This seat represents the shared connections between the cultures of the transatlantic slave trade in the Americas. Afro Ecuadorian Deborah Azareno sat on this boat seat as she traveled in canoes along the rivers of Ecuador’s coastal Esmeraldas province. She also used it at home while passing on stories to her grandson. An unknown artisan carved the image of Anansi, a central character in West African folklore, into the seat. 

Anansi, who often takes the form of a spider, is a trickster character whose role in stories is to impart wisdom and teach life lessons about survival and resistance. The Anansi tales originated with the Ashanti people of modern-day Ghana, but traveled with displaced Africans to the Americas and beyond. Through these stories, enslaved people could imagine a different world order where they controlled their own fates. In many New World African communities, the image of Anansi became a symbol for the struggle against slavery and the dream of emancipation. In 2005, Afro-Ecuadorian historian Juan García Salazar brought this boat seat into the office of museum director Lonnie Bunch at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Salazar’s donation and the museum’s acceptance of his grandmother, Deborah Azareno’s boat seat served as a mutual confirmation of the shared heritage of African-descended people in the Americas.  It became the very first item in the new museum’s collection.

The boat seat above is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visitors to the museum can view this object in the “Cultural Expressions” exhibition.

Credits and Sources:

2008.18 - Boat seat with spider web design from Ecuador, early 20th century. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juan Garcia Salazar

Davies, Carole. Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora Origins, Experiences, and Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. E-Book. Accessed on December 28, 2015. https://books.google.com/books?id=mb6SDKfWftYC&pg=PA7&dq=slavery+ecuador&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGnLChiP_JAhVMVh4KHRQ1CrQQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=slavery%20ecuador&f=false

Insaidoo, Kwame A. Moral Lessons in African Folktales. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2011. E-Book. Accessed on December 28, 2015. https://books.google.com/books?id=KU86Ua8cPxoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=african+folktales&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwji35vugf_JAhXD7CYKHURHALAQ6AEIRjAE#v=onepage&q=anansi&f=false