USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tanzania-Germany: A Shared Memory and Legacy?

Subject: [UDADISI] Tanzania-Germany: A Shared Memory and Legacy?

As Angela Merkel inaugurates the new Julius Nyerere Peace and Security Building on the campus of the African Union, it may be worthwhile to listen to Dr. Oswald Masebo below:

[VIDEO AVAILABLE AT Catalogue - Lecture2Go ]

"Will there be giving back or returning the cultural objects loot which is stashed in almost all ethnological museums in Germany? I met a German lady working at the national museum in Berlin and she told me that some few years ago the best German lawyers were convened to make sure that they improve the rules, regulations and laws which protect German's interests in keeping all what was collected during colonialism. It may be considered a mere coffee table talk she was making with me, but is there a political will from the German side to realize the objectives of this project? So far these objects in German museums serve as commercial products through which museums make profits from visitors charges, how are the profits generated in such activities shared to Tanzanians? Is there hope that there will be a day when Tanzania will see some 4000 cultural/archaeological objects are given back to enrich its collection of its pre-colonial generations? Is there any logical explanation from German to justify the need to keep the loot from the small communities they extinguished in Tanzania? Why not give back everything they have taken from these small people after all the suffering which has been caused?" - Dominicus Makukula

Cf.

"Several Members of Parliament (MPs) have appealed to the government to pressure Germany to return the dinosaur fossils so that Tanzanians can benefit from them through tourism earnings.

 Making his contribution during the winding up of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism 2016/2017 budget estimates, Minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, said the fossils collected by expeditions to what was then German East Africa (Tendaguru), include the Brachiosaur specimen on show at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin. However, Prof Muhongo said the government was negotiating with the Germany government so that Tanzania could earn part of the revenue collected by Humbolt Museum in Berlin. He also said that the government has reached an agreement with Germany for the latter to provide training of specialists in historical and cultural preservation of the lizards' remains at the master and doctorate level" - Daily News