Anchor, Porto Novo (Benin), Inv. No. 1

Veda Zagorac and Dr. Zdravko Pečar, Yugoslav diplomats, cultural workers and founders of Belgrade’s Museum of African Art were presented with a gift – the Anchor, in 1975, during their stay in Accra, Ghana. The iron anchor belonged to the so called “negriera” slave ships that transported people from Africa to the Americas. Intentionally placing it in front of the Мuseum’s main entrance, they wanted to underline the strong anticolonial politics of both the former Yugoslavia and the Museum in Belgrade.

Veda Zagorac once said: “It was essential for me to transfer the anchor from a ship used to transport black slaves to America, as it symbolically tells the story about a period in the life of the African peoples. Today, the plaque accompanying the anchor is inscribed with the following: Yugoslavia never participated in the colonization of other peoples and because of this (Yugoslavia) was able to be one of the bearers of the Non-Alignment idea.”

Both anchor and accompanying brass plaque underwent conservation during the adaptation of the Museum’s entryway in 2016. The placement of a new information board is part of the Non-Aligned World project and exhibition realized in 2021 to commemorate the First Non-Aligned Movement Summit that took place in 1961 in Belgrade.

Emilia Epštajn