After his death, German soldiers removed Mkwawa's head.

The skull was sent to Berlin and

probably ended up in the bersee-Museum Bremen. In 1918 the then British Administrator of
German East Africa H.A. Byatt proposed to his government that it should demand a return of the
skull to Tanganyika in order to reward the Wahehe for their cooperation with the British during the
war and in order to have a symbol assuring the locals of the definitive end of German power. The
skull's return was stipulated in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles:
"ARTICLE 246. Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, ...
Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's Government the skull of the Sultan
Mkwawa which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to
Germany."
The Germans disputed the removal of the said skull from East Africa and the British government
took the position that the whereabouts could not be traced.
However, after World War II the Governor of Tanganyika, Sir Edward Twining, took up the issue
again. After enquiries he was directed to the Bremen Museum which he visited himself in 1953.
The Museum had a collection of 2000 skulls, 84 of which originated from the former German
East Africa. He short-listed the ones which showed measurements similar to surviving relatives
of Chief Mkwawa; from this selection he picked the only skull with a bullet-hole as the skull of
chief Mkwawa.