“That’s a lot,” Savoy said.
“There is no country that has more objects belonging to Cameroonian heritage—definitely not Cameroon.” The state collections in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé comprise about 6,000 objects.
Most of the 40,000 items in German museums are in depots and not on display. This huge figure excludes items in natural history museums, archaeological finds in museums of prehistory or in private collections.
The over 500 pages long study, called Atlas der Abwesenheit – Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland (Atlas of Absence) is available via open access and was supported by curators at 45 German museums.
Savoy observed that it was perhaps easier for Germany to first focus on restituting Benin bronzes to Nigeria because in that instance, the violent looting was perpetrated by British troops, not German. “Germany is full,” says Maryse Nsangou Njikam of the Cameroonian embassy in Germany.
“Cameroon is empty. We must have these objects back. We need them to build the future. Restitution is the cherry on the cake, the goal we are heading for.” Cameroon has set up a restitutions committee to work with the museums.
