Germany’s returning of Ngonnso is the “confronting of a colonial past” – Activist Sylvie Njobati

By Ngala Hansel

German authorities have announced that they will be returning the sacred statue of Yaa Ngonnso, the founder of the Nso dynasty which was forcibly taken by Germans in 1902.

The announcement on Monday June 27, 2022, was celebrated by Nso people the world over, including Nso-born activist Sylvie Njobati who said: “I feel really happy that after 120 years of captivity Ngonnso will be able to go back home finally”.
Njobati who lives in Germany, added that Ngonso “…is not just an object, she’s not just a statue, but she’s of very strong spiritual significance to the people of Nso…”.

Ngonnso was taken during the reign of Fon Sehm II (on the throne from 1875 – 1907) by German colonial commander Hans Karl Georg Curt Pavel in 1902 under circumstances that were likely not amicable.

However, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said that the Nso were not looted, but were likely just “intimidated” into giving up the artefact; a claim which Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie refuted in a September 2021 speech at the Huboldt Forum in Germany. Chimamanda said then that Germany ought to return “…those things that are sacred, those things for which people were killed, those things that have in them the stain of innocent blood should be returned”. Speaking further, she argued that “Obviously we do not have all the information, there are facts lost in unrecorded history, but we can draw reasonable conclusions based on information that we do have. We can deduce for example that the Ngonso, the beautiful sculpture of the founder and guiding spirit of the Nso people of Cameroon, a former German colony could not possibly have been obtained under benign circumstances; because why would you willingly give up your guiding spirit?”

It should be noted that Germany had several colonies in Africa (including Cameroon) prior to the First World War and there are several artefacts in German museums taken from former German colonies.

For Sylvie Njobati, campaigning for the return of Ngonso is “fighting against colonialism; it’s fighting for reparations, for reconciliation based on a colonial experience. It’s confronting a colonial past…”.

According to Nsaibirni Warren Lee, a young man from Nso and a Phd student at the University of Yaoundé I “…the seeming denial by Germany of the actual context under which Ngonnso and other sacred artefacts got whisked from Nso is an unacceptable infringement of colonial justice.” He added that “Colonial justice requires true dissection of colonial history and sharing of responsibilities and this is not what the Press Release considered.”

Thirty-year old Njobati told CNA that she just leveraged on the efforts of several other people who have been at the fore, calling for the return of Ngonso to the Nso land and credited His Royal Highness the Fon of Nso who wrote several letters to Germany; Mr. Gad Shiynyuy who began the effort to retrieve Ngonso and send her back to Nso and Prof. Verkijika Fanso whose research clarified a lot of misconceptions around the taking of Ngonso to Germany.

Worth noting is the fact that after Ngonnso was taken by the Germans, she was donated to a museum the following year by Curt Pavel. Sixteen years after the forceful capture of Ngonso, precisely in November 1918; Germany would be defeated in the First World War, lose all her territories and Cameroon was split between the French and British. Britain took the western portion of the country where the land of Nso is located. In 1960, British Southern Cameroons as the region became known under British rule, reunified in a controversial UN-led plebiscite with French Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
In 1972, the federation was dissolved by then President Ahmadou Ahidjo in favour of a unitary state.
Armed clashes began in 2017 as separatist groups called for the return to the federal system of governance and later, outright secession. Nso land is in the heart of the ongoing civil war and there are concerns as to whether it is safe to return Ngonso to the Nso palace at this time.