During the collaborative research process, Leni Riefenstahl’s photographs were critically analysed in terms of their creation, distribution and reception, in collaboration with Nuba actors, Sudanese scholars and artists. In workshops, the sensitive visual material was jointly analysed and classified with regard to its public accessibility. For the first time, the contexts in which the photographs were taken and their significance today could be reflected on, from the perspective of those depicted. This was made possible by collaboration with Nuba actors, as well as short research trips to the original shooting locations and interviews with those involved.

A pop-up exhibition in Kampala was attended by members of the local Nuba diaspora, and the joint viewing and discussion of the images was deepened as a result. These activities, together with the digital handover of the image material for a planned cultural centre, mark the beginning of a process of appropriation by the Nuba actors. This multi-perspective contextualisation creates new, multi-layered pictorial meanings oriented towards local and Sudanese frames of reference, restoring history to those depicted and their descendants. The project results were then discussed at an international, interdisciplinary symposium.

Workshops form the core of the multiperspectival, collaborative research process whereby the digitised holdings from Riefenstahl’s estate are viewed and discussed with Nuba representatives and Sudanese scholars. The aim of viewing the contents is to explore the photographic and film material in its historical context and classify it with an eye to ensuring its accessibility within the archives. In addition to a critical examination of Riefenstahl’s work and its aesthetics, this process first and foremost seeks to situate the material within the political, cultural and social setting of Sudan. The focus is placed on local perspectives of the images as well as the contexts in which they were created in the Nuba Mountains.

In December 2023 and May 2024, we conducted two three-week workshops in Kampala, Uganda. The participants comprised a diverse group of 13 to 15 individuals of various ages and professions from a range of social and cultural backgrounds. Members of the Pan-Nuba Council and Sudanese scholars and artists were present, as well as members of staff from Berlin museums. The Pan-Nuba Council also invited selected individuals from the Nuba Mountains, including one delegate from Masakin and another from Kau Nyaro, the areas where Riefenstahl’s films and photos originated. Other Nuba delegates travelled from Uganda and neighbouring countries, where they had sought refuge after war broke out in Sudan. A Sudanese filmmaker documented the workshops and a translator assisted in the discussions, which were held in English and Arabic.

The methodological approach to classifying, exploring and contextualising the images was based on an open research process. This involved resolutely avoiding any kind of preselection of the photographs to ensure that preconceived European concepts and themes did not predominate. Wherever possible, the images were viewed just as they had originally been arranged within the various sets, in order to obtain a broad overview of the photographs for classification. We adopted the method of photo elicitation for viewing the photographs together, whereby associations and memories elicited by the subject matter of the photographs are considered and viewers are encouraged to discuss these. Biographical and oral history interviews with Nuba delegates facilitated the understanding of their individual attitudes to the photographs and the contexts in which they were made.

The photo elicitation method guided the research process and contextualisation of the images. Depending on each participant’s background and stock of knowledge, specific images would spark particular scrutiny. To give just one example, a Nuba delegate from Masakin, a former wrestler, was especially interested in photographs depicting wrestling scenes. In this manner, representative series of photographs from the photographic collection were discussed and contextualised in greater detail. The process of viewing the photos provoked a wide variety of emotions and memories. Group discussions of these themes led to shared knowledge production and a reciprocal learning process as each of the participants spoke on issues they were familiar with.

In addition to discussions focusing on cultural practices such as burial rituals, the participating Nuba representatives also identified places and people – some of them still living – shown in the images. For example, one of them recognised his father in a photo, as well as well-known wrestlers. Further research and contextualisation of selected images took place during our research in the Nuba Mountains with representatives from Kau Nyaro and Masakin who were depicted in the photographs and who could remember them being taken. This process of multiperspectival contextualisation resulted in multiple layers of interpretation and creating meaning that aligned with local and Sudanese frameworks of reference; moreover, it meant that the people depicted in the images acquired histories of their own.

While participants were contextualising the photographs during the workshops, they devised additional specific themes concerning their visual contents as well as suitable keywords that can be used to reorganise groups of images, improve the structure of the archive and thereby benefit users’ own searches.
The Nuba workshop participants considered the photographs to be important historic records that can help consolidate their cultural heritage and make it more visible. To that effect, the images contribute to the way in which Nuba societies construct their identity within a context of state repression and marginalisation. The Nuba representatives were extremely interested in the process of critically examining, contextualising and classifying the photographic and film material so that it can be made accessible to Nuba societies as well as the general public in Sudan and throughout the world.

VH

When we asked about the kind of picture they would take today, the majority stressed how their appearance had changed by wearing clothes; many even regretted having been portrayed by Leni Riefenstahl in photographs while naked. They explained that it was due to their ignorance at that time, in not knowing what Riefenstahl was doing, and what photos even meant. As one said: “We considered her an idiotic person who just spent hours moving around, and we were busy with our ceremonies”. Then we asked how they remembered the era when the pictures were taken, and most expressed regrets about losing that beautiful, ideal period in the past when they were young, when life was good and easy in every respect compared with the situation today.

They remember Leni Riefenstahl moving around and taking pictures freely, asking everybody to be pictured, and only rarely would anybody refuse. Some reminisced that she would hand out suksuk (coloured beads) to girls and sweets to children, and a few men recalled her giving money to youths so that they would decorate their bodies in order to be depicted in the mountains. They also remembered her following all the ceremonies and events. All the participants agreed that she rarely talked with people due to the language barrier, as she was only able to say a few words in the local language and was hence forced to communicate via her translator and driver.

When we asked whether they wanted their picture to be accessible in the digital archives, they all agreed that it should be made available on the condition that all explicit sexual organs were covered up in the collection. When we presented the four options in the consent form that we had prepared, none of them seemed to satisfy the participants, and so we decided to add another option that would incorporate their suggestions, namely obtaining their permission to use their photos. There were two cases of individuals who wanted their photos to be accessible without any changes; one of them explained that it was because she was a child in the pictures, and she did not think her nudity should be interpreted negatively.

The main themes and issues raised during the fieldwork were as follows.

The majority of participants in the FGDs, as well as other individuals, stressed the need to cover the “bad images”, because they would, in their own words, be “ashamed” if those images “were shown to [their] children”, or “new generations would laugh at [them] about it”. At the same time, people were proud of their ceremonies and their memories of the past; in fact, the only problem with the past was being “seen naked”. Most participants from Kau wanted to cover all explicit sexual organs in the pictures but retain other details; however, if the content in question was in the distance, or the subject was not shown clearly, they believed it should be possible to publish the image without censorship. Most people from Nyaro wanted to cover or remove the lower part of the body in order to hide the sexual organs in pictures depicting nudity. But some people did want to conceal just the sexual organs while preserving the rest of the photos.

A majority of participants in the FGDs expressed regret at not knowing the real purpose of Leni Riefenstahl taking the photos; they considered the sole motive for her work to be making a profit. A few participants demanded that they should receive a share of Riefenstahl’s wealth. In the last formal meeting with the community leaders’ representatives, they (especially the overall leader, known as the makk) clearly expressed their wish to receive a fair share of the profits generated by Leni Riefenstahl’s works that used their own images.

In conclusion, the fieldwork materials and analysis made it clear that Kau Nyaro people have a very specific understanding and interpretation of the pictures in which they appear, as a consequence of the changing culture and worldview of the communities as a whole. Consequently, the people who appeared in Leni Riefenstahl’s images want any that show explicit sexual organs to be censored. The people of Kau Nyaro and the leaders of the communities have very high expectations about what the project might offer them, since they consider it to be an extension of Leni Riefenstahl’s visual work.

MB

One focus of the German-Sudanese Cooperative Cataloging Project was on understanding and interpreting the social and cultural practices depicted in Leni Riefenstahl’s Nuba photographs, as well as identifying related artefacts. These practices include wrestling, stick games (duwas) and bracelet games (suar), as well as pigmentations, scarification, agriculture, daily life and animal camps.

From 16 September to 3 October 2024, I, Towhid Tabasa, travelled to the Masakin region as a postdoctoral researcher in the project, accompanied by the research assistant Isa Albasha Shaliya. A key objective of the fieldwork was to engage with individuals depicted in Leni Riefenstahl’s works, conducting focus group discussions and individual interviews. The study also involved the epistemological decolonization of museums, enabling the image owners (that is, the individuals depicted, and in some cases their descendants) to view themselves from their own perspectives. The study also explored the meanings of gourds in Nuba Mountain folklore, examining their functions and the importance of tangible and intangible cultural elements, as well as their emotional significance. The customs, traditions, and social practices associated with gourds were compared with those depicted in Riefenstahl’s works to determine whether these practices have continued, changed, or ceased, and, if so, why. Thus, the research aimed to understand how ordinary indigenous people view and perceive themselves in the works of Leni Riefenstahl.

The people of Masakin live in scattered villages in the foothills and on the plains near the hills. These include Tolabi, Tangadoba, Tangabo, Tassapo, Tosari, Tomori, Tadharo, Tidima, Tosobi, Togrukuru, Kamalaila, Nongasawa, Tagossa, Tismotokawor, Todhori, Togori, Togair, Tasolo, Tagotom, Tosowa, and Turri. The Masakin community is divided into two main groups: Tarwa and Arra. Although they belong to the same linguistic group, Talodi, there are some differences between them, and each has its own native administration, led by Mak (local leaders) Eisa Kuku and Teia Tiyara, respectively. Field research during the rainy season posed particular challenges, especially with regard to transportation from South Sudan to the Masakin in the Nuba Mountains. The only means of transport to the area were tractors and motorcycles. As motorcycles were the most cost-effective and fastest option, I chose this despite it being riskier. Thus, it took ten hours to reach the destination.

How do you see yourself in the image(s)?

Based on the responses of most people in Masakin, the research can conclude that they accepted their images and were satisfied with them, having understood the changing historical contexts. The people of “Dagig” (Tarwa) also accepted and were pleased with their images. Compared to the Kau Nyaro people, the Masakin people (both Arra and Tarwa) had a slightly different perception of their images. They regarded the photographs as a blend of their own histories, local ideals, and the surrounding human and natural environments. Their customs strongly influenced this view, as they saw the photographs as extensions of their identities and cultural heritage rather than merely a representation. Additionally, they were less influenced by their surroundings than the people of Kau Nyaro, being located amongst Nuba groups and farther away from Arabic and Islamic culture. This is also why Riefenstahl chose to work in these remote areas.

How would you like to present yourself today?

To ensure that Riefenstahl’s images are presented and used appropriately, it was important to our Masakin interlocutors that they were shown clearly and precisely. This means the images should be of a high quality and a suitable sized so that all the details are clearly visible. Our interlocutors also felt it would be helpful to present the images in a context that explains and represents the real life of Nuba people, as this is why the photographs are important. This would enable viewers to better understand and use the images effectively.

Today, how would you like to be portrayed in a photograph from Riefenstahl’s time?

The people of Masakin that we spoke to generally accepted their images as they were. However, when asked what kind of picture they would like to represent themselves today, they had different opinions. The people belonging to the Arra, the “Masakin Qusar”, wanted to present themselves as they were in Riefenstahl’s time, including the women, because they were not completely naked, and the men wrapped their bodies in layers of clothes. In contrast, the people of Tarwa, the “Masakin Tual”, were divided into two groups. The first group wanted to be portrayed as they appeared in Riefenstahl’s photographs, without any changes. The second group preferred the middle part of the body to be covered in the photographs, especially in the case women were depicted.

As a representative of the Masakin people, what do you expect from the project?

Our interlocutors from the Masakin people in the Nuba Mountains had diverse expectations with regard to the project and the depiction of representatives of their group in Leni Riefenstahl’s photographs. Some seek economic compensation for the use of their images, while others want the images to be used to create a cultural center, viewing them as important historical documentation. Additionally, some hope that the project will foster a sense of pride in their Nuba identity and heritage. Those who expressed a desire for financial compensation directed their demands at the German Government, because Riefenstahl profited from their photos without their consent. This expectation stems from the perception that, while documenting their culture, Riefenstahl’s work also generated income for her, and they believe that some of that revenue should be directed back to the community.

Social and Cultural Expectations

Our interlocutors viewed the photographs as a valuable historical record of Nuba culture and traditions, particularly as their way of life is changing due to modernization and the dynamics of Western, Christian, Islamic and Arabic influences in their nearby surroundings. There was a strong desire to use the images to establish a cultural center, which would allow for the preservation and display of their heritage. The photographs could help younger generations to connect with their history and understand their cultural roots, fostering a sense of pride and identity.

Conclusion

During the fieldwork, we enabled the ordinary indigenous people of Masakin to reflect on, perceive, and interpret their own presence in Leni Riefenstahl’s work. We also engaged them in discussions to explore their perspectives on the photographs as well as the influence of their broader social and political environment on their cultural heritage. To sum up, a significant number of the individuals depicted in Riefenstahl’s images are still alive today. Among them are returnees displaced by the current war in Sudan. Many of those whom Riefenstahl photographed and who had once descended from the hills during her visit now live nearby or in the surrounding villages. During the fieldworks the people we met were healthy and well dressed. Many spoke fondly of Leni Riefenstahl and expressed satisfaction with how they were represented in her photographs. Finally, there was a noticeable difference in attitudes between the residents of Masakin and those of Kau Nyaro. Unlike the latter, most of the people of Masakin did not request that sensitive parts of their bodies, or of those portrayed, be covered in photographs intended for wider or academic audiences.

TT

Leni Riefenstahl had no qualms about photographing people even in highly intimate situations. She would occasionally use zoom lenses to get a closer shot of people in their day-to-day lives, without their knowledge. This produced a great deal of material that would nowadays be perceived as offensive or even abusive, which is why it cannot be readily shown and made accessible. Nuba representatives discussed the boundaries of what could be shown and came to a joint decision with all the project participants about the necessity of having a classification system.

One of the main objectives of this collaborative research project is to classify the images and films according to their accessibility in the archives. To this end, the materials are critically assessed, discussed and grouped into categories depending on who is given access to them and how they can be used. Reflecting a commitment to implement decolonial practices, it is representatives of the Nuba who decide how the materials are published rather than the Berlin museums. The images and films are therefore classified on the basis of the context in which they were created. The rules and categories for classification are worked out in a collaborative research process and applied both to the holdings of Riefenstahl’s estate in Berlin and to the Nuba Mountains digital archive that has been edited in preparation for being handing over to the Pan-Nuba Council.
Representatives of the Pan-Nuba Council and the museums of Berlin have agreed on the following categories for classifying the material:

1: Public: public access and use
Unlimited access. The visual material can be used for non-commercial purposes, such as research and exhibitions.
 
2: Partly restricted access: access for research purposes only
Access to the materials is limited to research purposes (e.g. academia, journalism, art). Users must apply for permission to use the images, for example for non-commercial publication in scholarly journals. Applications are approved according to predefined criteria by a committee of the Pan-Nuba Council.
 
3: Restricted access and use
Access to and use of the material is reserved exclusively for Nuba communities from the Masakin and Kau Nyaro regions in the Nuba Mountains. Permission to use the material – for example, for non-commercial publication – must be obtained from the Pan-Nuba Council in consultation with representatives from Masakin and Kau Nyaro. In order to avoid infringing on personal rights, wherever images show people from the Kau Nyaro and Masakin regions who have been identified by Nuba representatives as still living, these pictures may only be made accessible and used with the subjects’ consent. This similarly applies to unpublished images of people who appear in previously published images.
 
4: Not classified
This concerns photographs in which people from other parts of Sudan or other countries are depicted, or those in which Leni Riefenstahl is depicted alone.

After collaborative research into Riefenstahl’s photographic and film materials produced its first findings, in May 2024 project members organised an exhibition with accompanying discussions in Kampala, Uganda, to which Nuba groups were also invited.

The Nuba diaspora community in Kampala includes people who fled Sudan shortly before the war as well as individuals who fled from the Nuba Mountains during previous armed conflicts with the Sudanese government. Youth organisations, artists, women’s rights activists, members of Nuba refugee organisations and members of the Pan-Nuba Council were invited to participate.

The aim of the exhibition was to present the project to a wider audience and encourage discussion. In a workshop, project members selected a number of photographs for a pop-up exhibition. Descriptions were created to accompany these images and contextualise the material. As part of the proceedings, the Pan-Nuba Council discussed the project, its approach and the project’s aims with attendees. Held on premises provided by the Kandaakiat Organization for Women Empowerment and Development in Kampala, this popular one-day event was met with great interest.

VH

On 25 and 26 October 2024, an interdisciplinary symposium was held at Kulturforum Berlin in connection with the research project. Taking Collaboration and Digital Handover: Discussing the Project ‘Nuba Images by Leni Riefenstahl’ as its title, both days were filled with substantial exchange and dialogue, featuring a broad cross-section of speakers who were invited to present and discuss their research.

Practices concerning repatriation and collaborative research into provenance have hitherto largely focused on cultural objects in museum collections. Collaborative research and the digital provision of photographic collections from colonial contexts is still in its infancy. The German–Sudanese research project on Leni Riefenstahl’s Nuba photographs and film footage, which is being carried out in conjunction with the Pan-Nuba Council, is currently exploring joint approaches towards revising these works with the aim of analysing, classifying and digitally handing over the photographic material for appropriation. The ultimate goal is to develop alternative ways of engaging with these works that incorporate various kinds of knowledge and counter hegemonic museum discourses, practices and representations.

The late German film director Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003) became famous as a key creator of Nazi propaganda films. In the 1960s and 1970s she produced two widely distributed books of photographs of the Nuba communities in Sudan. Her Nuba photographs were charged with a colonial, racist aesthetic and attracted international attention. Although these works were subject to intense critical debate, they also acted as the catalyst for her artistic and popular comeback as a photographer. Leni Riefenstahl’s estate, which was donated to the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz in 2018, forms the material basis for this research project. The interdisciplinary symposium was structured around three thematic areas: multiple photographic contexts and working with archives; collaboration, knowledge production and multiple epistemologies; and (re-)claiming heritage.

At the symposium, members of the project team presented initial findings from their ongoing research. To broaden the theoretical framework, a number of scholars were invited to reflect on their own work and experiences in the field of digital archiving and provisioning. The aim of the symposium was to provide a platform for discussing different approaches to collaboration and digital repatriation, taking into account the challenges, constraints and potential of these kinds of working processes. The event brought together a wide-ranging audience of scholars and interested members of the public.

Opening:
Welcoming remarks from Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media and Professor Dr Hermann Parzinger, President of Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz

Professor Dr Lars-Christian Koch,Director of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Professor Dr Moritz Wullen, Director of the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Introduction:
Dr Paola Ivanov, PD, Curator of the East-, North East-, Central and South African Collections, Ethnologisches Museum and Dr Ludger Derenthal, Kunstbibliothek, Head of the Collection of Photography. Professor Shamsoun Khamis Kafi Tiyah, Chairman of the Pan-Nuba Council

Keynote:
Sudan’s Identity Politics, Violence, and Nuba Resilience
Dr Guma Kunda Komey Kalo, Pan-Nuba Council, Associate Professor of Peace and Development Studies and Associate Professor of Geography, University of Bahri, Khartoum

Working with a Working Archive: Collaboratively cataloguingRiefenstahl’s photographic estate
Katrin Peters-Klaphake, research associate, Kunstbibliothek, Collection of Photography

Sudan & Photography
Ala Kheir, photographer, educator and curator

The Allegories of Leni Riefenstahl’s Photobooks
Professor Dr Zoë S. Strother, Riggio Professor of African Art, Columbia University

Q&A

Tracing, Sorting, Identifying: Riefenstahl’s film recordings of the Nuba mountains as holdings in Deutsche Kinemathek
Anke Wilkening, film restorer, Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek

Hussein Shariffe and The South East Nuba: A case study in digital archiving, restitution and reparation
Professor Erica Carter, Professor of German and Film, King’s College London

Artistic Reflections on the Digital Nuba Archive: Uncovering loss and ancient revival
Khalid Shatta, visual artist

Q&A

Film screening and discussion
Beats of the Antonov, directed by Hajooj Kuka, 68 minutes, 2014

Collaboration in Times of Crisis: Ethics, affects and agencies in the co-production of knowledge
Dr Paola Ivanov, PD, Curator of the East-, North East-, Central and South African Collections, Ethnologisches Museum

Identifying Criteria and Classifying the Nuba Images of Leni Riefenstahl: Challenges and processes
Dr Guma Kunda Komey Kalo, Pan-Nuba Council, Associate Professor of Peace and Development Studies and Associate Professor of Geography, University of Bahri, Khartoum

Q&A

Decolonizing Riefenstahl’s Work on the Kau Nyaro People: Perspectives of the photographed people between the past and the present
Dr Mohamed A. G. Bakhit, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Khartoum

Visual Deconstruction of a Sudanese–German Connected Heritage
Hajooj Kuka, filmmaker

Q&A

Sudan Memory: Lessons learned
Professor Marilyn Deegan, King’s College London

Claiming Belonging: Nuba cultural festivals and creative practices of resistance
Mohamed Ahmed Farah Salih, research assistant and video journalist

Q&A

Creating with Purpose: Participatory art and resilience in the Nuba mountains, a contemporary context and experience
Professor Khalid Ibrahim Kodi, Professor of the Practice, Art + Design, College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University

Nuba Centre for Culture, Heritage and Arts
Professor Shamsoun Khamis Kafi Tiyah, Chairman of the Pan-Nuba Council

Over the last thirty years, modern Sudan has been dominated by Arab culture and Islam in its political guise as Islamism. It is associated with a sociopolitical system that is intolerant of diversity in Sudanese society, including the Nuba. This national context is key to comprehending the Nuba Mountains as an economic, social, political and cultural space.

The region occupies most of the state of South Kordofan, covering an area of 30,000 square miles. For centuries it has been known as Dar Nuba, or the Nuba homeland. A wide range of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial literature suggests that ancestors of the Nuba were among the first to settle in the greater Kordofan territory, thousands of years before they were disrupted by other, technically more powerful, populations. Moreover, some historians go on to argue that the Nuba, together with their linguistically kindred Nubians, are “autochthonous” to the central Sudanese territory at large.

Today, the Nuba are the main inhabitants of the region. Composed of more than fifty different ethnic groups, they are divided into ten distinct linguistic groupings. Three out of the four major African language families are represented in the Nuba Mountains. The people there are of African origin and followers of Islam, Christianity and traditional religions. The nomadic Arab Baggara are the second most common ethnic group in the region.

In brief, the history of the Nuba people is a tale of sociocultural, economic and political woes, as well as domination and control by external forces. Despite their indigeneity to the Nuba Mountains region and Sudan at large, their past and post-colonial eras were – and still – are characterised by successive structural violence and disruption. Specific reference can be made here to slavery, brutal colonialisation, “institutionalised” insecurity, de-territorialisation and displacement, socio-economic marginalisation, political exclusion, discrimination in terms of cultural identity, and mass killings which amount to ethnocide and genocide.

Although the region is among the richest in Sudan with respect to natural resources, it remains one of the most underdeveloped and poorest parts of the country. Since the 1960s, its agricultural potential has led to the gradual introduction of modern mechanised rain-fed farming, as one aspect of national policies aiming at incorporating the region and its rural occupations into the market economy. The mechanised farming and commercial businesses are controlled by small but extremely influential groups of Jellaba, who are largely merchants from northern and central Sudan. This has been associated with negative impacts on the livelihoods of local populations.

Originally hill communities, the Nuba were compelled to resettle on the plains by government policies to promote covert economic development and social transformation, accompanied by forced cultural change through Arabisation and Islamisation. For example, in 1960 the government expelled Christian missionaries from the Sudan, changed the Indigenous names of children into Arabic names in schools, and economically and politically empowered certain local Muslims to assume leadership positions in communities which were not necessarily majority Muslim. The mission of these leaders has been to progressively transform their communities into Muslim and Arabic-speaking communities.

In short, like many Indigenous sub-national communities in Sudan, the case of the Nuba people illustrates state–society tensions and disruption throughout the formation of the Sudanese state. The recurring war in Sudan is a manifestation of this state–society relationship, associated with sociocultural marginalisation (identity contestation), economic inequality (wealth sharing) and political exclusion (the question of power sharing). Thus, these wars are also struggles about lifestyles and identities.

GK

Photography in Sudan has a rich and evolving history that is deeply intertwined with colonial rule, cultural transformation and political struggles. From the early days of European exploration through to the present digital era, photography has played a vital role in documenting Sudanese life, preserving history and challenging oppressive narratives. Despite war, censorship and limited resources, Sudanese photographers have continued to capture the essence of their country’s realities, shaping its visual legacy.

Photography was first introduced to Sudan back in the mid-19th century by European explorers and colonial officials. During the Turco-Egyptian rule (1821–1885), foreign travellers and military personnel used photography to document the newly conquered region. However, the Mahdist period (1885–1898) saw a decline in photographic activity when the Sudanese Mahdiyya state expelled colonisers. With the establishment of Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1899, photography became a powerful tool for the colonial administration. British officials, archaeologists and anthropologists extensively documented Sudanese archaeological sites and cultural practices. The British photographic unit was created to record government projects, thereby reinforcing imperial control. Greek immigrants in the 1920s contributed to Sudan’s photographic landscape, opening some of the earliest photo studios in Omdurman and other cities. This marked the beginnings of Sudanese studio photography, which became central to documenting people’s personal and family lives. Initially dominated by foreign photographers, local Sudanese professionals began entering the field in the 1940s. Following Sudan’s independence in 1956, photography flourished as a medium for documentation and artistic expression. Gadallah Gubara, one of Sudan’s most influential photographers, began his career at the government’s photographic unit and went on to capture iconic images of Sudan’s independence, which included the national flag being raised.

The 1950s to 1970s were a golden age for Sudanese photography. Studio photography boomed, with well-known photographers operating in Khartoum, Atbara and El-Obeid such as Amin Rashid and Studio Mawahib; the latter became known for family portraits and personal keepsakes. During this era, photography also became a vital tool for journalism, capturing political events, cultural life and daily experiences. However, the main fields remained studio portraiture and government documentation. Sudan became a subject of interest for foreign photographers from the mid-20th century onwards. Notable figures include:
George Rodger (1949), who photographed the Nuba and Latuka people
Leni Riefenstahl (1960s–1970s), who took photographs in two regions of the Nuba mountains
Sebastião Salgado (2006), who captured the lives of the Dinka tribe
While these works brought global attention to Sudan’s diverse cultures, they often exoticised Sudanese communities.

Sudan’s photographic history is one of evolution, adaptation and resistance. From its early use as a colonial tool to its golden era of studio and journalistic photography, and now as a means of activism and war documentation, photography has remained a vital force in shaping Sudan’s national identity. Despite political censorship, economic hardships and armed conflict, Sudanese photographers continue to tell their country’s stories, thereby ensuring that rather than being forgotten, history is preserved through the power of the image.

AK

Leni Riefenstahl’s reinvention of herself as a photographer was hugely significant for her life and career, and it was her trips to the Nuba Mountains that kick-started this shift. She published three illustrated books about the Nuba Mountains and other regions of East Africa: Die Nuba (1973), Die Nuba von Kau (1976) and Mein Afrika (1982). Numerous photo essays also appeared in periodicals and photographic magazines around the world.

Her fame as a leading film propagandist for the Nazis and the resulting interest in both her as a person and in her works survived far beyond the immediate post-war period, giving rise to a full spectrum of responses from critical research to unwavering approval. The ambivalence of the transformation from Hitler’s filmmaker to adventure photographer allowed her to access the world of popular culture. In terms of her life and career as a whole, her Africa phase was relatively short, spanning around twenty years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.

Riefenstahl undertook her first trip to Africa in 1956, for a film project in Kenya and Uganda: Die Schwarze Fracht (The Black Cargo) was intended to be a docu-drama about the modern-day trade in enslaved people. The screenplay by Helge Pawlinin was based on the book Hassans Schwarze Fracht (1956) by Hans-Otto Meissner; Heinz Hölscher also formed part of the team in his capacity as cameraman (fig. 1). The project ultimately failed due to unrealistic planning and insufficient funding. At the time, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were still subject to British colonial rule. Riefenstahl was involved in organising safaris and worked with British and German safari coordinators and big game hunters in Africa itself (fig. 2). In the early 1970s she utilised these contacts for the photography safaris she undertook with Horst Kettner. 

It was while Riefenstahl was in Kenya that she encountered Maasai communities for the first time and was fascinated by their appearance. Apart from the Nuba, the Maasai were the only people she engaged with more closely, repeatedly visiting them and taking photographs of them. These photographs were not published until the early 1980s, appearing in Riefenstahl’s third book, Mein Afrika. This illustrated volume is a collection of loosely connected shots from East Africa; not only did it provide an opportunity to reuse the Nuba photographs, it also blended commissioned travel photography with a number of small series that came about more or less incidentally. There is a special focus on the people and animals of the Maasai region. Individual chapters are dedicated to photos of other ethnic groups, most of which resulted from a single visit to the region in question. Accordingly, the book features only a few photos of the Falata nomads, or of the Shilluk, Dinka and Murle, and offers virtually no information about the images.

Riefenstahl herself stated that her interest in the people of the Nuba Mountains was sparked by a photo of two Nuba wrestlers by George Rodger. It was published on 18 December 1949 in the illustrated German weekly magazine Stern, as part of an extended photo essay by Rodger that took the title “The Nuba: They kill their king every seven years”. Riefenstahl repeatedly referred to the photo of the wrestlers, which she claimed to have seen for the first time in Nairobi in 1956, and reproduced it in her own publications. A comparison of the pictures taken by Rodger and Riefenstahl clearly reveals that Riefenstahl’s choice of subject matter and composition were often inspired by Rodger’s shots. 

In 1962, Riefenstahl joined the “Ostafrika-Expedition 1962/63” to East Africa, mounted by the Deutsche Nansen-Gesellschaft e. V. (German Nansen Society). The team consisted of Oskar Luz, who chaired the Nansen-Gesellschaft, his son Horst Luz and son-in-law Waldemar Herz, who were in charge of the visual documentation, the agricultural scientist Rolf Engel and teacher Karl Friedrich Rothe (fig. 3). Riefenstahl convinced the team to visit the Nuba Mountains. This would be their first of their four journeys to the Masakin region in the 1960s and the start of Riefenstahl’s extensive activities as a photographer. It was here that she learned about ethnological methodology and forms of documentation – knowledge that she went on to use in her 1973 book Die Nuba. Divided into five chapters, each containing a section with text and images plus descriptive, explanatory captions, the publication sought to comprehensively portray Nuba culture in Masakin Qusar. 

The photographs are artistically ambitious, emphasising details through the use of close-up shots or using flash equipment to create dramatic lighting. Riefenstahl almost exclusively used colour transparency film and preferred photos to be printed with intense colours and strong contrasts. On further trips in the second half of the 1960s that she organised herself, she mainly attempted to photograph such scenes as she still needed for her projected photo essays. As can be seen in several film recordings, she actively staged situations to achieve this goal.

The trips in 1964/65 and 1968/69 were given the title “Sudan-Expedition”. The team for the first of these consisted of zoologist Dieter Kock and camera assistant Walter Hailer. When the designated cameraman Heinz Hölscher had to cancel at short notice, she hired the well-known Sudanese filmmaker Gadalla Gubara for a brief initial period. Gerhard Fromm then took over the camerawork at the start of February 1965 (fig. 4). Horst Kettner became her sole staff member and partner from 1968 onwards. She long cherished the notion of a Nuba film, although no screenplay or specific planning for the project ever existed, much less the film itself.

Riefenstahl swiftly forged good contacts in Sudan that extended all the way up to the country’s government, and they proved extremely useful for organising her travels. They expedited the issue of visas and permits for photography and filming, and helped her circumvent the censorship of photos showing naked people. In her writings she mentions very few of her Sudanese contacts by name. Thanks to the contents of the estate we can reconstruct meetings with figures such as the painter Ibrahim El-Salahi, who worked at the culture ministry at the time, and the Sudanese president Gaafar Nimeiri, whereas other, less famous people have only been partially identified (fig. 5). Nimeiri even commissioned her to take a portrait of him (fig. 6). 

Riefenstahl financed her trips by asking companies for all kinds of donations in kind, including film stock and technical equipment, camping gear, food and medicines. She took photos on location advertising many of these products, often featuring herself in the shot and almost always with children as her subjects (fig. 7). 

In 1974/75, Riefenstahl and her partner, Horst Kettner, travelled to the Nuba in the Kau Nyaro region for several weeks, after she had lost interest in the changing ways of life in Masakin as a result of advancing Islamisation and modernisation. She was searching for people who lived in even more remote regions, believing that they would be more likely to be autochthonous. Unlike in Masakin, where she had spent more time and had been able to persuade or convince people to pose for her photos, she stated herself that she often photographed people in Kau without their knowledge or against their will. Moreover, those people depicted in the photos who have now been interviewed have stated that it was not clear to them at the time what the photos would be used for and how widely they would be distributed.

Riefenstahl compiled her second book, Die Nuba von Kau, so quickly that it was already published in 1976. The photographs are spectacularly laid out with the focus on ceremonies, including the often bloody form of wrestling known as bracelet fighting, as well as ceremonial dances, scarification and body painting. Riefenstahl took most of the photos of dancing and wrestling with a motor drive camera, which produced bursts of almost identical shots from which she could select individual pictures. Many of the portraits of warriors’ painted faces were taken with a powerful telephoto lens that produces a blurry background, thereby generating a painterly effect. Riefenstahl wrote extensively in her books about the photographic technology she used, motivated partly by her obligations to her sponsors.

In 1977, only a year after Die Nuba von Kau had been published, Riefenstahl and Kettner travelled to the Nuba Mountains once more in the company of journalist Peter Schille in order to capture the changes that were now extremely noticeable in the Kau Nyaro region as well. The Sudanese government imposed stricter regulations regarding clothing and tightened controls on cultural practices – even going so far as to prohibit the latter. The increasing attention of the authorities was also adjudged to have resulted from Riefenstahl’s publications. 

Travel operators in Germany began to offer adventure tours that followed in the footsteps of Leni Riefenstahl. Although Riefenstahl claimed to be dismayed, she enjoyed handing out autographs and refused to acknowledge any connection between her publications and the phenomenon (figs 8 and 9). The account of her 1977 trip was published in GEOmagazine the same year, with its text and photos framed as a eulogy to a dying culture. In the first half of the 1970s Riefenstahl and Kettner learned scuba diving and dedicated themselves more and more to underwater photography, which would be their final major interest.

KP

In the aftermath of her sojourn in Sudan in 1968/69, Riefenstahl wrote letters of thanks to the companies in which she enclosed various prints featuring the products she had received.[5] Most of the subject matter shows situations that bear no relation to the life of the Nuba. For example, Riefenstahl photographed children in the act of washing clothes in a bowl even though these children normally did not wear clothing (fig. 2).

The portions of the estate that have hitherto been studied contain no information about whether the people in the images or their relatives were informed in advance about the intent behind the pictures. When the images were discussed in the Kampala research workshops, it emerged that the representatives of the Nuba community were wholly unaware of their purpose. Riefenstahl also deliberately offered the images to the advertising departments of the companies, as is shown by her correspondence with HAG AG: “[…] Some of the images are so charming and nice and even unusual that I could readily imagine your advertising department wishing to acquire the commercial usage rights for some of them.”[6]

Leni Riefenstahl, it should be added, enclosed original colour slides in this letter in order to highlight the technical quality of the images.[7] The donation from Kodak deserves mention with respect to the quality and results of Riefenstahl’s work. Before leaving for the Nuba Kau in December 1974,[8] she received a large number of rolls of film from the company: 450m of 16mm reels as well as 220 rolls of 35mm colour and slide film. However, this material came with the warning that it had exceeded its shelf life.[9] Among the slides that have been analysed to date, the majority of the colour changes have been observed in older film stock,[10] but it is impossible to gauge the extent to which the expired material affected the quality of the exposures.

So far it has not been possible to perform detailed research and analysis to determine which companies Leni Riefenstahl approached for donations, how many companies she wrote to, or how many accepted or rejected her requests (or the number and nature of the donations she received).

JH

The Nuba Mountains region and its people have proven of great interest to researchers in a variety of disciplines such as anthropology, biology, linguistics, sociology and political science. Early reports and studies date back to the 19th century.
Enrico Ille has edited an overview of the research, while a further bibliography has been compiled by the Lost Research Group. 

1923
The German ethnographer Leo Frobenius publishes a collection of folk tales from Kordofan.
Leo Frobenius: Märchen aus Kordofan, Jena 1923
 
1930
The Austrian anthropologist and photographer Hugo Bernatzik publishes the book: Gari-Gari: Der Ruf der afrikanischen Wildnis, which is also translated into several languages. His photographic subjects include people, villages and landscapes near Talodi, which is located in the Nuba Mountains.
Hugo Bernatzik: Gari-Gari: Der Ruf der afrikanischen Wildnis, Vienna 1930 / Hugo Bernatzik: Gari-Gari: The Call of the African Wilderness, New York 1936
 
1947
The Austrian–British anthropologist Siegfried Frederick Nadel is commissioned by the colonial government to conduct a study of the various population groups in the Nuba Mountains. Thirty years later, Riefenstahl bases her text about the Masakin Qusar in “The Last of the Nuba” on this book.
Siegfried F. Nadel: The Nuba: An Anthropological Study of the Hill Tribes in Kordofan, London und New York 1947
 
1951
The British photographer and co-founder of the Magnum photo agency, George Rodger, travels extensively on the African continent. In 1951, the photographs he has taken in the Nuba Mountains appear in the American magazine National Geographic. A few years later he also brings out a book called Le Village des Noubas, presenting his black-and-white photographs from 1949. Early colour photographs of the Nuba by Rodger have since been published on the Magnum-Website.
Robin Strachan (Text) and George Rodger (photos): “With the Nuba Hillmen of Kordofan”, in: National Geographic, Februar 1951
George Rodger: Le Village des Noubas, Paris 1955
 

1956, Kenya and Uganda
Riefenstahl makes her first trip to Africa with the intention of making a docufiction film on the modern-day trade with enslaved people. The project is entitled Die Schwarze Fracht (The Black Cargo), based on the book Hassan’s Schwarze Fracht by Hans-Otto Meissner, which is published in the same year. According to Riefenstahl herself, it is during this trip that she sees a photo of two Nuba wrestlers by George Rodger and decides to travel to the Nuba Mountains.
 
1956
Sudan gains independence.
 
1962/63, Sudan
Riefenstahl joins the “Ostafrika-Expedition 1962/63” mounted by the Nansen-Gesellschaft (Nansen Society). The purpose of this research trip to East Africa led by Oscar Luz is to collect anthropological, biological and other data. Luz’s son Horst is in charge of the photographic and filmic documentation. Oskar and Horst Luz as well as Riefenstahl do a great deal of filming and photography during their visit. About a dozen anthropological films in black and white can now be found in the TIB (Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universitätsbibliothek) library in Germany, and numerous black-and-white photographs are held by the collections of institutions such as the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) in Berlin. The entire journey lasts from the end of November 1962 to March 1963; the travellers probably spend two months of this time in Masakin.
 
1962/63
Uganda gains independence in 1962, followed by Kenya the year after.
 
1964/65, Sudan, Masakin region, Tadoro
This second trip to the Nuba Mountains is self-organised. Various cameramen are involved, including Gadalla Gubara (briefly) and later Gerhard Fromm.
First publication of a series of photographs about the Nuba in a German illustrated magazine.
Leni Riefenstahl: “Requiem für eine Nuba” (Requiem for a Nuba), Kristall, 1964
 
October 1964
Revolution in Sudan
 
1966, Sudan, Masakin region, Tadoro
Riefenstahl makes a brief trip to the Nuba Mountains over Christmas. Oskar und Horst Luz publish an article in National Geographic about the Nuba people.
Oskar und Horst Luz: “Proud Primitives: The Nuba People”, National Geographic, 1966
 
1967
Publication of photographs by Riefenstahl in a German educational booklet and in a magazine accompanying a British newspaper.
Leni Riefenstahl: Bei den Nuba von Kordofan (With the Nuba of Kordofan), FWU, Göttingen 1967
Leni Riefenstahl: “Innocent Tribes of Nuba Mountains”, Sunday Times Magazine, 1967
 
1968/69, Sudan, Masakin region, Tadoro
First trip with Horst Kettner, who becomes Riefenstahl’s partner both professionally and privately. She is disappointed to find signs of modernity in Nuba societies and wants to discover people who are living even more remotely. A short trip to Kau Nyaro sparks her interest in returning to photograph the people as well as their ceremonies and body art.
Leni Riefenstahl: “Zärtlich sind die schwarzen Riesen” (The Black Giants Are Gentle), Stern, 1969
 
1969
Gaafar Nimeiry takes power in Sudan as the leader of a successful coup d’état against the government of President Ismail al-Azhari.
 
1970/71, Kenya and Tanzania
Photo safaris with Horst Kettner.
 
1972
James Faris is an American cultural anthropologist who conducts research on body art in the Kau Nyaro region in the late 1960s while also teaching at the University of Khartoum. Riefenstahl refers to his book in her publication “People of Kau” (1976).
James Faris: Nuba Personal Art, London 1972
 
1973
Publication of Riefenstahl’s first photo book on the people of Masakin. The photographs have been taken over a period of eight years. It becomes a major commercial success and is translated into many (Western) languages.
Leni Riefenstahl: Die Nuba: Menschen wie von einem anderen Stern, Munich 1973
Leni Riefenstahl: The Last of the Nuba, London and New York 1973
 
1974, Sudan, Masakin and Kau Nyaro
Trip to the Masakin region to present the book The Last of the Nuba and first short trip to Kau Nyaro region with Horst Kettner. Publication of a feature story on the people of Kau in a popular German illustrated magazine.

1975, Sudan, Kau Nyaro
Journey to the Kau Nyaro region with Horst Kettner. Publication of a feature story on the people of Kau in a popular German illustrated magazine.
Leni Riefenstahl: “Nuba: Das Fest der Messer und der Liebe” (Nuba: The Festival of Knives and Love), Stern, 1975
 
1976
Publication of a second photo book on the people of Kau. This time, Riefenstahl takes the photographs on a single trip lasting just a few weeks, which is too brief a period to build up trust with the people there; she often takes photos from a great distance using a powerful zoom lens. During the ceremonies she uses a motor drive that allows her to capture as many frames as possible, and then subsequently selects her favourites. This book also enjoys great commercial success and is widely distributed, attracting considerable attention for its dramatic aesthetic style.
Leni Riefenstahl: Die Nuba von Kau, Munich 1976
Leni Riefenstahl: People of Kau, London and New York 1976
 
1977, Sudan
Short trip to Tadoro and Kau that focuses on the changes brought about by Islamisation and modern influences.
“Nuba: Nachruf auf die Menschen von Kau” (Nuba: Obituary for the People of Kau), GEO, 1977 (Text Peter Schille, photos Leni Riefenstahl)
 
1978
Since the early 1970s Riefenstahl turns her attention to underwater photography and filming, the results of which appear in an initial publication in 1978.
Oswald Iten: Schwarzer Sudan (Black Sudan), Kreuzlingen 1978
Leni Riefenstahl: Korallengärten, Munich 1978
Leni Riefenstahl: Coral Gardens, London and New York 1978
 
1982
Publication of photos from East Africa, presenting landsapes and wildlife as well as ethnic groups such as the Maasai, Shilluk and Dinka.
Leni Riefenstahl: Mein Afrika, Munich 1982
Leni Riefenstahl: Vanishing Africa, New York, 1982
Oswald Iten: Fungor: Ein Nuba-Dorf wird ruiniert (Fungor: A Nuba Village Is Ruined), Frankfurt, Berlin and Vienna 1982
 
1989
James Faris: Southeast Nuba Social Relations, Aachen 1989
 
1990
Riefenstahl’s second photo book on underwater worlds is published in German and English.
Leni Riefenstahl: Wunder unter Wasser, Munich 1990
Leni Riefenstahl: Wonders Under Water, London 1990
 
2001
Suleiman Musa Rahhal and International Nuba Coordination Centre: The Right to Be Nuba: The Story of a Sudanese People’s Struggle for Survival, Lawrenceville, NJ 2001
 
2005 and 2010
Following her death in 2003, the German art and photo book publisher Taschen-Verlag publishes a compilation of all her Africa books, framed by an introductory essay and a detailed biography; the first edition in 2005 appears in four languages (German, English, French and Japanese), while there are three versions of the second edition in 2010 (German, English and French).
Africa. Leni Riefenstahl, Cologne 2005 and 2010
 
KP

Although the Nuba occupy a more significant place in Riefenstahl’s legacy and work, the Maasai are also prominently represented, with their images forming the second largest set of objects in her photographic archive.

In Mein Afrika, Riefenstahl describes her first fleeting encounter with two young Maasai men in Kenya in 1956 as a “turning point in [her] life” and an awakening concerning her fascination for Africa (Riefenstahl 1982, p. 17). Traveling on a country road with her guide George Six, she observed two individuals she describes as “royal figures” (ibid, p. 16). She noted that the experience was particularly striking because she had “never seen African natives in this original state” before, only those “dressed in European clothing” (ibid, p. 16).

In addition to this initial encounter with the Maasai in Kenya in 1956, Riefenstahl visited Kenya and northern Tanzania – the regions inhabited by the Maasai – a second time in 1963 and verifiably in 1970, 1971, 1972, and probably in 1961 and 1975, too. It cannot be ruled out that these were not her only visits to the region, but no concrete evidence of further trips to Maasai areas at other times has been found.

A community-based field study was conducted in northern Tanzania between 14 October and 14 November 2024, focusing on the Leni Riefenstahl archive and the Maasai photographs it contains. The research took the approach of handing over not only the photographs, but also the knowledge embedded within them. Photographs were shared and discussed with members of various Maasai communities and descendants of those depicted. The research sought to reconnect descendants with the images of their family members and explore the cultural and historical contexts of the photographs. Following the interviews, the descendants were given analogue – and in some cases digital – prints of the photographs of their relatives.

Following this, 148 photographs were selected from over 400 images of the Maasai in Leni Riefenstahl’s archive, which is housed at Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) in Berlin, Germany. The archive is notable for the fact that the number of photographs far exceeds the number of motifs. Riefenstahl often captured individual subjects multiple times in extensive image series. As a result, her archive is characterised by large numbers of similar images of the same individuals and duplications of her favourite shots. In selecting the photographs to be used in field research, these duplicates were excluded, as well as any damaged or blurred images, and in each case only one image was selected to be used for the interview. This was particularly helpful in avoiding overwhelming the interviewees with an excessive number of images.

Within the framework of the research project, examining the Maasai as the second most significant ethnic group represented in Riefenstahl’s archive provides a valuable contrast to insights from the Nuba works. A comparative approach reveals both parallels and differences in how Riefenstahl’s photographs are received by these two distinct communities. Additionally, this perspective allows us to evaluate how Riefenstahl’s work developed over an extended period.
Overall, this interaction enriches (museum) knowledge by integrating Maasai perspectives and shedding light on the sensitivity and historical significance of these images. The research further highlights the importance of including Maasai voices in the broader discourse surrounding the photographs, adding a crucial ethical dimension to the study. While Riefenstahl’s Maasai photographs have significantly influenced perceptions of the Maasai in the Global North, they remain largely unknown within the Maasai communities themselves.

MW

Leni Riefenstahl captured over 400 photographs of Maasai individuals across at least six distinct regions (Monduli, Arusha, Rombo, Loitokitok, Moito and Loliondo). She visited Tanzania and Kenya at least five times, spending several weeks travelling through these areas taking photographs. Her subjects included individuals of all ages: elders, children, women and men, photographed in groups or as isolated figures, performing daily tasks or taken during ceremonies. While some images are posed, others are candid snapshots, with many remaining unpublished. However, Riefenstahl rarely documented contextual details and seldom recorded the names of those she photographed.

In her travelogues, Riefenstahl portrays herself as a lone adventurer journeying through the East African savannah, seeking ideal subjects for her photographs. In Mein Afrika, she narrates repeated attempts to approach Maasai groups, only to be met with resistance as her potential subjects turned away or threatened her with sticks. Far from respecting these boundaries, Riefenstahl interpreted them as challenges to overcome, writing (in German) “This resistance spurred me on” (1982, p. 17; all quotations translated by the author). Leni Riefenstahl’s archive contains several essays in various languages containing assorted anecdotes and information about her visits to East Africa. These stories also appear in various forms in different publications. In one of these unpublished manuscripts dating from 1963 she describes how she pursued a group of 40 Maasai men through the savannah for hours to secure her shot. These accounts reveal Riefenstahl’s approach to photography and ethics, demonstrating that she viewed her persistence not as invasive but as a mark of determination. In her opinion, the effort she exerted in extracting these images enhanced their value.

Yet these narratives also highlight Riefenstahl’s deliberate fabrication of events to craft a certain image of herself. Her archive reveals inconsistencies, with the same stories appearing in various versions. In one manuscript, she recounts finally catching up with young Maasai warriors after a lengthy chase to quickly capture a photograph of a resistant young man. She claims that she tried to talk to him in Maa but he answered her in English, and their subsequent conversation revealed that even though dressed in traditional Maasai cloth he had studied in London. When askesd what he was doing there, he answered “I like being a Maasai”. A similar anecdote appears in Mein Afrika, but with significant changes. This time, she recounts getting lost while driving alone through the Tanzanian steppe, spotting two Maasai men with shields and spears, and asking them for directions in English, “although it seemed utterly pointless” (1982, p. 19). To her surprise, one of the men responded in English, leading to a conversation identical to that in her manuscript.

The varying details of the story – down to the hairstyle of the Maasai men – stand in stark contrast to the unchanged wording of their conversation. While in one of her manuscripts she describes at length that the person in question wore a clay headdress typical of Maasai warriors, in a review of Maasai by Tepilit Ole Saitoti and Carol Beckwith, published in Welt des Buches on 15 August 1988, she recalls that he wore a lion’s mane. Through these tales, Riefenstahl sought to juxtapose the stereotypical image of “primitive” natives with her supposed discovery of educated individuals among them – an isolated occurrence in her narrative. However, research tracing her footsteps in Tanzania reveals that many of the Maasai she interacted with were, in fact, educated people.

One such figure is Stephen Orpanyi Nerarwa, a well-known individual in the Monduli district of Tanzania from the 1960s through to the present day. Although Riefenstahl never mentioned his name in her accounts or provided specific details about where the encounter took place, her 1963 trip notebook includes Nerarwa’s name and a note remarking on his fluency in English (fig. 1). Another notebook contains an address and post office box number in Monduli. Despite her depictions of solitary adventures, her notes indicate that she travelled with Edward Barnoti (fig. 2) and Peter Kashe, the latter serving as a district commissioner in Monduli at the time. Both were educated Maasai who often escorted foreign visitors into Maasai communities. In her report Riefenstahl notes that Kashe gave Nerarwa a lift in his car.

Moreover, the paramount chief Lengiteng’ Lemkoko, a traditional Maasai leader in Manyara division, recalls Nerarwa as an educated Maasai involved in local politics during that period. It is improbable that Kashe did not know Nerarwa personally when he gave him a lift. However, Riefenstahl’s accounts omit such figures, focusing instead on her lone pursuit of Maasai subjects, aligning with colonial narratives of the white explorer as a heroic, solitary agent.

While conducting fieldwork in Tanzania, and with the help of research assistant Lengakwi Laizer, I received an opportunity to speak with Stephen Nerarwa’s descendants. I also met with Edward Kalo Barnoti’s son, Alais Edward Mbarnoti, his wife Naitapuaki Mbarnoti and Fidelis Kashe, the son of Peter Kashe, who is himself now politically active in Monduli. Furthermore, we visited the family of Ndoros Alanana, who was the highest-ranking laibon (Maasai chief) in Tanzania from the 1950s to the 1970s. It was during this conversation with his son Saruni Ndoros, his grandson Motoio Nendia and his mother Ngitakai Ndaya Ndoros that another relative was identified in the photographs. I also talked to Lengiteng’ Lemkoko, the human rights activist and lawyer Joseph Oleshangay, as well as Naishoki Laizer, Neema Kipailel and Leah Laizer, all in Oltukai Monduli district. These conversations helped fill gaps in Riefenstahl’s archive and shed light on the individuals she reduced to representative figures of her idealised vision of Africa, projecting her own fantasies about nature, culture and beauty onto them.

When visiting Stephen Nerarwa’s family, their initial reaction was one of apprehension, fearing we had come to collect a debt he might have incurred during his time in Europe. According to Maasai customary law, unresolved offences can bring misfortune upon a family until reconciliation occurs. However, when they realised our visit was part of a larger research project, some family members initially lost interest. Their enthusiasm was reignited when they identified Stephen in the photographs we presented, which transformed the dynamics of our interaction. The image bore witness to Riefenstahl’s encounter with Nerarwa; it symbolised a tangible connection to their relative and validated our efforts and presence.

One of Nerarwa’s nephews bore a striking resemblance to him and seemed most attached to the photograph, holding it tightly as his elder brother led the discussion (fig. 4). They spoke of their pride in Nerarwa’s achievements; he had studied in Europe and held a leading military position in the 1980s. Yet they also described him as an orkirikoi: a restless individual who roams without settling or caring for his family. After marrying a non-Maasai and leaving the area, Nerarwa returned only as an old man to live with his brother’s family, who cared for him until his death in 2016.

In 1978, Grzimek and Riefenstahl co-authored a coffee table book alongside Reinhold Messner and Herbert Tichy, featuring Riefenstahl’s photographs of the Maasai, Nuba and Shilluk. While the Maasai figure prominently in the images, Riefenstahl notably excludes them from her text. Unlike Mein Afrika, however, this publication includes captions with brief contextual information.

However, the relationship between Grzimek and Riefenstahl had already begun much earlier, during the Third Reich. Grzimek, a member of the NSDAP from 1937 onwards, built his career in the Nazi Germany of the 1930s. By the time they met in 1940, Grzimek was serving as a government advisor in the Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (Ministry of Food and Agriculture), while Riefenstahl had just begun work on her film Tiefland and was seeking a trained wolf for one of its scenes. Grzimek not only provided her with his wolf, Dschingis, but also formed a close bond with Riefenstahl. Their relationship was marked by long conversations that included discussions on the Nazi practice of euthanasia, which Grzimek reportedly supported.[1] However, although she must have been in contact with Grzimek, there is no evidence of any correspondence in her archive.

These intertwined narratives of ethnographic encounters, archival research and historical context highlight the complexities surrounding Riefenstahl’s work and its enduring legacy. Engaging with the descendants and relatives of those depicted in her photographs not only rehumanises individuals who have been reduced to aesthetic symbols in her idealised portrayals, but also reveals the colonial and conservationist ideologies that have marginalised the Maasai to this day, situating her work within the broader historical, cultural and political context of the time.

MW

The role of nudity in Leni Riefenstahl’s work on Africa is undeniable. However, in her photographs of the Maasai most of the people depicted are clothed. This is largely because she did not encounter the Maasai she photographed in a state of undress. There are, however, a few exceptions which were deeply troubling for the Maasai participants interviewed in the course of this research. While many of Riefenstahl’s photographs of the Maasai were positively received, the images featuring nudity triggered strong emotional responses: anger, shame and a sense of discomfort. Due to the sensitive nature of these images, they were not openly discussed with all participants, but only in specific settings where everyone involved had agreed in advance to the conversation and following a trigger warning.

In the context of this report I decided to show the images that are being discussed despite their problematic nature. I do so in accordance with Daniel Foliard, who notes in The Violence of Colonial Photography that “Susan Sontag’s strategy of not showing photographic material no longer works in an age that massively communicates via the visual; Whether one likes it or not, there is little room to skip images in the twenty-first century” (2022, p. 12), adding that concealing a photograph may infuse it with more power rather than dissolving it. However, in order to avoid reproducing the violence inscribed in these images, sensitive parts have been censored.

Contrary to her narrative of the solitary adventuress who daringly crept up to groups of Maasai to surreptitiously photograph them or who was wordlessly led by them through the savannah into a boma to drink milk out of a calabash, Leni Riefenstahl was anything but independent, and the Maasai with whom she came into contact were anything but mute. In a time before mass tourism came to Tanzania, Peter Kashe escorted guests into the areas that were then just beginning to be declared national parks. In the course of this development he worked together with the colonial government and international organisations, showed them around and advocated for the relocation of Maasai communities away from the projected nature reserves. This was a decision he would later regret.

Fidelis says that they were betrayed. “It is better that my daddy is not alive to see how it is today,” he adds, alluding to the current violent expulsion and relocation of Maasai people from the Loliondo region, where the pastoralist herdsmen began to be displaced in 2022 to make way for a commercial hunting area.
“I remember, my daddy always said: all these people, they took my photographs and one day, they will bring them back,” Fidelis says. Many white people came to the region at the time and travelled with his father. Fidelis relates anecdotes from his father’s life, saying that he regarded these people as his friends. Bernhard Grzimek, whom the Maasai human rights activist Joseph Oleshangay calls the “godfather of Tanzanian conservation politics” and whom the human rights organisation Survival International describes as the „enemy of the Maasai“ , was one of the people whom Peter Kashe guided through Ngorongoro – a region that is still contested today. “Someday you will find my pictures,” Kashe told his son.

Fidelis is euphoric – that day has come, and we have brought him the pictures for which his father waited in vain for many years. None of the photographs we showed to descendants in Tanzania had ever reached the families. In the Maasai community, owning one’s own photographs is something special. Although more and more people are using smartphones today, physical copies of photographs are closely guarded and highly desirable objects. As pastoralists, Maasai often live in villages far from the nearest road or city. While photographers may be hired for festivities, doing so is expensive and therefore infrequent, and most Maasai do not have access to images of themselves. However, they themselves have become desirable subjects for photography through tourism and the idealisation of their culture in the Global North, not least via illustrated volumes such as Riefenstahl’s Mein Afrika. This situation gives rise to an ambivalent relationship with the medium, which turns the Maasai into an object that can be circulated and consumed globally while simultaneously excluding them from the circulation, consumption and control of their own images.

Interestingly, we can find indications in Leni Riefenstahl’s estate that she was aware her subjects would have liked to receive copies of the pictures in which they appeared. A folder with photographs includes an index card with the note (in German): “Hand over to Maasai in Loitokitok in person”. That the collection remained among her papers, however, suggests that this intention was not put into practice.

An annual racing ceremony was held in the region of Kau Nyaro. It was a competition between girls who raced against each other. In the afternoon, the girls went from Kau village to Traida village and spent the night there. In the morning, flowers or leaves of a particular plant were collected at the watering place of the village Traida and laid down in a row. In the local Kau language, the plant is called kindi. The girls lined up behind the flowers and leaves. The kujur (comparable to a shaman) in charge then gave the signal to start, and each girl took a plant and began to run. The girls ran all the way to Kau, a distance of several kilometers. When they arrived in Kau village, they ran to the kujur’s house and the one who arrived first was the winner. There was also a second and third place. In the house of the kujur, the girls then performed some rituals. They were given good food, such as milk, to eat. Various ceremonies and rituals were held in connection with the race. The race is no longer practiced, but there are local attempts to revive it.

In Arabic, this racing ceremony is called “sibr aj-Jarri”. In Kau language it is called “kra” (racing). Abdelrahim Torah, who hails from the village of Kau and took part in the workshops in Kampala, recounted the annual racing ceremony of the girls of Kau village. During the research in Kau Nyaro region, several inhabitants commented on the pictures and also identified people in the pictures. Towhid Tabasa, who participated in the research in the Kau Nyaro region, mentioned that there was also a men’s race that took place in the village of Nyaro. Girls accompanied the race with ceremonies and welcomed the male racers. This image series shows various events during racing ceremonies.

VH

There are five ways to hunt leopards:

1- Firearm: It is used in case of an accident, or if the tiger is sleeping, or if he is walking in the forest.

2- Kajjama or foot trap: They are installed on roads or places where leopards drink water, and they are always installed in the path of the leopard because it has a specific path to enter the water source. Then he is captured and killed with a rifle.

3- Al-Tukul It is a grave that is dug near where the leopard sleeps, where he sleeps on his stomach. Al-Tukul is a hole that is covered with wood. It is dug early and then after sunset, the hunter comes with 3 people. The hunter enters the hole, and they cover the hole with wood, dirt, and straw, leaving a small opening through which the rifle hose emerges. The hunter’s assistants then burn straw over the hole so that the leopard cannot smell the hunter or the gunpowder. After that, the hunters hide in places a little far away and wait for the leopard’s presence. When the leopard returns to its sleeping place, the hunter brings the nozzle of the gun to the surface through the hole, and then the leopard comes, curious to know what this thing is. Then the hunter feels the leopard’s movement around the hose and shoots. The bullet may hit and kill him, or the injury may be light. If the leopard’s injury was light, the leopard does not move from its place, lurking and eavesdropping to find out the source of its injury, and it does not take a long time for it to start digging the hole where the hunter is. Here comes the role of the rest of the hidden hunters, and they rush to save their friend and kill the leopard.

4- A rifle attached to string and bait: Meat is tied to the gun’s hose and the trigger is tied with a string. When the leopard tries to take the meat, it automatically fires… This method rarely works because the leopard smells human scent and does not eat meat unless it is extremely hungry.

5- Kunjara or snare trap: It is a soft green stick from the “Khashkhash” tree that is shaped into a hook. A hole is dug in the leopard’s path to a medium depth, then the stick is fixed in the ground, hooked and bent in the shape of an arc. Bending requires a lot of effort from the hunters, then a rope is tied to the end of the bow and a small stick is tied to the other end of the rope and placed in the hole near the bow and covered with straw. When the leopard passes over the hole and touches the rope; Due to the force of tension on the stick, it gets pulled upward and thrown to the ground, and the process continues every time the leopard falls in the same spot until it is physically exhausted and unable to move. Then the hunters come and finish him off with a rifle.

About Leopards:
Leopards’ skin is very expensive, that’s why they are hunted. The value of a leopard skin is estimated at 40 million SDG (Sudanese pound), and the price of one shoe ranges between 300-350 million SDG. In the mountains, it is hunted for its skin and meat, as its meat is white and chunky. The high price of skin made hunters compete for hunting and money. But now it has become undesirable unless the leopard harms livestock and pastures. The leopard is one of the animals that is never absent from water sources because it depends on water to digest the meat it eats, which causes it to be extremely thirsty.

Marna Mountain & Marna Well:
There are strange things in Mount Marna, as water flows from the top of the mountain to the well. Any electronic device does not work inside the well and malfunctions. Impure women (during menstruation) and impure men (without impurity washing ritual) are prohibited from entering the well. At the top of the mountain, there are many falcons flying at the summit guarding a tree called the Elixir Tree, as it is believed that the leaves and branches of this tree turn into gold when cut. So people try to reach it, but the birds there prevent them.

After hunting the leopard

Skin:
The leopard’s skin is skinned very carefully from head to tail without damaging the skin. After skinning, the skin is sold to Arab tribes. The meat is eaten in the village, and the remaining has many uses amongst the Nuba people.
 
Whiskers:
Some “A’urooq” or witchcraft tools are added to it and amulets and talismans are made from it. The person who wears this amulet gains awe and a majestic and frightening presence from the people around him. Meaning that anyone who sees this person wearing this amulet is afraid of him as he is afraid of a leopard. Therefore, the leopard’s amulets are popular amongst leaders, tribe leaders, and warriors.
 
Fangs:
It is kept in homes after mixing it with certain witchcraft tools and alchemy. It is hung in the house for the purpose of preservation and protection from thieves, traitors, and envious people.
 
Rules of hunting leopards: 
There are certain conditions and rules for hunting leopards: If the leopard is looking at you in the eye, do not shoot it because it will attack you even after you hit it.

AT and KP

The digitised holdings, which were created as part of the cataloguing and research project, formed the basis for joint reviews and the exchange of visual material on selected topics. During the cataloguing process, the files were enriched with formal metadata and keywords wherever possible. This information includes the time and place of the photograph, the names of those depicted (if known) and reconstructed thematic backgrounds. However, navigating the resulting extensive and complex folder structure is a bit cumbersome. Furthermore, due to their quantity and size, processing the files further is quite time-consuming.

Another challenge is the need for multilingualism — Arabic, English, and German in this case, as well as local languages in the future — and the related issues of transcription rules and translations. Western-influenced classification systems allow little scope for cataloguing other epistemological approaches. An attempt has been made to address this by using a simple, flexible, open-source programme to annotate research data. Nevertheless, it is important to continue evaluating the above aspects of digitisation and cataloguing on an ongoing basis, jointly designing workflows and considering various usage scenarios.

The archive also contains audiovisual documentation of the collaborative research process and events. Filmmakers Hajooj Kuka and Wael Gazoly documented the entire process. During their trips to the Nuba Mountains, the researchers also recorded the interviews and group discussions they conducted as videos, photos and audio recordings on their phones.

This multi-layered digital archive was handed over in its entirety to the Pan-Nuba Council. In December 2024, we met in Kampala for a final workshop to set up the data and programs and discuss the next steps. Together, all of this data forms a large and complex resource for further in-depth research on the African continent. Currently, it is only accessible on site in the Ugandan exile of those involved, primarily for people with a research or family interest. Despite the technical and data structuring challenges involved, this comprehensive digital handover enables self-determined on-site research.

KP

Construction of the Nuba Centre for Culture, Heritage and Arts is planned in the city of Kadugli, which is the capital of the state of South Kordofan in Sudan. The project has been set up by the Pan Nuba Council (PNC) with the support of Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) as part of the process for restituting Leni Riefenstahl’s works to Kau Nyaro and Masakin, which are situated in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains.

The centre has twofold aims: on the one hand to promote Nuba culture and on the other to provide a setting for showcasing material culture and housing the Nuba digital archive. The latter will contain work by Leni Riefenstahl that has been restituted. The archive will later be expanded to include further images from the more distant and recent past by various photographers, journalists and filmmakers.

The centre aims to assist researchers and scholars by providing them with the educational and research data and resources they need in order to learn about Nuba culture, heritage, history and arts. This will, in turn, facilitate the route to more research work in various disciplines (archaeology, anthropology, alternative medicine, herbal drugs, architecture, community organisation and governance). The centre will play a significant role in preserving local Nuba languages, culture and heritage by protecting significant artefacts, artworks and traditional practices. Maintaining and showcasing these treasures will enable future generations to appreciate and learn from their cultural legacy.

The centre has the potential to become a hub for community interaction, providing opportunities for Nuba people to come together, share their experiences and engage with each other through workshops, exhibitions, performances, discussions and collaborative projects. The sum of these activities will foster a sense of belonging and strengthen community bonds on the way to Nuba unity.
The structure will take the form of circular huts, a shape which has been inspired by traditional construction methods and Nuba homes. This shape helps the building to withstand the harsh weather conditions while also adding value to the project with respect to the lives of the Nuba and making them feel that the centre is part of them.

Two drafts for the construction have been drawn up by the architectural engineer Hamdan Rudwan and assistant architectural engineer Mohamed Awad. The centre will initially include the following components:

1 The main museum, divided into three areas:
1a An area dedicated to digital photography and computers which includes desks and cabinets
1b Display space for physical exhibitions and other activities
1c A dedicated seating area for visitors
2 The library
3 An office integrated into the main building
4 An open-air theatre, which utilises the existing wall of the main building
 
There are plans to expand the centre in the future by adding the following:

5 Guesthouse
6 Restaurant
7 Services units
8 Conference hall
9 Guardhouse
10 Solar system
11 Water supply and drainage system
 
The war in Sudan and the difficulties in obtaining transportation and reaching Kadugli are delaying the start of construction, which is planned as soon as security conditions improve.

ST