Willfried F. Feuser (1928-2000)

Abstract

On 28 February 2000, in Port Harcourt, in his chosen home of Nigeria, the life of Willfried F. Feuser ended. I learned the news from his other, Matthias Feuser, who in his letter of 8 March wrote: 'Willfried is being buried in Nigeria, one of his homelands. His son is buried there, his wife and his next of kin live there. And he has spent the greatest part of his professional life in Nigeria. Willfried was just as much an African as a European. Now his is over. His use of the term misery could refer to the illnesses and frailties that beset Willfried Feuser during his final years?the amputation of his leg, the material worries after the end of his academic career, the denial of an immigration visa into Germany for his Nigerian wife, Mary Kofoworola Olanrewa, Jr., the death of his son Peter Ifedapo, in 1990, the futile strug? gle for the life of his friend and former student, Ken Saro-Wiwa. His mis? ery also encompasses the pain and resignation of a whole generation of Germans whose childhood was defined by the constraints of the Nationalist Socialist terror, whose youth was destroyed by the Second World War, and who had to begin their adult lives in the difficult postwar years. His misery, too, was the lack of formal recognition for his profes? sional achievements, for which German academia had no appreciation and no institutional framework.