Projects and Conferences

A community-engaged historiography project documenting the collective memory, genealogies, oral traditions, cultural practices and political evolution of the Mbum people.

GRA is partnering with Ndap Yeni Ndee'rla and the wider Mbum Community to produce the first comprehensive scholarly history of the Mbum people. Drawing on oral histories, archival records, linguistic evidence and archaeological sources, the project trains local research assistants in ethnographic methods while privileging indigenous knowledge systems. The work is being carried out in close consultation with traditional councils, women's groups and youth associations. GRA seeks partnerships with university history departments, archival institutions and philanthropic bodies to expand fieldwork, digitise rare sources and publish the finished manuscript in both English and Mbum.

Working with the Mbum Relics and Documentation Committee to identify, catalog and champion the return of Mbum cultural heritage held in European collections.

Since 2023, GRA has collaborated with the Mbum Relics and Documentation Committee to trace Mbum artifacts dispersed during the colonial period into museums and private collections across Europe. The initiative combines provenance research, community-led documentation and international advocacy. Delegations have visited Germany to inspect holdings and open channels of dialogue. Discussions are ongoing with the Humboldt Forum and the German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts regarding the transparent restitution of identified objects. GRA seeks partnerships with provenance researchers, legal scholars, funding bodies and museum professionals.

An interdisciplinary convening examining the long-term impacts of colonial violence, conflict displacement and structural marginalisation on Cameroonian communities.

GRA is preparing to host a major academic conference dedicated to historical trauma in Cameroon. The programme will bring together historians, psychologists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, social workers and community representatives to examine how decades of colonial violence, post-colonial conflict, forced displacement and structural marginalisation continue to shape individual and collective wellbeing. Panels will cover intergenerational trauma transmission, memory politics, therapeutic interventions, and the role of research in transitional justice. GRA welcomes institutional co-hosts, research networks and sponsors.

Identifying and supporting young girls in the Nkambe plateau who have suffered trauma resulting from witchcraft accusations, while advocating for community-based child protection.

In the Mbum-land communities of the Nkambe plateau, accusations of witchcraft continue to be levelled against children — particularly young girls — with devastating psychosocial consequences. GRA has launched a documentation and support initiative to map cases, record survivor testimony in safe and ethical conditions, and connect affected children with trained counsellors and social workers. The project works alongside traditional leaders, religious figures, women's associations and local authorities to shift community narratives and strengthen child-protection mechanisms. GRA seeks partnerships with child-rights organisations, mental-health practitioners, trauma researchers and donors.