Guillaume Linte and Floriane Morin, «Josette Debarge, une médecin-missionnaire liée au Musée d'ethnographie dans la Genève coloniale (Cameroun, années 1920-1930)», in Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps and Damiano Matasci (eds.), (Post)colonial Geneva. The ambivalence of a Swiss and international city, Geneva, Georg, 2025, p. 262-282.

Book summary:

How do we understand the role played by Geneva and the people of Geneva in the colonial world? What legacies bear witness to this involvement? At a time when the presence of the colonial past in the public arena is controversial, this book provides answers to these questions. It shows how this Swiss and international city became part of European trans-imperial networks, while serving as a platform for anti-colonialism. Geneva was also at the heart of the political and diplomatic issues raised by decolonisation, which reconfigured North-South relations. Based on unpublished sources, the contributions gathered here reveal the complexity and ambivalence of such a history. By offering new perspectives on the realities of colonial and post-colonial Switzerland, they provide keys to understanding a sensitive subject that has been the subject of real debate in society for several years.

Edited by Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps and Damiano Matasci.

With texts by Andreas Würgler, Léa Boldo, Bernard C. Schär, Naïma Maggetti, Pedro Cerdeira, Estelle Sohier, Fabio Rossinelli, Irène Herrmann, Thierry Maurice, Camille Jaccard, Odile Moreau, Emmanuelle Sibeud, Guillaume Linte, Floriane Morin, Caroline Montebello, Cécile Boss and Joëlle Droux, Rita Hofstetter, Bernard Schneuwly, Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, Damiano Matasci, Marisa Fois, Aline Martello, Sarah Scholl, Pamela Ohene-Nyako

The book is available in Open Access on the publisher's website: https://www.georg.ch/geneve-post-coloniale