The right to listen to the voices of the ancestors: a plea
A plea for making phonographic recordings from Togo accessible to the people of Togo. Submitted to the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv on March 21, 2023.
Photo: © Akono Verlag (https://akono.de/product/from-windhoek-to-kamina-to-nauen-a-workbook-diverse-autorinnen-dt-eng-fr/)
From Windhoek to Kamina to Nauen - A Workbook
From Windhoek to Kamina to Nauen listens to the present-day echoes of telegraphy between Nauen (Germany), Kamina (Togo), and Windhoek (Namibia).
Phonographed under constraint
An article by journalist Pat Christ on Mèhèza Kalibani's research into the acoustic legacy of German colonisation, published in October 2022 in the Neue Musikzeitschrift.
Visiting the Palais de Lomé, a site of memory of German colonialism
Built between 1898 and 1905, the Palais de Lomé, formerly Palais des Gouverneurs, has undergone quite an odyssey over the last 100 years. It has served as an administrative building under all regimes of governance of Togo: the German and French colonial powers and the independent Togo since 1960.
Accessing Colonial Sound Archives
By outlining the institutional histories of colonial sound collections and focusing on two particular recordings, we address the double sensitive nature of historical audio sources. We aim to raise questions about the politics of access and presentation of sensitive sound material and argue for a plurality of interpretations of colonial sound archives.
Colonial artifacts: Looted, exhibited and then hidden
The management of inventories by German ethnographic museums and the challenges for African researchers in the debate on the restitution of African heritage.
Colonial Soundtracks
For the WDR 5 Scala programme on 26 August 2021, Jürgen Salm reports on phonographic collections from colonial contexts in European sound archives and the issues surrounding their sensitivity. He interviews Mèhèza Kalibani and Annette Hoffmann.
