Fogha Mc Cornilius Refem
Fogha Mc Cornilius Refem (aka Wan wo Layir) is a self-prescribed severe drapetomania “patient”. He is an in[ter]discipline[ed]ary artist and an academic nomad with a background in sociology, international relations, and social work. He completed his Master's in social work at the Alice Salomon-Hochschule in Berlin with a focus on decolonizing social work practice and theory through what he called a ‘self-redemptive professional suicide’. He was a Humanity In Action Senior Fellow of the 2021 program and has participated in the untold stories project producing a short documentary about human zoos in Berlin. Refem has actively participated in the diasporic campaign to #BringBackNgonnso. He is currently studying towards his PhD at Universität Potsdam. He describes his dissertation project, titled ‘Ontologies In Conversation’: Restitution As A Cosmopolitan Practice' , as work that ""seeks to ‘pivot the center’ and theorize from multiple angles so as to make new approaches, themes, and questions visible in the current debate for the restitution of objects looted from Africa during colonization"".
In Defence of Theft?: On the Theft and Restitution of Ngonnso’ and Punitive Exhibitions (In Fifteen Colonial Thefts: A Guide to Looted African Heritage in Museums); Embracing death so they may yet be space for life (In Atlas of Absence: Cameroon's Cultural Heritage in Germany) ; Human Zoos | Enforced Silences