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to take up the subject of Conrau’s collecting efforts
once again. Evaluation of these new sources,
along with a reexamination of existing ones, helps
draw a clearer picture of Conrau’s activities in the
Cameroonian interior during the last decade of the
nineteenth century.
This renewed investigation is all the more timely
because for several years now in Germany, the
cards of history—the Erinnerungskultur, or “culture
of memory”—have been undergoing a reshuffl
ing, and the story of colonialism has come to the
attention of a broader public. This may in part
have to do with the increase in immigration that
is taking place in Germany, and indeed a number
of projects are being developed that have to do
with colonial history,6 as well as the history of im-
migration and racism.7 Moreover, the relocation
of the Museum für Völkerkunde to the Humboldt
Forum has brought up questions related to the
“appropriation” of objects and the circumstances
under which they came into the consciousness of
peoples beyond those they were originally created
to serve. Every era has seen the objects collected
in Africa in different ways, and this is particularly
true of Conrau’s pieces, which need to be seen in
the context of the competitive collecting that European
museums were engaged in at the time he was
fi eld collecting. Institutions vied with one another
to obtain the best and most representative objects
from colonized cultures, which they considered to
be doomed to disappearance. Based on the facts I
have gathered and which follow, I feel that developing
a clear understanding of the circumstances
by which these artworks came to Europe can infl uence
how they are perceived today and, ultimately,
their destiny.