Why Is the West Apologizing for Its Colonial Massacres in Africa?

In recent weeks, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Tanzania, where he expressed shame for Germany’s colonial-era crimes and declared: “I ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here.”

Germany had already recognized in 2021 the genocide it committed in 1904 against the Herero and Nama peoples in present-day Namibia.

Until 1920, Tanzania remained under German colonial rule. Harsh, exploitative policies triggered a determined popular uprising, remembered as the Maji Maji Rebellion (“Sacred Water Rebellion”). The German response was brutally systematic: between July 1905 and August 1907, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Tanzanians—men, women, and children—were massacred. Farmlands were deliberately torched, starving communities to death. (1)

Even today, many looted cultural artifacts, as well as the skulls of Tanzanian resistance leaders such as Chief Songea Mbano, remain displayed in German museums.

Around the same time, King Charles visited Kenya, condemning the violence and abuses inflicted by Britain during its colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1963, Kenyans rose against British occupation through the Mau Mau Uprising, a fierce independence struggle. More than 10,000 Kenyans were tortured, burned alive, or executed, while the number of European civilian casualties was only 32. (2)

If the Maji Maji uprising symbolizes Tanzania’s resistance, then the Mau Mau uprising represents Kenya’s. The near-simultaneous visits of Steinmeier to Tanzania and King Charles to Kenya raise an obvious question: Has the West suddenly developed a conscience about Africa? Are these apologies genuine acts of remorse?

Hollow Apologies, Hidden Agendas

Today, countless Africans still suffer and die from civil wars, famine, poverty, lack of healthcare, and toxic exposure in mines—conditions often created or worsened by Western powers. Yet the same Germany and Britain that apologize for colonial crimes stand firmly with Israel as it commits war crimes against Palestinians.

This contradiction reveals the emptiness of Western rhetoric. Apologies and high-level diplomatic visits serve less as moral reckonings and more as strategic moves to secure Africa’s natural resources.

The pattern is the same across the globe: oppressor and oppressed.

Colonial powers enslaved indigenous peoples, crushed uprisings with terror, and branded independence fighters as “terrorists.” Decades later, their successors continue to exploit the very nations they once claimed to leave behind—this time through economic and political control.

Western leaders’ rare moments of “apology” are not about justice, but about advancing hidden agendas. Ironically, the same powers that once called Africans “primitive” and accused local leaders of selling out their people now whitewash their own colonial barbarity while supporting modern atrocities.

Echoes of Colonial Rhetoric in Gaza

The parallels are chilling. Just as colonial powers labeled African liberation movements as terrorism, Israel and the United States now frame Palestinian resistance as terrorism. Thousands are slaughtered in Gaza with impunity, while the world looks away. The narrative has not changed—only the victims.

Voices from Tanzania

For many Tanzanians, Germany’s apology comes far too late and feels meaningless.

Teacher Faith J. Mutulla explains:

“I don’t find this apology meaningful, and I don’t trust Westerners. They once treated us like animals and now want to appear as angels. They must be after something, because Tanzania has rich natural resources. Our president asked them to return the skulls they stole 116 years ago. But returning bones won’t erase the suffering our ancestors endured.”

Educator Benedicta Kimario echoes this skepticism:

“The apology is fine, but where were they all these years? Why wait more than a century? They must want something from us. I don’t trust it. Why apologize only to the Songea region? The entire country suffered under colonial rule. They say they will return the skulls of our chiefs and the artifacts they stole—but will they also return the honor of our ancestors who fought and died with dignity?”

Germany’s century-late apology may win headlines abroad, but for Tanzanians still haunted by the memory of colonial atrocities, it carries little weight.

 

References:

(1)         https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/maji-maji-uprising-1905-1907/

(2)         https://www.uncomfortableoxford.com/post/oxford-and-colonial-atrocities-the-mau-mau-rebellion

This article was originally published in Independent Turkish, on November 26, 2023