A Decade of Discovery: Reflecting on Ten Years of African Heritage Tours at the V&A

For the past ten years, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has been the site of a profound cultural shift. What began as a pioneering project under the guidance of Janet Browne, the museum’s Senior Producer for Audience Development, has evolved into a vital movement that reshapes how visitors interact with history. By introducing African and Caribbean Heritage Tours, the V&A became the first major museum to systematically weave the stories of the African Diaspora into its permanent galleries. As the program celebrates its tenth anniversary, the volunteer guides who have brought these histories to life reflect on a decade of learning, emotional connection, and the ongoing work of making museum spaces truly inclusive.

Reflecting on Early Days and Evolving Perspectives

For many of the inaugural guides, the journey began with a mix of trepidation and immense responsibility. Pennie Mendes, a veteran museum guide who had worked in the field for a decade before joining the project, recalls that even with her extensive background—including two decades of living and working in the Caribbean—she felt a unique weight in interpreting histories of enslavement and colonialism. "Nothing had prepared me, as a white woman, to lead this particular kind of tour," Mendes admits.

Her breakthrough came during an assessment, when she chose to integrate an African Heritage object into a standard Highlights tour. Standing before the Bust of a Black child in the Europe 1600–1815 galleries, she spoke candidly about the 18th-century reality of young African boys being bought or captured to serve as ornamental figures in elite European households. A Black visitor, noticing her effort to address these often-silenced truths, approached her to say, "Lady, you are a brave person." Those words became a touchstone for Mendes, cementing the realization that museum objects are never inert. They are active catalysts for discomfort, reflection, and dialogue.

This sentiment is shared by the entire cohort of guides, who have seen the museum transform alongside them. Over the last decade, the V&A’s collections have expanded to include contemporary works by artists like Hew Locke, whose Souvenir 4: Princess Alexandra interrogates colonial identity, and Sokari Douglas Camp, whose Wrestling with Oil Shell BP confronts environmental and gender politics. These acquisitions have allowed guides to bridge the gap between historical artifacts and the pressing social issues of the modern day.

Guiding the Unseen: A Decade of Intellectual Growth

For Joy Johnson, another original guide, the past ten years have been a journey of discovery that feels both rapid and deeply transformative. "Time is a trickster," Johnson notes. "It races by, yet when I pause and look back, the years feel wonderfully full." Reflecting on her time at the V&A, she highlights the importance of the Marsh Award, which recognized the volunteers’ contributions to sharing essential, often overlooked stories.

Johnson’s experience underscores the human element of the program. From the initial nerves of her first sessions to the "magical mystery tours" where she accidentally led groups into unmapped gallery corners, the role has been a source of profound personal growth. She emphasizes the collaborative nature of the project, noting that the V&A staff have championed the guides with genuine warmth. "The V&A staff members have encouraged us, challenged us, and championed us," she says. The intellectual exchange between guides, researchers, and visitors has fostered a community of storytellers who view their work as far more than just lecturing; it is an act of communal learning.

The Power of Narrative and Representation

Nadia Denton, who has served as a guide for the full decade, emphasizes how the tours have served as an "activation point" for public engagement. By connecting visitors with the histories behind objects—such as the tender, haunting likeness of the young boy in the Bust of a Child—guides have been able to make distant history feel immediate and urgent.

A particularly significant moment for Denton was delivering a "bite-size" version of her tour during a Friday Late event held in partnership with the media platform GUAP. The event drew large crowds of young adults eager to engage with the presence of people of African descent in 17th and 18th-century art. Denton notes that the intellectual foundations laid by visiting experts, such as S.I. Martin and Robin Walker, have been instrumental in allowing guides to provide the nuanced perspectives that visitors often find missing from their traditional school education. Whether discussing The March tapestry—which features an often-overlooked soldier of African descent—or the contemporary photography of Charlie Phillips, the guides have successfully challenged the narrative that African presence in Europe is a modern phenomenon.

Cultural Bonding and the ‘Call and Response’

For Avril Horsford, the ten-year milestone has been a time of sentimental reflection. She describes the delivery of these tours not as a standard presentation, but as a "performance" that requires the active participation of the audience. Drawing on her own cultural background, Horsford describes a unique "call and response" dynamic that emerged during her tours.

"I had never previously felt so much warmth from audiences who loudly agreed with the contents of my tour," Horsford explains. Much like the experience in a church congregation, visitors would frequently laugh, cry, or call out, adding their own fragments of history to the narratives she was presenting. This expressive "gallery etiquette" created a bond that transformed the museum space from a quiet, static environment into a vibrant arena of shared cultural heritage. For Horsford, the shift from a "buttoned-up" guide to one who shares hugs and greetings with former visitors on the street signifies the deep, lasting impact of these connections.

Finding the Unseen in the Fine Print

Kim Sheldon approaches her role by asking visitors to "lean in." She often focuses on The Ommegang in Brussels on 31 May 1615, a painting that depicts a grand city celebration. By directing the audience’s gaze away from the banners and horses toward three African figures—a camel driver, a drummer, and a young boy—she dismantles the assumption that African people were absent from European history.

"Finding people who look like me, painted into a European celebration in 1615, and getting to say, ‘Look, we were always here,’" is a powerful experience, Sheldon says. This process of discovery is the essence of her work. She notes that the transition from being a figure painted into the edge of someone else’s history to an artist making work on one’s own terms—such as in the case of Sokari Douglas Camp’s sculpture—represents the arc of the last decade. It is a transition from invisibility to agency.

Looking Toward the Future

Stella Akintan, another long-standing guide, views the program as a movement. From the moment she was appointed, she recognized the potential for the V&A to become a truly representative institution. Despite the challenges—including the frustration surrounding the repatriation of objects like the Ethiopian Crown, which is often constrained by the Heritage Act 1983—Akintan remains hopeful.

The success of the V&A program has acted as a catalyst for other institutions, with similar tours now being implemented at the British Museum and the Tate Modern. As the museum celebrated the decade of service on July 17, 2026, with an event honoring the volunteers, the legacy of the project was clear. The guides have done more than just research and talk; they have helped to reshape the museum’s identity. As Akintan concludes, the privilege of working alongside fellow guides, who have tirelessly maintained the momentum of these less well-known histories, has been the highlight of her career. The program has proven that when museums open their doors to diverse perspectives, they don’t just share knowledge—they foster a more inclusive and reflective society for all.