During World War I Much of present-day Tanzania, along with Rwanda and Burundi, were a colony of Germany in East Africa (German East Africa ). This colony was established in 1885 and although the complicity of the tribal chiefs was sought, some resisted. The best known was Chief Mkwawa (Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga) tribal leader of the Hehe in the area of Tanzania.
In 1891, Mkwawa managed to defeat a German army battalion with arrows and spears. Three years later the Germans destroyed Kalenga, the fortress where Mkwawa was taking refuge, but he was able to escape and started a guerrilla war that held the Germans in check for four years. He cornered, and before being captured, he shot himself. Her skull of his was sent to Berlin as a trophy.
At the start of World War I, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was sent to German East Africa. that with an army of 3,000 Europeans and 11,000 askaris (natives) managed to hold off the powerful British army (more than 200,000 men). Without having suffered a defeat, only the surrender of Germany in Europe could with Lettow-Vorbeck.
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) It was the peace treaty signed at the end of World War I that officially ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Countries. And in the treaty Mkwawa reappeared, rather his skull . In article 246 it said:
Within six months after the entry into force of this Treaty, […] Germany shall return the skull of Sultan Mkwawa, which, removed from the German protectorate of East Africa, has been transported to Germany, shall be forwarded by the latter within the same period to the British S. M. Government.
Mkwawa Skull
Germany shied away from its responsibilities…until a collection of 2,000 skulls was found in the Bremen Museum in 1953. After doing a study it was possible to narrow it down to a few and of these... the only one that had a bullet hole . On July 9, 1954, it was moved to the Mkwawa Memorial Museum , near the city of Iringa (Tanzania).