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Yann LeGall, 2024

German colonial propaganda labelled Togoland as a “model colony”. However, between 1888 and 1902, reports show that colonial officers and administrators led no less than sixty military expeditions against local communities. Evidence of crimes, violent exactions, and pillaging perpetrated in the northern part of the colony can be found in many German museums. Thousands of spoils of war lie in the storerooms.

This story is concerned with the former head of the colonial station in Sansanné-Mango, Friedrich Rigler, and his expedition undertaken against the kingdom of Dagbon in 1900. This man, still labelled as a “collector” in museum databases, burnt down towns and villages, committed war crimes, and massively dispossessed local populations, sending more loot to Germany than museums were able to accommodate.

Trigger-Warning: this contribution quotes from archives with colonial-racist language that describe, among other things, the theft of ancestral remains and the desecration of graves. It also displays artifacts with a possibly sacred character.

Stationen

First steps as a body snatcher

Rubbing shoulders with notorious plunderers

Catapulted as head of a colonial station

British and German claims over Dagbon

The attack against Yendi

Sang dali

End of Rigler’s colonial career

“A walking disaster” for the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde

Dividing the spoils

Another museum, another colony, and more loot

Start