Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania by Reginald Elias Kirey (review)

Reviewed by: Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania by Reginald Elias Kirey Eric Grube Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania. By Reginald Elias Kirey. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023. Pp. xix + 247. Hardcover 103. 99. ISBN 9783110996296. Reginald Elias Kirey delivers a much-needed contribution to the historiography with his latest monograph, Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania. Kirey examines postcolonial oral histories and physical sites of memory as historical topics in their own right rather than as historical sources for accessing and reconstructing the colonial past. The distinction is critical, as it pivots the conversation away from methodologies for colonial history and toward investigations of postcolonial legacies. Conceptually, he argues that such memories are situational, contested, and often quite paradoxical, depending on who is remembering, what they are remembering, and where in the country they are remembering. He shows that narratives, physical sites, and communal practices meant to reject and commemorate resistance to colonialism coexist with the reappropriation of, continuation of, and even nostalgia for colonial legacies. Overall, Kirey's work presents a central tension for the independent East African country: most attempts to cultivate nation-building narratives and memories are inherently still dependent on the colonial past, even when (perhaps particularly when) commemorating and celebrating resistance. Colonialism is, unfortunately, an undeniable inheritance, regardless of whether it is rejected, romanticized, and/or reappropriated. Each chapter then presents a specific case study, ranging from the postcolonial histories of Tanzanian national museums, memorials, and sacred sites to the fate of veterans, colonial archives, and cityscapes. He also explores the memories of German and British colonial agents who welded and wielded legacies of their respective colonial regimes for dual purposes: delegitimizing their rivals' regime in order to legitimize their own. When all is said and done, however, Kirey End Page 345 maintains that it was German colonialism that has the most bearing on Tanzanian national identities today. While Kirey's work fills a serious gap in the historiography regarding the topic of memories in postcolonial Eastern Africa, there are a few hiccups with its conceptual intervention. The main issue is a disconnect between the heavily theoretical introduction and the straightforward, at times self-evident and repetitive, claims throughout the chapters. The introduction lists a variety of theories regarding memory studies without ever really making a specific conceptual intervention, asserting the utility of certain lenses over others, or presenting specifically how each one informs the analysis presented in the chapters. There is also a glaring omission from the theoretical discussion: Geschichtspolitik (politics of memory). Much of this book deals, at least in some way, with the politicization of contested historical legacies, especially Kirey's impressively erudite discussion of changing street names and statues. Yet the theories surrounding this well-developed field are noticeably absent from the introduction's overview. Maybe the goal was not to rely on a historical theory from German scholarship, so as to avoid reifying dependency; yet discussing it in some capacity would provide an example of the overarching tension about modern Tanzanian identity. It would also present an opportunity for Kirey to transcend this dependence, thereby showing a fruitful way forward for the historical conversation, yes, but also for Tanzania as a country. At times, the book also misses its own point about colonialism being unavoidable. More specifically, Kirey presents a fascinating narrative of the German colonial archival records. The German colonial administration buried them during the desperate moments of World War I, all in an effort to prevent them from falling into British hands. Kirey describes how they were found and used to form the nucleus of the Tanzanian national archives. These documents provided extremely valuable metrics, measurements, survey data, and other useful information for supposed national development. Yet, for a monograph so focused on the damaging legacies of colonialism, the very coloniality of these documents is disregarded. The narrative of their provenance, while a fascinating tale of exhumation, ignores these documents' colonial raison d'être: to provide the German imperial regime with metrics for extraction, oppression, and repression. By taking these documents more or less at face value—as a valuable trove for modern national identity and economic development—Kirey misses an opportunity to advance the overarching thesis. . .