Dr. Marie Biloa Onana [ENG]

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

The words looted art. It’s like that: The Humboldt Forum is planning a great cultural project, some kind of a cultural dialogue, some kind of a platform where cultures of the whole wide world, including non-European cultures, are exhibited. This means that in a way, they will enter a dialogue. Actually, in this world this is a great idea: an obligation, a cultural obligation. However, the Humboldt Forum wants to acquire the collections of the ethnological museum and the museum for Asian art and that is the problem here. The collections, the objects of these museums were for the most part acquired in the course of colonial conquest, colonial expropriation and colonial acts of violence. This means their provenance is problematic. So what do we want here? Do they want to have a dialogue at eye level with other cultures? Then they should start by facing up to the provenance of these objects.

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.

My answer is clearly yes, the point is we are talking about the very first genocide of the 20th century, right after the genocide of the Armenians. And with the extermination order, many, many people died. There was a massacre and you cannot dismiss it. Humans suffered in concentration camps, they went through the worst, and they lost their psychological and social security as an ethnic community, they lost all their soil and cattle. And for me, it is only legitimate to demand reparations, meaning compensation payments. And the descendants of Herero are demanding this too. To leave this question open only shows how this topic is actually still repressed. You cannot simply trivialize this genocide. Indeed, many people are still aggrieved because the German Federal Republic is not facing the crimes of these actions, meaning acknowledging the injustice, apologizing and also attempting to somehow support the descendants of the Herero. And it is important! We can still see how this ethnic community suffers from this genocide, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. They need schools, infrastructure, they need many things. And compensation, reparations would be very good in this case. And it is also a sign, a sign to recognize the victims, who are simply not considered. And when you pay reparations, it shows that this chapter is included in German history.

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

My answer to this question is also yes, when you assume that the topics racism, colonialism and slave trade are not[treated like footnotes any longer or a minor faux pas in German national history; when you assume that racism was legitimized alongside colonialism and the slave trade; which existed back then, and that are even today highly relevant. When you assume this as a starting point as I do, that these topics are part of the German national history, then a monument for the victims of racism, colonialism and the slave trade is indispensable. As a matter of fact it goes without saying! It’s plainly unacceptable that monuments for other victims were put up, for victims of actions of violence, of injustices, of inequities but not for the victims of slavery, colonialism and the slave trade, that they are simply ignored! And this again is a sign how selective the politics of memory are; how selective this history is and how the Germans make efforts again and again to simply forget this chapter. Or to trivialize the actions of violence which are perceptible to this day. And there are scattered projects where efforts are made to not forget this topic or these victims. There is a – and please apologize my using this word [my word choice]- a ridiculous memorial stone where the victims, the Herero, are commemorated in the garrison cemetery in Neukölln. It is so ridiculous to see this, isn’t it?! And here in Wedding we have the African quarter as a memorial site- that is good. And there are many activities by the Black community who are continuously trying to consider this topic in history. But there is still a long way to go. On that note we still have many things to do. And therefore it would be very nice to finally have a monument also for the victims of slavery and colonialism in Berlin.

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

I think it is morally inexcusable and it is inhuman, degrading and from today’s democratic perspective illegal, unjust and wrong. And these are body parts, remains of human beings, who were murdered under the worst conditions: in concentration camps in the desert; they had nothing to eat, nothing to drink; they had to die of thirst, of starvation. And then these body parts were brought to Germany. And we should not forget: these were mostly people who protested against the regime, against the colonial regime. That these body parts are exhibited in museums is for me just another act of violence. An act of violence beyond death. By still keeping the remains of the murdered Herero in Germany, they perpetuate the injustice, the violence – I know what that means. And it is assumed, that at that time the bones and skulls were used for medical research purposes. Intolerable! What a nerve! They wanted to prove that Black people are supposedly inferior, less of a person. I think they should bring these, the skulls, these bones, these remains back. It is inhumane and inexcusable. Enough said.

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.)?

Is their perspective important for engaging with colonialism, with projects and so on and so forth – naturally! These people, meaning the descendants of the colonized, are living in Germany, they are part of society, they have a right to be heard; their voice has to be heard, they have something to say within the society in which they are living. And as a matter of fact, their perspective can be broadening, enriching, and reveal new aspects to the conversation. And knowing that the dominant remembrance perspective is full of lies, this alternative perspective is especially good, for it can contend with these gaps. Additionally, since there are many initiatives from the Black community on these topics, we have many things which were taken for granted before, which are not taken for granted anymore, because they were questioned, they were deconstructed. [Therefore] I think we should not regard this only as a counter narrative, a counter perspective but as a perspective which can also be productive, which can also change things, which can crucially change something.