or relationships to interrogate?
Bwana Kisitavu, one of the historical persons mentioned in the poem woven into Mat 8 (III E 4831), was identified as Gustav Denhardt (1856 – 1917). He was born in Zeitz, studied engineering in Berlin and joined the 1878/79 Tana River expedition of Gustav A. Fischer and his brother Clemens. Known locally as Bwana Kisitavu, he spent most of his life on the East African coast as a trader and planter based in Lamu and Wange amongst others. Fluent in Kiswahili, he became a translator accompanying the investigations of the border commission of the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1886.
In the 1890s, the brothers founded G. Denhardt & Co located in Kilwa, Tanga and Lindi amongst others, cultivating crops and trading mangrove bark which was used for leather tanning in Europe. During the First World War, Gustav was interned in India and died shortly after returning to Germany.
Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum und Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Martin Franken