Ferracuti, Sandra
Colonialities, Postcolonialities, and Heritages in/from Cameroon. Foumban, Douala, Stuttgart
- 2023.
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What do the statue of Leclerc in Douala, the museum created by King Njoya in Foumban and the Cameroonian collections held in Stuttgart’s Linden-Museum have in common? In response to the repeated defacement, in Cameroon, of the commemorative statue by activists seeking to unravel a colonial relationship, two artists from Cameroon stage a performance in a European museum, aiming to reconnect what has been separated by colonial collections. As a backdrop, the fate that King Njoya’s Museum suffered under French colonial rule is being readdressed, and its focus is shifting from the political to the post-colonial market of heritage and cultural tourism. These examples allow us to examine the ongoing deconstruction of colonial spaces and heritages and the different actors involved (in Cameroon and the diasporas), and hence to question the role of performativity in the contemporary issues concerning heritage in times of restitution.