Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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A skull returns home...
Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga, better known as "Chief Mkwawa", chief of the Hehe tribe in German East Africa, today's Tanzania...
...led an ongoing guerrilla war against the German occupiers and their accomplices from 1891 to 1898...:
On July 19, 1898 he committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of his pursuers...:
Mkwawa's skull was stolen by the Germans and taken to Germany as a macabre trophy...
...and has since been stored in the Bremen Overseas Museum, which still exists today...:
Unusual:
The skull is expressly mentioned in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles - Article 246 of the treaty stipulates that it be sent back to Africa and handed over to its tribe...:
In this matter, nothing happened on the German side for a long time.
But after World War II, the governor of then British Tanzania, Sir Edward Twining, would not rest and finally got Chief Mkwawa's skull returned to his people on July 9, 1954.
The next picture shows Governor Twining at the handover ceremony...:
Today the skull can be seen in the Mkwawa Memorial Museum in Kalenga...:
Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga, better known as "Chief Mkwawa", chief of the Hehe tribe in German East Africa, today's Tanzania...
...led an ongoing guerrilla war against the German occupiers and their accomplices from 1891 to 1898...:
On July 19, 1898 he committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of his pursuers...:
Mkwawa's skull was stolen by the Germans and taken to Germany as a macabre trophy...
...and has since been stored in the Bremen Overseas Museum, which still exists today...:
Unusual:
The skull is expressly mentioned in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles - Article 246 of the treaty stipulates that it be sent back to Africa and handed over to its tribe...:
In this matter, nothing happened on the German side for a long time.
But after World War II, the governor of then British Tanzania, Sir Edward Twining, would not rest and finally got Chief Mkwawa's skull returned to his people on July 9, 1954.
The next picture shows Governor Twining at the handover ceremony...:
Today the skull can be seen in the Mkwawa Memorial Museum in Kalenga...:
