Overview

In 1886, Queen Ranavalona III of the African island nation of Madagascar offered U.S. President Grover Cleveland two striking handwoven silk textiles. The American government later reciprocated with an autographed photographic portrait of the president. The essays in Objects as Envoys contextualize and explain the broader significance of this diplomatic exchange, deftly interweaving discussions of cloth production, international diplomacy, and popular representations of Madagascar and the Malagasy people in Europe and the United States. Together they tell a fascinating story of the people and history of this island country. Essays provide a comprehensive survey of Madagascar's textiles, past and present. They examine the importance of cloth to the Malagasy, both as creative works of art and as objects imbued with great social and cultural significance. They also consider the life histories of textiles such as the silks offered by Queen Ranavalona III, which moved from the category of politically charged gift to museum ethnological object. The little-known history of American-Malagasy ties is explored through the compelling biography of John Lewis Waller, the American consul to Madagascar from 1891 to 1894. An African American born into slavery, he both supported Madagascar's independence and dreamed of establishing an all-black colony there. The exchanges - and the misunderstandings - that have characterized the meetings between Madagascar and Western nations and peoples are further examined through a study of the ways in which 19th-century photographs and other visual images were used by Westerners to create stereotypes of the Malagasy and by the Malagasy themselves to create and project identities of their own choosing.

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9780295981963

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Reviews

Drawing on museum collections and diplomatic correspondence in Madagascar, the US, and Europe, the authorsanthropologists and experts with diplomatic backgroundsof these five essays focus on Malagasy textiles as gifts that build relationships among sovereigns, their subjects, and outsiders. Choice Objects as Envoys is handsomely laid out and richly illustrated with beautiful figures of textiles, photographs, postcards, and paintings..A glossary of Malagasy terms and the bibliography at the end of the book are a goldmine for anyone wishing to learn more about the material culture of Madagascar..An important and timely contribution to Madagascar studies. African Arts

Drawing on museum collections and diplomatic correspondence in Madagascar, the US, and Europe, the authors-anthropologists and experts with diplomatic backgrounds-of these five essays focus on Malagasy textiles as gifts that build relationships among sovereigns, their subjects, and outsiders. Choice Objects as Envoys is handsomely laid out and richly illustrated with beautiful figures of textiles, photographs, postcards, and paintings..A glossary of Malagasy terms and the bibliography at the end of the book are a goldmine for anyone wishing to learn more about the material culture of Madagascar..An important and timely contribution to Madagascar studies. African Arts

... beautifully produced and the photographic reproductions of the textiles are stunning. - Textile History, 35 (2) 2004

Author Information

Christine Mullen Kreamer is a curator at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Sarah Fee , a research collaborator at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, has been conducting field research on weaving and social life in Madagascar since 1988 and is co-founder of the Tandroy Ethnographic Museum in Berenty, Madagascar. Other contributors include Zina Andrianarivelo, Mary Jo Arnoldi, Shirley E. Barnes, Christraud M. Geary, Edgar Krebs, Jean-Aimé Rakotoarisoa, and Wendy Walker.

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