The International Handbooks of Museum Studies: Museum Transformations, First Edition. Edited by Annie E. Coombes and Ruth B. Phillips. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. THE PARO MANENE PROJECT Exhibiting and Researching Photographic Histories in Western Kenya Christopher Morton and Gilbert Oteyo This chapter is an extended reflection on the museological issues surrounding a series of photographic exhibitions titled Paro Manene (a Luo phrase that roughly translates as “reflecting on the past”), organized and curated by the authors in Nyanza Province (western Kenya) in February 2007. 1 This traveling exhibition con- sisted of a number of large printed panels that presented photographs and text on Luo culture in the early twentieth century, based on material from the Pitt Rivers Museum’s photograph collections (see Morton and Oteyo 2009). The chapter dis- cusses a number of critical issues that emerged from the project. At the outset, we posed ourselves a number of questions centered on the authority to curate a com- munity exhibition from a Western anthropological archive, as well as the fact that a traveling exhibition is a complex logistical mission that would undoubtedly have unexpected outcomes and sets of local perceptions. These logistical issues were to have implications for the way both ethical and intellectual questions raised by the project were played out and resolved. This chapter seeks to explore the complex interrelationship between both practical and interpretive issues that the Paro Manene project raised. These questions were addressed initially during a preparatory visit to Nyanza by Oteyo to discuss the proposed series of exhibitions with the Luo Council of Elders. This was intended as more than just seeking their permission; it was rather to seek their views on what such an exhibition had to contribute to local perceptions of Luo history and culture, especially during the colonial period. The project also raised logistical and methodological issues relating to the man- agement of ongoing relationships (and expectations) between Western museums and local communities and organizations. One of the central theoretical questions 14