Female Archaeologies of Power(lessness) in East-Central Africa: Polity, Memory, and Change in (post)colonial Luba Traditions
By analyzing Luba objects within their textual and contextual frameworks, this doctoral research aims to challenge the prevailing notion that limits Luba female materiality to mere expressions of beauty or vessels of spiritual significance. Instead, it seeks to emphasize the intricate relationship between female Luba objects and the corporeality of Luba women, including their roles within the gendered power dynamics of Luba traditions and societies. This entails delving into the nuanced evolution from the veneration of sacred female-shaped objects to the exploitation and desecration of Luba women’s bodies. To achieve this goal, female Luba arts will be situated within a broader network of the complex realm of Luba traditions, integrating archival materials, museum documentation, orature, popular histories and memory, and cultural and artistic expressions. This interdisciplinary approach seeks to challenge existing narratives by examining both the multifaceted roles of Luba women in cultural production and representations that shape power-based narratives. By critically engaging diverse sources (multimedia, audiovisual, material cultures, and orature) within diverse cultural and historical frameworks (colonial and postcolonial), this dissertation furthermore aims to uncover and elucidate the nuanced interplay between gender dynamics, polity, memory, and change in the making and mapping of an archeology of power(lessness) within Luba traditions.
Dissertation Project at princeton university
Candidate : Tiako Djomatchoua Murielle Sandra
Address the colonial disruptions that fractured traditional geographies, power networks, and narratives embedded in GLAM institutions (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) both within and beyond Africa. By challenging extractive practices, repatriating knowledge, and centering African epistemologies, we co-create ethical, community-driven frameworks that restore sovereignty over cultural memory and reweave the broken threads of history. By Reconnecting, we mean bridging colonial and postcolonial multimedia archives with living intangible traditions through the reassembly of fragmented material cultures, oral knowledge, and spiritual practices. We center female Luba institutions, keepers of memory, lineage, and ritual, as the guiding force in reclaiming, interpreting, and reactivating heritage, ensuring that reconnection is not only technical or archival, but deeply rooted in ancestral authority, gendered wisdom, and community sovereignty.
Dissertation Project
Main Focus
Archived Representations
Lived Experiences
Inclusive Digital Translations
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