Cameroonian patrimony in regional collections in Germany and questions of restitution

A provenance research project at the Lippisches Landesmuseum in the peripheral German city of Detmold investigates a collection of the German colonial administrator and judge August Kirchhof and his wife Hedwig, who were in Limbe, Douala, Yaoundé and Fumban from 1904 to 1914. The Kirchhof collection of about 200 objects covers a broad spectrum of Cameroonian patrimony, much of it acquired by Hedwig. During their years in Yaoundé, the Kirchhofs relied heavily on Charles Atangana, who travelled with them to Detmold. After a short presentation about the museum’s provenance research project, Stephen Fomin (Buea), Henry Kam Kah (Buea), and Amir Theilhaber (Detmold/Bielefeld) will discuss what public debates in Cameroon around patrimony in the West and questions of ownership of restituted Cameroonian patrimony mean for the collection in the Lippisches Landesmuseum. The discussion will be moderated by journalist Comfort Mussa (Yaoundé).