Hervé Tcheumeleu [ENG]

What word comes to your mind when you think of the Humboldtforum / Berliner Schloss? Please explain.

I can hardly put it in one word, so I would rather say a sentence. It is a good project, but there are some questionable methods. The idea itself, to present and to promote a dialogue between cultures, is great, but I’m asking myself the question: How are you actually treating these cultures, these people that are concerned? How do you treat them? Do you reach out to them? Do you speak with them? And, if there are conversations taking place, it is important to know how they are held: If you simply report about what you do, without listening to the thoughts of others, that shows a mentality, which puts the own ideas above the point of view of the people that are actually concerned. What can emerge from that kind of conversation? It can be about the representation of German culture. Why not? That is fair. Berlin is the capital after all and the emperor’s palace is part of Germany’s history, too. However, if the histories of other peoples are also to be represented, then, I think, that must only be done in contact and in agreement with these people. That is why I think that the current method is questionable.

Do you think that Germany should pay reparations to the Herero and Nama communities that were affected by and dispossessed during the genocide from 1904-08? Please elaborate.

Certainly, yes. I am hesitant to make comparisons, but Germany did and still does pay reparations to certain groups of people such as the Greeks, the Jews and the French. Why not to people from Africa? Why are reparations not payed to the Herero and the Nama, to people from Benin, Cameroon and Togo? I do not have the answer to that question. I just cannot understand it.

Do you think that a memorial and informational centrum concerning the topic slavery, colonialism and racism should be built in Berlin? Please elaborate.

Certainly, yes. I think that Berlin has a special position due to its historical background. After all, the Berlin Conference took place here in 1885, where Africa was literally chopped up like a piece of cake. Berlin is often portrayed as cosmopolitan, open-minded and ‘multicultural’. That responsibility of a metropole in a globalized world towards a part of Germany’s population of which the history is not represented and which is still discriminated against, this responsibility alone necessitates a memorial.

What’s your take on the many human remains from the Global South that are kept in German museums until today?

It is difficult for me to speak about other countries. I can only speak about Cameroon. I am myself from Cameroon, I am Bamileke and I know what happens to our deceased ancestors. I personally will go home in less than a month from now to honour my deceased father. He is buried already, I was there, but I have to go back to honour him. That is important for our tradition and it ensures my personal balance. If I was to be separated from the remains of my deceased father, something would be taken that belongs to me, that is part of myself. That is what I think of, when speaking about the human remains of the Herero, the Nama and all the others. I think that every human needs their balance and everybody has their faith and their methods to maintain that balance. For us, for many countries in Africa, first of all for me as a Bamileke from Cameroon, honouring deceased ancestors is a very important act. By keeping the remains of their ancestors in Germany one denies the descendants that balance and that, I think, is a shame.

According to you, how important is the equal and conceptional contribution of descendants of colonized people to handle the colonial past (i.e. negotiations regarding reparations, museums, exhibitions, representation in schoolbooks, street renaming etc.)?

I said it in the beginning. The Humboldtforum is said to be a dialogue of cultures, a gift by Germany to the world or so they say. If it is about a dialogue of cultures, then all concerned cultures must be sitting equitably at one table to prepare that project. It is that simple.

Why is participation not practiced this way?

I think this has many political factors. It is fear. It is the fear, that the acknowledgement of the past will lead to reparations and lawsuits. I know that small steps are taken in that direction. It is part of parliamentary debates. But, it needs a real acknowledgement and, first of all, it has to ask for apology. That needs to happen now. My concern is still: why was this done with other groups, but not with people from Africa, who were massacred and enslaved for a hundred years and are still being discriminated?