Bussa Warri
For many years, the Holburne has collaborated with students and tutors from Bath Spa University to explore and creatively respond to objects in our collection.
This year, BA Design students took part in a Keepsake project, responding to a live brief to design limited-edition ‘souvenirs’ for a pop-up museum shop. The project invited them to explore the connections between identity and place. Design has the potential to connect people and place through materials, narrative, community and production – we were excited to see what students would create!
In response to the brief, Si White created the Bussa Warri Board – a contemporary take on a traditional West African strategy game. Si was inspired by a 1722 Plantation Day Book in our collection, originally from Barbados. The ledger, once belonging to the Williams Plantation (owned by the family of William Holburne’s grandmother), was an accounting tool, recording the names of enslaved people. Most of its pages have been torn out, a powerful symbol of lost identities and fragmented histories.
Through his research, Si explored the game Warri (also known as Bussa Warri), which was brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans. Feared by British plantation owners for encouraging strategic thinking and resistance, the game was banned but survived in secret, passed down through generations. In post-colonial Barbados, it became a tool for teaching maths and preserving cultural memory.
Si’s board game is made entirely from recycled materials (including pulped paper and inner tubes) and reflects a long tradition of creativity and resilience. It invites players to engage with the hidden histories behind museum objects – and to consider the individuals and stories they represent.
Since its debut at our May Up Late event, the project has gained international interest: the Barbados Museum and Historical Society has now added one of Si’s boards to its collection. He hopes his design will spark renewed interest in Warri among children in Bath and Barbados alike, where the game’s popularity has waned in the face of TV, mobile phones, and social media.
For more information about the game of Warri visit:
www.bajanthings.com/the-game-of-warri/
Image credits: 'Bussa Warri Board pair' Design by Si White; 'Waterfront workers play 'warri' - a game of African origin - during spare moments on the jetty at Bridgetown'. Barbados, 1955. This image is part of the Central Office of Information's photographic collection held at The National Archives, uploaded as part of the Caribbean Through a Lens project; 'Daybook of the Williams plantation' 1722