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In July 1905, the so-called Maji-Maji Rebellion in German East Africa followed. This uprising resulted from the introduction of the poll tax, which drove the local population more and more into forced labor and forced them to resettle their plantation areas. One hundred eighty thousand people fell victim to this armed conflict, reducing the population by a third. By comparison, 15 soldiers and 450 askari – African soldiers fighting on the German side – died on the German side.

The Germans confiscated so-called “spoils of war” during this conflict. This was considered state property and was first sent to the central warehouse in Dar es Salaam. The Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin was informed of this by the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office.

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                                   taxoMania

Likewise, the application of classification systems in the museum is complex and is constantly changing. No classification system is perfect and is always anchored in history and culture. "TaxoMania" - a surrealistic cabinet of curiosities has arisen, a universe of objects that define and have been arranged, superordinated, subordinated, divided and categorized, and are filled with curious meanings and values that show the mania of arrangement: TaxoMania! TaxoMania is madness, excitement and the exaggerated form of correctness behind the law of arrangement. This all-out cabinet of curiosities of 2017 not only surrealistically interprets the classical principles of order, it develops on the idea and raises the question whether there can be an end to all forms of order.

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Trade relations with Europe developed as early as the 15th century. At the end of the 19th century, the British Empire colonized vast areas around the kingdom with the aim of taking full control of trade and trade routes. The clashes between the Empire and the kingdom increased. In 1897, a British delegation was overwhelmed by Benin warriors. Great Britain subsequently sent a punitive expedition. British troops killed thousands of Benin fighters during the fighting. On February 18, 1897, the royal palace was taken, looted, and finally burnt down. 3,500 to 4,000 royal works of art were transported to Europe by British troops as spoils of war, the king was exiled, and several chiefs were sentenced to death. Most of the war booty was auctioned off in London auction houses to refinance the war and thus reached European and American museums.

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At the request of Karl Weule, the former director of the Leipzig Ethnological Museum, Visser donated 177 Minkisi figures to the museum, of which 92 are still in the museum's collection after exchange transactions and destruction during the Second World War.

Today, a large part of the Minkisi found in European museums originates from the period when Europeans such as the Portuguese, French, and Belgians began to divide the Congo among themselves (1880–1920). In exercising their supremacy, they partially confiscated and destroyed objects such as these. This was to ensure control over the population, which is why after 1885 attempts were made to prevent further production and use of the Minkisi. The Minkisi exhibited here thus belong to the cultural heritage of the Central African states.