Romuald Valentin NKOUDA SOPGUI studied German literature and culture as well as communication sciences at the University of Dschang (Cameroon). PhD in General and Comparative Literature with focus on African literature at Université d'Aix-Marseille (Aix-en-Provence). Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages, Higher Teachers' Training College, University of Maroua (Cameroon). Currently postdoctoral Fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation at Global South Studies Center (GSSC) of the University of Cologne.

• (Post) colonial studies with focus on Germany-Africa-France
• Cultural and Media Studies
• Visuality of colonial history
• Intercultural Communication
• Studies with a focus on visual media
• Literatures and Cultures of Subsaharan Africa

Monography :

Migration et contact culturel. Problématique de la transculturation chez les écrivains de la diaspora africaine en Allemagne, en France et en Angleterre (1980-2011), Peter Lang, internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Reihe : Interkulturelle Begegnungen. Studien zum Literatur- und Kulturtransfer, Herausgegeben von Michael Dallapiazza, Band 29, 2021, 148 S.

Selected publications in scientific Journals:

« Weibliche Reise im Deutschen Kaiserreich: Frauenemanzipation und Befürwortung des Kolonialismus in Frieda von Bülows Im Lande der Verheißung, » in: LITERA: Journal of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Vol 28, 1, 2018, pp. 89-100.

« Deutsche Kolonialerinnerung aus kamerunischer Sicht: zwischen Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Beziehungsverflechtung », in: Pandaemonium Germanicum, São Paulo, vol. 22, n° 36, jan.-abr. 2019, pp. 175-190.

« Afrikanische Kolonialmigranten im post-imperialen Deutschland : subalterne Erfahrung und afro-deutsche Identitätssuche. Das Beispiel von Theodor Michael Wonjas „Deutsch sein und schwarz dazu“, in: African Journal of Literature and Humanities (AFJOLIH), Vol.1, Issue 3, 2020, pp.140-147.

«„Überwachen und Strafen“: Körperliche Züchtigung als koloniale(s) Gewaltausübung und Machtdispositiv. Der Fall von Franz Kafkas „In der Strafkolonie“ und von Daniel Bersots „Sous la chicotte“, in: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, Band 71, Heft 2, 2021, pp.169-183.  

« Récit colonial allemand sur la région du Cross-river au Cameroun: pluri-référentialité, collection des savoirs ethnologiques et relations interculturelles : le cas de Urwald-Dokumente: Vier Jahre unter den Crossflussnegern  Kameruns d’Alfred Mansfeld ». in : Acta Philologica,  vol. 57, 2021, pp.111–122.

« Koloniale Fremdheitserfahrung und bikulturelle Eheschließungen: zur kolonialen Ambivalenz bei Jesco von Puttkamer und Pierre Loti», in: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Philologia, Volume 4,  2022, pp. 477-493.

Migration et contact culturel : problématique de la transculturation chez les écrivains de la diaspora africaine en Allemagne, en France et en Allemagne (1980-2011)

Abstract:

The focus of my thesis was the study of a literary generation, namely the African diaspora in Germany, in France and in England, whose common theme was migration. Among the new authors of migration is the generation of African writers that Jacques Chevrier calls “écrivains de la migritude” because they are based in Europe. The phenomenon of immigration has led to the emergence of a new literary current that focuses on themes such as integration, xenophobia, foreignness and especially identity problems, among others. My work was based on the observation that the issue of migration from Africa to Europe and the encounter between the two cultural worlds were not new in African literature. This theme was already very present in African novels of the 50s and 60s and was based on the authors' own experiences. From the 1980s and 1990s, many African novels focused on the subject of migration and life as immigrants in Europe. The second generation of literature on migration is generally no longer fixated on returning to the home country. This is largely because the political and economic conditions in African countries are steadily deteriorating. Migration is no longer primarily motivated by academic, but by economic reasons. My thesis grounded on the following hypothesis: the migration processes to be analyzed arose from a historical, economic and political context that could be interpreted as a consequence of colonization. In this sense, the protagonists' search for identity is influenced by a deceptive image of Europe. The theme of migration in the selected novels led to a literary reappraisal of transculturation. From a cultural studies perspective and based on the anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, transculturation consists of three phases: the transition from the culture of origin to a target culture, the integration of the new culture and the mixture of both cultures. Because the issue of cultural identity has become a central aspect of African literature over time, the new generation of African migrants must construct their identity in a context of cultural hybridity.

Colonial photography: cultural forms of perception and mediatization of transnational relationships, using the example of Cameroon and Germany (1884-1918)

My research project sets out to examine the colonial images or photographs of Cameroon produced in the context of the German Empire. By first elucidating the meaning and role of visual images in Wilhelmine Germany (1884-1918), I show that the visualisation of the Cameroonian foreigner was the result of a power field of forms of perception of the colonial empire. The "visual knowledge" of non-European or Cameroonian culture and the self-perception of Western European culture as a "civilised" colonial power developed in the context of the dominance relationship. The research project examines German colonial photographs of Cameroon from a postcolonial or critical perspective. Only the realisation that those depicted occupy a specific position in the context of power relations characterised by various differences and hierarchies makes it clear how relevant the critique of the condition of the colonial "regime of looking" is and also shows the necessity of countering the power structures behind these processes. In doing so, I deal with colonial images from the perspective of the respective participants. In particular, I am concerned with the re-conceptualisation of the pictorial representations, i.e. with making visible once again the concealed or occulted presence of the colonised people depicted. The mutual approach brings the colonised and the colonisers into dialogue with the aim of overcoming the Eurocentric or one-sided view and illuminates the transnationality of German-Cameroonian colonial history.