Neema Clement Munisi

Email: nmunisi@uni-bonn.de

I am currently a pre-doctoral fellow at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and an Associate Doctoral Researcher at the Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn. My research project explores the material culture of glass beads, a major trade item in East Africa during the 18th- and 19th-century slave trade. Through archaeology, museum-based material culture research, archival research, ethnography, and oral history, I examine why and how forms of Strong Asymmetrical Dependency (SAD) emerged in the past by exploring the economic, political, cultural, and spiritual roles of glass beads, as well as how these forms of dependency have persisted in contemporary communities.

Focusing on the central caravan route in Tanzania that linked the coast and the interior, I employ a multidisciplinary approach combining archaeology, museum-based material culture research, archival research, ethnography, and oral history to investigate how violent acts of enslavement and historical forms of dependency have shaped identities in past and present societies.

More broadly, my work is situated within a wider theoretical framework in which I conceptualise my study through the lens of cultural logics, rather than adopting a prestige-goods perspective.

My academic background includes an MA and a BA in Archaeology, both from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I completed my degrees through coursework, dissertation research, and research periods both within and outside Tanzania, including at University College Dublin in Ireland, with support from the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and the Erasmus+ programme.

Publications

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

Munisi, N.C., Biginagwa, T., Pollard, E., Ichumbaki, E., 2024. “Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on the meaning and consumption of glass beads in Ancient Kilwa Kisiwani, Southern Tanzania” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 59(4) (Special issue: Making beads and bead-making, guest edited by Abigail Moffett and Anne Haour), 553–581. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2024.2419781

Ichumbaki, E.B. and Munisi, N, C. 2024. “Kilwa and its Environs.” Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of African History. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.1008