Magazines - Tribal Art  

By Elena Martínez-Jacquet

Introduction
Conceived of as an ethnological and linguistic study, Marcel Griaule began to develop concepts about what would become the famed Dakar-Djibouti Expedition in 1928 while he was engaged in field research in the Gojam region of Ethiopia.1 Intimately linked to his fieldwork, his ideas were to grow to become “the first great French ethnological adventure,” as it has often been referred to.
On May 19, 1931, the Dakar-Djibouti Expedition embarked from Bordeaux and sailed for Dakar, which it reached twelve days later. Griaule, the administrative and scientific director of the expedition, was accompanied by a small team composed of Marcel Larget (purser), Michel Leiris (secretary and archivist), Jean Mouchet (linguist), Eric Lutten (technician), and Jean Mouffle. Other collaborators joined them during the trip, including Deborah Lifszyc (orientalist in charge of collecting and studying Ethiopian manuscripts), Gaston-Louis Roux (painter responsible for copying the Ethiopian paintings of Antonios), André Schaeffner (ethnomusicologist), and Abel Faivre (naturalist).
For nearly two years, the expedition crossed the African continent from west to east, traveling some 20,000 kilometers and crossing fifteen countries, most of them under colonial control.2 Back in France, on February 18, 1933, the expedition unveiled what Griaule referred to as its “sumptuous booty”:3 3,600 objects destined for the collection of the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadero; 15,000 record cards with notes, 6,000 field photographs, and an array of audio and visual recordings.
This project had reverberated with the media. Information on the expedition was regularly published in newspapers over the course of its two-year journey. Upon its conclusion, the exhibition of the material that was collected, held at the Trocadero from June 2 to October 29, 1933, received heavy publicity. The guest of honor at its opening was Josephine Baker.
Interest in the expedition has transcended both its time and the borders of France. Proof of this was the recent exhibition held at the Museu Valencià de la Il.lustració i la Modernitat in Valencia, Spain,4 titled Dakar-Djibouti (1931–1933) y el fantasma de África. It was an extremely well-documented and reflective installation that explored the colonial context of the expedition as well as the scientific methodology of French ethnic studies.