Knowing by Ear: Den akustischen Spuren der Tirailleurs in Berlin lauschen

Knowing by Ear: Listening to the acoustic traces of the Tirailleurs in Berlin
Keynote lecture with Anette Hoffmann

During the First World War, thousands of young African men were conscripted to fight for France and Great Britain. Many of them were captured and held as prisoners of war in Germany. Their stories and songs were recorded and archived by the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission and later included in the sound archive of the Humboldt University in Berlin. Even though they were recorded under duress, these collections of sound recordings represent important but hitherto little-researched sources for new historical perspectives and alternative knowledge production.

In this keynote, Anette Hoffmann traces the history of these recordings and her own research in the Lautarchiv collection. Hoffmann foregrounds the voices, the content of the recordings and the historical position of the speakers, rather than treating the recordings as "linguistic research objects". The lecture focuses on one particular speaker, Abdoulaye Niang (1878-1919) from Dakar, who fought in the 234th regiment of the French infantry. He was later wounded, captured and interned in the Wünsdorf prisoner of war camp near Berlin. Abdoulaye's stay in Europe left archival traces in various institutions and collections that were ignored for decades. In recent years, however, his recordings have been translated from the Wolof by Serigne Matar Niang and Fatou Cissé Kane.

In it, Abdoulaye sang about the recruitment campaigns of the French colonial army, after which he and other African men were sent to war in Europe. He also addresses his desire to return to Dakar. By following his footsteps through the archives, Hoffman shows how Abdoulaye's voice resonates through the recording to this day. She also introduces the Echo travels project, which was recently launched in Cape Town. It offers listeners the opportunity to engage with his acoustic echo in the present.

Location: Safi Faye Hall

In English