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Germany’s president apologized for killings under colonial rule in Tanzania as he met descendants of Chief Songea Mbano, who was executed for leading a revolt
Germany’s president apologized for killings under colonial rule in Tanzania as he met descendants of Chief Songea Mbano, who was executed for leading a revolt. In Songea, southwestern Tanzania, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier vowed to seek answers to questions regarding the German East Africa era. German East Africa was a colony part of the German possessions covering present-day Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. That contiguous landmass existed from 1885 until the end of World War I.
The German President said that he mourned for all those who were executed and paid respects to the victims of the German colonial rule. He also asked for their forgiveness for what Germans did to their ancestors. Steinmeier laid a rose at Chief Songea Mbano’s grave and a wreath at a mass grave of 66 other fighters in the Maji Maji uprising. Over 300,000 people are believed to have died during the Maji Maji rebellion between 1905 and 1907.
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In 2017, Tanzania’s then-government said it was considering legal action to seek compensation from Germany for the people who allegedly were starved, tortured, and killed by German forces. Germany in 2021 announced an agreement with Namibia, another country where it was once the colonial ruler, to recognize colonial-era massacres of tens of thousands of people there as genocide and provide funding to help the communities affected. But the accord stopped short of formal reparations. That agreement, which some groups representing the Herero and Nama people aren’t happy with, has yet to be formally signed off on.
