This fascinating report (with photos) by Maike Schimanowski and Kristin Weber-Sinn sums up their experiences as members of the curatorial team for the exhibition „Historia za Tanzania – Geschichte(n) Tansanias – Histories of Tanzania“, presently on display at the Humboldt Forum Berlin.
It was presented by Maike Schimanowski at the annual conference of the „Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung“ in Bonn on September 10, 2025.
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Curatorial team
The curatorial team consisted of colleagues from three institutions: National Museum of Tanzania (NMT), Ethnologisches Museum (EM) and Zentralarchiv (ZA) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Stiftung Humboldt Forum (SHF): Paola Ivanov (EM), Achilles Bufure and Flower Manase (NMT), Jocelyne Stahl (SHF), Balthazar Nyamusya of Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea (NMT), Kristin Weber-Sinn (ZA) and Maike Schimanowski, at that time working for SHF.
Research as process
The authors share some insights how provenance research for the exhibition became not just an academic tool — but contributed to a communicative, collaborative, and partly
transformative process. A process that doesn’t only explain fragments of the past, but
actively reconfigures how we engage with it —publicly, politically, and across institutions.
Informed consent
For the exhibition „Histories of Tanzania“ the curatorial team decided to not display any cultural belonging without the “informed consent” of the respective descendant of the former owner, producer or custodian or community of origin. The hope was to provide complete, understandable, and transparent information about the context, place, and duration of a proposed presentation in the exihibition to gain this “informed consent”. If no consent was given for display of the original, the cultural belonging could be represented by different means in the exhibition, or even not at all.
MoU with communities
During the process, the following demand from the community stakeholders was articulated and accepted: a Memorandum of Understanding was to be written, that stated the extent of the informed consent given, confirmed the support for necessary rituals and the intention for final
restitution, supported by the National Museum of Tanzania.
15 communities in Tanzania
The team contacted descendants and community stakeholders in the name of the National Museum of Tanzania, to start a process
of exchange and interaction regarding the project. During the two years of the exhibition
realisation, an exchange and dialogue took place, in various formats, with descendants of
former owners, producers, custodians of selected cultural belongings and representatives
from 15 different communities across Tanzania.
Next stop: Dar & restitution
The exhibition has been meant to be a first and final display of the cultural belongings on German grounds, before it would be transferred to Tanzania. It has been planned, that it should then be seen at the National Museum of Tanzania and finally be split up, for the different cultural belongings to return to their communities of origin. These next stages of the exhibition are still to come.