Educator brings Africa to Lansing with at-home culture museum

Standing on the street in front of three houses, one of which has several flags rippling in the cool afternoon breeze, one could be forgiven for not knowing this trio of neighboring homes on Shepard Street contain a trove of photographs and artifacts from across the African Diaspora.

One house features items from African, Europe, Asia and Australia. Another house boasts a collection of history from the Americas. The third plays host to communal gatherings and educational conversations. This unlikely trio of homes — tucked into an out-of-the-way neighborhood sandwiched by I-496, the Potter Park Zoo, Aurelius Road and Pennsylvania Avenue — compose the All Around the African World Museum and Resource Center.

Standing in the first house, Willie Davis, a Ph.D. in comparative and international education, stands with excitement, sharing stories of each item in his displays. He knows where they came from, because each item has been collected by him over more than 22 years.

Wearing a traditional African outfit presented to him and former Lansing Mayor David Hollister during a Sister City’s signing agreement in Togo, Davis pointed to his favorite photo. At first, it appeared like any other late evening streetscape in the city. But a closer look shows what Davis enthusiastically calls an example of “the modernity and the traditional of Africa.” On the sidewalk is a woman wrapped in a traditional cloth wrap, carrying something on her head. Behind her, a crane looms, frozen in time during the construction of a building.

The photo, he said, has become the keystone to his presentations to visitors. And before the pandemic there were many. Each year, his humble houses would be visited by 300 or more people, often in groups that hailed from various schools, colleges and local nursing homes.

After reading books about the dispersal of people of African descent across the world, Davis was determined to seek out the diaspora — and bring it back to Lansing to be put on display. 

“Studying African history, it got me thinking and wanting to study the African Diaspora,” he said.

That curiosity sent him around the world, visiting China, Australia, the African continent and more. From those travels, he developed a collection of artifacts, art and hundreds of photos.

Today, they’re available for any visitors who want to call in an appointment to view them.

“Why don’t I take everything, take pictures and mount them — you know blow them up and mount them — and put some of the artifacts that I’ve gathered throughout my travels and make a museum and look at the African presence throughout the world,” Davis explained last week.

From his own collection, Davis has added posters and educational materials. Some items one might expect: masks of traditional African religious ceremonies, carvings and drums. But there are also items to challenge visitors’ presumptions about African influences and presence throughout the world. This includes a presentation on England’s first (and only) Black queen.

Her name was Charlotte, and she was a German princess when King George III agreed to marry her. But her blood traces back through Portugal and a series of African rulers and elite.

Charlotte was born with mixed race features, but discussion of her lineage has often been ignored. The recent controversy of Prince Harry leaving the royal family with his wife, Meagan Merkel, rekindled discussions of racism in royal circles — and some are now speaking openly for the first time in hundreds of years about Queen Charlotte, the only Black queen of England.

On the walls of the first building, Davis has inscribed the names of people who have inspired him or influenced him throughout his life. There are local authors, family members and prominent African American thinkers’ names written in careful script on the stark white wall.

In the Americas displays, housed in the second of three museum buildings, there is no reference to the brutality of slavery in the American South; no pictures of the dogs and water hoses from the ‘60s Civil rights era. And that’s a deliberate decision, Davis said. 

“I chose the positive side,” he added. “Don’t call me an historian, because I am biased.”

Davis’ collection includes a gas mask and a corn planter — both designed by Black men.

He also proudly points to a statue in one building that features a large carved face being held up by workers. On the top, a man and a woman are carved in an embrace across the mask. Davis said the statue represents the idea of unity and self-determination that has underpinned the Civil Rights movement but also connects to a community with its own discoveries and inventions.

“I wanted our history and presence to be reflected traditionally, historically and contemporarily,” he said.