The workshop positions provenance as a bilateral and dialogic process of engaging with challenging, transnational histories. Rather than treating provenance research as a purely institutional or technical exercise, the workshop frames it as an ongoing negotiation aimed at reparative justice. We advocate rethinking provenance from an African perspective, while centering direct engagement with Indigenous community representatives as a condition for meaningful restitution.

Special attention is given to artistic provenance research as a practice that mobilizes audiovisual, curatorial, digital and creative methods to interrogate colonial archives and restitution debates. Situated within a collaborative environment that brings together cultural institutions, audiovisual collectives, researchers, and community actors, the workshop highlights how cross-sector partnerships can generate alternative forms of knowledge production and shared authority. It also asks how public historical discourses can benefit from artistic creations, sources and dialogues.

Another focus lies on designing digital infrastructures for African visual heritage that foreground community governance and Indigenous data sovereignty. Digital heritage is thus approached as a space for negotiating access and responsibilities.

Organisation: 
Maxmillian Julius Chuhila, Mario Schulze, Alma Simba in cooperation with Ajabu Ajabu; 

Project: 
Research Film Provenance, www.researchfilm.net/provenance 

Funding and Support: 
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA Switzerland; Swiss National Science Foundation; Department of History, University of Dar es Salaam; Department of Science Studies, University of Lucerne; Department of Media Studies, University of Basel

Registration:
To participate, please register via this form here.

Preliminary Programm: 

Workshop Day One, 30th July 2026

09:00-10:30: Preliminaries

10:30–12.30: Archives & Museums, Chair: Alma Simba 

Nancy Rushohora (University of Dar es Salaam): Repatriating Knowledge, Not Just Objects: Photographs as Living Heritage

Philip C.M Maligisu (National Museum of Tanzania): Challenges along the Restitution Practices of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritages using Western-centric Theories and Models in Tanzania

Sarine Waltenspül (University of Lucerne): Owing Digital Audiovisual Heritage?

13.30–15.30: Research Film Provenance, Chair: Nancy Rushohora

Alma Simba (University of Giessen): Beyond the Blighted Body (poetic reading with film screening)

Maxmillian J. Chuhila (University of Dar es Salaam), Mtechura and Mzee Nghonono (Tinde): Tsetse and Sleeping Sickness as Articulated by the Local People in Tinde

Mario Schulze (University of Basel), Moritz Greiner-Petter (Basel Academy of Art and Design): Multimodal and Multivocal Film Provenance Research

16.30–18.30: Film Screening in Cooperation with Ajabu Ajabu

Jesse Mpango (Ajabu Ajabu, Dar es Salaam): Introduction

Film Screening: Mkwawa (TZ 2011) by Seko Shamte

Discussion

Workshop Day Two, Friday, 31st July 2026

09.00–10.00: Keynote Digital Heritage Africa, Chair: Sarine Waltenspül

Mutanu Kyany’a (Digital Heritage Africa, Nairobi): Press Play, Fast Forward: The Politics of Access and Reparative Justice on Audiovisual Heritage in East Africa

10.30–12.30: Complexities in Provenance Research, Chair: Maxmillian J. Chuhila

Musa Sadock (University of Dar es Salaam): Nangumi: People’s Voices on Provenance of the Tendaguru Dinosaurs in Southern Tanzania

Dominicus Makukula (University of Dar es Salaam): Challenges of Conducting Provenance Research on Cultural Collections from Tanganyika

Zuhura Mohamedi (Mkwawa Museum): Controversies Before and After the Return of Chief Mkwawa’s Skull and Restorative Justice

14.00–15.30: Roundtable: Archival Material & Creative Industries, Chair: Jesse Mpango

Cece Mlay (filmmaker, Dar es Salaam): Filmmakers as Mediums to the Past: Restoring Stolen Communal Memories 

Nicholas Calvin Makatobe (filmmaker, Dar es Salaam): Patching Together Fragmented Realities

Claudia Lubao (University Dar es Salaam): From Musician to Researcher and Back Again: Reflections on Heritage Work in Tanzania

16.00–17.30: Film & Digital Restitution, Chair: Mario Schulze

Film Screening: Rural Aid Centre Ifakara (TZ, CH 1961)

Discussion

Closing Remarks