Ukungu

A few years ago, while dealing with Tanzania and German colonialism, I came across the Maji Maji War and its devastating consequences for the people in East Africa. On a trip to Tanzania in February/March 2020, I found out that the children in Tanzania were told about the genocide - and afterwards I was shocked at how little of it can be heard or seen in the culture of remembrance in the Federal Republic of Germany. I am concerned with expanding the culture of remembrance towards multi-perspective and inclusive remembrance. This part of the past is (also) repressed in Germany. Therefore, I would like to use this platform and the familiarity from previous films to draw attention to this genocide and its victims. At first I used the medium of the music video here, but it turns into a medium of enlightenment. The pictures were taken on the trip in 2020, the texts are largely from a publication by the Federal Agency for Civic Education on the Maji Maji War. The music comes from the Collective.
The film uses images of a herd of elephants taken while traveling on a safari in northern Tanzania. The fortress nature conservation that I supported is a colonial concept, too. It is also unaffordable for my relatives who live in Tanzania to go on a nature safari in their country.
In the film I apologize for the actions of my ancestors. I think that being part of a community also means sharing responsibility for its past and its crimes and injustices.

"Film directed by Johannes Horak about European colonialism and the damage covered up and ignored by Europe in Africa, focusing on East Africa and the Maji Maji War. After a visually kaleidoscopic start with electronic music and multiscreen, symbolic and dazzling, Johanned Horak appears in the first person without any artifice looking at the camera. Sincere, humble and moving, Ukungu is a film committed to the importance of memory and justice." Ficimad-22-Magazine

Link to the publication:
https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/hintergrund-aktuell/209829/vor-115-jahren-der-maji-maji-aufstand/

Update:

On November 1, 2023, in Songea, Federal President Steinmeier asks for forgiveness for the colonial crimes and promises the return of the remains. This is a very important first step. Steinmeier also says:
“Nobody should forget what happened back then”
It is a call to the state and German civil society to develop formats for joint remembrance. This is my last film. I will now work to ensure that there is a place in the east of Stuttgart that at least tries to comply with this request.

There are a number of people who have been trying to make the blind spot visible for many years. The theater works by Sophia Stepf and Conradin Kunze, for example, really impressed me and made me think.