Iringa Boma

Jan KueverPhD

I am an anthropologist and heritage practitioner living in Iringa, Tanzania. My work connects cultural heritage, museums and provenance research: tracing how objects from East Africa entered German collections, and exploring with people in Tanzania what they mean today.

Elsewhere

Publications

  1. 2024
    Zur Fotosammlung Wilhelm ArningIn: Weltenfragmente · Universitätsverlag Göttingen
  2. 2024
    Vom deutschen Sammlungsdepot zu den Menschen in TansaniaIn: Weltenfragmente · Universitätsverlag Göttingen
  3. 2024
    Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest or Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie?In: Resist, Reclaim, Retrieve · De Gruyter
  4. 2024
    Framing participatory methods in provenance researchICOFOM Study Series 52-1
  5. 2024
    Shared History, Urban Landscapes, and Local Arts and Crafts1Monograph · Göttingen University Press
  6. 2022
    The Politics of Shared HeritageIn: 50 Years World Heritage Convention · Springer
  7. 2017
    African Heritage and the Pillars of SustainabilityProceedings, co-edited with Marie-Theres Albert
  8. 2017
    Auf der Suche nach dem kulturellen Erbe von IringaInterview · WerkstattGeschichte 75

Career

  1. 2025 – Present
    Guest Researcher2Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt
  2. 2022 – 2024
    Provenance Researcher & Co-LeadDITSL Witzenhausen
  3. 2021
    PhD, Heritage StudiesBTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
  4. 2013 – Present
    Initiator & Managing Director3fahari yetu
  5. 2007 – Present
    LecturerUniversity of Iringa, Cultural Anthropology & Tourism
  6. 2007
    MA, Sociology & EthnologyUniversity of Göttingen

Projects

  1. 2026
    wakati tunasubiri · while we waitCurrent exhibition at the Iringa Boma, co-curated with the Lower Saxony State Museum Hannover · research
  2. 2025
    East African collections, Landesmuseum DarmstadtGuest research · since 2025
  3. 2022
    Provenance of the East Africa collection, Museum WitzenhausenGerman Lost Art Foundation · 2022 – 2024
  4. 2016
    Summer School: African Heritage and the Pillars of SustainabilityUniversity of Iringa & BTU Cottbus
  5. 2016
  6. 2013

Talks & Conferences

  1. 2025
    University of CambridgeHistories, Memories and Heritage of German and British Colonialism in Tanzania
  2. 2024
    Museum WiesbadenFrom history to present: museum collections from colonial contexts, 2024 · co-organiser
  3. 2021
    German Lost Art FoundationThe Long History of Claims for the Return of Cultural Heritage
Jan Kuever · Iringa

About Jan

I studied Sociology and Ethnology at the University of Göttingen (MA, 2007) and received my PhD in Heritage Studies from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg in 2021. Since 2007 I have been teaching at the University of Iringa’s Department of Cultural Anthropology and Tourism, where I initiated fahari yetu, the heritage programme behind the Iringa Boma Regional Museum.

From the depot to the people

My current work is collaborative provenance research on East African collections in German museums: first at the Museum Witzenhausen, and since 2025 as a guest researcher at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. I am interested in moving provenance research beyond the restitution of objects, towards a shared production of knowledge with communities in Tanzania.

Marginalia

  1. 1

    Open access (CC BY-SA 4.0). Based on my doctoral thesis at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, supervised by Prof. Dr. Marie-Theres Albert.

  2. 2

    Funded by the Hessian coordination office for collections from colonial contexts. One of the largest groups of objects in Darmstadt’s East African holdings comes from Iringa. Press release.

  3. 3

    fahari yetu is Kiswahili for “our pride”. The programme is hosted by the University of Iringa and runs the Iringa Boma Regional Museum, which opened in 2016.