Exploring the African continent

by Thomas Kadelbach

Thomas Kadelbach, né en 1979. Après des études d'histoire et littérature française à Angers, Fribourg et Madrid, il collabore au projet de recherche FNS Les relations culturelles internationales de la Suisse, 1945-1990. Thèse de doctorat sur Pro Helvetia et l'image de la Suisse à l'étranger. Actuellement collaborateur scientifique à l'Université de Neuchâtel.
, Thomas Kadelbach, born in 1979. Studied history and French literature in Angers, Fribourg and Madrid. Research assistant in the SNSF research project Switzerland's International Cultural Relations, 1945-1990. PhD thesis on Pro Helvetia and the image of Switzerland abroad. Currently scientific collaborator at the University of Neuchâtel.

posters
architecture
painting
orchestra
decolonization
Africa

Up until the 1960s, the African continent was hardly considered in Switzerland’s foreign cultural policy, which in its initial stage rather focussed on industrialised western countries. During the post-war period Pro Helvetia only occasionally ventured into countries of another cultural sphere, mostly limiting its purvey to presenting the applied arts.

Between 1945 and 1960, the only events took place in South Africa. There were a poster art and an architecture exhibition, and a show of presentations used in schools, which later on was also exhibited in South America and several Far Eastern countries in order to strengthen Switzerland’s reputation in the field of education.

Decolonisation not only changed Africa’s political map, but also posed a challenge for institutions responsible for representing Switzerland around the world. The reconfiguration of Pro Helvetia’s cultural geography started in the beginning of the 1970s under the chairmanship of Willy Spühler, following general changes in Swiss foreign policy.

1971 the first major project in the framework of cultural relations with post-colonial Africa was launched in Dakar. The show La Suisse présente la Suisse, organised by Pro Helvetia, consisted of various exhibits presenting e.g. architecture or the history of Switzerland, aimed at conveying values useful for Senegal’s efforts at nation building. The emphasis was on topics such as the peaceful coexistence of different linguistic communities, federalism, and democratic participation, political achievements now turning into Swiss export items.

During the 1970s further exhibitions designed for African countries confirmed the focus on information policy whereas contributions in the field of the arts remained rather modest. The exception again proved to be South Africa, where in 1965 the ensemble Luzerner Festival Strings went on a concert tour, sponsored by Pro Helvetia, just as the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne five years later. The South-African partners insisted on Pro Helvetia’s covering all costs whenever concerts were accessible to the black population.

In post-colonial Africa the Foundation limited its efforts to just a few initiatives such as e.g. the support of an exhibition of Hans Erni’s African sketches in Niamey in 1972.

It was not until the early 1980s that projects were developed, for the first time reflecting the intention to enter a dialogue and to collaborate in a manner benefiting the African countries. In 1982, Pro Helvetia organised the exhibition Le Maghreb vu par les peintres suisses, presenting Swiss Orientalist painting, which was shown in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In 1988, the theatre group Federlos received a grant for their tour in Nigeria, which included native actors and thus contributed to a real cultural exchange. Continuing this policy, Pro Helvetia opened an office in Cairo in 1988, in Cape Town in 1998 – since moved to Johannesburg – , finally laying the basis for a cultural dialogue with Africa.(tk)

Archives
AFS E9510.6 1991/51, Vol. 856, 857
Pro Helvetia, procès-verbaux du groupe I

medias

An interview with Léopold S. Senghor

1971, Pro Helvetia initiates cultural relations with the postcolonial world with its exhibition La Suisse présente la Suisse in Dakar. Léopold Sédar Senghor, first president of Senegal, regards Switzerland as an example for the peaceful cohabitation of different peoples.

Interview, shortwave broadcasting service of SRG, 1977.

Swissinfo archives in collaboration with Memoriav.

The applied arts are paving the way

In 1953, Pro Helvetia organises a poster exhibition in South Africa.

Swiss Federal Archives E 9510.6 1991/51, Vol. 321

"La Suisse présente la Suisse"

In 1971, the exhibition La Suisse présente la Suisse opens in the Musée dynamique in Dakar, which was designed by Jean Gabus, ethnologist from Neuchâtel.

Pro Helvetia Archives

Léopold S. Senghor meets William Tell

At the opening of the exhibition La Suisse présente la Suisse on November 26, 1971 in Dakar President Léopold Sédar Senghor contemplates a statue of William Tell. In the background on the right: Willy Spühler, president of Pro Helvetia.

Pro Helvetia Archives

"La Suisse présente la Suisse"

Poster of the exhibition La Suisse présente la Suisse

Swiss National Library, poster collection

The artistic dialogue with Africa

Hans Erni is one of the first artists to receive a grant from Pro Helvetia for an exhibition in Africa. In 1972 he shows his African sketches in Niamey, capital of Niger.

African Sketch, 1968

Visions of Egypt in Swiss painting

Up to the 1980s Pro Helvetia organised only a few artistic projects in Asian and African countries. The exhibition Le Maghreb vu par les peintres suisses, first shown in 1982, is meant to fill the gap and initiate a new type of exhibition aimed at non-western countries. It documented Swiss Orientalist Painting. The policy was continued with an analogous exhibition in Egypt, 1984.

Swiss National Library, poster collection

Under the gaze of photographers

Since the 1970s, the work of Luc Chessex, photographer from the Vaud, has been part of many photography exhibitions organised by Pro Helvetia. Chessex is well known for his reportage photography on Latin America and Africa. When he was 25 he travelled to Cuba, where he lived for fifteen years. In 1999 he described his experiences:

I have always been attracted by the unknown and above all I wanted tomorrow to be unlike today. I wanted to get to know my fellow human beings, my black, yellow, red and white brothers. They are all passengers on the same boat, earth, travelling towards a common fate.

Luc Chessex, Mozambique, 1993 © Luc Chessex  

African sketches

The exhibition of Hans Erni’s African sketches is a project of Jean Gabus‘, ethnologist from Neuchâtel, a pioneer of cultural relations between Switzerland and Subsaharean Africa.
On the picture he shows Jamani Diori, president of Niger, Hans Erni’s drawings on the occasion of the exhibition’s opening.

Swiss Federal Archives E 9510.6 1991/51, Vol. 551

"African sketches"

Mouddour Zaraka, Minister for nomadic affairs in Niger, is also present at the opening of the exhibition.

Swiss Federal Archives E 9510.6 1991/51, Vol. 551

"African sketches"

The National Museum of Niamey, Niger, presents the first exhibition in postcolonial Africa Pro Helvetia supported.

Swiss Federal Archives E 9510.6 1991/51, Vol. 551

"African sketches"

On December 22, 1972, the newspaper Le Temps du Niger reports on the exhibition organised by Pro Helvetia.

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