Songea Mbano and the 'halfway dead' of the Majimaji War (1905-7) in memory and theatre

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4531399
AutoresYann Legall (0000-0001-5966-8433, University of Potsdam, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen6
Número2
Páginas4-22
Fecha de publicación2020-11-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHuman Remains and Violence An Interdisciplinary Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2054-2240 • E-ISSN: 2054-2240
EditorialManchester University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.7227/hrv.6.2.2
OpenAlexW3109327936
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas9

Debates on the relevance of repatriation of indigenous human remains are water under the bridge today. Yet, a genuine will for dialogue to work through colonial violence is found lacking in the European public sphere. Looking at local remembrance of the Majimaji War (1905-7) in the south of Tanzania and a German-Tanzanian theatre production, it seems that the spectre of colonial headhunting stands at the heart of claims for repatriation and acknowledgement of this anti-colonial movement. The missing head of Ngoni leader Songea Mbano haunts the future of German-Tanzanian relations in heritage and culture. By staging the act of post-mortem dismemberment and foregrounding the perspective of descendants, the theatre production Maji Maji Flava offers an honest proposal for dealing with stories of sheer colonial violence in transnational memory

Archaeology · Art · Collective memory · Colonialism · Dismemberment · Foregrounding · German · Indigenous · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Repatriation · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law