![]() The foundation took over the large collection of human remains from the Charité Medical History Museum in 2011, according to its president, Hermann Parzinger. The German Foreign Office and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin want the remains are to be returned to Tanzania or buried in an appropriate place. The Head of Germany's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Parzinger and National Museum of Namibia Director Esther Moombolah-/Goagoses Image: Tobias Schwarz/AFP Countless skulls and bones were subsequently taken to Germany. ![]() Historians estimate that as many as 300,000 people were killed in east Africa. Particularly devastating were the developments surrounding the Maji-Maji Rebellion of 1905-1907. Several uprisings were brutally suppressed at the time of German colonial rule. "What happened is not sufficiently known, both in Tanzania and in Germany," Katja Keul, Germany's Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, told DW. The process of coming to terms with the atrocities committed during the German colonial period in Tanzania is still in its infancy. Moi says Germany's leaders should approach the task critically and think carefully about the way they bring back objects. Their gestures should be authentic, coming "from the bottom of their hearts." In this way, he said Germany can honestly ensure that the past is remembered. Germany should be careful not to "destroy the relationships that existed in Tanzania even after colonization," Mtoi told DW. "The time is right to reconnect, to reconcile the people and to build a common future." "It is by no means too late for this project," Tanzanian historian Philemon Mtoi said. Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan received Germany's Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Katja Keul (middle) and its Ambassador to Tanzania Regine Hess in 2022 Image: Tanzania Statehouse These are still stored in German museums, along with cultural objects - so-called looted art. Politicians in the two countries want to work towards clarifying and making right on the events of the past. The return of the human remains of countless colonial war victims to Tanzania is on the cards. Tanzania, once part of German East Africa and the scene of colonial-era atrocities, had been relatively quiet - until now. Their debates about restitution and reparations for colonial injustices have put the issue onto the political agenda in countries such as Namibia. Activists and historians have helped to keep the memory of German colonialism alive over the past 100 years.
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