across the territories of former Nubia and interesting records and visual materials have been preserved from this period. In the 20th century Nubia was visited by few Slovenian travellers, however the restorer Miha Pirnat from Ljubljana deserves special attention. In 1963 and 1964 he was a member of the Yugoslav team within the frame of the international mission that was working on the preservation of monuments in the area which was to be flooded once the large Aswan dam was completed. Pirnat photographically documented his fieldwork and thus created an important photographic archive of archaeological sites such as Wadi es-Sebua, Abu Hodah, Abdallah Nirqi and Abd el-Ghadir.
Abstract
AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN S... more Abstract AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN SOUTHERN SUDAN AND RESEARCHER OF THE RIVER NILE Keywords: Knoblecher, Africa, Sudan, Nile, Nilotic people, African collections, Slovene ethnographic museum, Catholic mission, colonialism, ethnography, anthropology
Ignatius Knoblecher was born in 1819 in Škocjan in Lower Carniola (today in Slovenia) and he died in Naples in 1858 and was buried there. After his studies in Rome the Congregation of Propaganda chose him for the Mission in the Vicariate Apostolic for Central Africa (erected 1846) with its headquarters in Khartoum. In autumn 1849 Knoblecher started on a journey up the White Nile to southern Sudan. He searched for new suitable locations for organizing a Mission. In 1852 he founded a Missionary Station Gondókoro (near today`s Juba) among the people of Bari and two years later St. Cross Station started to operate in the territory of the Dinka people near Angwen. In ten years Knoblecher spent four years and a half on the Nile. He travelled six times from Khartoum 1500 km away to Gondókoro and at that time he was fully legitimately known for being the best connoiseur of the mighty African river. He was the first white man who reached almost as far as lat. 3° N. (in May 1854) and the first one who systematically set about the researches of the Nile as the Geographic Society from Vienna equipped him with various measuring instruments in 1850. As an expert for Nile he was highly appreciated by American traveller and writer Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) who stayed inKhartoum in 1851 and 1852 and visited Knoblecher on various occasions. Knoblecher`s expertise in hydrographic characteristics was also appreciated by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) who visited Knoblecher in Khartoum. Famous German zoologist Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884) also mentioned the high level of Knoblecher`s research, evident above all from his notes in his diary. Scientific diary, various notes, sketches and pictures disappeared after his death. Fortunately a collection of objects brought by Knoblecher to Ljubljana and Vienna in 1850 is still preserved. There are still about 200 preserved objects in Slovene ethnographic museum and about 60 objects in Ethnographic museum in Vienna. Knoblecher collected these objects among the Nilotic people in the south of Sudan (Bari, Shiluk, Chir). Systematically collected material is one of the oldest African collections in Europe.
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Papers by Marko Frelih
Ključne besede: afriške palice, medkulturna povezava, Dogoni, Mali, Egipt, Hetiti, Mezopotamija
ABSTRACT The article presents six to date unpublished staffs from the African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Its main focus is on the ritual staffs of the Dogon from Mali. The artic...
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, missionary activity, African studies, Sudan, Khartoum, the Nile, Egypt
Abstract
Ignacij Knoblehar (1819–1858) worked as a Catholic missionary in southern Sudan, in particular among the Bari people. He sent regular reports home about his work and many newspapers also published his letters. Above all, he became known when he sailed beyond 4° north latitude. He was the first European to carry out systematic measurements of the White Nile and his discoveries were reported in both Europe and America. While he lived there, Slovenians became acquainted for the fi rst time in their history with a part of Africa. In 1850 he brought a large collection of diverse artifacts from the Nilotic peoples back to Ljubljana. These artifacts are preserved in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum today, and part of the collection was put on display in a temporary exhibition entitled “Sudan Mission 1848–1858” at the museum in May 2009. The arrival of a number of African children in Ljubljana arguably constituted the highpoint of this early Slovenian contact with Africa. Missionaries bought the children at a slave market and brought them back to Europe with the intention of training the boys to be priests and the girls to be nuns. However, the plan fell through because the children all died of pneumonia and tuberculosis. The public baptism of the African children and the relationship of the general public to them in the mid-nineteenth century helped shape stereotypical representations of Africans as well as certain forms of racial discrimination that are still present today.
AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN SOUTHERN SUDAN AND RESEARCHER OF THE RIVER NILE
Keywords: Knoblecher, Africa, Sudan, Nile, Nilotic people, African collections, Slovene ethnographic museum, Catholic mission, colonialism, ethnography, anthropology
Ignatius Knoblecher was born in 1819 in Škocjan in Lower Carniola (today in Slovenia) and he died in Naples in 1858 and was buried there. After his studies in Rome the Congregation of Propaganda chose him for the Mission in the Vicariate Apostolic for Central Africa (erected 1846) with its headquarters in Khartoum. In autumn 1849 Knoblecher started on a journey up the White Nile to southern Sudan. He searched for new suitable locations for organizing a Mission. In 1852 he founded a Missionary Station Gondókoro (near today`s Juba) among the people of Bari and two years later St. Cross Station started to operate in the territory of the Dinka people near Angwen. In ten years Knoblecher spent four years and a half on the Nile. He travelled six times from Khartoum 1500 km away to Gondókoro and at that time he was fully legitimately known for being the best connoiseur of the mighty African river. He was the first white man who reached almost as far as lat. 3° N. (in May 1854) and the first one who systematically set about the researches of the Nile as the Geographic Society from Vienna equipped him with various measuring instruments in 1850. As an expert for Nile he was highly appreciated by American traveller and writer Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) who stayed inKhartoum in 1851 and 1852 and visited Knoblecher on various occasions. Knoblecher`s expertise in hydrographic characteristics was also appreciated by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) who visited Knoblecher in Khartoum. Famous German zoologist Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884) also mentioned the high level of Knoblecher`s research, evident above all from his notes in his diary. Scientific diary, various notes, sketches and pictures disappeared after his death. Fortunately a collection of objects brought by Knoblecher to Ljubljana and Vienna in 1850 is still preserved. There are still about 200 preserved objects in Slovene ethnographic museum and about 60 objects in Ethnographic museum in Vienna. Knoblecher collected these objects among the Nilotic people in the south of Sudan (Bari, Shiluk, Chir). Systematically collected material is one of the oldest African collections in Europe.
Books by Marko Frelih
Ključne besede: afriške palice, medkulturna povezava, Dogoni, Mali, Egipt, Hetiti, Mezopotamija
ABSTRACT The article presents six to date unpublished staffs from the African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Its main focus is on the ritual staffs of the Dogon from Mali. The artic...
Keywords: Ignacij Knoblehar, missionary activity, African studies, Sudan, Khartoum, the Nile, Egypt
Abstract
Ignacij Knoblehar (1819–1858) worked as a Catholic missionary in southern Sudan, in particular among the Bari people. He sent regular reports home about his work and many newspapers also published his letters. Above all, he became known when he sailed beyond 4° north latitude. He was the first European to carry out systematic measurements of the White Nile and his discoveries were reported in both Europe and America. While he lived there, Slovenians became acquainted for the fi rst time in their history with a part of Africa. In 1850 he brought a large collection of diverse artifacts from the Nilotic peoples back to Ljubljana. These artifacts are preserved in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum today, and part of the collection was put on display in a temporary exhibition entitled “Sudan Mission 1848–1858” at the museum in May 2009. The arrival of a number of African children in Ljubljana arguably constituted the highpoint of this early Slovenian contact with Africa. Missionaries bought the children at a slave market and brought them back to Europe with the intention of training the boys to be priests and the girls to be nuns. However, the plan fell through because the children all died of pneumonia and tuberculosis. The public baptism of the African children and the relationship of the general public to them in the mid-nineteenth century helped shape stereotypical representations of Africans as well as certain forms of racial discrimination that are still present today.
AFRICA THAT GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK: DR. IGNATIUS KNOBLECHER – CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN SOUTHERN SUDAN AND RESEARCHER OF THE RIVER NILE
Keywords: Knoblecher, Africa, Sudan, Nile, Nilotic people, African collections, Slovene ethnographic museum, Catholic mission, colonialism, ethnography, anthropology
Ignatius Knoblecher was born in 1819 in Škocjan in Lower Carniola (today in Slovenia) and he died in Naples in 1858 and was buried there. After his studies in Rome the Congregation of Propaganda chose him for the Mission in the Vicariate Apostolic for Central Africa (erected 1846) with its headquarters in Khartoum. In autumn 1849 Knoblecher started on a journey up the White Nile to southern Sudan. He searched for new suitable locations for organizing a Mission. In 1852 he founded a Missionary Station Gondókoro (near today`s Juba) among the people of Bari and two years later St. Cross Station started to operate in the territory of the Dinka people near Angwen. In ten years Knoblecher spent four years and a half on the Nile. He travelled six times from Khartoum 1500 km away to Gondókoro and at that time he was fully legitimately known for being the best connoiseur of the mighty African river. He was the first white man who reached almost as far as lat. 3° N. (in May 1854) and the first one who systematically set about the researches of the Nile as the Geographic Society from Vienna equipped him with various measuring instruments in 1850. As an expert for Nile he was highly appreciated by American traveller and writer Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) who stayed inKhartoum in 1851 and 1852 and visited Knoblecher on various occasions. Knoblecher`s expertise in hydrographic characteristics was also appreciated by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) who visited Knoblecher in Khartoum. Famous German zoologist Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884) also mentioned the high level of Knoblecher`s research, evident above all from his notes in his diary. Scientific diary, various notes, sketches and pictures disappeared after his death. Fortunately a collection of objects brought by Knoblecher to Ljubljana and Vienna in 1850 is still preserved. There are still about 200 preserved objects in Slovene ethnographic museum and about 60 objects in Ethnographic museum in Vienna. Knoblecher collected these objects among the Nilotic people in the south of Sudan (Bari, Shiluk, Chir). Systematically collected material is one of the oldest African collections in Europe.