these places you know of for smashing records to. step into more french or it's the treasure map for modern globe trotters to discover some of the record breaking sites. and now also in book form. the. museums are tremendous instruments for creating knowledge. one of the things that confronts ethnological museums today is the need to understand the way in which our pasts are and bedded in colonial history. the way we present the objects in museums speaks volumes about the way in which we understand ourselves other people the past the present and our hopes for the future.

once again there is a palace in the heart of berlin. the rebuilt historical berlin palace it's resurrection has triggered a torrent of debate what signal is being sent by reconstructing in a period royal residence. the most controversial aspect of the palace is its utilization plan as the humble forum behind the gleaming baroque facade is a modern building which is also designated as the new site of the ethnological museum key parts of its collection originate from the colonial era. jonathan fine has headed the ethnological museum since 2020 we've had the opportunity to follow some of his work over. the last 5 years in this ring how will the humble forum deal

with the burden of its colonial legacy. in 2021 we accompany jonathan fine on a tour of the almost complete but largely empty exhibition rooms together with the exhibition designer tim ventimiglia. these collections or things that when we look at them today are very difficult i want to cite a colleague who said if we looked at these museums today we would probably never build them and if we looked at these collections today we would probably never assemble them but they're here day exist and we now have to decide what to do with them. the museum complex and dolma the location of west berlin ethnological museum for almost 50 years began preparing in 2016 for the move to the humbled forum. we 1st met jonathan fine during this transition period at the time he was the curator for west

africa cameroon bonn and as well as the coordinator of providence research at the museum of the world around us is the product of 500 years of european colonization . with the decision to display the collections from around the world from asia from africa from oceania in the humble forum a discussion was kicked off in a prominent way in a more prominent way than was possible before about what that history me. because of the prominence of the building and its prominence in the capital of germany in berlin at the center of this capital on museum island i think the humble forum offers an unparalleled opportunity to come to terms with or to ask questions about difficult periods in not just german history but world history.

i'm. aiming for a more open exchange on how to handle objects from the problematic german colonial era and what is now in the may be jonathan fine initiated a project to study their provenance together with namibian institutions. this critical engagement with collection pieces that may be burdened with colonial violence is intended to take the discussion in a different direction an exhibition in the humbled forum will give an insight into the joint research process we entered a cooperation with the museums association of namibia and the national museum of now maybe a and we asked them to choose the partners and they sent a fantastic group of scholars of cultural heritage officers of artists to berlin who worked with us close to a year about the collection here in berlin and talking about it and understanding it. i'm a fashion designer clothing technologists i studied didn't germany this is why the

fashion design community thought that i was the person to actually sent to berlin a while history on fashion ysabel hot rock rock rock call and. all the timeline of the european timeline but nothing about africa it's about time that we start running it writing our own history and these objects here can help us get to . wherever 3 projections are put on this is known but the pronoun and then this here would be the horns were supposed to be rolled so that it country percentage points for the crown we've only seen one that's removed most of them appear to open on rolled i think we like to think about museums as places that store objects well but i think you know when you see something like this you see an example of an object. having been sort of really stored in a way that deformed over time i've discovered for instance. it covers the head of

the hair all woman it is very important there is always skull but the little crown on top is the pride of the woman once the woman is wearing that it's you cannot just take it off in public like you will take off my hat this is where you start wondering but how did they get it because no hair a woman would take off their corrie and give it to somebody it's hard to underestimate how little people understood about the objects that they. that they had brought into the museum in summer and. you know if you would hang around the neck board of. susan your heart and. you don't carry it around with you ok the shell of the. herbs and powder in there too used for cleansing yourself as a woman and there are many of those objects something that is very close to me is the door and then if you look closer it was hence to choose very even hand stitches

which is telling me that it was done by a child with the lady of the hans. if. you can definitely say she's wearing a critical. as a child my grandmother used to tell me the arrows are wearing more than one particle because they're scared to be raped and this is what you see this a better coat and everything i want to look at this is just. it brings up emotions that you took some something from a child you brought it here you never shoulder to the world that this is what children in a movie are making you put it in a box in a museum does that and that's certain. really. don't know not have to check that it isn't out of colonialism

has levels of balance that we can read from from the opposite. and i think this can tell the stories both in the media and germany. we can i just say well. taken from them let's take them back even when they take to in the media where in the media is very much and. this objects have obviously connected. and and just pretending the objects. in the media and germany need to continue in. these objects i wish all these objects will go home. the next phase in this process is to bring objects back to namibia to expand the conversation and if they want to make a case for returning them permanently for keeping them in namibia then i fully

expect that out of the conversations they will be able to make that case and make that request here you'll see an art installation by a fashion artist named cynthia it shows to me. a figure a woman trying to break out of the cabinet trying to break out of this part of it and behind her she's carrying a blanket and is covered with black and white photographs and many of those pictures are very upsetting pictures of people being mistreated in chains and things like that and we work very very hard. so that you'll only be able to see some of that because oftentimes very violent photographs. can titillate a viewer in a sense i mean they and then the producing the impact of what's actually going on there. the location where her work will be exhibited still seems

questionable to send. them home. i don't know i don't understand it's. i don't even understand why they they reconstructed the home. and what message are they trying to bring by doing this. the reconstructed facade of the berlin palace where german colonial policy was once pursued is a contradictory symbol for the humble to forum is this an appropriate place for exhibitions on such a problematic chapter of history. we meet the head of the berlin sat. artspace bun of into our soil to kong an internationally renowned curator who has worked for the documentary exhibition his exhibitions examine the present day effects of colonialism and the challenge of displaying foreign cultures in european museums he argues for

a fundamental change in perspective. what knowledge is created above when you then bring the so-called objects over resumes we have to go back to the huge tree of it in the graphic museums we have to go back to. the birth of the notion of anthropology to be able to understand what went wrong and i think that at the core of all of this is the creation of the other when we do. talk about. histories. situation it is not about the others it's about our whole.

how can you see i'm unable such a shift in perspective. in 2017 jonathan fine curated the exhibition beyond compare and berlin's boden museum. it juxtaposed european mostly christian influenced art with works of art from africa posing a fundamental question are we still seeing the world through a colonial lens when for instance we regard christian cult object as art but perceive african art as cult objects. can the humble forum question and change such perceptions. many curators have spent decades working on these topics of social justice and provenance and working with source communities and wanted from the beginning to make that the topic of the exhibition. over with or. so this is the pedestal where we're going to be putting. the throne from the bottom kingdom. remarkable object it brings

to a point a lot of the sort of questions that people have about the colonial era. the man do you throne was a birthday present from the joy in cameroon to kaiser vilhelm the 2nd a genuine royal gift or a payment of tribute to the colonial power i always thought it was a gift to the kaiser is that not the story well it is that it's gifts are complicated we know that he really didn't want to give up the stone and the what went through his mind what calculation did he have to make was he going to lose face if he didn't give something important to the cause or was he going to lose power if he didn't give something important to the cause. how should this gift be handled today.

in 2017 we accompanied. jonathan fine to cameroon on the traces of the man to gain a throne. how did people here feel about their colonial history. if the throne had not ended up in berlin it would belong today to this man. joya the sultan of them and grandson of king joy who reigns during the german colonial era. of. the german colonial system income was violent and characterized by deceit trickery and manipulation as well as the use of military and political force because king joy offered an alliance to the drums the situation in the bottom kingdom was comparatively peaceful.

was one of the most skilled political actors that i've had the chance to study he tirelessly sought to preserve his own autonomy within the very difficult political situation that was presented by the colonial era. the palace administrator a staff member close to the sultan is involved in preserving the cultural heritage of the body. the men do you know that is missing here in the throne room is a thorny issue. shockley's we keep us use every day that goes by we are obliged to talk about this throne yadi the tourists who come here are constantly asking what is the throne of the kings of bar moom doing in berlin fish a bit.

like you some people say those germans stolen or thrown or you talk. yes these are some beliefs it wasn't a gift. or if it was it was a forced gift for 3. a and how can you answer this question security. you know there is no official answer will he see and. that diplomatic response reveals how troublesome the issue still is. and from bonn we get a sense of how objects from the colonial context could stand side by side with living social spiritual and artistic traditions in their place of origin. it's an

environment that western museums could hardly provide. while. on the tour used my house is a studio is all of my daily while we have one. because the sat is very big we sit here since about ship wrong. artists embroidered the new royal throne for the palace and he also works as a restore for the palace museum or fly. on so hawt. in 2017 workers here packed up their collection to move it into the new royal museum. it's spectacular architecture is dominated by symbolism from the moon's royal crest a 2 headed snake wrapped around an earth spider. just like in berlin ethnological museum staff here and from ban also had to

consider how to deal with the colonial past. sits a new one to the very blue on this hall is completely dedicated to king enjoying one this one the time of his reign is often compared with louis the 14th and france there you'll be exposed he oversaw a cultural explosion. a blossoming of creativity and also a synthesis between the christian western world and the world of bomb don't. see that i don't know if that's why in your culture we view king enjoy as a genius and to. vote has what are your expectations for the relationship between germany and the kingdom of bomb moon today and in the future and pull out of india. destined for this earth to show thank you very much for asking that question to tears it

probably we consider that a woman enters a marriage with germany fact and in because it was expedient to do so book salumi in the house should i describe the relationship today 0 divorce. in the settlement but hopefully not double frame oh yeah we're really hoping for a revival of our relations through greater cultural cooperation. the the germans will understand the mutual benefits involved in helping us to preserve our cultural heritage you know but you don't want to have returned your through to the throne that is in berlin is an ambassador for rich culture. one of the things i took away from our discussions and from was the clear

wish for germany to live up to its historical promise of friendship and i think one of the things we can do is make that expectation clearer to the german public and to make that expectation clearer to german politicians. it's time to engage more deeply in this cultural dialogue. several years have now passed since our visit to form bonn what should this dialogue look like one of and 2 in the current grew up 100 kilometers from form bonn and has heard about the throne since he was a child. the culture and bassett of germany to the us doesn't belong to the us it belongs to germany right then we should apply if we want to use the analogy of the cultural ambassador in the throne should belong to the people of right so. i'm all for cultural ambassadors so let me say also

a very important work from it's you know. you put it in the museum it is fine but you do that it is a one way street so if you want to look at shared heritage let's share it everybody and not just some peoples and others not what should happen to the throne in the future for me is very much an open question because like many of the things in the . we now have this past we've looked into where we are looking into it and as we know more about it we may want to make different decisions about what should happen to the objects for the future should they go back. and that's a decision that i think can only be taken. in consultation and dialogue with our colleagues and camera perhaps they should go back but even if they do i feel like the story you're telling us to still be told here giving an object doesn't

mean that history goes away. the history of a collection is intrinsically linked with the exhibits themselves and that history does need to be told in the humbled forum while preparing the move to the forum jonathan fine join conservators from the museum to inspect some of the collections most controversial exhibits the bronzes. these masterpieces from the former kingdom of the nene in what is now nigeria were looted by british forces in 897 the artifacts were later sold on the art market. these bronze and ivory sculptures have become an acid test of whether the humbled forum is genuinely prepared to take a new approach and enter a dialogue with former colonies as equals for decades nigeria has called for the return of these treasures only now in 2021 are things beginning to happen how does

the process of restitution work and why are museums so reluctant to proceed with it . just for fun but a competition as a rule the 1st and most important step in returning artworks is making recommendations as to what we want to give back that has to be decided by the board of the question cultural heritage foundation is used to go to that's not something that the president or the museum director can decide and another important question that needs to be clarified is who the rightful recipient it is of the state or a national museum system is it a local community and that's quite complicated for but just to be clear we will be returning benny and bronzes consequently also are going to be beatin the new bronx and sort of keep. 'd part of the bin in works will be returned but part is to remain on display at the humboldt forum so how can these tainted exhibits be displayed appropriately. this is where this multimedia program which is really

a multi screen film right will be presented and all the voices from europe and africa including the oboe. and scholars from africa will talk about the provenance of the burning bronzes the ideas. using very simple questions to get people to open up and talk openly what are the benny and bronzes. what do they mean to you. what should happen to them in the future and then to really hear what people have to say about that topic this concept of really exhibiting the discussion of provenance and the work of the bringing dialogue group was already there when i started 10 years ago and that's been really the central theme of this entire room of the exhibit what is the future what should happen to these objects that's an openness that that i really treasure about this process.

cultural institutions find themselves battling to remain relevant in their society . confronting a difficult colonial past poses not only a challenge but also a huge opportunity for museums to take the lead in shaping an important public debate. will the humboldt forum successfully rise to the challenge. i think it would be a success if we take the idea of a forum at its word and think of the humble form not as a place that will give us answers to the more questions but will enable us to pose questions only. in that way i think can we come to an understanding and find answers for ourselves about what 500 years of european colonization has meant for the world we live.

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