Trusteeship of Culture

Ailsa Nicol Smith considered the preservation of ‘local art treasures and antiquities’ to be ‘part of our trusteeship’. Her obligation therefore was to ensure the collection ‘shows and explains their culture, past and present, to the natives of the territory’. ¹ Her use of the term ‘trusteeship’ alludes to the ideology applied by the British Government to describe its responsibilities to its territories in the interwar period. It also relates to the practice of salvage ethnography – the justification by colonial powers that collecting objects preserved ‘dying’ indigenous cultures. ² This chapter will explore trusteeship in the more specific context of acquiring and exhibiting the Zanzibar Museum’s collections.