Exhibition of household items fosters debate on racial stereotypes

You don’t have to be terribly old to remember the mission money box. Back in the day, you could leave some coins in the piggy bank at your school or in the local church to help the “poor children in Africa”.

Some jars were decorated with a statuette of a missionary dressed in habit with a few African children under his protective arms. Others sporting a black child had internal mechanisms that moved the statuette’s head in a grateful nod every time you threw a coin in.

There might still be places where some forgotten collection boxes gather dust, but, by and large, they are relics of the past. Our mentality has changed, and today we look at these objects as stereotypical or downright racist.

Cultural stereotypes seep through in ways that are often vague and unclear, according to the non-profit organisation Orbit. Reflected in common cultural products and in the media, over time they become self-perpetuating. It was no different in the past.

Orbit works on diversity and intercultural dialogue and last year went in search of everyday objects that embody the stereotypes and racist ideas of the past. The resulting exhibition, BrusselZWerft, is touring Brussels through the end of the summer.

“We had already done a project on stereotypes in religious art,” says Sien Smits, the exhibition’s co-ordinator. “Later, the idea grew to do something with everyday objects that people have lying around in their attics or in the closet.”

The exhibition is made up of vintage postcards and colonial-era posters, but also decades-old comics and children books. “Many of these items reflect a very negative image of the ‘other’,” says Smits. “This form of cultural heritage cannot be found in museums or archives but in people’s homes, hence the name ‘zwerfgoed’, a play of words meaning heritage that wanders around.”

Last fall, Orbit asked residents of Brussels for help in locating the various artefacts. Many people brought items related to Belgium’s colonial past that were given to them by relatives who had worked as government officials and missionaries in Congo. “Many of these objects are part of a family’s history, so we recorded the stories behind them,” says Smits.

Some items may appear relatively harmless, including comic books in which African children are invariably presented with frizzy hair and thick lips, and an ad for a tie manufacturer that shows a tribal family dressed in dotted neckties and straw skirts, complete with giraffes and huts.

Others reflect a downright poisonous message, such as a collection of anti-Semitic postcards amassed over the years by diamond dealer Arthur Langerman, whose father died in the Holocaust. They portray Jews in ways that recall the darkest moments of European history – caricature faces with hooked noses or hands clutching bags of money. It is hard to imagine that these picture postcards were once used for sharing holiday greetings.

Through everyday objects, Orbit hopes to show how we used to think about the cultural other and to make us reflect on the stereotypes perpetuated today. “It shows how our perception impacts the way we still think about the other,” says Smits. “We use all kinds of stereotypes, even if we’re not aware of it. With this exhibition, we want to encourage a debate.”

BrusselZWerft can be seen at Anderlecht library in June and spends July and August in Sint-Jan Baptist church in the centre. Photo courtesy Orbit