"A Woman’s Work is Never (Un-)Done": New Article Out by Verena Laschinger

In her diaries, British explorer, writer, and photographer Mabel Bent (1847–1929) relays the expedition to Mashonaland, which culminated in the spectacular find of the so-called Soapstone Birds at the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Removed from the site by mabel and Theodore Bent's party as centerpieces of British colonial Raubkunst, the Birds were restituted to the African country as late as 2020 (see Matenga). Commissioned by Cecil Rhodes, who opened South African territories for “unabashed plunder” (Brisch 37), Theodore carried out archeological investigations and Mabel acted both as chronicler and field photographer during the trip. For The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland: Being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891, his most successful publication with both an academic and a general audience, Theodore Bent sifted through the notes, letters, and photographs his wife had made during the expedition. Whatever material Theodore considered useful was excavated like an archeological find: dislodged, collected and prepared to organically blend into his narrative in a process which resembles, if on a discursive level, the “translocation of cultural heritage that has affected Africa for the benefit and profit” of the colonizers (Savoy and Sarr 62).

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