Dinosaurs of Tendaguru

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Title page of the booklet
Reconstruction of Giraffatitan brancai in Museum for Natural History, Berlin
Tanzanian headman Mzee Boheti preparing a rib bone
Paleontologist Werner Janensch on excavation in Tendaguru

Dinosaurs of Tendaguru (original title: Dinosaria wa Tendaguru) is a Tanzanian booklet for young readers on

Swahili by Tanzanian authors Cassian Magori and Charles Saanane, with illustrations by the German graphic artist Thomas Thiemeyer. This book was published in 1998 with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam, the local branch of the German cultural institute, by E&D Vision Publishing, Tanzania
.

Contents

Through its illustrations and a partially

their own language.[1]

During several years, and under supervision of German natural scientists, 230 tons of excavation material containing fossil bones and other remnants of life 150 million years ago were packed into wooden boxes by African workers and carried to the nearby port of Lindi. From the excavation site at the Tendaguru Formation, they were shipped to Hamburg and, finally, to Berlin. Subsequently, scientists at the museum in Berlin reconstructed several skeletons of different dinosaur species, making the fossils of the Tendaguru formation one of the world’s most important collections for ongoing research. The exhibition’s highlight is an almost 14-metre-high skeleton of the species Giraffatitan, the largest dinosaur skeleton on display in the world.

Along with presenting scientific knowledge about the existence and

millennia, he witnesses environmental changes that eventually lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. By means of a time line reaching from the beginning of our universe to the present and showing pictures of different species, the reader is presented with short scientific information about the evolution of the dinosaurs and other species. By choosing the name of Buheti for their protagonist the authors referred to the historical Boheti bin Amrani who was the local "chief supervisor" (Oberaufseher) of more than 100 African workers involved in the excavations[3] When in 1906, the German engineer Bernhard Sattler is surveying the region, it is Mzee Buheti who shows him the place where the fossils were found, thus prompting the excavations and their scientific exploration.[4]

In order to present an adequate visual idea of the dinosaurs and their environment, Thomas Thiemeyer, a German illustrator specializing in this subject, created colour plates for both the presumed living conditions and the

palaeontologist Charles Sanaane and the natural historian Cassian Magori of the University of Dar es Salaam
, and edited for young readers by literary writer Bernard Mapalala.

Aims of the book

As scientific research and presentations for the general public of these excavations had usually been published in German or English, very few Tanzanians knew about the existence and history of the fossils from Tendaguru before this book was published. Although the international discussion and demands for cultural cooperation and restitution of African cultural heritage from museums in Europe [5] [6] have become more prominent especially since the 2010s, Tanzania does not possess any biological specimens from Tendaguru, sufficient personal resources nor infrastructure to present dinosaur fossils in an adequate way. In order to make this important historical information accessible to a general local audience, the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam suggested the story of the Tendaguru dinosaurs to the publishers of the book in 1998.[7] - According to Elieshi Lema of E&D Vision Publishing, 4000 copies were produced with the financial help of a sponsor and distributed free of charge to Tanzanian secondary schools. In Kenya, the booklet was also approved as instructional material for primary schools and teacher training colleges.[8] It has since been out of print, but copies exist in libraries in Sweden, Japan and in the United States.[9]

Critical reception

In 2009, paleontologist Gerhard Maier mentioned the booklet in his comprehensive study on the history of the excavations African Dinosaurs Unearthed: The Tendaguru Expeditions.[10] He commented this on the effect of this booklet: "A most welcome outcome (...) was the popularization of Tendaguru for the people of Tanzania."[1]

In 2022, Dinosaria wa Tendaguru was mentioned in the report "Reclaiming restitution" by Open Restitution Africa, an Africa-led heritage project that referred to the Tendaguru fossils as a case study for the discussion on

restitution of African cultural heritage.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780253000545
    .
  2. ^ Henning, E. (1912) Am Tendaguru. Leben und Wirken einer deutschen Forschungsexpedition zur Ausgrabung vorweltlicher Riesensaurier in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart (in German), online here
  3. ^ Henning, E. (1912) Am Tendaguru, p. 35 with Boheti's image
  4. ^ In his account of the history of the fossils, Gerhard Maier mentions that the assistant leading scientist of the excavations, Edwin Henning, considered the headman of the African workers, Mzee Boheti, as intelligent and highly suitable for his job. See Maier, Gerhard: African Dinosaurs Unearthed: The Tendaguru Expeditions, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003 at books.google.com
  5. ^ In 2018, such demands have received new momentum thanks to the report on the restitution of African cultural heritage by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy, commissioned by French president Macron. https://restitutionreport2018.com/ Archived 2019-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ For the reaction of German cultural organizations to calls for repatriation, see https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/
  7. ^ Magori and Sanaane 1998, p. 2 Shukrani
  8. ^ REPUBLIC OF KENYA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (2015). "Approved list of school textbooks and other instructional materials for ECDE, Primary schools and teacher training colleges" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-01-27. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  9. OCLC 729911218
    .
  10. ^ Naish, Darren (2011-11-28). "Gerhard Maier's African Dinosaurs Unearthed: the Tendaguru Expeditions". Tetrapod Zoology.
  11. ^ Moiloa, Molemo (August 2022). "Reclaiming restitution". openrestitution.africa. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-10-24.

Further reading

External links

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