Ethnobotany MSc Thesis Project:
Collecting the Globe: Deconstructing colonial narratives through a study in 19th century Oil Palm botanical artefacts
Submitted - November, 2020

My dissertation engaged 19th century botanical objects as a pathway in assessing their potential as tools for the deconstruction of colonial narratives, particularly around humans’ relationships to plants.

By focussing on Oil Palm objects from the Economic Botany Collection at Kew Gardens, the project takes an in-depth look at the aspects of institutional and cultural dynamics, and practices, informing the production of botanical artefacts.

The objects originate in the 19th century Niger Delta Expeditions led by Scottish naturalist William Balfour Baikie - voyages that reached further into the Niger Delta interior than any previous European expedition. The motives, means and outcomes of the expeditions were scrutinised alongside the history of the African Oil Palm Elaeis Guineensis, as it relates to the palm oil export trades during the 19th century.

The story of the Oil Palm and its global cultivation is important, not least because of the enormous ecological impact it has had on the planet's ecosystems. My masters thesis argues that across the Niger Delta the Oil Palm is both witness to and entangled within slave trade, abolition and colonial histories, and illustrates how these very histories, and the cosmologies through which they were procured have had a direct effect on how this species became cultivated outside of its traditional context. In an attempt to encourage a decolonisation of the African Oil Palm - Elaeis Guineensis, my masters thesis suggests looking for the less known stories - the traditional knowledge, practices, trades and cultural dynamics related to this palm species in its native context.

As my research took place during the Covid 2019 Global Pandemic I had limited access the collection, so I took a series of reference photographs to help guide my research. In working with and/or from those images I developed an interest in the use of photography (and indeed different kinds of photography) in ethnobotanical research, and as a means for expanding and making more accessible collections research. My thesis incorporated image, auto ethnography and poetry in order to reframe the complex recent history of the Africa Oil Palm.