Neema C. Munisi

Follow the Beads: African Agency and Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies during Slavery in East Africa, 18–19th Century

During the tragic 19th-century East African slave trade, human lives were exchanged for items such as glass beads [Karlins 1992]. For example, historical records note that in the southern Tanzanian highlands kidnapped people were sold for 4 to 6 fundos (10 strings of 20 glass beads) [Karlins 1992]. While such textual archives and oral histories [e.g Rockel 2006; Pallaver 2019; Nyanto 2024] document this era, they have significant limitations and often silence the experiences of the enslaved. Archaeologists have recently begun to address this gap [Croucher 2006; Marshall 2020; Kiriama 2022; Biginagwa 2023; Rødland 2025] and my research will take this work further through a multidisciplinary lens building on the understanding of SAD to social coexistence and how societies are structured. 

Material culture offers new insights that texts cannot fully reveal, and my project considers a major trade item – beads – and their multiple identities: as archaeological records, material culture, and living memory of the slave trade. Focusing on the central caravan route of Tanzania that linked coast and interior, I deploy a multidisciplinary approach combining archaeology, material culture from museums, archival research, ethnography, and oral history. I aim to conceptualize beads as cultural objects in defining and shaping indigenous history, cultural practices and identity among past and contemporary communities in order to understand why and how forms of SADs emerged in the past, why and how they have changed over the course of time and how they still persist. I will examine economic, political, cultural, and spiritual roles of beads among past and present communities. My research further investigates how violets act of enslavement and historical dependency shaped identity in the past and contemporary societies.

2018–2022
MA in Archaeology, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

2015–2018
BA in Archaeology, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

since 2023
Assistant Lecturer, University of Dodoma, Tanzania

2026
Predoctoral Fellow, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn, Germany

2019–2021
Tutorial Assistant, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

2026
Workshop organisation grant, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn

2026
Travel grant for archival and museum research, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn

2024
Academic achievement on Women Researchers

2024
Travel Grant, Women in Technological History (WITH)

2024
Travel Grant, Association for the History of Glass (AHG)

2024
Travel Grant, Exploring-Engaging-Entangling-Encouraging-Enrolling Diversity in Technology's History (EDITH)

2021
Erasmus+ funding

2021
Outstanding Participation Award, The 6th Research and Innovation Week Exhibition at the College Level, College of Humanities, University of Dar es salaam 29th April

2020
Dissertation Grant, British Institute of East Africa (BIEA)

2018
Best Undergraduate Student in Research, College Level, College of Humanities, University of Dar es salaam

2025. With E. Pollard, R. Bates, J. Comte, E. Graham, C. Lubao, and E. Ichumbaki. "Climate change, coastal heritage digitization, and local community engagement at the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani World Heritage Site, Tanzania." In Journal of Field Archaeology 50(1): 6–21. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2024.2439219 

2024. With T. Biginagwa, E. Pollard, and E. Ichumbaki. "Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on the meaning and consumption of glass beads in Ancient Kilwa Kisiwani, Southern Tanzania." In Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 59(4): 553–581. Access 

2024. With E. B. Ichumbaki. "Kilwa and its Environs." In Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of African History. Oxford University Press. Access