Commemoration with Contradictions – the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Grave Concentration and the ‘Tanzania Exercise’, 1968–1975

This article examines how colonial-era policies continued to shape the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s post-colonial work in Tanzania. Tracing the gap between the Commission’s principle of ‘equality in death’ and its practice in East Africa, it shows how racialised policies left tens of thousands of Africans unnamed or absent from commemoration. Confronted after independence with redevelopment, fragile tenure and failing maintenance, the Commission attempted to restructure its commemorations in Tanzania. While this exercise improved security and advanced equality for some, it also reproduced earlier hierarchies, privileging preservation of existing commemorations over redress for the excluded dead.