Sankofatization and decolonization: The Rapprochement of German Museums and Government with Colonial Objects and Postcolonialism
Date
2020-05-19
Authors
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Publisher
Museum Anthropology
Abstract
This paper examines how node three national museums in
Germany are dealing with colonial objects in their spaces.
It also explores the German government’s recent rapprochement
with scholars in its ex-colonies on how to deal
with its colonial past within a discourse of evidence and
sankofatization. Sankofatization is defined as a Ghanaian-
Akan ideology that signifies the selection of past ideas for
retention within a type of renaissance paradigm. In December
2015, the German Federal Foreign Office invited delegates
from Togo, Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania, and Cameroon
to take part in a unique program dubbed “A Themed Tour
of German Colonial History.” Reporting on this tour, the
paper assesses the activism of German civic organizations
and museums in their ongoing attempts to decolonize colonial
cityscapes, street names, and exhibits. But this discussion
is much more than an ethnographic report. The
implications of this rapprochement policy for discourses on
the archaeology of German colonialism and the anthropology
of colonial museums denote significant changes in
transnational cooperation. Overall, the themed tour
recalled that silencing of negative past experiences
and past misdeeds is never permanent. Generational
change often influences a renaissance, or sankofatization,
of past realities to serve emerging postcolonial needs. [museum
anthropology, Africa, Germany, decolonization, repatriation]
Description
Research Article
Keywords
museum anthropology, Africa, Germany, decolonization, repatriation