Confronting the Colonial Archive

Between the years of 1909 and 1915, British colonial anthropologist Northcote Thomas accumulated thousands of documents and photographs, many depicting Nigerian men, women, and children. While reading this news article, I found that I could not help but relate its subject to our in-class studies on colonialism and its effects on African people. The images shared by anthropologist Northcote Thomas are extremely thought provoking, they paint a vivid picture of an age of prejudice in which African people were treated as second-rate citizens.

The attached images depict two young Nigerian men; these images really struck a chord with me. Thomas often gave his "subjects" a number-id which would serve to identify the individual. These assigned numbers are reminiscent of the system established for Jews during the Holocaust and effectively served to "further dehumanize" African people. Thomas also took special interest in photographing scarification marks, facial characteristics, and hair styles. Many of these photos are meant to be "physical-type" portraits, an abhorrent practice intended to identify and classify people into different tribal categories. The photos taken by Thomas and shared within this archive are greatly reflective of the racially-fueled, “reprehensible colonial mindset”. 

Biliography:

“Confronting the Colonial Archive – in Pictures.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Nov. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/nov/19/the-anthropologists-africa-in-pictures-faces-voices.