The Tanzanians searching for their grandfathers’ skulls in Germany

Isaria Anael Meli has been looking for his grandfather’s remains for more than six decades.

He believes the skull ended up in a Berlin museum after his grandfather, Mangi Meli, along with 18 other chiefs and advisers, was hanged by a German colonial force 123 years ago.

After all this time, a German minister has told the BBC the country is prepared to apologise for the executions in what is now northern Tanzania.

Other descendants have also been searching for the remains and recently, in an unprecedented use of DNA research, two of the skulls of those killed have been identified among a museum collection of thousands.

It is rare to find an acacia tree on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Its twisting branches reach above the steep road and stand out among the denser lush vegetation.

At one time, it shaded a market for the villagers of Tsudunyi, a part of what is now called Old Moshi, who lived off the fertile land and enjoyed the cooler temperatures that the higher altitude brought.

But this focal point for the community became the scene of a great tragedy. Despite the peace of the natural surroundings today, its impact has reverberated down the decades.

It was here on 2 March 1900 that, as the descendants tell it, one-by-one the 19 men were hanged. They had been hastily tried the day before, accused of plotting to attack the German colonial forces.

Germany’s claim to this part of the continent was formalised at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. The European powers divided up Africa between them, without the people living there having any say in what happened.

Mangi Meli, the most prominent mangi, or chief, among those who were killed, had in 1892 successfully defeated the German forces. That success was later reversed and by the end of the 19th Century, the Europeans were keen to stamp their authority on this part of what was known as German East Africa.

They wanted to make an example of Mangi Meli and other local leaders who may have been planning an uprising.

 

Source: BBC