Anette Hoffmann is a Senior Researcher at the University of Cologne’s Institute for African Studies and Egyptology. She is the author of
Mohamed Nur: Traces in Archives, Linguistic Texts, and Museums in Germany
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Published:February 2024
2024. "Mohamed Nur: Traces in Archives, Linguistic Texts, and Museums in Germany", Knowing by Ear: Listening to Voice Recordings with African Prisoners of War in German Camps (1915–1918), Anette Hoffmann
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Chapter 2 engages with the audio-visual traces of Mohamed Nur. The Somali intellectual traveled to Germany with a Völkerschau (ethnic show). He worked at fairs and as a model for artists, and he was recorded as an internee in Ruhleben Camp near Berlin, where enemy civilians were held during World War I. Nur also worked as a language assistant at the Institute for Colonial Languages at the University of Hamburg. The chapter reassembles Nur’s traces in a range of archives and museums, which contrast with the recently translated acoustic recordings in the Lautarchiv. Nur spoke of his travels, addressed the colonial history of his country, and mentioned biographic details. Reading and listening to Nur’s recorded voice unsettles the images created of him by means of artistic practice. In Fragment IV, Josef Ntwanumbi from the Eastern Cape in South Africa compares his situation as an inmate of Ruhleben Camp with his experiences of initiation into manhood.
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