On the outskirts of Basel, in an inconspicuous building, countless artifacts from around the world are stored: The depot of the Museum der Kulturen Basel houses, among other things, the ethnographic collection of the Basel Mission (BM) that the BM donated to the museum in 2015. This collection also includes items from Ghana – formerly known as the “Gold Coast” – where the BM was active from 1828.
Accompanied by the museum staff, we, a group of students and instructors from Basel and Ghana, had the opportunity to visit the depot and examine parts of the former mission collection. The objects we saw have long and complex histories. Their acquisition contexts are diverse, often no longer traceable and were certainly not always legitimate. Removed from their original contexts – sometimes forcibly[1] – they were transported to Basel and assigned a variety of new purposes and meanings. This contribution examines one such transformation of meaning. By looking at the BM’s first public ethnographic exhibition, I aim to demonstrate how the organization utilized ethnographic objects to legitimize its work and promote it to a broad audience. I argue that the BM did this by constructing an image of the Gold Coast that both satisfied the contemporary longing for the “exotic” and framed its activities abroad as a necessary and successful “civilizing mission”.[2]
The BM established an ethnographic collection early in its history: Since the 1840s, missionaries collected numerous artifacts from the regions where they worked and brought them back to Basel.[3] By 1860, these items were exhibited at the BM’s own museum, located within the mission house in Basel – a site we also visited during our excursion. Originally, the museum was primarily used for educational purposes: The objects on display were intended to provide future missionaries with a comprehensive understanding of the mission territories.[4] However, as the BM relied heavily on donations, the museum was also used for promotional purposes early on, as reflected in the 1862 museum catalog. The catalog states that the museum’s aim was “to give friends of the Mission as true a picture as possible of the condition, especially the religious condition, of the peoples with whom the Mission has to do, and thus to help keep their participation in the Mission alive”.[5]
The Basel Mission’s First Ethnographic Exhibition
In October 1908, the BM organized its first ethnographic exhibition outside its premises: Titled “Völkerkundliche Ausstellung der Basler Mission”, the exhibition was held at Kunsthalle Basel and proved to be a great success: During its two-week run, it attracted 13.000 visitors; the reviews in the Basel newspapers were full of praise.6 The exhibition featured objects from the Gold Coast, Cameroon, India and China, as well as student works (“Schülerarbeiten”) from mission schools, some of which were available for purchase.7
The exhibition was explicitly aimed at the general public, thus including individuals who had no prior connection to the BM. Historian Linda Ratschiller attributes its enormous success to the widespread European fascination with non-European cultures and the so-called “exotic”. Ethnographic exhibitions served as a form of mass entertainment and were extremely popular in Europe at the time. Such exhibitions were designed to offer a contrast to everyday life; their visit was supposed to be an “experience”.[6] The BM’s exhibition was no exception. According to the organization, it was intended to “actually transport the public to foreign countries by presenting street life, domesticity and places of worship in life size […] and give them a glimpse into the social and religious life of the people and the work of the Mission, especially in schools and workshops”[7]. The exhibition thus featured life-size arrangements designed to convey an aura of authenticity to visitors. They were meant to feel as if they were “on site”.[8]
So, what image of the Gold Coast was constructed, and for what purpose? To answer this question, I analyzed the types of objects from the Gold Coast that were on display and how they were described in the “Führer durch die völkerkundliche Ausstellung der Basler Mission”, a brochure created to guide visitors through the exhibition (Figure 1).

Both everyday objects and religious items were exhibited. A so-called “hut of a fetish priest”
(“Hütte eines Fetischpriesters”) (Figure 2) and a fully equipped kitchen (“N*küche”) are described in particular detail in the brochure. Also on display were handicrafts, notebooks and drawings from local mission school students (“Schülerarbeiten”) as well as dictionaries and Bible translations in Ga and Twi produced by missionaries.[9]

The brochure depicts a brutal, irrational and atavistic world. Religious practices, in particular, are portrayed as harmful. The so-called “fetish priest” is described as “gruesome”[10] (“die grausige Figur […] des Fetischpriesters”) and his practices – implicitly contrasted with Christianity – are described as being “full of lies and deceit”[11] (“Taten voll Lug und Trug”) and cruelly inhumane. For instance, reference is made to a knife and an executioner’s cap (“Mütze eines Henkers”), which are presented as evidence of human sacrifice.[12]
“Backward” but Redeemable
The brochure refers to the way of life in the Gold Coast as simple and backward, likely intended to create a stark contrast to the everyday life of the visitors. For instance, the kitchen is referred to as “primitive”[13] (“eine der primitivsten Arten auf der Goldküste”), highlighting the simplicity of its equipment. “For the N*, the hand replaces the tablespoon, knife and fork”[14] (“Dem N* ersetzt die Hand Esslöffel, Messer und Gabel”), the brochure states.
Thus, the ethnographic objects were used by the BM to convey the idea of a society that was “uncivilized” by their standards, emphasizing in particular the harmful nature of non-Christian religions. The Gold Coast was portrayed by the Mission as “the other”; a contrasting foil to its own values and way of life.[15]
At the same time however, the BM suggested that this alleged state of backwardness was not insurmountable. According to its own narrative, the BM was the key agent of change that could guide the region toward “civilization”. This notion becomes particularly evident in the display of the dictionaries and Bible translations in Ga and Twi mentioned above. “A written language had first to be created for the nature-people of Africa”[16] (“Für die Naturvölker Afrikas mußte erst eine Schriftsprache geschaffen werden”), the brochure explains. Here, the BM positions itself as the bearer of “civilization”. According to its narrative, it not only brought the “right” religion to the Gold Coast but also introduced “progress”. The dictionaries and Bible translations were displayed as tangible evidence of this transformative work. Similarly, the items produced by students in mission schools (handicrafts, notebooks etc.) were showcased to illustrate the positive impact of the BM while at the same time demonstrating that, with the right education, the local population had the capacity to become “good Christians” and “civilized individuals”.[17]
In conclusion, the objects that we saw in the depot of the Museum der Kulturen were assigned a new function in the BM’s exhibition: they were intended to illustrate the alleged backwardness of their places of origin, thereby justifying missionary work as a successful “civilizing endeavor” and promoting it to a broad public.
Challenging Museum Objects
Today, most of these objects remain in storage. In many cases, their original meanings are poorly documented or preserved only through the perspective of the BM. This approach often reduces them to over-generalized, derogatory, and essentially meaningless categories like “fetish”. Yet, our visit to the depot demonstrated that these objects and their original meanings are by no means forgotten: The excursion participants from Ghana were able to provide rich insights into the individual objects and their contexts of use, highlighting their complex and diverse backgrounds and challenging the reductive interpretations imposed by past displays. The pressing question now is how this knowledge can be documented here in Basel; how it can be reunited with the objects. This is a challenge that the Museum der Kulturen – like all museums with similar collections today – must address.