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Histories of Tanzania
Over 10,000 Tanzanian objects from the Ethnologisches Museum shown alongside Tanzanian curators' and artists' perspectives on German and British colonial rule.
More in Berlin
The Hehe ruler Mkwawa played this zither after his warriors turned back a German advance into his kingdom in 1891. At the opening, his great-grandson, the young Hehe chief, stood in front of it and told the Tagesspiegel he looks forward to it going home. The museum says the show will travel to the National Museum of Tanzania after Berlin, and that preparations to return these objects for good are under way.
Curators from Dar es Salaam, Songea and Berlin made it together, with Tanzanian community members speaking in texts and filmed interviews beside the objects. It runs from Indian Ocean trade to German and British rule, with the weight on colonial violence. You walk between teak and bamboo structures modelled on Tanzanian woven baskets and fish traps, and Amani Abeid's comics hang as A4 pads you can tear a page from.
The Berliner Zeitung's critic called it beautiful and hugely illuminating. It fills rooms 211 and 212 on the second floor and is covered by the €9 collections ticket.
Look for
Mkwawa's zither
Look for the Hehe ruler's zither, which he played in celebration after defeating a German advance into his kingdom in 1891.
Amani Abeid's tear-off comics
Four comic-strip stories about four of the cultural belongings, printed as A4 pads so you can take individual pages home.
The chair from Urughu
A dignitary's chair from Urughu, its story told around it in text, film and comic drawings.
The City Research films
Short films by school students in Berlin and Dar es Salaam tracking colonial traces in their own cities' buildings, street names and squares.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want a light visit: the show centres on German colonial violence and objects taken during it.
Free in the same building
- Flashbacks36 objects placed throughout the building in unconventional settings, each recalling a moment from the site's history.
- History of the SiteFree displays covering 800 years of Schlossplatz, from medieval cellars and palace sculptures to the Palace of the Republic, with original objects and media stations.
- Impressions. The Humboldt BrothersFree display on Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt's lives, curiosity and cosmopolitan worldview, in the ground-floor stairwell hall.
- Palace CellarFree walk through the archaeological remains of a medieval monastery and the original palace foundations beneath the building.
- The Gate of SanchiFree full-scale replica of the East Gate of the Great Stupa of Sanchi, a UNESCO World Heritage site in India, installed outside on the Lustgarten side.
Also at Humboldt Forum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Histories of Tanzania© Stiftung Humboldtforum im Berliner Schloss / Studio Gründer Kirfel, Foto: Michael Degener
- A Country in a Container – The Disposal of East German State SymbolsCourtesy of DDR Museum
- Founded on Antiquity: Berlin's First MuseumPhoto: Johannes Laurentius
- Nature and German History. Faith – Biology – PowerCourtesy of Deutsches Historisches Museum
- Humboldt ForumMike Peel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- DDR MuseumAndreas Praefcke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
- Altes MuseumJean-Pierre Dalbéra / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Deutsches Historisches MuseumAvda / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Alte NationalgalerieManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain