The Maji Maji Rebellion of Tanzania of the 1900s

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The Maji Maji Rebellion of the Tanzania, of the 1900s, sometimes called the Maji Maji War, was an uprising by several African tribes in German East Africa against the German colonial rulers, lasting from 1905 to 1907.

Plus some details on the rinderpest famine that spread through Africa in the 1890s, and some other Second Reich colonial deprevgations, As a result of the Scramble for Africa among the major European powers in the 1880s, Germany had ended up with several colonies on the "Dark Continent". These were German East Africa (now Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and part of Mozambique), German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), Cameroon, and Togoland (today split between Ghana and Togo). They had a relatively weak hold on German East Africa, but they did maintain a system of forts throughout the interior of the territory and were able to exert some control over it. Since their hold on the colony was weak, they resorted to using violently repressive tactics to control the population. They began levying head taxes in 1898, and relied heavily on forced labour to build roads and accomplish various other tasks. In 1902 the governor also ordered villages to grow cotton as a cash crop. Each village was charged with producing a common plot of cotton. The Headmen of the village were left in charge of overseeing the production; a position that left them vulnerable to criticism and rage from the population. The use of regular villagers, who had other things to do, to produce cotton was extremely unpopular across Tanzania. In many places the villagers simply refused to work the land, or refused payment. These German policies were not only unpopular, they also had serious effects on the lives of Africans. The social fabric of society was being changed rapidly. The social roles of men and women were being changed to face the needs of the communities. Since men were forced away from their homes to work, women were forced to assume some of the traditional male roles. Not only that, but the fact that men were away strained the resources of the village and the peoples' ability to deal with their environment and remain self sufficient. These effects created a lot of animosity against the government at this period. In 1905 a drought threatened the region. This, combined with opposition to the government's agricultural and labour policies, led to open rebellion against the Germans in July. The natives turned to magic to drive out the German colonizers and used it as a unifying force in the rebellion. A spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit called Hongo. Ngwale began calling himself Bokero and developed a belief that the people of German East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. German anthropologists recorded that he gave his followers war medicine that would turn German bullets into water. This "war medicine" was in fact water (maji in Swahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds. Empowered with this new liquid, Bokero's followers began what would become known as the Maji Maji Rebellion. The followers of Bokero's movement were poorly armed with cap guns, spears, and arrows, sometimes poisoned. However, they were numerous, and wearing millet stalks around their foreheads, they started from the Matumbi Hills in the southern part of what is now Tanzania and attacked German garrisons throughout the colony. In the south of the colony, German forces amounted to 458 Europeans and 588 native soldiers. Nonetheless, the Germans used their superior firepower to their advantage. At Mahenge, several thousand Maji Maji warriors (led by another spirit medium, not Bokero) marched on the German cantonment there which was defended by Lieutenant von Hassel with sixty African soldiers and a machine gun. Many Maji Maji fighters were killed by machine gun fire. While this was the apex of the uprising, the Ngoni people decided to join in the revolt with a force of 5,000. German troops, armed with machine guns, departed from Mahenge to the Ngoni camp, which they attacked on 21 October. The Ngoni soldiers retreated, throwing away their bottles of war medicine and crying, "The maji is a lie!" Upon the outbreak of the fighting, Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen, governor of East Africa, had requested reinforcements from the German government. Kaiser Wilhelm immediately ordered two cruisers with their Marine complements to the troubled colony. Reinforcements also arrived from as far away as New Guinea. When 1,000 regular soldiers from Germany arrived in October, Götzen felt he could go on the offensive and restore order in the south. Three columns moved into the rebellious South. They destroyed villages, crops and other food sources used by the rebels. They made effective use of their firepower to break up any attacks the rebels might launch. A successful ambush on a German column crossing the Ruhuji River by the Bena kept the rebellion alive in the southwest, but the Germans were not to be denied for long. By April 1906, the southwest had been pacified. However, elsewhere the fighting was bitter. A column under Lt. Gustav von Blumenthal (1879-1913, buried at Lindi) consisting of himself, one other European and 46 Askaris fell under continuous attack as it marched in early May 1906 from Songea to Mahenge. The Germans decided to concentrate at Kitanda, where Major Johannes, Lt. von Blumenthal and Lt von Lindeiner eventually met up. Lt. von Blumenthal was then sent along the river Luwegu, partly by boat. The southeast campaign degenerated into a nasty guerrilla war that brought with it a devastating famine. Not until August of 1907 were the embers of rebellion stamped out. In its wake, the Maji-Maji rebellion left several hundred Germans and 75,000to 350,000 natives dead. It also broke the spirit of the natives to resist and the colony remained calm until the outbreak of World War I. The Maji Maji uprising was the greatest challenge to German colonial rule in Africa. The violence and ruthlessness of the German suppression changed the history of southern Tanzania. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people died or were displaced from their homes. In the wake of the war, the imperial government instituted administrative reforms. The rebellion became a focal point in the history of the region. Later Tanzanian nationalists used it as an example of the first stirrings of Tanzanian nationalism, a unifying experience that brought together all the different peoples of Tanzania under one leader in an attempt to establish a nation free from foreign domination. Later historians have challenged this view, claiming that the rebellion can not be seen as a unified movement, but rather a series of revolts conducted for a wide range of reasons. Many people in the area itself saw the revolt as one part of a longer series of wars continuing since long before the arrival of Germans in the region. They cite the alliance of some groups with the Germans in order to further their own agendas at the time. Today, the area in Tanzania where the Maji Maji war took place is one of the largest wildlife reserves in Africa. Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale is revered as a hero by the people of Tanzania.

Another intresesting fact is the Rinderpest Epidemic

Kingdom of Italy colonies bring imported cows, to their colony in Eritrea, a colony which was absolutely despertately wanted by the king, They brought with them, which brings cow's depletion rinderpest,

If democracy had brought this, accidently democracy would be called bad as of it, but as it was royals, people do not say so so often Which sees cattle die, & so collapse of many tribes, It then encourages the 88-92 awful day famine, 1/3 of the overworked population of Ethiopia, lose their lives, 3-5million die, Partly of diseases aswell, aswell as no food, With smallpox, & diseases like cholera up a bit, Rinderpest also added to population decline in Tanzania, and Kenya

In the years 97-9, there was the Great E-Africa bad rain famines, Which kill2/3 of some tribes, 15-75% of the Kikuyu, 0.6million die, Also added to by rinderpest, slaving, Zanzibar, Britain, Germany & Italy, Free white settlers reasonable living-standards, Took much of the depopulated or uncultivated nomadic fertile uplands, after, And then employ low wage labourers,

Which stokes Kenyans resentful race anger, And beat talking back workers, & blunderers, with sticks, sometimes to falls, So there were also evictions, of Kenyans, from land whites wanted to the 30s, For what was a new aristocracy,

In Tanzia, in 91-98 war, 1000s die Rinderpest depopulation kills 1/2 the Masai, of this area, by killing their livestock, so causing some famine, And 90s famine, across the land plus pox, Were probably rose than the 80s, or earlier, Seeing that population was a large 4.7million in 1900, It would be easy to suggest over 100s of thousands died in the rinderpest depopulations, in Tanzania, aided by german taxes and unfairness I would suggest or guess 10 per cent was a realistic statistic, I do not know, But assume that half a million in the 1890s is likely, & over 10s of 100s, in the 19090s, In war famines, here, In the 1880s, the Germans move in & annex Burundi & Rwanda, Areas of steep dense green valleys, There was no effort to cool rivalry, 2% were of the Twa, a pygmy nationality, The vast majority Hutu in their small grass huts, of men and women working equally, The small minority elite Tutsi,

There was Divide & rule, It is felt 1890s rinderpest famines, helped decrease the local nomad populations, Maybe by hardly any, Maybe by a few percent I do not know, also helping famines, maybe by far more, As of less food for local agricultural communities, & hunters,

In 1912, they use Tutsi in killing at least 100s of Hutus in a revolt, In dreadful adventure, And no democrat policy changer, Burundi saw more resistance from it's rulers, And also saw great famines which affected the Great lakes, Like between 1905-15,

Half of it's W plains people died, in the famine in Rwanda, and Burundi I think killing half the people of that area of Burundi, and many in others too, Other famines hitting in 1923, and 1928, with in all those also migrations, All as of utter racism, caste, & monarchy,

So more died in Hutu occupied, lands, under German & Tutsi rule, Than under French rule from 1900-14, in the colonial world, Even though the French empire was far larger, Well maybe Cote D'Ivorie disputes that claim, It is not the French people who make it that way, they are as bad an evil as any, It is the republican equality way that makes it better, than other forms of colonialism,

In Zimbabwe British imperialism, and A Famine strategy kills 10/100,000 too 1896, partly as rinderpest spread too, Out of about 0.5million, people there, So the Shona, & Ndebele revolt, The S-Africa Ndebele, that I talked of earlier, who are urbanising do not join, This revolt is again suppressed, for 1200dead,

Botswana's Tswana farming tribes dominatingly outgrow the Bushmen from the 17thC, Across it's arid & green bits, & Kalahari desert, They largely live in townships surrounded by plain's farms, And it was quite free, Storms symbolised angry god's spirits fighting ogres, in their old religion, Later Bantu, during Zulu crisis, Khalanga, Sotho Kololo etc. come, in 1810-40 wars, In the 1890s, 10-20% die of rinderpest/locust famines, of about 0.1million people,

Chiefs fear Afrikaner raids, And they accept the British protectorate, It then rapidly Christianises, but keeps much control of themselves, S-Tswna, are in Cape's racism, & have lower living standards,

Malawi also saw some famines and a amount of deaths I do not know, but there were many deaths which aided the incoming British empire,

Mozambique and South Africa and the rest of South Africa also saw some rinderpest killing some,

In 1897, there was a rinderpest famine, which killed many 1000s, And the Germans buy most local cattle, Which sees them push in & take more land, in terrible exploitation, Like taking a patch of fertile land, in the desert,

Where a black servant looks out the window, at a leafless, tree, Whose branches tops lit by wetness, And the sun, forced to be under a new slaving way, And maybe a few touches of green on that other view, from the wood built home, The white light, A bit like a lining, on top or in suns direction,

The other colour of the tree underneath it too, & maybe a shadow, And a huge yellow sun, at sunset, With a goat herder walking past sun, on desert background, Purely about land gains, no humanitarianism,

Revenge skirmishes, see passive & aggressive growth, & they shot many Africans, It is felt 100 Germans were killed in a revolt, By Herero tribesmen,

Who were worried at taking of more land, From their area, which was the most fertile in the nation of Namibia, With trees, & wells, & such, The Herero, were defeated & saw 100s, of themselves massacred,

They negotiated for a surrender deal, And stopped fighting, But the German nation with it's head of state organized an army to crush the Herero, Far more brutally than the governor had wished for, A governor who had wanted some peaceful relations, This new army planned for a genocide, & wanted to exterminate a people they felt were savages, As of the earlier revenge massacres by them, Against people who had massacred more of them,

They then grew enough control, did the Germans, And act after a skirmish, from 1904-7, They gun 80000 Herero down to, By exiling into a starving desert, They kill any who come back, Some are put in camps, to starve to death, & be shot when they walked out of the desert,

16000 remain, who are all put in slave camps, With nobody not put in them, apart from very few, They also made them prudishly wear rectangle hats, & bulky dresses, The Herero are also called crazy anti-German racists, by those invaders, And the cooperator elites, are crushed,

The Nama fell 20000-10000, who are all enslaved, Who fall to total ruin, 85000die, Plus 1491Germans, N tribes are less harmed, but unite V colonials, As they also exploited & oppressed,

And horribly they hunt Kalahari Bushmen too 1936, Getting license to do the deranged thing, with it only banned by SA in the 1960s, Infact many had done this in the early 20thC, in German & British rule, Also in the desert there are eyeless moles, that detect vibrations & are tennis ball sized,

The camps for Herero, see local Herero receive numbered tags, And they are put in camps, Where they help unload German exports too the place, The concentration camps, see some more die, & some in chains, & many attacked, With many dying cold, With whites still coming in, but still a minority, As of other populations, In many, it is felt 2/3,000, more Herero did in the camps, In 1904-09 usually dying of exhaustion, With German companies, making money, with the head of state totally happy, There was also a camp where 1200 Nama, died on a cold camp, as prisoners,

It is felt that they were killed deliberately, on the coast, With many skulls taken home for people to do racial examining, The race scientists, use the skulls, to theorise on German race, And claim that the Germans were superior to Africans, Using the evidence after the genocide to claim these things, & that Africans were animals,

After 1909, the Herero, & many Nama, were sold off as slaves to farmers, The colony was portrayed as a settler paradise, & camps, overbuilt, So that people move in, And the war was glamourised,

19thC Empire, of Portugal intensifies Angola's demands, It despoils to famine & war, again though, in this huge area, In 1845, there were 5.5million people, in Angola, And only 4.8million in 1900,

Here are some more sites, there are books and articles on the subjects in many internet places, or internet book shops, bookstores, at the bottom, are lists of which were the worst regimes of the past few centuries.

100s of Websites http://www.lonympics.co.uk

A site on the evil way the king of the Belgians killed so many Africans in the 19th Century

A Site condemning the Kaiser of World War One, saying how evil he was.

The Full Story of the Beja People, of the Sudan, who it is felt inspired the Roman idea of the Blemmye people

A History of the fascinating medieval Kingdom of Kongo, a amazing story

A site on 1918 flu, and why it is right to blame monarchy for the deaths

A site on the El Nino famines of the late 19thc, some under the British Empire

The Story of the Kenyan Mau Mau revolt against British rule

The worst crimes, by British regimes ever, or regimes in Britain ever

The Highland Clearances

The Evil of the British Empire

A History of Congo