EMPIRE LINES

Dr. Sarah Longair unseats European powers’ efforts to control the East African coast, through a Kiti Cha Enzi, or Swahili Chair of Power, produced in the 19th century.

Intricately decorated with an ivory inlay, a large, wooden throne sits proudly – not in its place of production of Witu, Kenya, but the stores of the British Museum. Kiti cha enzi, or seats of power, were used as thrones by Swahili rulers from the 18th century. Their distinctive form incorporates myriad cultural influences, highlighting the vibrant pre-colonial trading history of the Swahili community, while their symbolic use speaks to shifting patterns of power on the African coast. Produced as Germany and Britain competed for colonial control on the East African coast, this chair is a material symbol of how a small Swahili community resisted European expansion. Its seizure from the Swahili Sultan Fumo Bakari, and subsequent relocation by Admiral Fremantle to the National Maritime Museum, and later British Museum, speaks to our current interests in the colonial origins of museum objects. But it also reveals the complex rivalries between Western imperial pofwers, and how East African leaders exercised their own agency by playing them against each other.

PRESENTER: Dr. Sarah Longair, Senior Lecturer in the History of Empire at the University of Lincoln.

ART: Kiti Cha Enzi (Swahili Chair of Power), East Africa (19th Century).

IMAGE: ‘Sketch of Kiti Cha Enzi of the Sultan of Witu, British Museum Af1992,05.1. Drawing: S Longair’.

SOUNDS: Radi Cultural Group.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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