At the centre of this exhibition is a Makonde mask originating from the Mtwara and Lindi regions of southern Tanzania. The object is currently held in the Linden Museum Stuttgart and appears to have entered the museum's collection in the early twentieth century.

Due to ongoing collection documentation and publication processes, we are unable to show an image of the mask in this online exhibition. Visitors to our presentation will therefore encounter the object primarily through its documented history, cultural context, and collection trajectory.

This absence raises important questions that are central to our course Things that Matter. How do we engage with an object that cannot be fully displayed? And how does the digitization of museum collections shape what becomes visible - or remains hidden - to researchers and the public? Rather than presenting the mask as an isolated work of art, this exhibition situates it within the broader history of the Makonde people, the cultural significance of Makonde masks, and the colonial collecting practices through which many African cultural objects entered German/European museum collections.