Africa Journal

Tuesday, October 17 - Wednesday, October 18, 1995


London Afterword

We break up the journey home with two days in London. An overnight SAA flight back to London. I sleep some, Sigrid does not. We visit galleries in the neighborhood of the Ritz hotel, shop for books on Africa, and have an excellent Thai meal at the Blue Elephant.

On Wednesday, we attend Africa, The Art of Continent, a wide ranging exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. In the exhibition we find one of the eight carved soapstone birds found at Great Zimbabwe. It’s Provenance is in the show catalog: "1889, removed from the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Ruin, Great Zimbabwe; sold by W. Posselt to Cecil John Rhodes."

Looking at the bird we are transported back to the beginning of our trip, touring Great Zimbabwe, Prospah showing us replicas of the birds and taking us to where the birds were found. Sigrid remembers Prospah lamenting that fact that most of the birds had been taken from the country, and his hopes that they will eventually be returned. "Not bloody likely." I think. We will see this bird again, when the exhibition moves to the Guggenhiem in New York next year. Prospah will probably never see it.

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