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>Campaigners who have fought for decades for Germany to confront its colonial past celebrated the renaming of a square and a street in Berlin last Friday in tribute to figureheads who resisted forced rule in Africa
>Manga-Bell-Platz in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin’s Wedding district was renamed in memory of Rudolf and Emily Duala Manga Bell, a king and queen of Duala in Cameroon who fought against German colonialism.
>The square, a central part of the African Quarter, had until Friday been known as Nachtigalplatz since 1910, after Gustav Nachtigal, the German empire’s commissioner for west Africa who had a key role in the German colonisation of Togo, Cameroon and Namibia in the 1870s.
>Close by, Lüderitzstrasse, named after colonialist Adolf Lüderitz, was given the new name Cornelius- Fredericks-Strasse. Frederiks was a resistance fighter from the Nama people who was imprisoned in a concentration camp on Shark Island along with almost 1,800 people in 1906.
>Jean-Pierre Félix-Eyoum, a great nephew of Manga Bell, paid tribute to the resistance fighters. “This is a big day,” the retired teacher who lives in Munich, said to a large crowd gathered in a corner of the square. “With this renaming, Berlin is recognising its historical responsibility,” he said.
>“I hope that the names of all colonialists still to be found on monuments [and] streets ... across the whole world will one day disappear,” he said
>Seppo Toko, an IT engineer whose family has its roots in the same Douala tribe as Manga Bell, had travelled from Hildesheim in northern Germany to attend the ceremony. He said: “This is a very, very satisfying day for me and it’s an honour to be here.”
>Rennert said there were “plenty of other places on the list that now need to follow”. He cited Mohrenstrasse (Moor Street) in central Berlin, which is due to be renamed Anton Wilhelm Amo Street after the black philosopher and Nettelbeck Square, named after Joachim Christian Nettelbeck, a sailor involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
>Manga-Bell-Platz in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin’s Wedding district was renamed in memory of Rudolf and Emily Duala Manga Bell, a king and queen of Duala in Cameroon who fought against German colonialism.
>The square, a central part of the African Quarter, had until Friday been known as Nachtigalplatz since 1910, after Gustav Nachtigal, the German empire’s commissioner for west Africa who had a key role in the German colonisation of Togo, Cameroon and Namibia in the 1870s.
>Close by, Lüderitzstrasse, named after colonialist Adolf Lüderitz, was given the new name Cornelius- Fredericks-Strasse. Frederiks was a resistance fighter from the Nama people who was imprisoned in a concentration camp on Shark Island along with almost 1,800 people in 1906.
>Jean-Pierre Félix-Eyoum, a great nephew of Manga Bell, paid tribute to the resistance fighters. “This is a big day,” the retired teacher who lives in Munich, said to a large crowd gathered in a corner of the square. “With this renaming, Berlin is recognising its historical responsibility,” he said.
>“I hope that the names of all colonialists still to be found on monuments [and] streets ... across the whole world will one day disappear,” he said
>Seppo Toko, an IT engineer whose family has its roots in the same Douala tribe as Manga Bell, had travelled from Hildesheim in northern Germany to attend the ceremony. He said: “This is a very, very satisfying day for me and it’s an honour to be here.”
>Rennert said there were “plenty of other places on the list that now need to follow”. He cited Mohrenstrasse (Moor Street) in central Berlin, which is due to be renamed Anton Wilhelm Amo Street after the black philosopher and Nettelbeck Square, named after Joachim Christian Nettelbeck, a sailor involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
