For over 100 years, six hundred cultural belongings from Tanzania have been stored in Stade. Why have they remained unnoticed for so long? And how did they find their way to Stade?

With the exhibition AMANI kukita|kung’oa (planted | uprooted), the Museen Stade are presenting, for the first time, results, processes, and reflections of a three-year research project conducted in collaboration with the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR). The project examined the Tanzanian cultural artifacts acquired by the botanist Karl Braun (1870–1935) during his work for the Imperial Biological-agricultural Institute Amani in the former colony of “German East Africa.” From 1921, Karl Braun led the Biological Imperial Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Department Stade, and handed over the collection to the city shortly before his death.

Tools, instruments, textiles, as well as photographs, maps, and documents, reveal stories of colonial occupation, the exploitation of human and botanical resources, and the appropriation of cultural heritage. This catalog, which accompanies the exhibition, serves as a platform for the presentation and critical reflection of the research results.

Artistic works by Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Rehema Chachage, and Yvette Kießling open up new perspectives on the entanglements of German colonial history, cultural appropriation, and research.