Atlas of Absence: Cameroon's Cultural Heritage in Germany
The open access publication can be found here: Open Access: Atlas der Abwesenheit. Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland.
More than 40,000 objects from Cameroon are now being held in public museums in the Federal Republic of Germany. This is the largest collection
worldwide. Since the German colonial period (1886-1916), they have been stored in the storerooms of the institutions that keep them, virtually unpublished and unknown. In Cameroon, too, the memory of them has been partially extinguished, although some of it has been intensively cultivated over generations. For the first time, the Atlas of Absence traces the invisible presence of Cameroon in German museums. At the same time, the forms and consequences of the absence of cultural heritage in Cameroon itself are examined.
The Project
The publication is based on the project “Umgekehrte Sammlungsgeschichte“ (Reversed History of Collections) being funded by the German Research Foundation, under the direction of Albert Gouaffo (Université de Dschang) and Bénédicte Savoy (Technische Universität Berlin).
With contributions from
Mikaél Assilkinga, Berlin/Dschang; Lindiwe Breuer, Berlin; Fogha Mc
Cornilius Refem (aka Wan wo Layir), Potsdam; Albert Gouaffo, Dschang;
Dieu Ly Hoang, Berlin; Yann LeGall, Berlin; Yrine Matchinda, Dschang;
Andrea Meyer, Berlin; Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III., Douala; Philippe
Rekacewicz, Arendal/Wageningen; Bénédicte Savoy, Berlin; Sebastian-Manès Sprute, Berlin; Richard Tsogang Fossi, Berlin/Dschang; Eyke Vonderau, Berlin.