E-mail: albert.gouaffo@khk.uni-saarland.de
Albert Gouaffo studied German literature and culture and francophone African literature at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon before continuing his studies in Germany at the University of Hanover. He received his doctorate at Saarland University in 1997, where he also completed his habilitation in 2006. His doctoral dissertation examined the translation of francophone African literature into German and its critical reception, while his habilitation explored cultural transfers in a colonial context, focusing on Cameroon and Germany between 1884 and 1919. Since 1998, he has taught German literature and culture and intercultural communication at the University of Dschang in Cameroon. Since 2016, he has served as principal investigator (PI) for a number of transnational projects, including “Reverse History of Collection: Mapping Cameroonian Cultural Goods in German Museums 1884–1919”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), as well as “Restitution of Dignity? Human Remains – Colonialism – Humanity” and “Epistemic Pluralities: Reconnecting Objects in and Beyond the Museums”, both funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. He also serves on several academic advisory boards, including that of the German Lost Art Foundation (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste). In 2025, he was awarded the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Gouaffo, Albert und Nadja Germann. Restitution der Würde? Dialogisches Denktagebuch über „menschliche Überreste“, Kolonialismus und Menschlichkeit. Universität Freiburg, 2026. https://doi.org/10.6094/978-3-910380-13-4.
- Gouaffo, Albert, Mikaél Assilkinga u. a., Hrsg. Atlas der Abwesenheit: Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland. Reimer, 2023.
- Gouaffo, Albert, Colbert Akieudji und Diderot Djiala Melli, Hrsg. Mémoire, Paix et développement en Afrique: Réflexions autour d’une éthique de la souvenance en contexte (post)colonial. Éditions CLE, 2022.
- Gouaffo, Albert und Stefanie Michels, Hrsg. Koloniale Verbindungen – transkulturelle Erinnerungstopografien: Das Rheinland in Deutschland und das Grasland Kameruns. transcript, 2019.
- Gouaffo, Albert. „Dekolonisation“. In Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur, hrsg. von Dirk Göttsche, Axel Dunker und Gabriele Dürbeck, 131–133. J. B. Metzler, 2017.
- Gouaffo, Albert. Wissens- und Kulturtransfer im kolonialen Kontext: Das Beispiel Kamerun-Deutschland (1884–1919) (= Saarbrücker Beiträge zur vergleichenden Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Bd. 39). Königshausen & Neumann, 2007.
CURE RESEARCH PROJECT
Literature as a Site for Learning and Teaching History – Colonialism and Reparation
CURE research project 2026/27