Discussions surrounding museum collections in European countries acquired during the colonial period are nothing new. The Nigerian government, for example, has been seeking the return of the famous Benin Bronzes for decades. More and more universities and museums are engaged in researching the origin of various objects in European museums, where the situation is not yet as clear as with those bronzes. This research is intended to create a basis for returning the objects in question one day. So does researcher Flower Manase, curator at the National Museum of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. She is part of the Tanzanian team working on Maji Maji war booty collections at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. She has organized and participated in workshops related to German colonialism in Tanzania and Germany and is currently involved in further related museum projects in connection to German colonialism between Tanzania and Germany. Flower Manase, a Ph.D. fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, is also featured in "The Amani Exhibition" which has been opened in September 2019 by MARKK and NIMRI in Hamburg. This exhibition narrates the colonial history of sciences in East Africa-Tanzania. In our L.I.S.A.interview, we discussed the role of museums in general as well as their part in dealing with contested history.
"Museum services should relate and connect to the community’s needs"
L.I.S.A.: As a curator at the National Museum of Tanzania at the Museum and House of Culture in Dar es Salaam for more than ten years now, you know Tanzanian museums and their history. Through your work with German institutions, however, you also gained knowledge about the European museum landscape. What kind of place is a museum for you, and what should it be?
Ms. Manase: From my experience, I consider the concept of "museum" to be more diverse depending on underlying motives for its foundation. Some museums are of a more political nature, even coinciding with governments, while others occupy neutral positions - hence serving wider groups of society. However, the majority of the National museums in Africa and Europe were founded based on and served the colonial ideologies and motifs for a long time.
Nowadays, in the 21st century, I consider the museum to be more of a recreational place for enjoyment rather than an academic institution for young or adult visitors. We aim to increase the frequency of visitation, encouraging new visits, and increasing the time spent at museum premises. To achieve that, museums should be institutions that are neutral and open to all members of society by encouraging dialogue and involvement of community members in museum activities. Thereby, the offered museum services and facilities should relate and connect to the community’s needs and demands.