German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized Wednesday for colonial-era atrocities committed by German forces in Tanzania during a visit to the East African country. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs German President, I would like to ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here,\u201d Steinmeier, who began a three-day visit to Tanzania on Monday,\u00a0told\u00a0descendants of local war hero Songea Mbano <\/p>\n
Mbano was hanged and beheaded alongside dozens of his fighters for staging an uprising, known as the Maji-Maji rebellion, against the Germans in the early 1900s. <\/p>\n
An estimated 300,000 people \u2013 around one-third of the indigenous population at the time \u2013 were killed in the uprising, which was fueled by brutal repression of locals by their German colonizers. <\/p>\n
Tanganyika, now present-day Tanzania, was first a German colony before coming under British control in 1919. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis cruel deed has left its mark on many generations,\u201d Steinmeier told the Mbano family at the Maji Maji Museum in Songea, southern Tanzania, according to a transcript of his speech provided by the German presidency. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt shames me. I am ashamed about what German colonial soldiers did to your forefather and his fellow warriors,\u201d he\u00a0added, but made no mention of reparations. <\/p>\n
Tanzanians have been reacting on social media to Steinmeier\u2019s apology, with one commentator saying: \u201cApologizing isn\u2019t enough \u2026 Germany has to pay reparation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Germany had previously acknowledged its colonial-era atrocities in Africa. <\/p>\n
In 2021, it\u00a0announced\u00a0\u20ac1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) support to descendants of the victims of colonial-era genocide committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups in Namibia, a former German colony more than a hundred years ago. <\/p>\n
Steinmeier told the Mbano family in Tanzania that his country would work towards finding Mbano\u2019s remains, which may have been transported to Europe by German troops for burial after his execution. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we know is that many remains from East Africa were brought to Germany back then and were placed in museums and anthropological collections. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of skulls,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI promise that we will work together with you to find Chief Songea\u2019s skull in Germany,\u201d the German president added. <\/p>\n
Steinmeier also traveled to Zambia Wednesday, with both visits aimed at fostering partnerships,\u00a0according\u00a0to the German government. <\/p>\n
It coincided with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s tour of West Africa earlier in the week. Scholz visited Nigeria and Ghana where he held bilateral talks with the countries\u2019 leaders. <\/p>\n\n
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized Wednesday for colonial-era atrocities committed by German forces in Tanzania during a visit to the East African country. \u201cAs German President, I would like to ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here,\u201d Steinmeier, who began a three-day visit to Tanzania on Monday,\u00a0told\u00a0descendants of local war hero <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}