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Schuver as collector It would seem that Schuver collected objects both in the Khartoum market and in the field. Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829 - 1884), the German zoologist and explorer who crossed the Sudan between 1847 and 1852, provides an impression of what could be purchased in Khartoum: coffee from Ethiopia, gum arabic from Kordofan, wood and ivory from Central Africa, cattle sold by Sudanese nomads from the wider environs, and black slaves from the south. [59] The objects deriving from tribes in the northern Congo, where Schuver never set foot, must have been purchased in Khartoum. Arab artisans from Egypt living in Khartoum, produced shoes, saddles and painted cloths, among other things. [60] Schuver also acquired objects while on his travels, for example from the Kwama region. [61] Occasionally he must also have obtained objects in exchange for his gifts to others, since his journals register complaints when he was not given the 'souvenirs' he had hoped for in return for his presents. Several times his notes mention objects he had collected, identified and described, and placed in their cultural context. It is therefore possible that, in addition to souvenirs, he also collected objects with the specific aim of using drawings of these to illustrate the books he intended to publish. In that period this was common practice. For instance, the Sinologist J.J.M. de Groot (1854 - 1921) did this during the time he spent in China, 1888 - 1890. | |
