What I learned from the project
While researching our exhibition, I realized how little I know about Africa, and Cameroon in particular. Most of the topics are nature and wildlife—the African people then appear as gamekeepers or poachers. But even the photos from around 1900 speak a different language—people in a large port city, in close contact with Europeans, but also with their own culture, to which museum collections—like Dr. Ipscher's—provide only limited access.
Despite our diverse networking resources, the research was laborious and yielded contradictory results. Outdated information, incorrect labels, and, above all, a lack of information from an African perspective made it difficult to get a picture of life in Cameroon today or around 1900. It became very clear to me that Africa is still not perceived as equal. Most of the readily available information still reflects the European perspective. And who is aware that the entire continent is depicted too small on our maps compared to the Northern Hemisphere, or that internet image searches don't identify Black faces as well as white faces, or what a significant role Africa truly plays in global development?
I am pleased to be able to make our small collection available to the public and hope that it will help all those who are preparing Cameroon's history for future generations and thus contributing to a more equal and just world.
Katharina-A. carpenter
Museum Director
thanksgiving
Our exhibition could only be made possible through the support of many people, who should be mentioned here:
- Dr. Kerstin Volker-Saad, on whose research our texts are based
- the Stuttgart Linden Museum for providing the archives and the photo, especially Markus Himmelsbach for his support in researching the objects from the Ipscher collection
- Bärbel Hartwig, who secured the photos for the museum
- Inge Jerichow, who found them and shared with us the traditions from her family
- The Kanow family, who donated most of the objects to the museum
- Ronja Oberhammer and Lorenz Kienzle as photographers for the reproductions and object photos
- Scholtz family
- Helmut Klohs
- Melanie Metzlaff
- Municipality of Wusterhausen/Dosse and Wusterhausen Cultural Association eV
Please refer to our accompanying presentation for sources.
Link: Download PDF