Decolonial Memories

In this episode, Flaubert Djateng, coordinator of the civil society organisation Zenu Network in Cameroon, talks about remembrance work on the German colonial era in his country. He is a member of a sub-committee of Cameroon's Restitution Committee that has prepared a national strategy yet to be approved by the Presidency. In Cameroon, he collaborates with Prof Albert Gouaffo ("Atlas of Absence"), Princesse Marilyn (Doual'art), Princesse Espérance (Esperanza Cade), Civil Peace Service (GIZ) and other civil society organisations. Flaubert Djateng hopes for closer cooperation with Germany in remembering the entangled history. The conversation took place on 10 March 2026 in Berlin.

In this episode, writer and poet Neema Komba from Tanzania talks about her current novel project about Nduna Mkomanile, a female leader of the Majimaji war of resistance against German colonial rule. She describes how the fate of her family and community who fell victim to German colonial violence in 1902 has motivated her for the subject. Neema Komba is the author of "Mektildis Kapinga: A silent hero" and "See Through the Complicated", a poetry collection. She is the 2022 recipient of the Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship and the 2014 winner of the Etisalat Prize for Literature in the Flash Fiction category. Her story "Let them eat fruit cake" (published in Index on Censorship), was shortlisted for the 2019 Stack Awards for best original fiction. She is presently a doctoral student in entrepreneurship at Hanken School of Economics/Finland. The conversation took place on 7 March 2026 in Berlin.

Sirili Molelia and his son Tony talk about their efforts to bring their ancestors back to their home in Kibosho/Tanzania. Mangi Molelia and other Chagga leaders were murdered by German colonial troops on 2 March 1900, their remains transferred to Germany. On 17 February 2026, the Molelia family received custodianship of their ancestors from President Marion Ackermann, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. In this episdoe, the Molelias also address the search for their looted cultural belongings held by Ethnological Museum Berlin, Linden Museum Stuttgart and other German museums.

In this episode, Jean Berchmans Ndihokubwayo, a historian from Burundi, talks about the entangled history between his country and Germany, the former coloniser. Jean is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Burundi. He is presently finishing his doctoral thesis at the University of Gießen. The scholar emphasizes that Burundi has a long tradition of remembering German colonial rule. Now more efforts on the German side are needed to address historical injustices.

In this episode, Sylvie, founder-president of the Cameroonian cultural organisation Regartless, talks about her campaign #BringBackNgonnso in support of the people of Nso. Ngonnso is a deity embodied in a carved wooden statue adorned with cowrie shells held by Ethnological Museum Berlin as colonial loot. She was created in honour of Ngonnso, the founding mother of the Nso Fondom (Kingdom), in Cameroon. The Cammeroonian-German youth organisation Initiative Perspektivwechsel has created a comic novel about Sylvie.

In this episode, Dr. Bulami talks about his efforts to support the people of Nso (Northwest Cameroon) in reclaiming their cultural heritage. The Nso were victims of massive German colonial violence including the looting of cultural belongings and their transfer to Germany. Among them is Ngonnso, a deity embodied in a carved wooden statue that is adorned with cowrie shells. She was created in honour of Ngonnso, the founding mother of the Nso Fondom (Kingdom), who is regarded as the incarnation of the Nso people’ s worldview. Publications of Dr Bulami can be found here. Dr Bulami is a part-time Lecturer in the University of Bamenda (Cameroon) and the Principal of the Government Bilingual High School Kimbo in Kumbo.

In this episode, Dr Valence Silayo, Lecturer of Archeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, talks about his research on the entangled history of Tanzania and Germany. He is presently a guest scholar at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart where he has co-curated the exhibition "Celebrating Womanhood" on cultural belongings of the Chagga community in the Kilimanjaro region held by the museum. Among many collaborative projects with Germany, he is involved in the restitution of knowledge to Tanzania with the Leipzig Missionary Society.

The guest of this episode is Bernard Laulian Ntahondi, an artist and expert of heritage studies in Tanzania. His work, to a considerable extent, focuses on the legacies of German colonialism in his country. He talks about memories practices in many parts of Tanzania, the role of the national Restitution Committee and collaborative efforts to address the entangled history between Germany and Tanzania.

In this episode, Imani Nsamila, an independent photographer and visual artist from Tanzania, talks about remembering German colonial rule in his country. He calls on civil societies in Tanzania and Germany to deepen collaboration on the entangled past, thus creating possibilities for a new relationship between the two countries. He particularly commends the twinning arrangement between Hamburg and Dar es Salaam for fostering intense people-to-people contacts.

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.