The German president has expressed “shame” for the colonial atrocities his country inflicted on Tanzania.
German forces killed almost 300,000 people during the Maji Maji rebellion in the early 1900s, one of the bloodiest anti-colonial uprisings.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was speaking at a museum in Songea, where the uprising took place.
“I would like to ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here,” he said.
“What happened here is our shared history, the history of your ancestors and the history of our ancestors in Germany.”
The Maji Maji rebellion was triggered by a German policy designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export.
Tanzania was a part of German East Africa, which consisted of modern-day Rwanda, Burundi and parts of Mozambique.
President Steinmeier said he hoped Tanzania and Germany could work towards “communal processing” of the past.
The heads of some of the leaders of the Maji Maji rebellion were removed and taken back to Germany to be displayed in museums.
Some of their descendants have led a long campaign to have their skulls returned, and have finally located them with the help of DNA tests.
Mr Steinmeier addressed the question of the repatriation of human remains and said Germany would search “for answers to the unanswered questions that give you no peace”.
On Tuesday, after meeting President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dar es Salaam, he promised that Germany would co-operate with Tanzania for the “the repatriation of cultural property”.
In 2021, Germany officially acknowledged committing genocide during its occupation of Namibia.
This apology comes after King Charles acknowledged the “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans” during their independence struggle, while on a visit to Nairobi.
—BBC
