Of course my best contacts were with the Cameroonian embassy. The first ambassador, Raymond N'Thepe, was at first surprised and then delighted to meet me. He assured me that he had hoped to meet survivors from the colonial period here in Germany. I had to tell him that as far as I knew all the Cameroonians who had come to Berlin during the short period of German colonial rule had died, but there were still children and grandchildren with Cameroonian names living here – names like Boholle, Egiomue, Akwa, Bell, Diek, Esomber, Ngambi and Mpessa.19 We had many good long conversations and he kept encouraging me to visit my father's homeland someday. In 1969 the time was ripe. I filled in an application for a visa for Cameroon and sent it to the consulate. Shortly afterwards N'Thepe phoned and told me that he had been officially advised that German nationals who were not intending to spend more than three months in Cameroon now needed only a passport valid for at least six months to enter the country; I could set off without further ado. I got a cheap multi-city ticket from SABENA to visit various West African cities, including Douala.

The plane landed just before dark at Douala International Airport. I was in a state of happy and excited anticipation. At last I was in Cameroon, the homeland of my father! He had always hoped to return himself, but was never able to.20

The passport official took my passport with an officious air, leafed through it from front to back and from back to front and started to search in it again. Then he turned to me and said gravely, “Monsieur, you don't have a visa for Cameroon.” “I don't need one; that's what the embassy in Bonn told me,” I replied. “But you do; it's only French nationals who don't have to have one.”

There followed a lively debate. Each of us stood his ground. Behind me the other passengers were beginning to get restless about the delay. That didn't bother me much, since I felt I was in the right. “Please wait over there,” he said at last, and pointed to a bench while keeping hold of my passport.