On Monday, 26 January 2026, at 6 pm, the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste will be presenting the Kolloquium “Out of the shadows: a plea for greater attention to Burundi in provenance research“. The event will take place at Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Außenstelle Berlin, Seydelstraße 18, 10117 Berlin. It is possible to join the event via Webex.

Between 1896-1916 today's Burundi was a German colony as part of what was known as ‘German East Africa’. Not only in colonial historiography, but also in provenance research, Burundi has been largely underrepresented and, similar to Rwanda, stands ‘in the shadow’ of the reappraisal of the material cultural heritage of present-day Tanzania. This disregard is part of Burundi's ‘forgotten colonial history’ from all sides. Like other German colonial territories, Burundi's history was marked by colonial violence, which also led to numerous cultural belongings finding their way into German museum collections.

The colloquium has three objectives: Firstly, to provide an introductory overview of Burundian cultural heritage in German museums and the contexts in which these objects were acquired. Secondly, to highlight challenges for provenance research like the archival landscape and to identify gaps, including the possible whereabouts of human remains. And thirdly, to take a look at Burundi's politics of memory regarding German colonialism and political processes such as potential restitution claims.

Jean Berchmans Ndihokubwayo holds a B.A. in History and a Master’s degree in Political History. He is Assistant Professor at the National University of Burundi, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History and Heritage, and is currently finishing his PhD at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, focusing on Burundi under German colonial rule. He is part of the DAAD programme “German Colonial Rule”, funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

Participation is free of charge, but only possible after registration by 23 January 2026. When registering, we kindly ask you to indicate whether you would like to participate on site or via livestream. Participants of the livestream will receive their access data on the day of the event.

Registrations to:

German Lost Art Foundation
Heinrich Natho
Humboldtstr. 12 | 39112 Magdeburg
veranstaltungen(at)kulturgutverluste.de

With your registration and participation, you allow the organizer to record the event and to use it for public relations and documentation (§ 22 KunstUrhG). The organizer collects, processes and uses your personal data within the scope of performing the statutory task of the German Lost Art Foundation.