The issue of restitution, i.e. the return of cultural assets, has been the subject of heated debate for some time now. Mission 21 is also actively involved in the debate and contributes to the critical reappraisal of history.
"Losango utensils from Susa": this is how this photograph of objects from Cameroon, taken on the steps in front of the mission house, is labeled in the Basel Mission archive. "Losango" stands for everything related to indigenous alliances, for example cult objects.
Much more revealing than the title of the picture, however, is the report in the "Evangelischer Heidenbote" of April 1898 on the arrival of the objects in Basel: "A real message of victory comes from Cameroon. Missionary Keller has succeeded in persuading a whole series of villages to hand over all their idols and magic objects. The people are not yet Christians, but paganism has suffered a mighty blow. The large idol has been sent to Basel, where it is on display in the Mission Museum as a visible spoil of victory from Cameroon."
Looted, burned, shipped
What is harmlessly described in the "Heidenbote" as "delivering" was an actual robbery that Jakob Keller committed in 1897 with the help of local Christians. He stole countless ritual objects, burned them on site or sent them to Basel.
Jakob Keller made no secret of this. In a brochure published by Missionsverlag entitled "Abolition of the Losango in Susa", he described in detail how he and his helpers broke into the homes of the locals and destroyed or took away the objects. These were not only taken to Basel, but also to museums in Bremen, Nuremberg and Berlin.
Return of the objects to the country of origin
Jakob Keller was an extreme case and not representative of all missionaries. However, his example shows how indigenous religions were being attacked with the knowledge and even the approval of the leadership in Basel.
The missionaries from Basel were not the only ones to bring objects to Europe. The authors of the "Atlas of Absence", published in 2023, estimate that over 40,000 objects from the cultural heritage of Cameroon alone are kept in public museums in the German-speaking world. The objects shown here are now in the collection of the Museum der Kulturen Basel.
As a result of this publication, specific projects have emerged to clarify the origin of cult objects and return them to Cameroon. The research archive of Mission 21 offers support with corresponding inquiries and thus makes a contribution to the reappraisal of the events of that time.
The issue of the theft of cultural assets and restitution was also the subject of a webinar as part of the "Mission - Colonialism Revisited" series organized by Mission 21. here can be viewed.
Text: Patrick Moser, Mission 21
