
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In 1900, German colonial officers executed 19 Tanzanian leaders, including Akida Kiwelu, and shipped their skulls to Berlin for scientific study. Thousands of such skulls and ancestral remains stolen from Germany’s past colonies are still kept in Berlin museums to this day. In an administrative building in Berlin, Zablon Kiwelu encounters his grandfather’s skull for the first time. DNA testing confirmed a genetic match to this skull, held in an anthropological colonial-era collection of thousands of skulls known as the S-Collection. But despite proof of his heritage, Zablon cannot bring his grandfather home for a proper burial.
By BBC World Service4.3
16041,604 ratings
In 1900, German colonial officers executed 19 Tanzanian leaders, including Akida Kiwelu, and shipped their skulls to Berlin for scientific study. Thousands of such skulls and ancestral remains stolen from Germany’s past colonies are still kept in Berlin museums to this day. In an administrative building in Berlin, Zablon Kiwelu encounters his grandfather’s skull for the first time. DNA testing confirmed a genetic match to this skull, held in an anthropological colonial-era collection of thousands of skulls known as the S-Collection. But despite proof of his heritage, Zablon cannot bring his grandfather home for a proper burial.

7,589 Listeners

1,085 Listeners

379 Listeners

523 Listeners

1,056 Listeners

294 Listeners

5,464 Listeners

963 Listeners

590 Listeners

1,748 Listeners

1,044 Listeners

2,085 Listeners

357 Listeners

592 Listeners

973 Listeners

404 Listeners

746 Listeners

850 Listeners

3,187 Listeners

1,027 Listeners

332 Listeners

25 Listeners