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Totem Thefts Anger, Insult Kenyan Coastal Villagers

Smugglers contracted by Western art dealers are looting sacred memorial statuettes carved by villagers living along Kenya`s coast in order to fuel Western fascination and demand for African curiosities. For example, anthropologists have discovered that hundreds of "vigango totems" have been stolen from rural Kenyan homesteads, shipped via dealers living in luxury, to private collectors as well as art dealers in the United States and Europe. The "vigango totems" are offered at $300 to $800 in Kenya, but studies have found them valued at up to $5,000 in American museum catalogs.

According to an anthropology professor from the University of Kentucky, and another once employed by the University of Illinois, at least 400 "vigango totems" are held in private collections and in at least 19 museums in the United States. An expert on Kenyan coastal tribes, British anthropologist David Parkin, spoke months ago of "the disturbing acquisition of vigango totems by art dealers and others in the Western world".

Central to the belief system surrounding vigango is the prohibition against them ever being moved, compounding the insult of theft of the totems with the injury of sacrilege. Antiquities officials in Kenya say the thefts are being carried out by poor youths falling prey to riches of the art dealers operating on behalf of African art collectors overseas. According to Interpol, the international police organization, it is all part of a booming trade in non-Western art and cultural items worth approximately $4.5 billion a year worldwide. Ten years ago, the number stood at $1 billion.