German president shows remorse for colonial atrocities in Tanzania
German President Frank Walter Steinmeier has asked Tanzanians for forgiveness for acts committed during Germany’s colonial rule over the East African country.
The German President made the remark on Wednesday during his visit to a museum in the southern part of Tanzania after a meeting with the family of Songea Mbano, a tribal chief who was hanged in 1906 by the Germans.
"Dear Mbano family, even those who know more about German colonial history in Germany must still be horrified today by the extent of the cruelty with which the German colonial occupation acted, must be horrified by what I heard from you today," President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a speech.
"It embarrasses me! I am ashamed of what German colonial soldiers did to your ancestor, his fellow fighters and many others in what is now Tanzania," he added.
Tanzanian minister Damas Ndumbaro, a Songea member of parliament said, “The most important thing is to forget the past and continue to maintain the good relationship and move forward by bringing development for people of our two nations, including our Songea town,'' he is quoted by local media Daily News.
Tanzania was a part of German East Africa, which between 1905 and 1907 witnessed one of the bloodiest uprisings in colonial history.
In the early 1900s, Mbano led a group of fighters in the "Maji-Maji rebellion" against the Germans, for which he was hanged and beheaded.
The fierce persecution of the natives by their German colonists served as fuel for the rebellion, which claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000 people, roughly one-third of the indigenous population at the time.
