Germany returns stolen Ngonnso statue to Cameroon
The female statue known as Ngonnso’will be returned to the Nso’ Kingdom in northwestern Cameroon. It was filmed by colonial officer Kurt von Pavel and donated to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1903.
A civil society initiative, “Bring Back Ngonnso,” has campaigned for years to return the statue, as Nso people say it has suffered many disasters since the statue was stolen. I’ve been.
“Ngonnso plays a central role in Nso because she is considered the Mother Goddess,” the Foundation said in a statement.
He added that the war looting from Kumbo, the capital of the Nso kingdom, did not remove the artifacts. However, the Foundation said Pavel threatened Nso’because he was accompanied by soldiers armed in Cameroon.
The Foundation has also announced that it will return 23 pieces to Namibia and plans to return the goods to Tanzania.
Germany, which lost all its colonial territory after World War I, was the third largest colonial nation after Britain and France. But while historians and politicians focused on the heritage of Nazi crime, including the Holocaust, its colonial past was ignored for decades.
However, many famous crafts still remain in the museum, including part of the Babylonian Gate in Iraq, which is on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
Foundation President Hermann Purzinger said that in order for an object to be worthy of return, it does not need to be acquired in an unjustified situation such as looting.
“The special, especially spiritual importance of the object to the society of origin can also justify the return,” Purzinger added.
Mbinglo Gilles Yumo Nyuydzewira, Prince of the Kingdom of Nso, said the news was warmly received in Cameroon.
“More than 120 years later, we can continue to be happy with the moment of approach, commemorating the connection of our ancestors with love and unity,” Yumo Nyuydzewira told Reuters.
“The message remains the message of a spiritual and ancestral reunion with the mother and founder of this great dynasty,” Yumo Nyuydzewira said.
