The plum-coloured questions marks in the green areas mean: the most prolific “collector” for this museum, the ethnographer Bernard Ankermann, acquired wonderful pieces of Cameroonian cultural heritage via members of the colonial military whom he acknowledged dearly in his publications for โcomplementing and completing [his] own collections in a very desirable wayโ.
As the head of the station in Bipindi, Georg Zenker entertained friendly relationships with officers in Kribi, Ebolova and Yaoundรฉ.
You will find plenty of charts on the role of the military in acquisitions of African cultural heritage in the upcoming publication ๐๐ต๐ญ๐ข๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ: ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฐ๐จ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข, which will be published next year by transcript Verlag.
Many thanks to Verena Rodatus for sharing the data and to Sebastian-Manรจs Sprute for his insights into many of these looters/collectors.
