Videos by Yann LeGall
@ Colloque Anthropo-Responsabilité - Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, 28-29 Jan. 2021
Official Link:... more @ Colloque Anthropo-Responsabilité - Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, 28-29 Jan. 2021
Official Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTcw7PSgyY0
In this paper, a Mchaga activist and a French researcher retrace the provenance of Wachaga skulls in the collection of the institute of anatomy in Strasbourg. Connecting Tanzanian calls for transparency and repatriation of those ancestors to the reburial of victims of the Holocaust – whose remains were also kept at this institute – the authors propose to consider the transnational vectors drawn by pathologist August Widenmann and the afterlives of those Wachaga. They ask for a deep engagement with the history of colonial violence (both physical and discursive) when dealing with such sensitive collections. 21 views
Scientific publications by Yann LeGall
Musea, 2024
In German ethno-colonial museums, thousands of belongings of Togolese, Ghanaian and Cameroonian p... more In German ethno-colonial museums, thousands of belongings of Togolese, Ghanaian and Cameroonian people are kept mute and away from the public. Some of these are evidence of the violent conquest of Togoland, a territory that Imperial Germany used to label as its “model colony”. Debunking this myth with an overview of military expeditions, spoils of war and evidence of colonial violence, this paper contributes to a critical historiography of German colonialism in West Africa and reveals the absurdity of museums’ claims to science. This revisit of museum collections and archives also calls for a new type of dialogue on how to work through the violent history of colonial conquest and its material and immaterial legacies today.
Altas de l'Absence: Le Patrimoine Culturel du Cameroun en Allemagne, 2024
History, 2024
The debate on the restitution of African cultural heritage has brought greater attention to the h... more The debate on the restitution of African cultural heritage has brought greater attention to the history of colonial violence, especially to the dispatch of so-called 'punitive' expeditions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Expanding knowledge on the genealogy of this particularly brutal form of military campaign, this article explores the historical semantics of the German term 'Strafexpedition' and its contextual use in the organ of militarist colonial propaganda at the time in Imperial Germany, the Deutsches Kolonialblatt. Through a content analysis of the occurrence of the term and its correlate, this study aims to bridge the fields of semantics and colonial historiography and lays the groundwork for a macro-history of events of spoliation and plunder in German colonial contexts.
History Workshop Journal, Sep 6, 2023
In March 2022, almost two years after having shut its doors because of the Covid pandemic, the Gr... more In March 2022, almost two years after having shut its doors because of the Covid pandemic, the Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig reopened its revamped exhibition space to the public. Grappling with, but at the same time eager to confront its colonial history, the museum proposed contrasting spaces curated by different stakeholders. When an artistic collective brought a jackhammer and started destroying a plinth that had displayed the bust of the museum’s former director in order to recycle the granite splinters into replicas of the peak of Kilimanjaro, the museum fell under the spotlight of the media and the museum world.1 This tantalizing controversy largely overshadowed the rest of the exhibits, including a so-called ‘prep-room’ that showcases ongoing curatorial processes. In this ‘prep room’ sat a personal item from today’s Ghana: a headdress from the Kingdom of Dagbon. Though ignored in media coverage of the Grassi’s reopening, this quilted red, ochre and brown linen headgear deserves scrutiny.
Atlas der Abwesenheit: Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland, 2023
Im April 2022 besuchte ich zusammen mit Ohiniko Mawussé Toffa und Elias Aguigah das Depot des Rau... more Im April 2022 besuchte ich zusammen mit Ohiniko Mawussé Toffa und Elias Aguigah das Depot des Rautenstrauch-joest-Museums in Köln. 1 Beim Stöbern in togolesischen, ghanaischen und kamerunischen Besitztümern, die von deutschen Kolonisten geplündert worden waren, wurde meine Aufmerksamkeit auf eine Trommel gelenkt, die mehr als 1,5 Meter hoch ist und die Inventarnummer 35222 trägt (Abb. 1). Die Provenienzforscherin im Museum, Yağmur Karakis, teilte mir mit, dass die Datenbank des Museums diese Trommel den Bakoko 2 zuschreibt, Gemeinschaften aus den Mündungsgebieten von Nyong und Sanaga, von denen bekannt ist, dass sie der deutschen Kolonialherrschaft im Südwesten Kameruns starken Widerstand geleistet haben. Auf meine Anfrage hin überließ uns das Museum die zu diesem Gegenstand gehörenden Archivalien. Die dünne Archivmappe enthielt lediglich eine Liste von 36 Kulturgütern aus Kamerun, Tansania, Indien und Samoa, die angeblich 1922 von Köln aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde in Rostock gekauft worden waren. Die Liste enthielt vage Angaben zur kulturellen Zugehörigkeit sowie Skizzen einiger Gegenstände,
Die postkoloniale Stadt lesen: Historische Erkundungen in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, 2022
Human Remains & Violence, 2020
Debates on the relevance of repatriation of indigenous human remains are water under the bridge t... more Debates on the relevance of repatriation of indigenous human remains are water under the bridge today. Yet, a genuine will for dialogue to work through colonial violence is found lacking in the European public sphere. Looking at local remembrance of the Majimaji War (1905-7) in the south of Tanzania and a German-Tanzanian theatre production, it seems that the spectre of colonial headhunting stands at the heart of claims for repatriation and acknowledgement of this anti-colonial movement. The missing head of Ngoni leader Songea Mbano haunts the future of German-Tanzanian relations in heritage and culture. By staging the act of post-mortem dismemberment and foregrounding the perspective of descendants, the theatre production Maji Maji Flava o ers an honest proposal for dealing with stories of sheer colonial violence in transnational memory.
Kritik des deutschen Kolonialismus, 2021
Everything Passes Except the Past: Decolonizing Ethnographic Museums, Film Archives and Public Space, 2021
Postcolonial Justice in Australia: Reassessing the 'Fair Go' - Gigi Adair & Anja Schwarz, eds
Abstract: The Pacific region has proved a stimulating space for repatriation in recent years. Cla... more Abstract: The Pacific region has proved a stimulating space for repatriation in recent years. Claims from Aboriginal people, supported by Australian museums and other national actors, have been increasingly successful in arranging the return of human remains to their respective communities of origin. Requests sent to European institutions have influenced how they deal with human remains from the colonial era: remains are now more likely to be considered not as objects, but as ancestors who matter to local communities. These successful claims in Australia and New Zealand have inspired other Pacific nations to demand the repatriation of remains from Europe. In conjunction with these returns, handover ceremonies have provided opportunities for Indigenous voices to shape their own remembrance of colonial oppression. Burial practices have emerged that both provide the dead with resting places and crystallize their presence in the postcolonial present. Comparing the Australian experience with that of its neighbouring countries, this paper examines how repatriations to the Pacific have given birth to syncretic memory practices that engage with the legacies of colonialism.
Talks and conference presentations by Yann LeGall
Decolonial Dialogues - Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2022
Conference "Imperial Lives" - University of Cologne, 2023
In 1897, the German colonialist Gaston Thierry murdered the fémè (i.e. ‘ruler’) of Sansanné-Mango... more In 1897, the German colonialist Gaston Thierry murdered the fémè (i.e. ‘ruler’) of Sansanné-Mango, Biema Asabiè, and plundered his possessions. Today, these gilded belongings can be found in museums in Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig. Thierry’s colonial loot pervades museum collections in Germany, and some can even be found in the storerooms of the Field Museum in Chicago. Nonetheless, because of his violent behaviour towards Africans, as well as his inclination to dispatch “punitive” expeditions and plunder to his heart’s content, Thierry was castigated by the governor and later transferred to German Kamerun. He was later mortally wounded after attacking Kirdi people in Mubi (today’s Nigeria).
It is difficult to decenter knowledge production that is mostly based on colonial archives, and even harder to make material evidence of colonial brutality sing more empowering songs than a sad melody. Yet, beyond the potential for a future restitution of these royal Anufô belongings from northern Togo, the work of retracing Gaston Thierry’s deeds led us to shift the story, recentering it on Biema Asabiè’s resistance to German colonial rule. This case offered fertile ground for experiments in critical historiography. Our project “The Restitution of Knowledge” has opted for different outputs on this history, formats that enable disruptive tactics such as “deranging the archive” (Saidiya Hartmann), thinking of victims of colonial violence as potential "companions" in the present (Ariella Aïsha Azoulay), and developing multidirectional memory practice (Michael Rothberg). This paper and research, despite being “too late for the accounts of death to prevent other deaths” (Hartmann), reflects on the need for alternative platforms and narratives for working through colonial pasts. Next to scientific publishing, diverse forms of knowledge production such as Wikipedia, dissemination of information in research networks, museum blog posts, or a poster campaign can help remember these silenced histories beyond museum research, for a glocal politics of implication.
PhD Thesis by Yann LeGall
PhD Thesis, RTG "minor cosmopolitanisms", University of Potsdam, 2020
Ronald Booysen. She leads the Gamtkwa Khoisan Council and has organized projects in local cultura... more Ronald Booysen. She leads the Gamtkwa Khoisan Council and has organized projects in local cultural empowerment, such as the Naniqua Jewellery Project which aims to revive traditional art forms of jewellery making. Gamtkwa Khoisan Council: http://www.gamtkwa.org.za Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, born in 1951, is a Chaga teacher and activist from Tanzania who has lived in Berlin for more than 30 years. He is a founding and board member of the NGO Berlin Postkolonial e.V. which has worked for the recognition of German colonial history in the capital and elsewhere. Mzee Mboro has led guided tours in Berlin's so-called "African quarter". He supports a change of perspective in urban memorialization, advocating for the renaming of streets that still honour colonial officers so that these rather remember figures of anticolonial resistance. Mboro's work also strongly focuses on the repatriation of human remains looted in colonized countries like Tanzania and brought to Europe and Germany for racist research. Serafino Liduino is a Mhehe, descendant of the Ngimba family, who lives in Iringa, Tanzania. He guides tourists and researchers through the numerous historical sites in the Uhehe region and works in close partnership with the local organization for heritage management and preservation Fahari Yetu.
Other articles by Yann LeGall
Die Mark Brandenburg, 2021
Auf einem Foto des Potsdamer Orangerieschlosses in der Sammlung der Stiftung Preußische Schlösser... more Auf einem Foto des Potsdamer Orangerieschlosses in der Sammlung der Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten sind drei Instrumente zu erkennen, die heutzutage nicht mehr dort stehen...
iz3w, 2022
In Deutschland wie in Frankreich ist Restitution ein großes Thema. Es geht um die Rückgabe von Ar... more In Deutschland wie in Frankreich ist Restitution ein großes Thema. Es geht um die Rückgabe von Artefakten und Gebeinen, die im Unrechtskontext des Kolonialismus gestohlen oder angeeignet wurden. 2018 beauftragte die französische Regierung den »Bericht über die Restitution afrikanischer Kulturgüter«. In diesem wird ein zügiges Verfahren für die Restitution von Objekten aus kolonialen Sammlungen vorgeschlagen. Der Bericht hat der internationalen Restitutionsdebatte wichtige Impulse gegeben und die Diskussion auch in Deutschland stark beeinflusst. Dabei unterscheiden sich die Diskussionen in Deutschland und in Frankreich. Die Wissenschaftler*innen Lotte Arndt (Paris) und Yann LeGall (Berlin) beschreiben diese Differenzen, ihre Möglichkeiten und Fallstricke. Lotte Arndt ist Kulturtheoretikerin an der Technischen Universität Berlin beim internationalen Projekt »Reconnecting ,Objects': Epistemic Plurality and Transformative Practices in and beyond Museums«. Yann LeGall ist Kulturhistoriker am Fachgebiet Kunstgeschichte der Technischen Universität Berlin und Mitglied des Projekts »The Restitution of Knowledge: artefacts as archives in the (post)colonial museum«. Zudem ist er aktiv bei Berlin Postkolonial und Postcolonial Potsdam. Eine Langfassung des Interviews findet sich in der iz3w-Artikelreihe über die Restitutionsdebatte unter: bit./y/3Rfovqw
Habari ("Shared History - Koloniales Erbe als Verantwortung"), 2018
Master Thesis by Yann LeGall
International repatriations of colonial human remains have generated numerous questions ... more International repatriations of colonial human remains have generated numerous questions regarding the status of indigenous communities, the responsibility of museums, and the importance of retrieving the histories of those ancestors whose bodies have been dug up, displaced and objectified as token of racial difference. This work proposes to move away from the traditional oppositions that have structured repatriation claims for decades and advocate collaboration between the current legal owners of those anthropological collections and the repatriation claimants so that indigenous communities can regain authority on the history of their oppression thanks to a process of postcolonial remembrance. To achieve this aim, the consequences of repatriation in the cultural and collective memory of colonialism will be studied. Moreover, anthropological considerations of the body will be accordingly pushed further in order to relocate the debates about repatriation around the central position of the dead ancestors.
In den letzten dreißig Jahren haben die zahlreichen Repatriierungen von Schädeln und Gebeinen aus der Kolonialzeit (Human Remains) Museen gezwungen, bezüglich ihrer eigenen Sammlungen Stellung zu beziehen. Indigene Völker haben dadurch in begrenztem Maße Autorität über ihre eigene Geschichte und Anerkennung als selbstständige kulturelle Akteure zurück erhalten. Die vorliegende Arbeit fordert eine Neukonzeption im Feld der anthropologischen Restitutionen, für die Zusammenarbeit mit Herkunftsgesellschaften als notwendiges Element der Provenienzforschung und Erinnerung zentral ist. In diesem
Zusammenhang wird gezeigt, wie westliche Institutionen es versäumt haben, die von ihnen gesammelten Schädel als menschliche Individuen zu betrachten. Dem gegenüber konzentrieren sich indigene Forscher, Nachfahren und Projekte auf die Re-Individualisierung und ethische Behandlung der menschlichen Überreste. Damit könnte die Rückführung der Schädel letztlich sowohl bei den ehemaligen Kolonialmächten als auch bei den Herkunftsgemeinschaften zur tiefergehenden Erinnerung und Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Rassenanthropologie beitragen.
Book Reviews by Yann LeGall
Provenienz & Forchung, 2020
HSozKult
Review for H/Soz/Kult of "Haut, Haar und Knochen. Koloniale Spuren in naturkundlichen Sammlungen ... more Review for H/Soz/Kult of "Haut, Haar und Knochen. Koloniale Spuren in naturkundlichen Sammlungen der Universität Jena," by Larissa Förster and Holger Stoecker, Weimar 2016: Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Uploads
Videos by Yann LeGall
Official Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTcw7PSgyY0
In this paper, a Mchaga activist and a French researcher retrace the provenance of Wachaga skulls in the collection of the institute of anatomy in Strasbourg. Connecting Tanzanian calls for transparency and repatriation of those ancestors to the reburial of victims of the Holocaust – whose remains were also kept at this institute – the authors propose to consider the transnational vectors drawn by pathologist August Widenmann and the afterlives of those Wachaga. They ask for a deep engagement with the history of colonial violence (both physical and discursive) when dealing with such sensitive collections.
Scientific publications by Yann LeGall
Talks and conference presentations by Yann LeGall
It is difficult to decenter knowledge production that is mostly based on colonial archives, and even harder to make material evidence of colonial brutality sing more empowering songs than a sad melody. Yet, beyond the potential for a future restitution of these royal Anufô belongings from northern Togo, the work of retracing Gaston Thierry’s deeds led us to shift the story, recentering it on Biema Asabiè’s resistance to German colonial rule. This case offered fertile ground for experiments in critical historiography. Our project “The Restitution of Knowledge” has opted for different outputs on this history, formats that enable disruptive tactics such as “deranging the archive” (Saidiya Hartmann), thinking of victims of colonial violence as potential "companions" in the present (Ariella Aïsha Azoulay), and developing multidirectional memory practice (Michael Rothberg). This paper and research, despite being “too late for the accounts of death to prevent other deaths” (Hartmann), reflects on the need for alternative platforms and narratives for working through colonial pasts. Next to scientific publishing, diverse forms of knowledge production such as Wikipedia, dissemination of information in research networks, museum blog posts, or a poster campaign can help remember these silenced histories beyond museum research, for a glocal politics of implication.
PhD Thesis by Yann LeGall
Other articles by Yann LeGall
Master Thesis by Yann LeGall
In den letzten dreißig Jahren haben die zahlreichen Repatriierungen von Schädeln und Gebeinen aus der Kolonialzeit (Human Remains) Museen gezwungen, bezüglich ihrer eigenen Sammlungen Stellung zu beziehen. Indigene Völker haben dadurch in begrenztem Maße Autorität über ihre eigene Geschichte und Anerkennung als selbstständige kulturelle Akteure zurück erhalten. Die vorliegende Arbeit fordert eine Neukonzeption im Feld der anthropologischen Restitutionen, für die Zusammenarbeit mit Herkunftsgesellschaften als notwendiges Element der Provenienzforschung und Erinnerung zentral ist. In diesem
Zusammenhang wird gezeigt, wie westliche Institutionen es versäumt haben, die von ihnen gesammelten Schädel als menschliche Individuen zu betrachten. Dem gegenüber konzentrieren sich indigene Forscher, Nachfahren und Projekte auf die Re-Individualisierung und ethische Behandlung der menschlichen Überreste. Damit könnte die Rückführung der Schädel letztlich sowohl bei den ehemaligen Kolonialmächten als auch bei den Herkunftsgemeinschaften zur tiefergehenden Erinnerung und Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Rassenanthropologie beitragen.
Book Reviews by Yann LeGall
Official Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTcw7PSgyY0
In this paper, a Mchaga activist and a French researcher retrace the provenance of Wachaga skulls in the collection of the institute of anatomy in Strasbourg. Connecting Tanzanian calls for transparency and repatriation of those ancestors to the reburial of victims of the Holocaust – whose remains were also kept at this institute – the authors propose to consider the transnational vectors drawn by pathologist August Widenmann and the afterlives of those Wachaga. They ask for a deep engagement with the history of colonial violence (both physical and discursive) when dealing with such sensitive collections.
It is difficult to decenter knowledge production that is mostly based on colonial archives, and even harder to make material evidence of colonial brutality sing more empowering songs than a sad melody. Yet, beyond the potential for a future restitution of these royal Anufô belongings from northern Togo, the work of retracing Gaston Thierry’s deeds led us to shift the story, recentering it on Biema Asabiè’s resistance to German colonial rule. This case offered fertile ground for experiments in critical historiography. Our project “The Restitution of Knowledge” has opted for different outputs on this history, formats that enable disruptive tactics such as “deranging the archive” (Saidiya Hartmann), thinking of victims of colonial violence as potential "companions" in the present (Ariella Aïsha Azoulay), and developing multidirectional memory practice (Michael Rothberg). This paper and research, despite being “too late for the accounts of death to prevent other deaths” (Hartmann), reflects on the need for alternative platforms and narratives for working through colonial pasts. Next to scientific publishing, diverse forms of knowledge production such as Wikipedia, dissemination of information in research networks, museum blog posts, or a poster campaign can help remember these silenced histories beyond museum research, for a glocal politics of implication.
In den letzten dreißig Jahren haben die zahlreichen Repatriierungen von Schädeln und Gebeinen aus der Kolonialzeit (Human Remains) Museen gezwungen, bezüglich ihrer eigenen Sammlungen Stellung zu beziehen. Indigene Völker haben dadurch in begrenztem Maße Autorität über ihre eigene Geschichte und Anerkennung als selbstständige kulturelle Akteure zurück erhalten. Die vorliegende Arbeit fordert eine Neukonzeption im Feld der anthropologischen Restitutionen, für die Zusammenarbeit mit Herkunftsgesellschaften als notwendiges Element der Provenienzforschung und Erinnerung zentral ist. In diesem
Zusammenhang wird gezeigt, wie westliche Institutionen es versäumt haben, die von ihnen gesammelten Schädel als menschliche Individuen zu betrachten. Dem gegenüber konzentrieren sich indigene Forscher, Nachfahren und Projekte auf die Re-Individualisierung und ethische Behandlung der menschlichen Überreste. Damit könnte die Rückführung der Schädel letztlich sowohl bei den ehemaligen Kolonialmächten als auch bei den Herkunftsgemeinschaften zur tiefergehenden Erinnerung und Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Rassenanthropologie beitragen.