Conversation in Context of an Informational Trip for Museum Professionals and Cultural Heritage Experts from Burundi, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Togo

Panel discussion: “The Agency for International Museum Cooperation and Its Role in Supporting International Collaborative Projects”

An informational and networking trip focussed on the theme “The Culture of Remembrance and the Protection of Cultural Assets” brought 12 high-level museum directors and experts on international law and cultural heritage as well as scholars of history, cultural anthropology, and archaeology from Burundi, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Togo to Berlin and Leipzig from 3–9 November 2024. The trip was guided by the participating countries’ professionalised efforts to re-examine their respective colonial pasts and the associated international interdependencies – shared directly with Germany in the cases of Burundi, Cameroon, and Togo. Such efforts pertain to areas including cultural heritage, the restitution of cultural assets from colonial contexts, and commitments to building new museums and memorial sites.

Exchange and networking were central to the itinerary. In Berlin, participants met with the German Federal Foreign Office, the Humboldt Forum, the Ethnologische Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Ethnological Museum of Berlin), and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as well as other civic stakeholders working in the field of cultural remembrance and organisations, like the German Africa Foundation. In Leipzig, they met with the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig (Grassi Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig). Participants also visited memorials and educational sites. 

In Berlin, the museum agency presented possibilities of collaborating with the German museum sector in the panel discussion “The Museum Agency and Its Role in Supporting Future International Cooperation”.

The international visit took place as part of a visitor’s programme hosted by the German Federal Foreign Office and organised by the Goethe-Institut.