This tange,or boat beak, once adorned a large canoe, manoeuvred by up to 60 paddlers, in Duala, part of today’s Cameroon. It was part of an intricate display of power and prestige mediating commercial and political relationships in the port city. In late nineteenth-century Berlin, the tange became an important material with which early African art history was written from European and, therefore, often exoticising and racializing perspectives. How, and in which context did the tange change hands and come to Berlin? How can thinking about materiality help us trace shifts in power, hierarchies and meaning, and what role can provenance research play in this process? Join us tomorrow (2 July) in the World Café to discuss!