Artist in Residence, Göteborg, 23 August–23 November 2025

Alma Simba is a historian, poet and experimental sound practitioner based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She works on museum heritage from Tanzania that is housed in European museums, namely Germany. Alma’s research focuses particularly on ancestral human remains, cultural heritage and the history of gender and marginalisation in Tanzania. She uses black feminist theories and poetry in her work and believes in the importance of interdisciplinary approaches when engaging histories of violence. She was a Sensitive Provenances Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen in 2022. Alma is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Dar es Salaam and a member of the audio-visual collective, ajabu ajabu in Dar es Salaam.

Alma Simba

During her IASPIS residency Alma will continue working on and expanding on her approach to historical narratives through poetry and oral traditions. Alma will use poetry to explore the histories of people who are marginalised by the conventions of the historical discipline and archives. By venturing outside of these structures, she aims to make space for the stories of the past that otherwise go unheard. During the residency, she will use her historical training and poetic language to address histories of womanhood. Alma will look at the gendered body and the history of becoming a woman in different societies. She will center historical accounts from local communities thus creating an archive of sound, poetry, memories and corporeality. Alma believes that the body must be viewed as a site for spiritual healing and not mere violence and exploitation as it has been in the past.

Alma Simba studied at the London School of Economics (2020) and the University of Dar es Salaam (2023). Her poetry appeared in African Urban Echoes: A Poetry Anthology (2025) published by Griots Lounge and in the Research Film Provenance Project at the University of Basel, titled Beyond the blighted body (2025). In collaboration with long-time co-producer, Darragh Amelia, Alma participated in the Glasgow International biennale (2024) at Market Gallery with the piece, as a point of departure. She was the 2024 Poet in Residence at SAPIENS magazine, an independent publication affiliated with University of Chicago Press. Alma’s poetry and sound work, weighted compass featured in the 2024 exhibition “Toutes les îles sont des arbres”the House of Digital Art in Port Louis Mauritius. Her poems have also featured in the 2024 exhibition Tuchoree Mto: Draw the River For Us in collaboration with ajabu ajabu and Savvy Contemporary.

Instagram: @aa_noun