Cameroonian cultural heritage to be researched

Together with the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, the German Lost Art Foundation wants to continue researching Cameroonian cultural heritage in Germany. Starting in November, the museum and the Center announced that collections in the country's five largest ethnographic museums will be examined. The focus will be on cultural assets from four Cameroonian communities whose heritage came into the collections during the German colonial period between 1884 and 1919.

The collections of the Linden Museum, the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin, the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony with museums in Leipzig and Dresden and the Museum am Rothenbaum - Cultures and Arts of the World in Hamburg are to be examined. They are carrying cultural objects from the Bakoko, Bamum, Duala and Maka tribes, it was reported. A total of around 500 objects - including thrones, sceptres and swords - are to be examined.

Pilot project

The aim of the project is to identify culturally related objects in the various institutions and thus trace their history. The German Lost Art Foundation is based in Magdeburg and is reportedly funding the project with almost one million euros. It will run for three years.

During this time, the researchers also want to exchange ideas with experts from the Cameroonian communities as well as researchers from the University of Dschang (Cameroon), the University of Bertoua (Cameroon) and the National Museum of Cameroon. "Our aim is to enable the broad participation of people whose cultural heritage was once confiscated and thus facilitate future restitution processes," said Michael Franz from the German Lost Art Foundation. The project is a pilot project. "We hope that it will also have an impact on other institutions in Germany and abroad."

Exhibition of the results planned

The results of the project are to be presented both in Germany and in Cameroon. A photographic database and a multilingual book accompanying the objects are to be created. There will also be an exhibition.

The colonial period in what is now Cameroon was characterized by oppression and violent excesses against the population. Among other things, there was looting. According to the information, a total of more than 40,000 objects from Cameroon are kept in German museums today, a large proportion of which arrived there through violent appropriation during the colonial period and have hardly been scientifically analyzed to date.