Cameroon as a Sensitive Country of Origin?

Thanks to funding from the Ministry of Science and the Arts (Ministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kunst Baden-Württemberg), the Ethnological Collection was able to conduct exploratory research into the provenances of the colonial holdings from Cameroon. This album presents a summary of the results.  

The Project

The reappraisal of the holdings from colonial contexts takes a high priority in the remit and work of the Ethnological Collection. Therefore, it was particularly welcome that from 26 April 2022 to 31 December 2022, funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg and the City of Freiburg im Breisgau enabled the academic processing of collections that originated in the territory of present-day Cameroon.

This included an examination of the collection, engagement with specialist literature and academic research on the objects, as well as on the collectors and their colonial entanglements. Furthermore, relevant collection files, for example from the Freiburg City Archives or the Federal Archives (Dept. Military Archives Freiburg), were examined. In addition, all objects not yet processed for the online collection of the municipal museums were entered into the database and prepared for online publication. The aim was to gain a systematic overview of the Cameroon holdings and the previous owners, to gain new insights into them where possible and thus to provide information for future inquiries and collaborations. 

Why Cameroon?

Cameroon became the third colony of the German Empire in Africa, after South West Africa and Togo. Formal colonial rule began with the so-called “protection treaties” concluded with representatives of the Duala on 11 and 12 July 1884 and ended with the surrender of the remaining ‘Schutztruppe’ (lit. protection force) in Mora (Cameroon) on 16 February 1916. The German Empire asserted its claim to power in two ways: through military subjugation in the country itself and by means of various treaties with other European colonial powers.

The aim of the German ‘Protectorate’ was to secure and enforce the interests of German trading companies, such as Woermann or Jantzen & Thormählen that had been operating in Cameroon since the late 1840s. Colonial military expansion was accompanied by the development of an extensive plantation economy for the production of cocoa, sugar cane and rubber, the mining of iron ore, bauxite and aluminium, as well as the establishment of trading posts, which made Cameroon the most economically important colony of the German Empire. However, these economic activities were intrinsically predicated upon the mass exploitation of local forced labourers, including many children, whose work under brutal conditions and high mortality rates generated handsome profits for German companies. The military’s conquests and the colonial administration’s exercise of power repeatedly met with fierce resistance, which was brutally suppressed by the German colonial government. Despite the continuous expansion of the stationed troops, the active and passive resistance of the Cameroon populace continued. 

It wasn’t until the First World War that German colonial rule in Cameroon finally came to an end. After the surrender of the German troops, Cameroon was placed under the administration of Great Britain and France in 1919 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and in the name of the League of Nations. Cameroon gained full independence in 1961.

Sensitivity and Colonial Collections from Cameroon

Colonial expansion in Cameroon was always accompanied by the appropriation of objects and artefacts. Based on the guidelines published by the German Museums Association in 2021, objects and collections are considered historically sensitive if they were collected, acquired or produced in places and times characterised by massive power imbalances. The spectrum ranges from the influence of discriminatory ideologies, such as racism, via oppression or war, to outright genocide. Ethnological museum collections were largely assembled within colonial contexts and are therefore de facto historically sensitive. 

They may include objects acquired in markedly different circumstances: i.e. both objects that were looted under duress or the use of force, and objects that were made by local people for trade with Europeans. However, objects may be sensitive, restricted in access or particularly worthy of protection not only because of the context of their appropriation and origin, but also because of their culture-specific meaning or materiality. These forms of sensitivity are often intertwined.

It was therefore important to study and appraise the specific contexts of the Cameroon holdings in the Museum Natur und Mensch collection.

Brief Description of the Results

The Cameroon Holdings of the Ethnological Collection

The Ethnological Collection has a total of 180 records for objects from Cameroon, of which about 140 derive from a colonial context. Up to now, the majority of these objects can be traced back to thirty identifiable individuals and institutions. Twenty-five objects entered the collection under circumstances that can now no longer be reconstructed. The colonial holdings from Cameroon include weapons for hunting and war (e.g. knives, bows, short swords and crossbows) and everyday objects (e.g. baskets, bowls, bags), as well as objects that were specially made for trade with Europeans (e.g. model ships, pipe bowls or calabashes). In addition, ceremonial objects, such as masks or statues, objects with a representative function and musical instruments, are all worthy of mention. Overall, the individual collections are very small and often only contain a few objects respectively. With one exception (the Heldt Collection), it is not possible to say that the objects were part of a systematically-organised collection, either for the individual collections or for the entire holdings from Cameroon.

In most cases, it was not possible to trace any details about the circumstances in which and how the objects were acquired in Cameroon. In-depth research into the holdings proved difficult within the timeframe of the project, as the documentation is often too raw, distorted or even incorrect. The spatial and ethnic classifications of the collections tend to reflect the Eurocentric categories of colonial rule and of museum collecting at the time, rather than local realities. It is therefore highly desirable to conduct more in-depth work on this in the future, together with representatives from Cameroon.

In focus: Eyema Byeri

In the following, two carved figures will be presented in more detail, representing the wide range of heterogeneous objects in the Cameroon holdings of the Ethnological Collection, both in terms of their historical significance and the multiple sensitivities they express. 

Eyema byeri are often referred to as relic keepers or relic figures. However, the term byeri actually refers not only to the figure, but to an entire ensemble composed of different parts with their own designations. These include the figures (eyema byeri), head sculptures (nlo byeri) and cylindrical containers made of tree bark (nskeh byeri).

The figures were attached to the rim of the bark containers with a thorn. The latter were used to store skulls and other bones – as well as glass beads and jewellery – of ancestors of a family or a federation. The human remains were the focus of various ritual acts in preparation for hunting and war expeditions or the construction of a new house. For this purpose, the bones were removed from the bark containers and fed with offerings, such as animal blood, manioc, meat or water and smeared with magical substances. The figures eyema byeri served to protect the bones and were not the subject of feeding or worship. Beyond ritual use, these reliquary complexes were kept in the homes of family or clan elders, where they were stored out of reach of women, children and uninitiated men. The composition of the reliquary complexes, the circumstances of their use and their storage varied between the different groups and collectives in which such practices of ancestor veneration played a role.

Due to their elaborate design, eyema byeri  above all were of particular interest to European collectors, whereas as far as the local population was concerned, the idea of ancestor veneration embodied by the human remains was of central importance. For this reason, the carved figures were also considered relatively easy to acquire. These divergent principles of valuation have been permanently inscribed in museum collections: after their appropriation, the reliquary ensembles were often divided up and passed on separately. As a result, it is often no longer possible today to reconstruct the extent to which ensemble pieces belong together or where they actually came from originally. 

This also applies to the two figures identified as eyema byeri from the Ethnological Collection in Freiburg. When they were acquired for the collection, there was no specific information about their exact provenance. Even later, the ambiguity regarding their origin prevailed and they were alternately described as possibly coming from Jaunde, Pangwe, or Fang. Nor will clarification be realistically possible in future either, because eyema byeri were produced in similar ways by different groups and therefore cannot today be unequivocally assigned to or deemed stylistically characteristic of a particular area, ethnic group or community of origin. 

In their occurrence in collections, eyema byeri always point to multiple forms of sensitivity: they were appropriated in colonial contexts characterised by manifest power imbalances and latent states of war, although the exact circumstances of the transfers of objects varied greatly. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that human remains were among the ensembles and the question of their whereabouts usually remains unanswered. The restrictions on access also point to further dimensions of the overall sensitivity of the reliquary complexes. The collectors’ evaluation of the carved figures based primarily on aesthetic criteria, without any interest in their meaning or specific origin, also represents a form of power-related sensitivity. Through the act of appropriation, religious objects were torn out of their social context and reinterpreted by the collectors.

This shows how difficult it is to classify objects according to categories such as art/ritual object or sensitive/insensitive. Rather, the eyema byeri, like numerous other objects from the ethnological Cameroon collection, are an example of the many intertwined dimensions of sensitivity. 

The Previous Owners

For the identifiable and mostly male previous owners, it was possible to reconstruct that most of them had come to Cameroon as members of the military, employees of the colonial administration or colonial economy, or as merchants trading in natural produce and ethnographic objects. In these positions, they benefited directly from colonial infrastructures that enabled them to acquire objects. Their reasons for donating objects to the museum were varied. Some had personal ties to Freiburg and felt a sense of belonging to the city, while others were contacted by the museum management through the Lord Mayor. In many cases, however, it was the heirs of these people who added the objects to the collection. As part of the project, individual short biographies of the previous owners were written or added according to the available sources, summarising their careers, their connections with German colonialism and their connections to the museum.

Three men are briefly introduced here as examples of the different types of previous owners, who, in their individual ways, are representative of the types of collectors in general: Captain Johannes Heldt, Lieutenant Oskar Schmidt and the commercial agent, Theodor Birk. 
 

Johannes Heldt

The largest collection of artefacts from Cameroon from a single collector came from Captain  Johannes Christian Eiler Heldt, who sold an extensive collection from Africa to the museum between 1899 and 1903. Johannes Heldt was born on 16 September 1858 in Aabenraa (Denmark). In 1886, he married Maria Anna Bertha Bielefeld in Flensburg. Around 1890, Johannes Heldt moved with his family to Hamburg. There he worked as a captain for the Woermann Line. The shipping company was part of the Woermann Group, which primarily imported the fruit of oil palms, ivory and rubber from the German colonies in Africa and played a major role in the founding of the colony in Cameroon. The ships of the Woermann Line also delivered mail and transported passengers and ‘Schutztruppen’ personnel. After serving as a captain, Johannes Heldt worked as a shipping inspector. He died on 13 April 1925. 

As can be seen from the museum’s historical collection files, in October 1899, during a business trip in Hamburg, director  Hugo Ficke (1840 - 1912) was put in touch with Captain Heldt, who wanted to sell his collection. It comprised 452 items and was purchased by Ficke for 1,650 marks, who described it in a letter to the museum as “very beautiful and comprehensive”. The majority of the collection went to Freiburg, with some objects being sold or exchanged to the museum in Hamburg. Around fifty inventory numbers from Captain Heldt’s collection cite Cameroon as the place of origin. These include carved figures, a stool, pipe bowls, several model boats, four slit drums, as well as weapons, oars and everyday objects. Captain Heldt left no records about the circumstances in which he acquired the objects. However, his African collection accurately reflects his route between Morocco and present-day Namibia, so it can be assumed that he acquired the objects while his ship was in port. Many of the objects are typical souvenirs, as they were already being produced for sale to European travellers and collectors. For some objects, the collector’s indications on provenance suggest that they came from the interior of the country or neighbouring areas via trade routes. Whether Captain Heldt also acquired these objects in the ports from local or German middlemen, or whether he perhaps collected them himself during longer trips in the colony, is still a matter of conjecture. As captain of the most important shipping company for trade with the colony, he definitely had privileged access to the infrastructure that enabled the collection and transport of material culture from Cameroon. 

Oskar Schmidt

Joseph Adolf Oskar Schmidt was born on 6 January 1872 in Bruchsal and pursued a military career that led him to senior positions in the colonial ‘Schutztruppe’ and the colonial administration in Cameroon and Togo. He was first mentioned in connection with Cameroon in 1896 as a station assistant in Edea, followed by further assignments in Mpim (1896), in road construction works between Victoria and Buëa (1899), as head of the Johann-Albrechtshöhe government station in Barombi (1900) and as district officer in Edea (1903). Schmidt’s stay was interrupted on several occasions for health reasons, entailing repeated return journeys to Germany. In April 1904, Schmidt resigned from the ‘Schutztruppe’. In 1910, together with his brother Alfred, he founded the company Großfarm- und Faktoreibetrieb Kamerun-Hochland GmbH, which operated trading posts and plantations in the colony. 

As can be seen from the collection records, Schmidt sold around two dozen objects from the Bali region to the municipal collections in 1900. These were mainly spears and a crossbow, as well as baskets, cloth bags and pipe bowls. It is not known how he came into possession of the objects. During this time, Schmidt was a lieutenant in the ‘Schutztruppe’ and station manager in Barombi, so it can be assumed that he saw military action during this time. His activities in road construction, which involved the development and subjugation of previously inaccessible areas, also suggest a context of violence. His participation in punitive expeditions is also documented. Further research is needed to determine whether his Freiburg collection originated in such contexts. In addition to Freiburg, Oskar Schmidt also collected for the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. 

Theodor Birk

Theodor Birk is an example of a collector about whom little is known. As can be seen from an entry dated 19 January 1909 in the gift book, the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde received “Ethnographica and 2 antlers from Cameroon” from him as a gift. In a letter dated May 1909, Birk offers to collect more objects for the museum in Cameroon if his expenses are reimbursed. However, the museum rejected this offer on the grounds of cost. Birk signed the letter as an employee of the West African Company in Jaunde-Dendeng. Evidence of Theodor Birk’s activities for this trading company has yet to be found. His collection includes eight inventory numbers, including items of clothing, weapons, a leather-bound Koran and a mandolin. Three of the objects have been assigned so far, the status of the remaining numbers is still unclear. A biographical reference to Freiburg can at least be assumed, since Birk mentions in his letter that he personally handed over the objects mentioned to the museum.

The three individuals Heldt, Schmidt and Birk are representative of the types of collectors who tend to appear in colonial Africa collections. They were captains, members of the military, members of the colonial administration, traders and entrepreneurs, sometimes in overlapping roles. In hardly any of the cases can it be clearly proven how objects came into their possession, whether force or violence played a role, or whether the transactions were primarily based on exchange or purchase. Nevertheless, the aforementioned actors, and with them the collecting institutions, benefited from the imperial infrastructures that contributed to the exploitation of the colonies and their colonised populations. 

Conclusion

Within the framework of provenance research, it has been possible to a large extent to reconstruct the history of the Museums Natur und Mensch’s Cameroon collection. A systematic examination of the holdings has shown that the profile of the Freiburg Cameroon collection exhibits characteristics of collections from colonial contexts. On the one hand, this concerns, the background of the collectors who brought objects from Cameroon to Freiburg. The reconstruction of the collectors’ biographies confirmed that most of them belonged to the colonial ‘Schutztruppe’ or worked as employees in the colonial administration, the colonial economy or as merchants in the natural and ethnographic goods trade.

Furthermore, the collection is characteristic in terms of the composition of its holdings. It includes a large proportion of weapons both for hunting and war, everyday objects, as well as objects produced for trade with colonialists. In addition, ceremonial objects, objects with a representative function and musical instruments, among others, are deserving of mention. Since most of the collections are very small and often only consist of a few or individual objects, it is not possible to say that the entire collection or the individual compilations of objects themselves amount to something purposeful or, indeed, systematic. In accordance with the guidelines “Dealing with objects from colonial contexts” (2021) issued by the German Museums Association, the Cameroon holdings are to be classified as historically sensitive and, in some cases, as culturally specific.

Finally, the collection of colonial artefacts from Cameroon is also characteristic in terms of its desiderata: the documentation in the archives is both incomplete and, as is often the case, incorrect or creates a distorted picture in its attributions, since the spatial and ethnic classifications made there primarily reflect colonialist logic or that of the museum’s organisational system. Complementing this colonial archival knowledge and balancing it with the perspectives and views of people from the societies of origin is an important step in decolonising provenance research that is still pending at this point in time. The project “Provenance Research Cameroon” has created the conditions for processing inquiries quickly and in a professionally competent manner and for establishing targeted collaborations with partners from Cameroon.

Funding

The research project was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg and the City of Freiburg.

Authors: Stefanie Schien and Godwin Kornes, 2023
Translator: Tim Connell

Alle Bestände aus Kamerun finden Sie hier.