Decolonial Memories

In this episode, Tanzanian scholar Dyoniz Kindata talks about his ongoing doctoral dissertation "Poetic and Photographic Practices in the Kiongozi German East African Colonial Newspaper 1885 to 1918". His research addresses questions such as: What was the linguistic and cultural status of Swahili before and during German colonization? How did Kiongozi and similar colonial publications function within the broader intellectual sphere of the time? How might we think about these print practices as early forms of community-making or even decolonial strategies, despite their origin within colonial frameworks?

In this episode, art historian Dr Salomé Soloum talks about her research on the history of clothing, sexuality and mores in pre-colonial Africa. Her academic interest also extends to the restitution of African heritage, particularly regarding the Republic of Benin. Dr Soloum is a member of the Académie des Traces. Presently, she is a guest scholar at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin supported by a grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The focus of her present work is a fabric from the Far North of Cameroon, looted by a German colonial officer in 1908 and presently held by Grassi Ethnological Museum in Leipzig.

In this episode, Cameroonian scholar Fogang Toyem talks about his changing perception of German colonialism and culture. And informs about his present work on a doctoral dissertation about German colonial health care policies (and crimes) in Togo and Cameroon.

In Episode 05 of the podcast Decolonial Memories, Dr Priscillia Manjoh talks about her work as author, academic and community worker in Cameroon and Germany. Coming from the English-speaking minority of Cameroon, she is particularly interested in overcoming divisions within her country by exploring the potential meaning of German colonial rule for national unity. Dr Manjoh sees the need of closer collaboration with German civil society in addressing the entangled colonial history. Her organisation supports grassroots programmes in Cameroon.

In this episode, Dr Laibor Kalanga Moko from Tanzania talks about his work as scholar with Freie Universität Berlin in the Collaborative Research Area "Affective Societies", Sub-Project "Contested Property". He was recently awarded with the Ernst Reuter Prize for his doctoral dissertation "Sensing the Colonial Order of Things: Maasai Materialities and Ethnographic Museums" (Supervision: PD Dr Paola Ivanov, Prof. Dr Kai Kresse). Findings from this research are summarized in the article (open access) "The (In)Alienability of Objects and Colonial Acquisition: The Case of Maasai Ethnographic Collections at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin". His present work focuses on the topic "Contested Property, Affective Dissonance and Relational Ethics in Museum Collaborations".

In this episode, Maike Schimanowski talks about her insights and experiences as co-curator of the exhibition "Histories of Tanzania" at the Humboldt Forum Berlin. She informs about challenges & accomplishments of the collaborative project by National Museum of Tanzania, Ethnological Museum Berlin and Stiftung Humboldt Forum. A noteworthy aspect is how the joint curatorial team reached out to communities in Tanzania to ask for their consent before presenting colonial loot held by the Ethnological Museum Berlin. Presently, it is unclear how the agreed-upon second presentation of the exhibition in Tanzania could be implemented.

In this episode, Dr Richard Tsogang Fossi talks about the challenges and progress in documenting cultural belongings from Cameroon, translocated to Germany during colonial rule. He is member of the research team around Prof. B. Savoy (TU Berlin) and Prof A. Gouaffo (Université de Dschang) which produced the highly acclaimed Atlas of Absence.

In this first episode of the podcast Decolonial Memories, Flaubert Djateng, coordinator of the civil society organisation Zenü Network in Cameroon, talks about his work on the legacies of German colonialism in his country. Working together, academia, civil society and traditional rulers are exploring the historical translocation of ancestral remains and cultural belongings to Germany and searching for ways to have them returned. At the state level, Cameroon's government has established an Interministerial Committee charged with the repatriation of cultural belongings. Flaubert Djateng is a member of its Sub-Committee on Legal Affairs. He addresses the dynamics of interaction between the state, traditional rulers and civil society on these issues. He also comments on possible ways for German and Cameroonian civil society to cooperate on addressing the entangled past of the two countries.