WEBVTT 00:00:00.820 --> 00:00:04.280 Welcome to the Deep Dive. I'm your host and I 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:06.919 am genuinely thrilled to be sitting down today 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:09.699 to jump into this one. Thanks. Yeah, I'm really 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:11.539 looking forward to unpacking this. It's quite 00:00:11.539 --> 00:00:14.519 a story. It really is. So today's mission is 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.820 exploring a short but honestly incredibly dense 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:20.480 biographical source. We're looking at a man named 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.100 Kenneth Crossweight Murray. Right. If I had to 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:26.239 give this deep dive a title, I'd call it Kenneth 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:29.260 Murray and the Rescue of Nigeria's Ancient Artifacts. 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:31.399 I like that. It captures the stakes perfectly. 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:33.640 Yeah, because we're essentially uncovering the 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:38.219 true story of an English art curator who dedicated 00:00:38.219 --> 00:00:40.880 his entire life to preserving Nigerian arts. 00:00:41.229 --> 00:00:43.030 And it's an unconventional journey. I mean, you're 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:44.850 talking about a guy who bridges elite English 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:48.049 academia, the 1920s arts and crafts movement, 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:50.250 and then... He meant as if founding the Nigerian 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:54.270 Museum in Lagos in 1957. Exactly. So, okay, let's 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:56.649 unpack this for you listening. Imagine, just 00:00:56.649 --> 00:00:58.649 for a second, walking away from one of the most 00:00:58.649 --> 00:01:01.409 prestigious academic legacies in the world. You're 00:01:01.409 --> 00:01:03.070 born into a family that, you know, literally 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:06.500 wrote the dictionary. Your path to the highest 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.620 elite ivory tower scholarship is completely paved. 00:01:09.739 --> 00:01:11.959 But you drop out. Yeah. You drop out to follow 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:14.540 your own creative passions. And then you move 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:17.659 across the world only to end up completely altering 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:19.480 the course of archaeological history in West 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:22.799 Africa. It's a wild pivot. Just to establish 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.239 the baseline facts here. Kenneth Murray was born 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:30.019 on August 1st, 1902. In Staffordshire, England. 00:01:30.299 --> 00:01:33.239 And he spent almost his entire adult life in 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:36.060 Nigeria. He ultimately became an art curator, 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.159 a teacher, and Nigeria's very first surveyor 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.659 of antiquities. Wow. But the source material 00:01:41.659 --> 00:01:44.500 shows us a man defined not just by what he taught, 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:46.900 but by this fierce, just absolute dedication 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:49.219 to preserving what he found. Which is fascinating. 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:51.140 And I think to really understand the weight of 00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:53.299 that, we have to look at the weight of the legacy 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:55.319 he was born into. Oh, absolutely. Because the 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:58.189 sheer academic pressure. In the Murray household, 00:01:58.430 --> 00:02:00.709 I mean, it must have been astronomical. It was 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:03.510 about as intense as it gets. His family tree 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:07.590 was essentially British academic royalty. His 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:10.560 grandfather was Sir James Murray. And for those 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:12.819 who might not know. Sir James was the primary 00:02:12.819 --> 00:02:15.659 editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Which 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:18.319 is just staggering. Right. He wasn't just a contributor. 00:02:18.699 --> 00:02:21.379 He was the driving force behind categorizing 00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:23.840 the entire English language. So his whole life 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.060 was dedicated to archiving and preserving text. 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:28.020 And the rest of the family was right there with 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:30.680 him, right? Yeah. Kenneth's father, H .J .R. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:32.900 Murray, was a highly respected chess historian. 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:36.500 His mother, Kate Crossway, was actually a suffragette. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:38.979 Oh, interesting. Yeah, which introduces this 00:02:38.979 --> 00:02:42.280 really strong element of social progress, you 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:44.500 know, a bit of defiance against the status quo. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.620 And then his sister, Elizabeth Murray, she became 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:50.319 an educationalist and a biographer. So you have 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.800 an entire environment completely oriented around 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.719 text, archives, intellectual rigor. Exactly. 00:02:55.900 --> 00:02:58.580 When your grandfather is literally building the 00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:01.539 dictionary, there's a very clear expectation 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:03.819 for your life. You go to the right prep schools, 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:06.520 read the right books, and you take up the family 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:10.039 mantle. And initially he plays along. He starts 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:13.020 at Balliol College, Oxford. The expected route. 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.199 Right. The totally expected route. Yeah. But 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:18.219 then he takes his first major detour. He drops 00:03:18.219 --> 00:03:20.819 out. He does. And he doesn't just transfer to 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:23.400 another elite university. He leaves to study 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:25.539 art at the School of Arts and Crafts in Birmingham. 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:28.319 Which is what's fascinating here is how this 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:31.419 departure perfectly predicts his future. How 00:03:31.419 --> 00:03:34.960 so? Leaving elite textbook academia for hands 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:37.060 -on arts and crafts, it shows he wasn't interested 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:39.800 in just reading about culture. He wanted to touch 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:41.479 it. He wanted to make it. He wanted to work with 00:03:41.479 --> 00:03:44.080 his hands. Exactly. The arts and crafts movement 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.520 valued tangible, handmade objects over purely 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:50.919 theoretical concepts. He traded the ivory tower 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.860 for physical creation. He takes that Murray family 00:03:53.860 --> 00:03:56.599 urge to archive and preserve, but applies it 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:59.000 to physical objects. Yes. So that brings us to 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.719 1927. He's got his arts and crafts education, 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:04.439 and he makes a massive geographical leap. December 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:08.740 14th, 1927, he arrives in Lagos, Nigeria. And 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:10.840 he wastes absolutely no time getting to work. 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.199 None at all. Almost immediately, he's traveling. 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.300 He goes to Oyo to do book illustrations, and 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:18.259 then he goes way up north to inspect the arts 00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:21.279 and crafts schools in Kano and Katsina. Which, 00:04:21.379 --> 00:04:22.980 just to give some context for you listening, 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:25.500 that travel schedule is wild. Oyo in the southwest 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.899 is... deeply Yoruba, with incredibly rich artistic 00:04:28.899 --> 00:04:31.300 traditions. Right. But Kanaan Katsina, up in 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:33.300 the north, that's moving into predominantly House 00:04:33.300 --> 00:04:36.019 of Fulani regions. Totally different climate, 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.040 different architecture, distinct artisanal traditions 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:41.360 like leather work. And that geographic spread 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:43.860 shows he wasn't just sitting comfortably behind 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:46.920 a desk in Lego's dictating policy. He was on 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:49.959 the ground, actively engaging with totally different 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:52.899 regional cultures. Yeah. Yeah. And by January 00:04:52.899 --> 00:04:56.339 1928, he's already teaching art. King's College, 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:59.040 Queen's College, the government school in Lagos. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:02.060 He's fully immersed. But then, just a year later, 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:06.560 in 1929, he takes another huge detour. He takes 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.060 a leave of absence to study pottery. Under Bernard 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:11.540 Leach. Right. And for anyone not familiar, who 00:05:11.540 --> 00:05:13.980 was Bernard Leach? Bernard Leach is basically 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:17.379 the father of British studio pottery. If we connect 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:19.899 this to the bigger picture, Leach wasn't just 00:05:19.899 --> 00:05:22.180 a guy who taught you how to spin a wheel. He 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:24.879 viewed pottery as this profound integration of 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:27.810 art, philosophy, and life. So it was a serious 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:30.649 discipline. A deeply serious discipline. And 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:33.329 Murray's dedication to mastering this craft under 00:05:33.329 --> 00:05:37.490 Leach shows that he viewed art not as some polite 00:05:37.490 --> 00:05:41.069 colonial hobby, but as a rigorous discipline. 00:05:41.269 --> 00:05:44.050 And he brings that exact mindset directly back 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:47.110 to his Nigerian students when he returns to teach 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:49.170 at the government training college in Umwaya 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:52.519 and later Ibadan. Exactly. He had a profound 00:05:52.519 --> 00:05:55.139 respect for the physical artifact, which, as 00:05:55.139 --> 00:05:57.639 it turns out, was the exact preparation he needed. 00:05:57.800 --> 00:05:59.379 Because here is where it gets really interesting. 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:02.899 While he's teaching, a massive discovery happens 00:06:02.899 --> 00:06:05.040 that completely shakes things up. The knockheads. 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:07.579 Right. Industrial tin mining operations suddenly 00:06:07.579 --> 00:06:10.060 start unearthing ancient knock artifacts. This 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:12.939 wasn't just a cool find. This was a massive catalyst. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.040 Explain the knockheads a bit. What are we talking 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.639 about here? We're talking about incredibly sophisticated 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:21.579 terracotta sculptures. often life -size human 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:24.259 heads with elaborate details, and they date back 00:06:24.259 --> 00:06:28.279 roughly 2 ,000 years. Wow. It proved the existence 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:31.220 of a highly advanced ancient ironworking culture 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:33.720 in the region, but the issue is how they were 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:36.560 found. Because they weren't being carefully excavated 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.459 by archaeologists with little brushes? No. They 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:41.759 were being ripped out of the ground by industrial 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.740 mining equipment. Just brutal extraction. Exactly. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.980 You've got heavy machinery digging for tin to 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:50.379 fuel the global economy, and it's accidentally 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:53.310 tearing into deep antiquity. These priceless 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:55.829 ancient masterpieces are just coming up in the 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:58.089 dirt. It's a complete collision of the present 00:06:58.089 --> 00:07:00.850 and the past. And for a guy like Murray, who 00:07:00.850 --> 00:07:03.290 spent his whole life revering physical crafts, 00:07:03.569 --> 00:07:07.329 I mean, seeing ancient Nigerian terracotta threatened 00:07:07.329 --> 00:07:09.850 by heavy industry must have been an absolute 00:07:09.850 --> 00:07:12.370 crisis. It changed everything. These artifacts 00:07:12.370 --> 00:07:14.850 prompted a massive shift for him. He realized 00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:16.550 he had to move from just teaching contemporary 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:19.870 art to actively protecting ancient history. Because 00:07:19.870 --> 00:07:21.730 if he didn't, they'd be destroyed or sold off. 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:25.300 Right. Exactly. Because of these knockhead discoveries, 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:29.540 the government finally acts. On July 28th, 1943, 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:33.519 Murray becomes Nigeria's very first surveyor 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:36.060 of antiquities. In the newly created Nigeria 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:39.610 Antiquities Service. Right. As the first surveyor, 00:07:39.689 --> 00:07:41.930 he's basically building this from scratch, right? 00:07:42.069 --> 00:07:45.290 Completely from scratch. He had to travel, locate, 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:48.550 catalog, and secure these artifacts. He had to 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:50.790 fight the bureaucracy to prove these terracotta 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:52.970 heads were more valuable than the tin they were 00:07:52.970 --> 00:07:56.089 sitting on. That is a massive undertaking. He's 00:07:56.089 --> 00:07:58.610 safeguarding a nation's physical heritage. And 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:00.750 he builds an institutional legacy out of it. 00:08:00.810 --> 00:08:02.449 He becomes the director of the Department of 00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:05.930 Antiquities. And in 1957, he actually founds 00:08:05.930 --> 00:08:08.850 the Nigerian Museum in Lagos. Which brings it 00:08:08.850 --> 00:08:11.310 all full circle back to his grandfather. It really 00:08:11.310 --> 00:08:14.029 does. Sir James Murray meticulously collected 00:08:14.029 --> 00:08:16.329 and preserved words for the dictionary, so the 00:08:16.329 --> 00:08:19.170 history of the language wouldn't be lost. Two 00:08:19.170 --> 00:08:21.889 generations later, Kenneth builds a museum to 00:08:21.889 --> 00:08:24.350 preserve terracotta and bronze, so the history 00:08:24.350 --> 00:08:26.990 of Nigerian art wouldn't be lost. It's the same 00:08:26.990 --> 00:08:29.689 spirit of preservation, just a different medium. 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:32.690 And the antiquities service he helped create 00:08:32.690 --> 00:08:35.090 didn't just fade away when he left. It evolved, 00:08:35.389 --> 00:08:39.919 right. Yes. By 1979, it evolved into the Nigerian 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.480 National Commission for Museums and Monuments. 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:46.340 He literally laid the groundwork for modern Nigerian 00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:48.679 heritage preservation. And his lifelong dedication 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:51.600 didn't end when he retired. Not at all. Often 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.080 you see colonial officials do their time and 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:55.940 then immediately take the first ship back to 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:58.419 England. Right. But Murray doesn't. He retires 00:08:58.419 --> 00:09:01.519 to his house in Taco Bay, Lagos. He stays. This 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:03.840 raises an important question about where we call 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.340 home. He spent the majority of his adult life 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:09.019 in Nigeria and he chose to remain there. And 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:11.860 even in retirement, they still needed him. In 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.740 1963, he's recalled temporarily to his former 00:09:14.740 --> 00:09:17.340 position. Yeah, he had originally been succeeded 00:09:17.340 --> 00:09:19.820 by Bernard Fagg, but Murray comes back to hold 00:09:19.820 --> 00:09:22.139 the fort until a Nigerian director can officially 00:09:22.139 --> 00:09:24.179 take over. Which shows he wasn't clinging to 00:09:24.179 --> 00:09:26.419 power. He just wanted a stable transition to 00:09:26.419 --> 00:09:28.980 local leadership. Exactly. He was fully dedicated 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.759 to Nigerian arts until the very end. Which makes 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:37.620 his end so tragic. On April 21st, 1972, he died 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:40.539 in a road accident. along the Jebu Benin Road. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:44.379 It was a heartbreaking end to an incredible life 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:46.679 of service. But it's worth noting his final resting 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:51.059 place. On May 4th, 1972, he was interred in a 00:09:51.059 --> 00:09:53.840 Khoi cemetery, permanently resting in the country 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:56.679 whose art he spent a lifetime championing. It's 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.539 a profound legacy. It really is. So what does 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:02.179 this all mean for you listening? I think it shows 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:04.379 that the detours in your life, like leaving Oxford 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:07.059 to study crafts or moving continents to teach, 00:10:07.669 --> 00:10:09.409 They might not be distractions. They're preparation. 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:12.210 Exactly. They might be the exact preparation 00:10:12.210 --> 00:10:15.289 you need when a knockhead moment happens. When 00:10:15.289 --> 00:10:17.190 history demands someone with your exact unique 00:10:17.190 --> 00:10:20.169 skill set to step up. Murray synthesized his 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:22.309 family's deep appreciation for archiving with 00:10:22.309 --> 00:10:25.370 his own love for physical indigenous art. And 00:10:25.370 --> 00:10:27.389 by doing that, he created a protective vault 00:10:27.389 --> 00:10:29.870 for a culture that outlived him. It's all about 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:32.379 taking what you know. and applying it when the 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:34.620 moment arrives, which leaves us with a lingering 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:37.759 question to mull over today. We look at the 1940s, 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.639 and we see the physical destruction of industrial 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:44.120 tin mining. But our modern world continues to 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.940 mine and excavate at a rapid pace, digitally, 00:10:47.179 --> 00:10:49.759 culturally, physically. The extraction hasn't 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:53.200 stopped. It's just changed forms. Right. So what 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.500 precious artifacts of our current era are being 00:10:55.500 --> 00:10:58.039 unearthed right now? And who will be the ones 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:01.299 to step up, sacrifice their original plans, and 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:03.460 build the museums to protect them before they 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:05.759 are lost forever? Who are the Kenneth Murrays 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:07.980 of today? Exactly. Something to think about. 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:10.500 Thank you for joining us on this deep dive, and 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:11.360 we'll catch you on the next one.