The Empty Grave

To this day, tens of thousands of human remains from former colonies are stored in German museum depots. It is unclear how they can be identified and returned. The Empty Grave (Germany/Tanzania, 2024) follows two families on a search for their ancestors. In southern Tanzania, the lawyer John Mbano and his wife Cesilia search for traces of his great-grandfather, who was executed by German colonial forces in 1906, after which his head was taken to Germany for racist ‘research purposes’. The pain of this haunts the family to this day. In northern Tanzania, Felix and Ernest Kaaya face a similar situation. Fighting to have an ancestor’s remains returned, they travel to the metropolis of Dar es Salaam.

The families wrestle with bureaucratic complications while also receiving help from activists such as Mnyaka Sururu Mboro and Konradin Kunze, who have lent visibility to the issue in Germany. Through their help, the Mbanos are received in the Federal Foreign Office, and ultimately Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier makes a visit to their home city to apologize for the suffering they have endured. The great-grandfather’s grave, however, remains empty.

In their film, the German-Tanzanian directorial duo Agnes Lisa Wegner and Cece Mlay explore the trauma that German colonial rule has left behind in Tanzanian communities—along with the strength and self-determination of the survivors, who continue stubbornly campaigning for the full history to be told.

After the screening, directors Cece Mlay and Agnes Lisa Wegner discuss with the protagonists Felix Kaaya and Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, moderated by Konradin Kunze.