
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
16071,607 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.

7,695 Listeners

373 Listeners

1,050 Listeners

5,548 Listeners

956 Listeners

583 Listeners

1,767 Listeners

1,034 Listeners

354 Listeners

577 Listeners

959 Listeners

416 Listeners

413 Listeners

727 Listeners

846 Listeners

363 Listeners

991 Listeners

3,176 Listeners

1,005 Listeners

730 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

385 Listeners