Twelve kings from Cameroon visit the HSZG

On the visit of the Twelve Kings from Cameroon to the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the students’ art festival “Culture and Management Görlitz” and “childhood education,” an article appeared in the Litterata on June 18, 2018 the following photo and text feature Johannes Eichenthal.

Klingewalde lies in the vicinity of Görlitz, nestled between wooded hills and ripening grain fields. Where a tree-lined avenue meets the village street at a right angle, a small castle has stood for many hundreds of years. Majestic and serene, the structure stands before us as if abandoned. We enjoy the solitude, the rustling of the ancient trees …

…but then we hear the sound of engines; a tour bus pulls up, and a babble of voices fills the air. Suddenly, the old castle courtyard is full of people from Europe and Africa. The Africans are dressed according to the traditions of their country. The interesting patterns on the fabric indicate the wearer’s origin and affiliation. And all of a sudden it’s here: the “Market of Kings,” a presentation by organizations dedicated to cooperation between Cameroon and Germany. Host Matthias Theodor Vogt, professor of cultural policy at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and director of the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure in Saxony, warmly welcomes twelve kings as well as a large number of princesses and princes from the Republic of Cameroon.

The day before, the delegation had been received with great interest at five schools in Dresden and at the TU Dresden, followed by discussions at the Saxon State Chancellery and the State Art Collections.

Today and tomorrow, they are guests in the “City of Europe” Görlitz-Zgorzelec. Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer has proposed—as Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and North Rhine-Westphalia have done—establishing a partnership with one of the African countries. This is no longer about one-sided development aid. Rather, it is about jointly tackling similar problems at the state, municipal, and civil society levels in the interest of both sides. And in the interest of One World. Prof. Friedrich Albrecht, the Rector of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, was present at the “Conversation of the Kings” at the Saxon State Chancellery; the university is expected to play an important role in the future state partnership.

Prof. Vogt invites the kings into the foyer. Guests and hosts line up in the castle’s foyer behind an impressively large table eight meters long. Renate Schwarz, representing the Görlitz City Council, gives a short speech. She is followed by Radosław Baranowski, mayor of the Polish part of the European City of Görlitz-Zgorzelec, who asks the guests to sign the Golden Books of both cities.

The guests comply with the request and sign both books of honor in a dignified ceremony.

In addition, host Prof. Vogt had asked the guests to sign a few posters for the patrons, Andreas Lämmel, Member of the German Bundestag, and Frank Heinrich, Member of the German Bundestag, as well as for the Saxon Cultural Foundation and its president, Ulf Großmann. This gave the official ceremony the poetic character of an art installation.

In the “Blue Salon,” host Prof. Vogt gave a talk to the guests about the distant land of Cameroon. The country’s name originates from Portuguese sailors who, in 1472, named a large river after the “blue crabs” (Portuguese: camarão), which were abundant there. Absurdly, the Europeans derived the name for an entire country the size of Sweden from this coastal river’s name. Today, Cameroon is the very epitome of diversity. On the one hand, this applies to the landscape, ranging from tropical rainforests with their gorillas and chimpanzees to savannas and high mountains over 4,000 m. On the other hand, there are approximately 240 distinct ethnic groups and languages.

At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, the colonial powers established borders and spheres of influence in Africa. The German Empire attempted to establish a “protectorate” for German traders in Cameroon. However, the number of Germans living in Cameroon never exceeded 1,000. During World War I, the vast majority of Cameroon was occupied by French troops and became Francophone, while a small portion went to England and became Anglophone. In 1960, the “pivotal year” of the national liberation movement, the northern part of the English-speaking territories joined Nigeria. The two southern Anglophone regions were given the promise—which was never fulfilled—of a federation on equal terms with Cameroon’s eight Francophone regions.

The German colonization of the country is still remembered relatively goodly in Cameroon; a great many students learn German. The Goethe-Institut in the capital city of Yaoundé ranks fourth worldwide in the number of successful German language degrees. The large Cameroonian diaspora in Germany is remarkably well integrated.

The Chancellor’s Special Representative for Africa, Günter Nooke, undertook a delegation trip in February 2018 together with Professor Vogt and other specialists. The delegation’s report attracted significant attention because it provided critical information about shortcomings in previous development policy (see here). Today, he said, we must seek cultural and religious elements of sustainability in human development in order to strengthen the cultural essence of Africa and halt the massive exodus of talented young people.

The current situation in sub-Saharan Africa is that village communities raise money to send the particularly strong young men to Europe. However, this method is an investment. The community demands that a large portion of the emigrants’ income be remitted back. The total amount of remittances sent to Africa is higher than the EU’s development aid. Realistically speaking, curbing migration is therefore by no means in the interest of the often authoritarian rulers. We must take a more fundamental approach and promote development in the villages themselves.

Current practices have not led to the creation of community-owned assets—the most serious shortfall in Cameroon’s infrastructure. Therefore, it is essential to develop joint projects to build infrastructure that allows people in Cameroon to lead a dignified life, rather than continuing current practices. However, this is only possible if the currently prevailing polarity between tradition and modernity is overcome. Saxony and the Ore Mountains region have experience with this issue, because here, too, talented young people migrate to the major cities or directly abroad. Why not learn from one another?

Nadele Akamba, a young engineer from Cameroon who has been living in Germany for ten years, then gave a talk on “The Wisdom of Kings.” The traditional “wisdom of kings” is both philosophy and religion, as in Persia, India, and China. In Europe, by contrast, reason and faith tend to be kept separate. She began with a Cameroonian proverb: “Whoever passes the same spot twice on their way has lost their way.” In her interpretation, the proverb tells us that we should not repeat our mistakes. She posed the question: “How can we ensure that what went wrong in the history between Europe and Africa does not happen again?” A second proverb went: “We stand here only because we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.” This applies to all of humanity and its cultural heritage. In Europe, she sometimes encounters the view that Europeans invented the entire world. But humanity’s heritage is a shared one. Africa, too, has contributed greatly to it. In conclusion, she quoted the proverb, “The child whom the community neglects will, in search of a little warmth, eventually set the whole village on fire.” Ms. Akamba summed up by saying that the African community must take care to ensure that no major problems arise. But we in Europe should also take an interest. In the 21st century, she said, solutions to humanity’s problems can only be found by including Africa. Without Africa, there will be no solutions. During the discussion, Ms. Akamba emphasized that the French-dominated education system is not suited to promoting the cultural education of the people in a sustainable way. Independent structures are needed to preserve cultural traditions and foster a sense of self-confidence.

A tour was taking place at the Market of the Kings at that time. Fred-Eric Essam of IBM Germany and chairman of the association ident.africa e.V. (right), whose goal is to promote self-reliance, introduced the individual associations. Here is Dr. Peter Schnupp from the company AIQ – go (left). He specializes in search methods on the Internet. When asked about the distinctive feature of his work, he replies: “We search where Google alone can’t find anything.”

We actually want to head to the next booth, but our host, Prof. Vogt, is already inviting us to a theater performance in the castle park.

The audience gathered on the lawn behind the castle, against a backdrop of ancient trees. In this open-air theater, Their Royal Highnesses enjoyed the privilege of sitting in chairs so they could follow the action performed by the student ensemble. In a wonderfully lighthearted summer comedy, the students addressed the controversy that arose in Berlin over a poem by Eugen Gomringer: “Avenues / Avenues and Flowers / Flowers / Flowers and Women / Avenues / Avenues and Women / Avenues and Flowers and Women and / an admirer.” Students at a Berlin university—who evidently know very little about art—had complained of sexism; the poem had to be removed from the university’s facade. In Görlitz, however, local students, led by Moritz Manuel Michel, had added an alternative version next to it with a little red ink: “Avenues / Avenues and flowers / Flowers / Flowers and men / Avenues / Avenues and men / Avenues and flowers and men and / a female admirer” and depicted everyday situations: women-to-women and women-to-men and men-to-women and men-to-men. Admired by lecturer Frank Stein.

In precolonial Africa, women always played a key role. For example, there is the so-called Reine-Mère (Queen Mother), who is neither the king’s mother nor his wife, but rather his representative and the one who determines the next king. In colonial Africa, however, the colonial “masters” always communicated with the men. This caused gender relations to become so skewed that it contributed, among other things, to the corruption that is endemic today. Only Rwanda has currently become a “women’s wonderland” (Barbara Achermann, Reclam 2018). Using the conventions of a lighthearted summer comedy, the Görlitz students demonstrated to Their Royal Highnesses the European approach to gender balance—which is, in fact, very much an ancient African one as well.

At the end, the audience thanked the young actors, who took their bows in the evening sun in front of the park side of the castle, with enthusiastic applause. Thus, the Market of Kings apparently came to a close with an artistic performance.

But the African guests provided the true finale. Full of joie de vivre, they invited us to participate in a theatrical ceremony in which a dignitary is installed: Günter Nooke, the Chancellor’s Special Representative for Africa, was appointed “Grand Vizier” of the twelve kings, while Prof. Matthias Theodor Vogt and Fred-Eric Essam were named his companions and dignitaries of the twelve kingdoms. And so the Market of the Kings came to a close with a colorful, spirited event.

Commentary

In Klingewalde, we experienced an event packed with information. It was nearly impossible for any single visitor to take it all in. Nevertheless, it left an informative impression because theater and art played a key role in conveying the message. The task at hand—to help stop migration from Africa through improved cooperation—appears to be as self-evident as it is difficult to achieve. What does it mean to overcome the polarity between tradition and modernity? Equal cooperation can only take place on a common foundation. For Europeans, this means letting go of certain dogmas of the past. The human society of the future will not look like the West does today. The distinctive characteristics of cultures and religions will remain. It is not a matter of leveling out the differences between cultures and religions, but rather of competing to see who can contribute the most to the future of humanity. Religions, in the sense of spirituality, constitute cultural self-awareness through their language. Peace in faith can be established if we build upon the interconnectedness of humanity’s religious narratives, upon the retelling of the creation story and other myths by different peoples. Conversely, it must be possible to use religiosity to facilitate joint humane and humanitarian action among cultures. When it comes to forms of ownership, Europeans should also move away from their obsession with scale. At the very latest since Fernand Braudel’s *Civilisation matérielle*, it should be clear that family-run businesses are a fundamental element in the “ocean of history,” from which large corporations rise like islands and, once their time has passed, sink back into it. Stability must be sought in the diversity of forms of ownership, not in outward size. If Europe comes to understand that spirituality, decentralization, self-governance, and independence are also its own tasks for the future, then equal cooperation with countries like Cameroon can succeed, and Europeans can also learn from Africa’s culture and religion. Our thanks go to the organizers and participants of the Market of Kings. It was, without a doubt, a remarkable event.

A report by Johannes Eichenthal, which you can also find here.

The organizers would like to thank Mironde Publishing for their kind permission to reprint this article!