Making and Recording Histories, Memories and Heritage of German and British Colonialism in Tanzania
In 2021 and 2022, the DAAD-University of Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies supported an online workshop and a subsequent conference session at the 16th Congress of the Panafrican Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies (PAA) at the State University of Zanzibar, dedicated to discussing German and British colonial heritage across Africa. These were followed in 2023 by joint fieldwork in Pangani, Tanzania, in the framework of the ‘Pangani Shared Colonial Heritage Project’, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office from its Culture Preservation Programme (Kulturerhalt-Programm, KEP).
On 20-21 May 2025, and supported again by the DAAD-University of Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, a follow-up workshop at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, brings together scholars from Tanzania, Germany and the United Kingdom in discussing ‘Making and Recording Histories, Memories and Heritage of German and British Colonialism in Tanzania’.
The aims of this two-day workshop are twofold. The first aim is to compare and contrast the work, opportunities and challenges of working with colonial heritage and the heritage legacies of colonialism across Africa, with a particular focus on examples from eastern Africa. This initial session is open to any interested participants, including graduate students at Cambridge. It will be run as a hybrid meeting, although all speakers will present in person. Invited participants include a range of scholars from different disciplines engaged in this work from Tanzania, the UK and Germany.
The second objective is to review the work that has already been undertaken in Pangani to document the town’s diverse built heritage, previous efforts at conserving and renovating buildings, investigating the archaeology and architectural histories of the town, and various programmes of community engagement. As the local government and national authorities are now considering the creation of a conservation area in the town, this part of the workshop will review these plans and identify how best these might be implemented in consultation with Tanzanian stakeholders, building on over a decade of experience of working in Pangani and knowledge of the failures as well as the success of previous work. This is a closed session by invitation only, including online participation of some discussants.
To register, please use this link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UjgFjMMmQtiCrmbH12M_tg#/registration
Organisers:
Prof. Dr. Paul Lane (University of Cambridge), pjl29@cam.ac.uk
Dr. Cornelia Kleinitz (German Archaeological Institute, KAAK), cornelia.kleinitz@dainst.de
Funding:
The workshop is supported by the DAAD-University of Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies with funds from the German Federal Foreign Office (FFO)