Decolonial Memories

Sirili Molelia and his son Tony talk about their efforts to bring their ancestors back to their home in Kibosho/Tanzania. Mangi Molelia and other Chagga leaders were murdered by German colonial troops on 2 March 1900, their remains transferred to Germany. On 17 February 2026, the Molelia family received custodianship of their ancestors from President Marion Ackermann, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. In this episdoe, the Molelias also address the search for their looted cultural belongings held by Ethnological Museum Berlin, Linden Museum Stuttgart and other German museums.

In this episode, Jean Berchmans Ndihokubwayo, a historian from Burundi, talks about the entangled history between his country and Germany, the former coloniser. Jean is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Burundi. He is presently finishing his doctoral thesis at the University of Gießen. The scholar emphasizes that Burundi has a long tradition of remembering German colonial rule. Now more efforts on the German side are needed to address historical injustices.

In this episode, Sylvie, founder-president of the Cameroonian cultural organisation Regartless, talks about her campaign #BringBackNgonnso in support of the people of Nso. Ngonnso is a deity embodied in a carved wooden statue adorned with cowrie shells held by Ethnological Museum Berlin as colonial loot. She was created in honour of Ngonnso, the founding mother of the Nso Fondom (Kingdom), in Cameroon. The Cammeroonian-German youth organisation Initiative Perspektivwechsel has created a comic novel about Sylvie.

In this episode, Dr. Bulami talks about his efforts to support the people of Nso (Northwest Cameroon) in reclaiming their cultural heritage. The Nso were victims of massive German colonial violence including the looting of cultural belongings and their transfer to Germany. Among them is Ngonnso, a deity embodied in a carved wooden statue that is adorned with cowrie shells. She was created in honour of Ngonnso, the founding mother of the Nso Fondom (Kingdom), who is regarded as the incarnation of the Nso people’ s worldview. Publications of Dr Bulami can be found here. Dr Bulami is a part-time Lecturer in the University of Bamenda (Cameroon) and the Principal of the Government Bilingual High School Kimbo in Kumbo.

In this episode, Dr Valence Silayo, Lecturer of Archeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, talks about his research on the entangled history of Tanzania and Germany. He is presently a guest scholar at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart where he has co-curated the exhibition "Celebrating Womanhood" on cultural belongings of the Chagga community in the Kilimanjaro region held by the museum. Among many collaborative projects with Germany, he is involved in the restitution of knowledge to Tanzania with the Leipzig Missionary Society.