Contact: Richard TSOGANG FOSSI, Technical University Berlin. Strasse des 17. Juni 150-152, Sekr. A 56 Bénédicte Savoy,/ Roam A-F 83. tsogangfossi@yahoo.fr / tsogang.fossi@tu-berlin.de, tel. +49 30 314-24307

Special Thanks: I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the entire team of the research project Reverse History of Collections. Mapping Cameroon in German Museums, and neighbouring projects, all of which have been instrumental in shaping my postcolonial and decolonial views on colonial history, memory, and provenance research of the collections of cultural assets from colonial contexts.

This goes particularly to Bénédicte Savoy, Albert Gouaffo, Yann LeGall, Eyke Vonderau, Judith Rottenburg, Iñigo Salto Santamaría, Mikaél Assilkinga, Yrine Matchinda, Elsa Goulko, and Pia Meierkord.

Special thanks also go to the Dekoloniale team, which seeks by all means to unearth silenced stories of marginalised people and to confront colonial legacies which still underpin many aspects of our lives today. I especially think of Christian Kopp and Mirja Memmen.

The Embassy of Cameroon in Germany, including His Excellency Victor Ndocky, and the Cultural Counsellor Maryse Nsangou, also deserves our appreciation for their support of our research projects.

Further thanks go to Thomas Fues, Thomas Klinkert, Weertje Wilms, Andreas Mehler, Anika Becher, Margret Frenz for their contributions in making dialogs with the communities of origin possible, who had suffered from colonial violence and traumas because their ancestors and cultural belongings have been removed in colonial times for pseudo-scientific and racist reasons.

I am equally grateful to colleagues in Cameroon, such as Serge Noukeu, Hanse Gilbert Mbeng Dang, Ebenezer Billé, Alain Belmond Sonyem; in France such as Felicity Bodenstein, Gaelle Beaujean, Julien Bondaz, Florence Bernault; in Belgium like Sara Tassi; and in Italy including Alessandra Galizzi.

Finally, I would like to thank the museum professionals or filmmakers, Verena Rodatus, Katja Kaiser, Maria-Antoine Ellendorff, Julia Pfau, Grit Lederer, Markus Winterbauer for their cooperative commitment in our bold, collective projects, my wife Loice and our children for their comprehension.

References:

Assilkinga et al. (Hrsg): Atlas der Abwesenheit. Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland, 2023.

Boahen, Albert Adu: L´Afrique face au défi colonial, in Boahen, Albert Adu: Histoire générale de l´Afrique. L´Afrique sous domination coloniale, 1880-1935, 1987, p. 21-36.

Brunner, Claudia: Epistemische Gewalt. Wissen und Herrschaft in der kolonialen Moderne, 2020.

Buchner, Max: Aurora colonialis. Bruchstücke eines Tagebuchs aus dem ersten Beginn unserer Kolonialpolitik, 1914.

Buchner, Max: Kamerun. Skizze und Betrachtungen, 1887.

Gouaffo, Albert / Tsogang Fossi, Richard: Kamerun, Spuren und Erinnerungen hundert Jahre nach der deutschen Kolonialzeit, in: Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne / Zeller, Joachim (Hrsg.): Deutschland postkolonial? Die Gegenwart der imperialen Vergangenheit, 2019, S. 168-181.

Hoffmann, Florian: Okkupation und Militärverwaltung. Etablierung und Institutionalisierung des Gewaltmonopols 1891-1914, Band 1-2, 2007.

Hurault, Jean: Une phase de la conquête allemande du Cameroun : l'occupation de Banyo (1902), Revue française d'histoire d'outremer, tome 61, n°225, 1974, p. 579-593.

Jahresbericht über die Entwicklung der deutschen Schutzgebiete im Jahre 1898-1899, 1900.

Künkler, Eva, Koloniale Gewalt und der Raub kultureller Objekte und menschlicher Überreste. Eine systematische Übersicht zu Militärgewalt und sogenannten Strafexpeditionen in deutschen Kolonialgebieten in Afrika (1884-1919), 2022.

LeGall, Yann: „Nur durch Gewalt zu erhalten“. Militärische Gewalt und Museumssammlungen“, in: Assilkinga, Mikaél et al. (Hrsg.): Atlas der Abwesenheit. Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland, 2023, S. 113-136.

Nkwi, Paul Nchoji: The German Presence in the Western Grassfields 1891-1913: A German Colonial Account, 1989.

Nolte, Hermann: Bericht über einen Besuch beim Sultan von Tibati, in: Deutsches Kolonialblatt 11, 1900, S. 284-286.

Owona, Adalbert: La Naissance du Cameroun, 1996.

Paine, Jack / Qiu, Xiaoyan / Ricart-Huguet, Joan: Endogenous Colonial Borders: Precolonial States and Geography in the Partition of Africa, American Political Science Review, 2024, p. 1–20.

Tsogang Fossi, Richard / Wagne, Jeanne-Ange: A Plaque from an Ngolo Etana. The Looting of Architectural Heritage as a Token of Colonial Violence, in: Adjei, Sela / LeGall, Yann (Ed.): FIFTEEN COLONIAL THEFTS. A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums, 2024, pp. 99-110.