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Konradin Kunze and Gabriel Mzei Orio, 2024

Mangi Meli was a Chagga chief in what is now Old Moshi on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Unlike his father, Mangi Rindi Mandara, Meli resisted German rule. Initially, he fought successfully against the so-called Schutztruppe (protection force), but ultimately had to surrender to the colonial troops. Thus, (Old) Moshi became the German center of power on Mount Kilimanjaro. In 1900, Mangi Meli was hanged along with other chiefs and leaders for allegedly conspiring against the Germans. The trauma of the execution resonates in Tanzania to this day in traditional songs and stories.

However, the cruelty did not end with Meli's death: His head was allegedly severed and sent to Germany, according to Meli's wife, who told her grandson Isaria. To this day, he is trying to secure the return of Mangi Meli's head to Old Moshi. Records show that several bones from Moshi were sent to the then Ethnological Museum in Berlin for the purpose of racist research. Indeed, in 2023, at the initiative of descendants, some of the bones of those executed were identified in Berlin and New York. However, the whereabouts of Meli's head remain unknown to this day.

For several years now, an exhibition by Flinn Works and a donation-funded memorial in Old Moshi have commemorated Chief Meli. His story exemplifies local resistance to colonialism in German East Africa and the brutality of German rule. It also testifies to the ongoing injustice of the deportation of ancestral remains in the name of science.

Stationen

Who was Meli?

Resistance

Defeat

Under German rule

Execution

Meli's Head

Skull collectors

The search for Meli

Ancestors in boxes

The Mangi Meli Remains project

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