Berlin to name street after Tanzanian independence activist

Councillors in the German capital, Berlin, have voted to replace a street name honouring a colonial governor in East Africa accused of having ordered massacres with one of a leading female Tanzanian independence activist.

Wissmannstraße, named after Hermann von Wissmann, is set to become Lucy-Lameck-Straße.

She was Tanzania's first female cabinet minister as well as a leading figure in the country's independence movement.

Von Wissman was governor of German East Africa (now Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda) in the late 19th Century and is believed to have behind the mass killings of local people, German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reports.

Berlin Postkolonial, one of the groups behind the call for the name change, welcomed the local authority's decision.

In a statement it said that the campaign had prevented "the further honouring" of Von Wissmann and in its place put "a Tanzanian woman who actively opposed colonialism and racism".

"Wissmann was a racist war criminal. Lucy Lameck stands for the undervalued contribution of Tanzania's women to the fight for our independence," Tanzanian activist Mnyaka Sururu Mboro said.

This article was originally published by BBC News. [Photo: Getty Images]