The long-awaited return of artifacts to Namibia and Cameroon from the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin has removed the last obstacle to it.
The museum announced yesterday that the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, a federal body that oversees the foundation, along with 26 other museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, has authorized agreements between SPK President Hermann Barzinger and the Namibian and Cameroonian. officials.
The collection, which includes everyday artifacts such as jewelry, costumes and tools, first returned to Namibia in May as part of “Encountering the colonial past, envisioning the creative future,” a research project with the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN). Experts from both organizations worked together to determine the source and cultural significance of some 1,400 objects. Twenty-three of the most historically significant pieces traveled to their home country for further research.
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“We know how important these things are to Namibia,” Barzinger said in a statement. “These are very early pieces, objects of comparison are no longer preserved in Namibia even due to violent colonialism. If we take these back now, we will support our Namibian partners in rebuilding their country’s history.”
Years of negotiations between Germany and Cameroon also ended with an agreement to return Ngonnso’, a figure depicting the Mother God, stolen by colonial officer Kurt von Pavel and donated to the Ethnological Museum in 1903.
Ngonsu character to be returned to Cameroon.
Photo: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum / Eric Hesmerg
“The decision makes clear that the question of returning collection materials from colonial contexts does not depend solely on the context of injustice,” Barzinger said. “The particular meaning – especially the spiritual – of something to the original community can also justify a return.”
In addition, the Foundation’s Board of Directors allowed talks between Barzinger and museum partners in Tanzania about the return of a collection of artifacts looted during the Maji Maji Rebellion, a failed challenge to the oppressive German occupation in 1905. Colonial-era context in objects created by a collaborative research project similar,”Tanzania/Germany: a history of things in common?“
In September, an exhibition examining the history of the museum’s Tanzania collection will open at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. It is slated to be followed by a large-scale 2024 exhibition currently in development by the National Museum of Tanzania, which will feature Maji-Maji artifacts. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the artifacts will be returned to Tanzania.
Germany has been at the forefront of ongoing resettlement efforts in major institutions in Europe and the United States. Last April, Germany became the first country to announce plans to return the Benin bronzes, which are part of a collection of thousands of artifacts that British forces stole from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, in 1897.
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