It is often activists and historians who keep the memory of German colonialism alive after more than 100 years. Thanks to them, debates on the restitution of cultural property and compensation for colonial injustice have found their way onto the political agenda, as the example of Namibia demonstrates.
As far as Tanzania, part of the former colony of German East Africa, is concerned, not much has happened so far. But politicians on both sides want to change this situation. They are discussing the return of the human remains of countless victims of the colonial wars, stored in German museums, and the restitution of cultural objects, so-called looted art.
One historian recommends “restitution from the bottom of the heart.”
“It is by no means too late for this project,” says Tanzanian historian Philemon Mtoi in an interview with DW. “The time has come to reconnect, to reconcile people and to build a common future.”
There is still a long way to go, because the process of assimilating the atrocities committed during the German colonial period in Tanzania is still in its infancy. But the German actors also ask for haste. Katja Keul (Alliance 90/Green Party), State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office, says: “What happened is not sufficiently known either in Tanzania or in Germany,” Keul told DW. And that’s important, she continues, “because serious crimes have been committed.”
Serious crimes of colonial Germany in Tanzania
At the time of colonial rule, several rebellions were brutally suppressed. Especially devastating were the events surrounding the Maji-Maji uprising, from 1905 to 1907, in East Africa, during the suppression of which up to 300,000 people were killed, according to historians’ estimates. Countless skulls and bones subsequently found their way to Germany.
According to the will of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin, the remains must be returned to Tanzania, or they must be buried in an appropriate place. According to the president of the Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, it took over the large collection of human remains from the Charité Museum of Medical History in 2011.
The issue of compensation on the table in Tanzania
Tanzania is also increasing pressure on the German government to take responsibility for German war crimes during the colonial period in East Africa. The Tanzanian ambassador in Berlin, Abdallah Possi, called on the German government in early 2020 to “negotiate reparations.”
The Tanzanian government is currently preparing for joint work with the German government, and has created a special committee exclusively for this purpose, Said Othman Yakubu, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports, told DW. As soon as the procedure is clarified by Tanzania, he says, there will be concrete answers. “The issue of reparations is one of the issues on the table,” says Yakubu.
Keul: Reconciling with history reinforces vision of the future
The joint reassessment of the story will direct the gaze towards the future and will derive from it a more intense relationship, Katja Keul also told DW. But for now, she said, much of what concerns Tanzania remains in the dark. “This means that also on the other side we first have to clarify exactly what our needs are and how we can come together,” Keul said.
(eaf/cp)
