Tanzania: Germany Exorcises Colonial Era Demons

By Samuel Ouma

Germany's President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has declared that his country will begin talks with Tanzania to resolve the lingering effects of its colonial rule.

Steinmeier made the announcement after meeting his counterpart, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in Dar es Salaam during his official visit to the country on October 31.

He acknowledged the atrocities carried out during the colonial rule and stated Germany's willingness to return cultural property and human remains, many of which are now on exhibit in German museums.

"It is important to me that we come to terms with this dark chapter, that we come to terms with it together," said President Steinmeier.

President Suluhu said, "We have discussed this in detail and we are ready to open negotiations to see how we are going to agree on the German colonial legacy."

The German leader announced plans to meet victims of the Maji Maji rebellion against German rule.

The new move comes on the heels of Germany's public admission in 2021 that it committed genocide during its colonial control of Namibia.

The country delivered a public apology for the slaughter of over 75,000 people, pledging to fund projects totalling more than a billion dollars as restitution.

The German colonial rule of Tanzania, which lasted from 1885 to 1918, was highlighted by a deadly repression of the Maji Maji insurrection from 1905 to 1907, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Many people died of hunger because German troops interfered with the local population's source of food.