Throne of weapons
Made by Kester
Maputo, Mozambique, 2001
The throne was made by the Mozambican artist Cristovao Canhavato
(Kester) from decommissioned weapons collected since the end of the
civil war in 1992. Since the overthrow of Portuguese colonial rule
in 1975, Mozambique offered both inspiration and a safe haven for
activists opposing apartheid in South Africa and white minority
Rhodesia. The civil war in Mozambique was fuelled by those regimes
in their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to destabilize the
country.
The throne is a product of the TAE project - Transformaçaõ de
Armas em Enxadas (Transforming Arms into Tools) - whereby weapons
previously used by combatants on both sides are voluntarily
exchanged for agricultural, domestic and construction tools. The
project was established in 1995 in Maputo by Bishop Dinis Sengulane
of the Christian Council of Mozambique with the support of
Christian Aid.
The components of the throne to some extent reflect the
international arms trade, though guns from all over the world,
including the Western powers, are collected by the TAE team. The
principal feature is the Russian AK47 rifle but there are also
sections from Eastern European, Portuguese and North Korean guns.
The throne has an added significance in Africa where carved stools
and chairs are symbols of power and prestige. Examples from Ghana,
the Congo and Zanzibar, for example, may be seen in the African
collections of the British Museum.
Kester was born on 15 July 1966 in Zavala, Mozambique. He
trained in technical engineering but had no formal art education
until attending the Núcleo de Arte in Maputo in 1998. All the
artists involved with TAE, some of whom were child soldiers, have
studied here. For them the process of constructing the sculptures
is at once painful and cathartic. The results are vivid reminders
of sixteen years of devastating externally fuelled civil war and
powerful symbols of hope for the future. In the words of TAE's
patron Graça Machel, the aim is 'to take away instruments of death
from the hands of young people and to give them an opportunity to
develop a productive life'.
The British Museum acquired the Throne of Weapons in 2002 from
an exhibition organised by Christian Aid at the Oxo Tower in London
(Swords into Ploughshares. Transforming Arms into Art).
Most recently it has collaborated with Christian Aid to commission
the artists of the Associação Núcleo de Arte to create a Tree of
Life through TAE. This was installed in the Museum in February
2005. At the same time the Throne of Weapons began a nationwide
tour of the United Kingdom.
More
information about the tour (pdf 1.3mb)
N. MacGregor, 'The British Museum', ICOM News, no. 1 (2004)
C. Spring, 'Tree of Life', British Museum Magazine-1, no. 51 (Spring 2005)