Contests between heritage and history in Tanganyika/Tanzania: Insights arising from community-based heritage research

Abstract

Ongoing collaborative heritage research in northwestern Tanzania engages partners from diverse backgrounds, from craftsmen and common folk to a sitting king and his royal clan. Such diversity has revealed intangible heritage in two adjacent kingdoms. In Kihanja Kingdom, the physical structures of Kanazi Palace appear to dominate the heritage landscape, yet, ethnographic and archaeological collaborations revealed that Kihanja kings engaged in heritage performances that preserved ritual knowledge the Christian church erased. Written records further misrepresented these subaltern practices, and were at odds with heritage values enshrined in practice and the archaeological record. In Bukara Kingdom, the ravages of HIV/AIDS led to the loss of oral traditions, thus obscuring a significant massacre by German troops over a century ago. By revisiting oral accounts recorded 48 years ago, we (with local participants) were able to correct the written record and justify their efforts to preserve and interpret human remains at Mazinga cave.

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