Anonymous

Ira Thompson, whose eclectic collection laid the foundation of this museum, recorded that this carving was “found on a beach in 1959, North Side, Grape Tree Point.” The inscription reads: “Lourenço Marques Remember Visiting Africa 1951.”

Lourenço Marques was a Portuguese trading post in Mozambique, named after a 16th-century Portuguese explorer who settled there. The city was renamed to Maputo in 1976, shortly after Mozambique became independent, and serves as its capital. The carving itself is both mysterious and evocative, possibly crafted or acquired by a Caymanian seaman as a keepsake from his travels. Many Caribbean merchant seamen traveled the world, venturing to places they once knew only through stories. Such influences are also evident in the works of self-taught Caribbean artists like Barbados’ Francis Griffith and Jamaica’s John Dunkley, who both worked as merchant seamen.

However, the carving may hold deeper historical significance. Lourenço Marques was a port central to the Portuguese slave trade, and the birds depicted might be Guineafowl—an African species introduced to the Caribbean via the Triangular Trade. If so, the carving could subtly reference the African Diasporic experience, linking personal memory with a broader historical narrative.