Reginald Elias Kirey Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania

# European Colonialism in Global Perspective

Edited by Jürgen Zimmerer

Volume 2

# Reginald Elias Kirey Memories of German Colonialism in Tanzania

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Cover image: The hanging site monument which is part of Majimaji Memorial Museum in Songea town. Photographed by the author on 25.4.2017 Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck

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### Abstract

The Germans who colonized Tanganyika, which formed part of the former German East Africa (Deutsch Ostafrika) for over thirty years, beginning in the last quarter of the 19th century to the close of the First World War, are widely remembered in present day Tanzania Mainland. These memories exist in the form of a shared cultural legacy, which is linked to German colonialism, and communicative narratives, which are trans-generational. They are also reflected in the historical knowledge that has been published and in its transmission to schools, colleges and universities. German colonialism was established forcefully and violently, which eventually caused Africans to have enduring collective memories of colonial violence (trauma). In addition, Germans' material investments and social activities in colonial Tanganyika left traces of their physical presence, which have remained in people's memories, and in the German cultural heritage, which has produced nostalgia for German colonialism.

This study sought to reconstruct the memory history of German colonialism using oral information collected during interviews conducted in three major areas of Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, Moshi and Songea) and from the researcher's field observations. The study supplements these memory narratives and observations with primary documentary information collected from local and foreign archives and with secondary information obtained from different published materials. The researcher interrogated information from these sources to provide a coherent account of how the Germans are remembered locally. He analyzed various forms of German cultural legacy (monuments, records, buildings, etc.), to find out how people's memory of them influenced politics over time in British Tanganyika. The study analyzed memories of colonialism from the historical perspective, showing how the collective cultural memories in the Tanzanian context have changed over time. The study used Michael Rothberg's multi-directional theory, together with other theoretical approaches to analyze various forms of collective memories of the Germans in Tanzania. The findings, which are analyzed historically, indicate that the collective memories of the Germans are communicative, functional, topographical and trans-generational.

### Acknowledgments

This work could not have been successful had it not been for the support I got from different people and institutions. I must thank the Almighty God who allowed this to happen.

I am deeply indebted to the University of Hamburg for providing generous funds for this research project. I highly appreciate the University's three years scholarship which enabled me to pursue my PhD study in Germany. I also thank the University for granting research funds for archival research and fieldwork. I appreciate the fact that the university also paid for my language classes which introduced me to some basic knowledge of German language. I am so thankful to various University Officials who supported me in diffent ways.

I would also like to thank the University of Dar es Salaam, my current employer, for approving my three years study leave and for the financial support. I am grateful to all University Administrators who assisted me with different administrative issues during my study.

I highly appreciate the assistance provided by my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zimmerer. I thank him for encouraging me to pursue this research project. This has been a great contritution to the department of history of the University of Dar es Salaam which had lacked a specialist in memory history. He guided me, and tirelessly provided support whenever I needed it. His contribution to this study is indeed immeasurable.

I am so indebted to the members of the doctoral committee who organized the defense meeting which was held via zoom and also graded my thesis. These are Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zimmerer, Prof. Dr. Prof. Eckhard Woertz and Dr. Oswald Masebo. I thank them a lot.

I owe many thanks to different individuals from the University of Hamburg whose names must surely appear here. Ms Marianne Elsner, who, in the course of my study at the University of Hamburg, assisted me with a lot of administrative issues. She was always willing to help me. I also thank Dr. Wiederroth, Dr. Wagner, Dr. Natermann, Dr. Herfert and Dr. Hedrich for their constructive comments.

I am gratefully to all staff members of the Department of History of the University of Dar Salaam for their encouragement and support.

I thank all my friends at the Research Center: Kim, Nils, Mara, Christopher, Gisela and many others. I benefited a lot from their comments and advice. I thank them all for their kind support and company.

In particular, I am so grateful to Nils Schliehe who, apart from making arrangement for submission of my thesis to the university when I was in Dar es Salaam, offered to translate the abstract in German. May Almighty God bless him abundantly.

I thank my friends, Gisela and Jonas, who gave me a lot of support when I arrived in Hamburg for the first time. I thank them for their kind support.

I am also indebted to Ms Inken Bruns, Ms Karin, Mr. Holger and Toaul who supported me in many ways during my first days in Bergedorf.

I thank different regional and district government officials working in Dar es Salaam, Moshi and Songea for granting me permission to do my research in their areas.

I want to thank my informants from Moshi, Dar es Salaam and Songea for their co-operation during my field interviews. Many thanks go to my research assistants: Dioskori Kirey and Flora Minja.

I am grateful to Prof. Audax Mabula, the then Executive Director of the National Museum in Dar es Salaam, who granted me permission to do research at Majimaji Memorial Museum in Songea. I also thank the officials working with this museum for their kind co-operation.

I must admit that this research would have been impossible without the assistance I got from the following institutions. Tanzania National Archives (Dar es Salaam), The National Record Centre (Dodoma), The Southern Zonal Archives (Mbeya), Maktaba ya Taifa (Dar es Salaam), The Northen Zonal Archives (Arusha), University of Dar es Salaam Main Library, the Department of Antiquity (Dar es Salaam) as well as the Majimaji Memorial Museum (Songea). Others are: The National Archives (London), University of Hamburg Library, Missionakademie an der Universitӓt Hamburg as well as Asien-Afrika Institut. Both protestant and catholic missions in Moshi provided a lot of support during my fieldwork in Moshi. These are Ashira Parish, Kibosho Parish, Nkwarungo Parish and Kilema Mission. I appreciate their kind support.

I am also grateful to De Gruyter for accepting my manuscript for publication. In particular, I highly appreciate different officials working with De Gruyter who reviewed and supervised the whole process of publication.

I must also thank Prof. Juhan Koponen and Dr. Eliane Kurmann for their kind support.

Finally, I want to thank my wife, Oliva, my two daughters, Nancy and Angel, and my son, Honest for their prayers, encouragment and patience which enabled me to concentrate in this work. In particular, I am so grateful to my wife who accompanied me to Songea for field interviews.

### Contents

Abstract VI

Acknowledgments VII

List of Figures XIII

List of Maps XV

List of Tables XVII

Abbreviations XIX

# Chapter 1

#### Introduction 1

The Argument and Background 1 A Brief History of German Colonization 4 Literature and Definition of Basic Concepts 6 Memory History in Africa 11 Areas of the Study 17 Methodology 18 The Structure 21

#### Chapter 2

#### German War Memories in British Tanganyika: Imperial Rivalries, Commemoriations and Heroism, 1920–1960s 23

Introduction 23 The Transition Period, 1914–1922 24 Colonial Monuments: From the Wissmann Monument to the Askari Monument 28 Reactions and Counter-Reactions to the Erection of the Askari Monument 32 Africans Involvement in the Politics of Commemoration and Heroism 40 The Politics Involved in the Payment of Ex-German Askaris 45 Campaign for the Return of the Skull of Chief Mkwawa, 1918–1955 49 The Imperial War Graves in Post-colonial Tanzania 57 Conclusion 60

#### Chapter 3

Recovering German Buried Memories, 1920–Present 61 Introduction 61 Searching for Hidden German Records 66 Searching for and Excavating German Records 74 Utility of German Records 77 Archiving German Records of the Land Office 80 Establishment of the National Archives in Tanzania 81 German Records in the National Archives 83

#### Chapter 4

Commemorating the Maji Maji War in Tanzania: The Case of Songea 86 A General Survey of the Historiography of the Maji Maji War 88 Remembering Maji Maji at the National Level: Maji Maji as a National Epic 93 Memories of Maji Maji after Independence 96 Maji Maji in Schools 98 Maji Maji Memorial Sites and Commemorative Events in Songea 102 Memories of the Hangings 108 Memories of the Capture and Execution of Nduna Songea Mbano 111 Underground Commemoration of War Heroes in Colonial Ungoni 116 The Construction of Majimaji Memorial Museum 118 Post-independence Commemorations of War heroes, 1960s to the Present 123 The Agonies of the Bereaved Families: From Where they Stand 129 Conclusion 132

#### Chapter 5

### The Chagga People's Collective Memories of the Germans: Nostalgia,

#### Trauma and Legacy 134

Introduction 134 Chagga Contact with Missionaries 135 Memories of Holy Ghost Fathers at Kibosho 144 Father George Fritze and Memories of him at Ashira 149 Contacts with Germans as Imperialists 156 Memories of the First World War 159 Legacy of German Stone Building Technology 161 Hamsa Ishirini: Memories of Corporal Punishment 165 Memories of Executions 168 Execution of Mrekereke and Molelia 171

Preservation of German Cultural Memories in Uchagga 173 Conclusion 178

#### Chapter 6

Places of German Colonial Memories in the City of Dar es Salaam 179 Introduction 179 Dar es Salaam in the Pre-German Era 185 Dar es Salaam in German Times 187 Dar es Salaam in British Times 196 Conservation of German Buildings after Independence: Opposition, Debates and Consensus 203 Suppressing Colonial Memories by Renaming Streets and Buildings 206 Conclusion 209

#### Chapter 7

Summary and Conclusion 211


### List of Figures



### List of Maps


### List of Tables


### Abbreviations


### Chapter 1 Introduction

#### The Argument and Background

Studies on the legacies of colonialism in Tanzania Mainlad are divided between those upholding the view that German colonialism had insignificant impact on the society of Tanzania because it was short-lived and those arguing against this assumption.1 In his famous book, Development for Exploitation, Juhan Koponen argued that German colonialism ". . . ended when it had barely been established. It lasted for some thirty years most of which were spent in conquest, internal infighting and economic experimentation." <sup>2</sup> However, Koponen does not concur with the assertion that German colonialism did not have long-term consequences for the people of Tanganyika but argues that "German colonialism was powerful enough to set in motion profound processes of social transformation" and he therefore wonders "how such a seemingly superficial colonization could produce such long-lasting effects." 3

It is against this backdrop that German colonialism is widely researched by scholars. This situation is partly explained by the fact that German colonialism, "was too complex and too painful to be simply brushed aside." <sup>4</sup> German colonial history in present-day Tanzania is represented in multiple cultural means or forms. It is taught in schools, colleges and universities, is collectively shared orally, embedded in monuments and memorials and is preserved in archives and museums as both historical documents and cultural objects.5 Its collective remembrance

See arguments by Daniel Bendex, Global Development and Colonial Power: German Development Policy at Home and Abroad (London: Rowman and Littlefield International Ltd, 2018), p. 16; Juhan Koponen, Development for Exploitation: German Colonial Policies in Mainland Tanzania, 1884–1914, (Finland: Finish Historical Society, 1994), p. 554 and Ulrike Lindner, "Trans-Imperial Orientation and Knowledge Transfers", in Deutsches Historisches Museum, German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2017), pp. 16–29.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 554.

Koponen, Devepment for Exploitation, p. 13. This idea is also shared by Woodruff D. Smith, The German Colonial Empire (USA: University of North Caroline Press, 1978), p. x.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 10.

For a thorough discussion on the relationship between memory and museums see, for example, Kirk A. Denton, Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postcolonial China (USA: University of Hawaii Press, 2014), pp. 11–12; Selma Thomas, "Private Memory in a Public Space: Oral History and Museums", in Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes (eds), Oral History and Public Memories (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), p. 88; Ron Everyman, "The Past in the Present: Culture and the Transmission of Memory", Acta Sociologica, Vol. 47, No. 2, (2004), p. 162.

is largely triggered by the presence of the 'material frameworks of memory,' which exist in the form of concrete memories or objectivized memory.6

German colonial legacies are almost everywhere in Tanzania where many people have stories to tell about them. For instance, the researcher relates his own story. I grew up in Samanga, a small village in Moshi and the street (mtaa) was called Koniko. I learned from my parents and the many people I interviewed that Koniko was a locative word and a corruption of the name of a German settler, Nicolaus, who was the former owner of the entire village land and that of the neighbouring villages on which he grew pawpaws for their papain. His residence, a stone building, now serves as the Village Office. Two lines of huge teak trees (Chlorophora excelsa) stretching for half a kilometre or so that were grown, according to social memory, by Nicolaus' father, can be seen near this old building.7 There are similar places adjoining my village which are named after former German and British settlers, like Koalfredo (Alfred), Kobaluweni (Baldwin) and Kotenu (?). As a matter of fact, Moshi, like elsewhere in Tanzania, is a place with German legacy of names, evangelization and of course of colonial violence. Most of its people, according to Hans Eckart Rubesamen, have names of German origin, like Jims and Johns, and numerous names of the Wilhelmian era such as Friedrich, Wilhelm, or August.8 It would appear that Tanzanians have various stories to tell about the German colonial past which they learned about at school or from their forebears. Their memory narratives range from collective trauma to collective nostalgia, which are both trans-generational. In fact, Germans' activities in Tanganyika during and after German period left traces of German colonialism which survives in social memory and is embedded in different sites of memory available in different parts of the country.

For these concepts see Guy Podoler, Monuments, Memory and Identity: Constructing the Colonial Past in South Korea (Bern: International Academic Publishers, 2011), pp. 11–15; Jan Assmann and John Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity, New German Critique, No. 65, (1995), p. 128; Alexander Freund and Alistair Thomson, "Introduction: Oral History and Photography", in Id., Oral History and Photography, (USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 2; Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, edited, translated and with an introduction by Lewis A. Coser (University of Chicago, Chicago: Press, 1992), pp. 37–51; Ina Blom, "Rethinking Social Memory: Archives, Technology and the Social", in Ina Blom, Trond Lundemo and Eivind Rossaak (eds), Memory in Motion: Archives Technology and the Social (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), p. 14.

These were grown in the early 20th century as documentary evidence show that teak seeds arrived in Moshi for the first time in 1901. Seen in P.J. Wood, "A Guide to Some German Foresty Plantations in Tanga Region", TNR, No. 66, (1966), p. 203.

Hans Eckart Rubesamen, Kilimandscharo: Der Berg und Landschaft (Munchen: Bertelsmann Verlage, 1985), p. 12.

German colonialism, which began in the 1880s, therefore left people with enduring memories in different parts Tanzania, which this study can document.<sup>9</sup> Collective memories of this period vary from place to place depending on the nature of the colonial events experienced in a particular area or the nature of the existing German sites of memory. As already mentioned, collective memories of German rule have passed down to the present generation of Tanzanians as collective trans-generational memories. Unfortunately, although several historical studies in Tanzania have used social memory to reconstruct the German colonial past,<sup>10</sup> none has attempted to use social memory as the object of study, with the result that the oral history of colonialism dominates. This study attempts to strike a balance by focusing on collective memory as the theme of study – an area of research which has received little attention from Tanzaian historians. African historians, observes Stephen Ellis, have tended to ignore contemporary history so much so that "some of the ambitions, fears and aspirations of the 1960s, although still within living memory, now seem so distant as to be barely comprehensible." 11

This study approaches the subject of German colonialism from the perspective of memory. It examines the extent to which German colonialism has influenced the politics of memory over time and the different ways in which it is remembered locally, and embedded in different sites of memory, such as buildings, monuments, museums, and other historical and symbolic places. The study underscores the point that German colonial legacies existing in Tanzania, like monuments, buildings and records (archives), are both the national cultural heritage and reminders of the German colonial past.12 The policy governing the conservation of national heritage in Tanzania has classified cultural heritage as movable or immovable objects, and tangible or intangible objects, which are more than a hundred years old.<sup>13</sup> As a result of this policy and existing laws, a number of German colonial sites created in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century have been declared national monuments, making German colonialism the most remembered colonial period in Tanzania.

Tanzania Mainland (formerly Tanganyika) formed part of German East Africa. For convenience, Tanzania or Tanganyika will be used throughout this study to refer to Tanzania Mainland.

The famous one is that of Gilbert Clement Kamana Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War 1905–1907, (Kӧln: Rüdiger Kӧppe Verlag, 2005).

Stephen Ellis, "Writing Histories of Contemporary Africa", The Journal of African History, Vol. 1, No. 43, (2002), p. 6.

Cultural memory as permanent reminder of the past is explained by Caroline Bithell, "The Past in Music: Introduction", Ethnomusicology Forum, Vol. 15, No. 1 (June 2006), p. 6.

Idara ya Mambo ya Kale, "Sera ya Mali Kale", Dar es Salaam, 2008, pp. viii–xii.

#### A Brief History of German Colonization

The process of German colonization in East Africa started in the 19th century. Despite the idea of Germany having overseas colonies being promoted by individual writers, colonial enthusiasts and publicists, prior to 1882, "there had been few if any comprehensive colonization programmes and no organised interest groups to shape and channel them." <sup>14</sup> Campaigns to gain overseas territories started in earnest in 1882, when the German Colonial Association (Deutscher Kolonialverein) was formed in Germany to advocate for the acquisition of colonies by the Reich. The proponents of colonial expansion argued that Germany should follow in the footsteps of Britain in securing overseas markets for her industries.15 The major challenge to achieving this goal was that of convincing Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to accept the idea of overseas expansion.16 In 1874, Bismarck had waved aside the plea of the Sultan of Zanzibar to place Zanzibar under 'German protection.' <sup>17</sup> It was not until 22nd February 1885 that Bismarck, for reasons still debated by historians, made up his mind and officially approved the acquisition of overseas colonies.18

After the unification of Germany in 1871 and following the bourgeoning of her industrial sector, overseas expansion became possible and inevitable.19 The acquisition of colonies, aside from acting as national prestige, was considered by the proponents of colonial policy in Germany to be a panacea for Germany's industrial and over-population problems.<sup>20</sup> Germany needed new markets and sources of raw materials for her industries and on top of that she wanted to demonstrate that she was a super power with the ability to colonize and civilize the colonized societies in what was described in German as Kulturmission. <sup>21</sup> Germany needed

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 62.

John Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 89. Richard V. Pierard, "The German Colonial Society" in Arthur J. Knoll and Lewis H. Gann (eds), Germany in the Tropics: Essays in German Colonial History (USA: Greenwood Press, 1987), p. 19.

Daniel T. Rhodes, Building Colonialism: Archaeology and Urban Space in East Africa (UK: Bloomsbury, 2014), p. 27.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 88; Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 52.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 88; Buluda Itandala, "The Anglo-German Partition of East Africa", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. I, No. 1, (1992), p. 8.

Itandala, "The Anglo-German Partition", p.8; Koponen, Development for Exploitation, pp. 54–55.

Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Screening the German Colonies (New York: Berghahn Books, 2015), p. 3.

overseas colonies as new settlements for her excess population.<sup>22</sup> By 1884, Karl Peters<sup>23</sup> had already founded his Society for German Colonisation and had travelled to the interior parts of East Africa via Zanzibar where he concluded treaties with African chiefs.<sup>24</sup> Before the close of 1884, Peters, who was nicknamed the man of blood (Mkono wa damu) by the people of East Africa, had concluded so-called bogus treaties with the chiefs of Uzigua, Uluguru and Usagara in present day Tanzania.<sup>25</sup> His return to Germany on 7th February 1885 with the twelve bogus treaties he had concluded with East African chiefs won him an imperial charter (Schutzbrief) from Bismarck, who had formerly refused to accept the colonial policy.<sup>26</sup> Peters' imperial charter or the Imperial Letter of Protection and the fact that he had merged his association with the German Colonial Association in 1887 to form the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft) accelerated the process of colonizing East Africa.<sup>27</sup> The imperial charter endorsed colonization of the areas mentioned above and declared German spheres of influence by the bogus treaties.<sup>28</sup> This endorsement was followed by the effective control of the areas mentioned in Peters' treaties, which entailed the establishment of military stations to enforce law and order and to suppress African resistance. At the same time treaty-making expeditions went further into those areas not yet covered by the bogus treaties. Following a series of bilateral agreements between Germany and Britain, German East Africa (Deutsch Ostafrika) was founded.29 This was a vast colony, "an area of around one million square kilometres", covering the present-day Tanzania Mainland, Rwanda and Burundi.30

Smith, The German Colonial Empire, p. 4.

He later changed his first name to 'Carl'. Seen in Koponen, Development for Development, p. 46.

G.C.K. Gwassa, "The German Intervention and African Resistance in Tanzania", in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu's, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 110; Iliffe, "Tanganyika Under German Rule", p. 98.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", pp. 98–99.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", p. 100.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", pp. 100–101; Pierard, "The German Colonial Society", p. 19.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 69.

David Arnold, "External Factors in the Partition of East Africa", in Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), pp. 74–83.

Ulrike Lindner, "Trans-Imperial Orientation and Knowledge Transfers", in Deutsches Historisches Museum, German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2017), p. 22.

#### Literature and Definition of Basic Concepts

Memory is now studied in the fields of history, political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and philosophy.31 Memory as a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of study came about in the western world with the commemoration of the Holocaust and the World Wars during the 1970s and 1980s.<sup>32</sup> As a new and cross-cutting area of study, memory became the focus of debates among scholars, and historians are no exception. At the heart of these debates is a discussion on the nature of collective memory and its relation to formal history, oral history, and identity. These debates are reviewed briefly but is imperative to define some basic concepts of memory, which are relevant to this study. Ludmila Isurin cautioned, "the whole concept of collective memory remains a notion that is widely invoked, yet little understood, with numerous overlapping, conflicting, or often unrelated definitions." 33

Because the idea of memory history is new, some important concepts need to be defined for clarity. Collective memory, which is the subject of this study, is credited to Maurice Halbwachs (1877–1945), a French sociologist who was mentored by Emile Durkeim.34 Halbwachs defined collective memory as "a reconstruction of the past in the light of the present." <sup>35</sup> According to Halbwachs, individual memory "is part or an aspect of group memory" or what Jeffrey K.Olick calls "socially framed

Susanna Radstone, "Working with Memory: An Introduction" in Id., (ed), Memory and Methodology, (United Kingdom: Berg, 2000), p. 1; Nigel C. Hunt, Memory, War and Trauma, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) p. 98; Ludmila Isurin, Collective Remembering: Memory in the World and in the Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), p. 13.

Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (Canada: Random House, 1991), p. 3. Radstone, "Working with Memory", pp. 2–5; T.G. Ashplant, Graham Dawson and Michael Roper, "The Politics of War Memory and Commemoration: Contexts, Structures and Dynamics" in Timothy G. Ashplant, Graham Dawson and Michael Roper (eds), Commemorating War (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 3–6; Wulf Kansteiner, "Losing the War, Winning the Memory Battle: The Legacy of Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust in the Federal Republic of Germany", in Richard Ned Lebow, Wulf Kansteiner and Claudio Fogu (eds), The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 101–139; Richard Werbner, "Smoke from the Barrel of a Gun", in Id., Memory and the Post-colony, (London: Zed Books, 1998), pp. 71–73.

Wertsch quoted in Ludmila Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 13.

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 1 and p. 24.

Halbwachs as cited by David Rieff, In praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016), p. 23.

individual memories." <sup>36</sup> In other words, collective memory refers to "the joint memories held by a community about the past" or "a socially articulated and socially maintained reality of the past." <sup>37</sup> Several other words are used by scholars to refer to this concept and are often used interchangeably. These, according to Isurin, are social memory, cultural memory, public memory, bodily memory and historical consciousness.38 They all refer to collective memory. As a "widely shared image of the past," collective memory is rooted in "continuous negotiation between the past and present." <sup>39</sup> According to Halbwachs, memories are socially constructed and continuously reproduced.40

There are two broad types of collective memories, namely, communicative and cultural memory.<sup>41</sup> Communicative memory refers to "everyday communications" that take place in society.<sup>42</sup> Cultural memory is a concretized memory of the remote past, which is for the most part associated with rituals.<sup>43</sup> This type of memory is sometimes referred to as figures of memory, and consists of texts, rites and monuments.<sup>44</sup> According to Klaus S. Schreiner, cultural memories can be classified as functional memories, because they involve rituals, ceremonies and commemorations, or as topographical memories in the sense that they are represented by monuments, cemeteries and museums.45 The topographical memories, otherwise called sites of memory, commemorative landscapes or places of memory, are represented by halls, parks, statues, land, houses and tombs.<sup>46</sup> Moreover, collective memory involves two practices, which are 'inscribing practices' and

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 53; Jeffrey K. Olick, "From Collective Memory: The Two Cultures", in J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy, The Collective Memory Reader (Madison: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 225.

Podoler, Monuments, Memory and Identity, p. 13; Hunt, Memory, War and Trauma, p. 97.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 13. For thorough discussion on the concept of historical consciousness see Straub, "Telling Stories", pp. 51–54.

Podoler, Monuments, p. 13; Patrick Hutton, "Recent Scholarship on Memory History: The History Teacher", Vol. 33, No. 4, (August 2000), p. 537.

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 22 and p. 47.

Assmann and Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity", p. 126.

Assmann and Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity", p. 127.

Bithell, "The Past in Music", p. 6.

Assmann and Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity", p. 129.

Klaus H. Schreiner, "Lubang Buaya: Histories of Trauma and Sites of Memory", in Mary S. Zurbuchen (ed), Beginning to Remember: The Past in the Indonesian Present (USA: University of Washington Press, 2005) p. 272.

Podoler, Monuments, p. 11; Peter Carrier, "Places, Politics and Archiving of Contemporary Memory in Pierre Nora's Les Lieux de memoire", in Sasannah Radstone (ed), Memory and Methodology (United Kingdom: Berg, 2000), pp. 40–47; Jennifer Cole, "The Work of Memory in Madagascar", American Ethnologist, Vol. 25, No. 4, (Nov. 1998), p. 614.

'incorporating practices.' <sup>47</sup> Whereas the former refers to all devices used for storing and retrieving information, the latter refers to "the messages imported by current bodily activity" through oral memory.<sup>48</sup>

Memory as a subject of study started with the publication of Les Cadres sociaux de la me'moire (The Collective Memory) by Maurice Halbwachs, whose work focused on the nature of collective memory and its relation to individual and group identity.<sup>49</sup> Historians challenged Halbwachs who discredited history as being incompatible with memory.<sup>50</sup> "History," Halbwachs wrote metaphorically, ". . . resembles a crowded cemetery where room must constantly be made for new tombstones." <sup>51</sup> He further argued that "history begins where social or collective memory stops operating" [and] "there is only one objective history, but many collective memories." <sup>52</sup> Isurin elaborated on this metaphor by saying ". . . not every tombstone will enter the collective memory of a group, neither will it always enter such memory in its original shape and meaning." 53

Scholars like Nigel C. Hunt, Paula Hamilton and Carl Becker challenged Halbwachs' conceptualization of history. Memory, they thought, was the core subject of history in ancient Greece when Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory.54 With the development of literacy, the production of historical knowledge, according to Hunt, changed from being an activity of memorizing without writing to an activity of 'reevaluating the past' by writing.55 Becker calls this transformation "the artificial extension of the social memory." <sup>56</sup> To these scholars, therefore, the separation of memory and history did not mean that memory had completely lost its influence on history as a discipline. Rather they influenced each other as, for example, when

Bithell, "The Past in Music", p. 6.

Bithell, "The Past in Music", p.6. More examples of incorporated memories can be seen in Tim Benton and Clementine Cecil, "Heritage and Public Memory", in Tim Benton (ed), Understanding Heritage and Memory (UK: Manchester University Press, 2010), pp. 7–10.

Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, "Introduction: Building Partnerships between Oral History and Memory Studies", in Id., Oral History and Public Memories, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), p. x.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 15.

Halbwachs as cited by Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 14.

Hunt, Memory War and Trauma, p. 99. According to Halbwachs' own words as translated by Lewis A. Coser, 'there are as many collective memories as they are groups and institutions in a society.' See, for example, Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 22.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 14.

Radstone, "Working with Memory", p. 1.

Hunt, Memory War and Trauma, p. 98.

C. Becker, "From Everyman His Own Historian", in J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy, The Collective Memory Reader (Madison: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 122.

people are able to remember things that historians have forgotten.57 The role of history, according to Hamilton, is either to "correct" or "obliterate" memory.<sup>58</sup> Based on this symbiotic relationship between memory and history, Leigh Rainford, Renee C. Romane and Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu have argued that memory is not merely a source of historical information, but is also a history in itself.59 This point is elaborated on by Carrier, who points out that "the memories transcribed by oral historians [do] not simply constitute the record of unheard histories", but "highly mediate the nature of memory" with its own complexities.60 Hunt summarizes the differences between history and memory in the following words:

Unlike history, memory is a set of recollections, repetitions and recapitulations that are socially, morally or politically used for a group or community, while history is a chronological record of significant events affecting a nation or an institution. Whereas history is generated by an individual, is unequivocal and depends on systematic evidence, collective memory is generated by the group, is multi-vocal and is responsive to the social framework in which it is created.<sup>61</sup>

According to Jürgen Straub, "historical narratives formulated from the perspective of the present are a unique articulation of a continuity that creates and maintains coherence [which] is perceived as a meaning-structured unity of events, occurrences and acts." <sup>62</sup> This is what Aleida Assmann and Linda Short call plasticity of memory. <sup>63</sup> Collective memory as 'the past seen in the eyes of the present' is cumulative and presentist in character.<sup>64</sup> However much collective remembrance might contradict historical facts, it does not altogether obliterate important historical events. Halbwachs argues in relation to this point that, although memory reinvents the past to meet current social needs, "successive epochs are being kept

Paula Hamilton, "The Knife Edge: Debates about Memory and History", in Kate Davian-Smith and Paula Hamilton (eds), Memory and History in Twentieth-Century Australia, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 12.

Hamilton, "The Knife Edge", p. 10.

Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu, "History and Memory", in John Edward Philips', Writing African History (USA: University of Rochester Press, 2005), p. 440; Renee C Romano and Leigh Raiford (eds), Rosa Parks Highway: The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory, (Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2006), pp. xiii–xiv.

Carrier, "Places, Politics and Archiving of Contemporary Memory", p. 11.

Hunt, Memory War and Trauma, pp. 98–99.

Jürgen Straub, "Telling Stories, Making History: Toward a Narrative Psychology of the Historical Construction of Meaning", in Jürgen Straub (ed), Narration, Identity and Historical Consciousness, (New York: Berghabn Books, 2005), p. 64.

Aleida Assmann and Linda Short, "Memory and Political Change: Introduction", in Id., Memory and Political Change (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 3.

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, pp. 26–27.

alive through common code and a common symbolic canon even amidst contemporary revisions." <sup>65</sup> Unlike history, collective remembrance does not take place for its own sake, but "is generally considered valuable in so far as it is of service to society." 66

Scholars have also used the presentist nature of memory to explain the dichotomy between history and memory.<sup>67</sup> The main practice involved in memory history, according to Pierre Nora for example, is that of making "the present the primary reference to open inquiry into the myriad ways in which the national heritage had once been imagined." <sup>68</sup> "In surveying the past from the present vantage point," Hutton argues, "the historian looks out upon realms of memory, each of which may be drawn into the present at will. History becomes an art of locating these memories." <sup>69</sup> Memory as understood by Nora is not used to recover the past as it really was but is used as an object of study. As Peter Burke puts it, "historians are concerned, or should be concerned, with memory as a historical phenomenon, with what might be called the social history of remembering." <sup>70</sup> The main task of historians, to use Hutton's words, is "to relocate narratives within their own mnemonic schemes." <sup>71</sup> Hutton's interpretation of memory history dismisses altogether the presentist interpretation of memory history. Generally speaking, memory, like history, enhances a dialogue between the present and the past.<sup>72</sup>

The distinction between oral history and memory history is another area which has sparked debates in recent years. Is oral and memory opposed to each other or linked to each other? The answer to this question lies in the fact that oral history uses memory to recover the past and memory history uses oral history as

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, pp. 26–27.

Rieff, In praise of Forgetting, p. 22. For this argument see also Bernard Eric Jensen, "Usable Pasts: Comparing Approches to Popular and Public History", in Paul Ashton and Hilda Kean (eds), People and their Pasts: Public History Today (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 50.

Hunt, Memory War and Trauma, p. 99.

Pierre Nora as quoted by: Patrick Hutton, "Recent Scholarship on Memory History", The History Teacher, Vol. 33, No. 4, (Aug. 2000), p. 38.

Hutton, "Recent Scholarship", p. 39.

Peter Burke, "From History of Social Memory" in Jeffrey K. Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy (eds), The Collective Memory Reader, (Madison: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 189. Hutton, "Recent Scholarship", p. 538.

John Edward Philips, "What is African History?", in John Edward Philips', Writing African History, (USA: University of Rochester Press, 2005), p. 33.

its object of study.<sup>73</sup> Oral history relies exclusively on individual memory and seeks to achieve objectivity by cross-checking individual oral accounts, but memory history depends solely on collective memory and is not aimed at achieving objectivity.<sup>74</sup> Collective memory as opposed to individual memory is the main subject matter of memory history.<sup>75</sup> Memory history generally focuses on "popular meaning of the past" by challenging the notion of a single past or "one version of the past." 76

#### Memory History in Africa

Memory history as a discipline in Africa is by and large in its infancy. B. Jewsiewicki and V.Y. Mudimbe observe that "while the current popular notions of recollection and collective memory are more ambiguous concepts than oral tradition, they also represent rich, as yet untapped, resources for African societies." <sup>77</sup> This unutilized potential area of African history calls for a rigorous effort to document African collective recollections of the colonial past. In his Professorial Inaugural Lecture, Professor Isaria N. Kimambo argued: "the question of research priorities needs to be looked into anew so that neglected areas can receive attention. It is not possible to write valid history of the masses if their participation in history remains unknown." 78 Africa needs a history which "discover[s] the place and meaning of the past in the individual and collective thoughts of Africans." <sup>79</sup> As the Africanist historians stressed: ". . . the relevance of the past is to be found in the way in which it is used to explain

Carrier, "Places, Politics and Archiving of Contemporary Memory", p. 43; Hamilton and Shopes, "Introduction", pp. viii–ix; Assmann and Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity", p. 126.

Hamilton and Shopes, "Introduction", pp.viii-ix; Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1985), pp. 12–13.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, pp. 10–13.

Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia, African Historians: New Sources and New Techniques for Studying African Pasts (New Jersey: Person Education, Inc, 2012), p. 183; Mary S. Zurbachen, "Introduction: Historical Memory in Contemporary Indonesia" in Id., Beginning to Remember: The Past in the Indonesian Present (USA: University of Washington Press, 2005), p. 25.

Cited in B. Jewsiewicki and V.Y. Mudimbe, "Africans' Memories and Contemporary History of Africa," in V.Y. Mudimbe and B. Jewsiewicki (eds), History Making in Africa, (USA: Wesleyan University, 1993), p. 4.

I.N. Kimambo, Three Decades of Production of Historical Knowledge at Dar es Salaam (Dar es Salaam University Press, 1993), p. 18.

Roy Richard Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner (eds), Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation (USA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), pp. xxiv–xxv.

the present." <sup>80</sup> The fact that the colonial past continues to influence African societies today reinforces the relevance of memory history in African historical scholarship. Tim Woods has written thus:

Colonialism for Africans is not an event encapsulated in the past but it is a history which is essentially not over, a history whose repercussions are not only omnipresent in all cultural activities but whose traumatic consequences are still actively evolving in today's political, historical, cultural and artistic scenes.<sup>81</sup>

Memories of imperialism are still fresh in Africans' minds, which is reinforced by the fact that colonial legacies in African are widespread.<sup>82</sup> As a result, some projects have been launched in Africa to promote studies on collective memories, on top of the awards that have been offered to individual scholars who are interested in memory history. In 1996, for example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed in South Africa to promote memory studies.<sup>83</sup> It focused essentially on promoting research projects on collective memories of Apartheid, the Maji Maji War and World War II, with the main objective of promoting "remembrance, reconciliation and historical production." <sup>84</sup> About 22,000 narratives of the victims of Apartheid were collected in South African and compiled in a report which was submitted to the South African government in 1998.<sup>85</sup> This study lacks evidence of a similar exercise done in relation to Maji Maji in Tanzania.

Studies on memory history in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on specific countries and issues. There are studies specializing in the memories of colonial violence, such as the Nama and Herero War of Namibia, Apartheid in South African, the Mau Mau War in Kenya, the Liberian War of Liberation and

See, for example, Arnold Temu and Bonaventure Swai, Historians and Africanist History: A Critique (London: Zed Press, 1981), p. 9.

Tim Woods, African Pasts: Memory and History in African Literatures (UK: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 1.

Dominick Geppert and Frank Lorenz Mϋller, "Beyond National Memory: Nora's Lieux de Mѐmoire across an Imperial World" in Id., Sites of Imperial Memory: Commemorating Colonial Rule in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), p. 1.

Annekie Joubert, "History by Word of Mouth: Linking Past and Present through Oral Memory", in Mamadou Diawara, Bernard Lategan and Jorn Rusen (eds), History Memory in Africa: Dealing with the Past, Reaching for the Future in an Intercultural Context (USA: Berghahn Books, 2010), p. 42.

Joubert, History by Word of Mouth, p. 42.

Louise Bethlehen, "Now that all is said and done: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa", in Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Ruth Guinio and Jay Winter (eds), Shadows of War: A Social History of Silence in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 153.

so forth.<sup>86</sup> These studies highlight the trans-generational collective trauma relating to various forms of colonial violence and the mounting pressure for reconciliation, reparation, and restitution, which resulted from it. There are also memory studies addressing issues other than colonial violence, which focus on different social, economic, and political aspects.<sup>87</sup>

Memory studies in sub-Saharan Africa have been done in the fields of the social sciences and humanities, with anthropology taking the lead. In 1998, a book edited by Richard Werbner, Memory and the Post colony, came out as an anthropological

Most of these are either in form of book chapters or journal articles. See, for example, Jürgen Zimmerer, "Kolonialismus und Kollective Identitat: Erinnerungsorte der deutschen Kolonialgeschischte", in Id., Kein Platz an der Sonne: Errinerungsorte der deutschen Kolonialgeschichte. (Frankfurt: Campus Verlage, 2013), pp. 9–10; Birthe Kundrus, "From the Herero to the Holocoust?: Some Remarks on the Current Debate", African Spectrum,Vol. 40, No. 2, (2005), pp. 299–300; Leonard Jamfa, "Germany Faces Colonial History in Namibia: A very Ambiguous I am Sorry", in Mark Gibney (et al), The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), pp. 202–203; Reinhart Kößler, Namibia and Germany: Negotiating the Past, (Windhoek: University of Namibia Press, 2015), pp. 231–272; Raphaёlle Branche and Jim House, "Silences on State Violence during the Algerian War of Independence: France and Algeria, 1962–2007",in Ruth Guinio and Jay Winter (eds), Shadows of War: A Social History of Silence in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 115–137; Winfried Speitkamp, "Forgive and Forget: The Mau Mau Uprising in Kenyan Collective Memory", in Dominick Geppert and Frank Lorenz Mϋller, Sites of Imperial Memory: Commemorating Colonial Rule in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), pp. 207–223; Ruth Guinio, "African Silences: Negotiating the Story of France's Colonial Soldiers, 1914–2009" in Ruth Guinio and Jay Winter (eds), Shadows of War: A Social History of Silence in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 138–152; Jaspal K. Singh and Rajendra Chetty (eds), Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2010), pp. 1–7; Ewald Mengel, Michela Borzaga and Karin Orantes, Trauma, Memory and Narrative in South Africa (Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B.V, 2010), pp. vii–xiii; Hans Erik Stolten, History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa (Stockholm: Nordic African Institute, 2007); Henning Melber, "Namibia, Land of the Brave": Selective Memories on War and Violence within Nation Building", in Abbink, Jde Bruijn, M and van Walraven, K, Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African Memory, (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p. 321. See also the chapters in Abbink, Jde Bruijn, M and van Walraven, K, Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African Memory, (Leiden: Brill, 2003). A thorough discussion on how trauma of colonial violence is artistically represented is provided by Woods, African Pasts, pp. 1–7; An important book on collective memories of violence with chapters written by scholars from different countries of Africa is edited by Preben Kaarsholm, Violence, Political Culture and Development in Africa (Oxford: James Currey, 2006). A. Anne Pitcher, "Forgetting from Above and Memory from Below: Strategies of Legitimation and Struggle in Post-socialist Mozambique", AFRICA, Vol. 76, No. 1, (2006), pp. 88–109; Wale Adebanwi, "Death, National Memory and the Social Construction of Heroism", The Journal of African

History, Vol. 49, No. 3, (2008), pp. 419–148.

study on colonial memories in Africa. This book conceptualizes the nature of African memories of colonialism. Werbner points out that memory in Africa follows a particular pattern of development: "it lives, gets realized or ruptured, is contextualized, becomes buried, repressed or avoided, has its effects, and is itself more or less transformed." <sup>88</sup> Werbner classifies African collective memories as unofficial and official memorialism, which fall into two broad categories of popular and state memories, respectively. State memories or "the post-colonial political culture," as Henning Melber calls it, is used in most African countries to achieve nationbuilding and to glorify national heroes.89 This widespread political culture in Africa accounts for a memory crisis, which Werbner calls "popular counter- memorialism." <sup>90</sup> This crisis occurs when the public decides to "commemorate what the state deliberately suppresses in the buried memory." 91

A study on memories of German colonialism by Dennis Laumann, Remembering the Germans in Ghana, was done in Ghana. Published in 2018, Laumann's book examines how the Germans are remembered in present day central Volta Region in Ghana, which was under German colonial rule. Laumann argues that "memories of the Germans in the central Volta Region of Ghana are vivid and routinely invoked in oral history." <sup>92</sup> Although Laumann is bent on reconstructing oral history of the German colonial past, his book sheds light on how the Germans are remembered in their former colonies in Africa. Interviews done in Moshi have enabled this study to arrive at a similar argument to that of Laumann that German colonialism lives on in oral memory.

Several studies in Africa have indicated that collective memories of colonialism abound in nostalgia. Ron Emoff, Benjamin Rubbers and Sean Field have, in their separate journal articles, underscored the point that post-colonial memories of colonialism in their areas of study feature nostalgia.<sup>93</sup> Emoff reports that nostalgia for colonial music, phantom nostalgia, is "a unique performed sense of the past" in Madagascar.<sup>94</sup> Rubbers has also written about nostalgia for Belgian

Richard Werbner, "Beyond Oblivion: Confronting Memory Crisis", in Id., Memory and the Post-colony, (London: Zed Books, 1998), p. 2.

Werbner, "Beyond Oblivion", p. 8; Melber, "Namibia, Land of the Brave", p. 321.

Werbner, "Beyond Oblivion", p.321.

Werbner, "Beyond Oblivion", p.321.

Dennis Laumann, Remembering the Germans in Ghana (New York: Young Publishing, 2018), p. 2. See, for example, Ron Ernoff, "Phantom Nostalgia and Recollecting (from) the Colonial Past in Tamatave, Madagascar", Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 46. No. 2, (2002), pp. 265–274; Benjamin Rubbers, "The Story of a Tragedy: How People of Katanga Interpret the Post-Colonial History of Congo," The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2, (2009), pp. 267–271.

Emoff, "Phantom Nostalgia", pp. 265–274.

colonial rule among the Congolese.<sup>95</sup> In Cape Town, Field talks of memories of solace among the Africans who were the victims of apartheid.96 According to Werbner, the colonial legacy in Africa "is contested, sometimes with nostalgia for an imaginary colonial or pre-colonial sociality, in the face of deepening social inequality across the continent." 97

Filip De Boeck and Rijk van Dijk attempted to classify colonial nostalgia in Africa. Van Dijk mentions two forms of nostalgia, namely, synthetic and substantive. With synthetic nostalgia, the past is gone forever; it is dead, and has no connection with the present.<sup>98</sup> Substantive nostalgia is the opposite, in that it associates the present with the past. Boeck defines colonial nostalgia as follows:

is much about forgetting as it is about remembering, omitting certain facts of colonialism – such as the abusive power – while foregrounding others, actively creating an imagined representation of the past. In this sense, nostalgia itself is symptomatic of memory crisis where memory begins when experience itself is irretrievably gone.99

Collective remembrance of the above nature takes place when, for example, a particular government seeks legitimacy in "glorifying its heroic past." <sup>100</sup> A vivid example of substantive nostalgia is seen in Jennifer Cole's journal article, which discusses how collective memories of colonialism in Africa can be invoked by current social and political events, such as elections.<sup>101</sup> Cole propounds what she calls the Betsimisaraka theory of memory, which is premised on the idea that "to remember is to draw a connection or link" between those who remember and the events that are remembered.102

The field of memory history in Tanzania is virtually lacking. As already mentioned, historical studies in Tanzania are bent on using oral sources as their

Rubbers, "The Story of a Tragedy", pp. 267–271.

Sean Field, "Imagining Communities: Memory, Loss, and Resilience in Post-Apartheid Cape Town", in Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, Oral History and Public Memories (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), pp. 110–116.

Richard Werbner, "Introduction: Multiple Identities, Plural Arenas", in Richard Werbner and Terence Ranger, Postcolonial Identities in Africa (London: Zed Books Ltd, 1996), pp. 3–4. Similar argument is provided Laumann, Remembering the Germans in Ghana, p. 2; Mwembu, "History and Memory", p. 459.

Rijk van Dijk, "Pentecostalism, Cultural Memory and the State: Contested Representations of Time in Postcolonial Malawi", in Richard Werbner (ed), Memory and the Post – colony, (London: Zed Books, 1998), pp. 155–156.

Filip De Boeck, "Beyond the Grave: History, Memory and Death in Postcolonial Congo/Zaire", in Richard Werbner (ed), Memory and the Post-colony (London: Zed Books, 1998), p. 33.

Van Dijk, "Pentecostalism", p. 156.

Cole, "The Work of Memory in Madagascar", p. 616.

Cole, "The Work of Memory in Madagascar", p.616.

methodology. The few studies there are, however, do not address the collective memory of colonialism in its broader context. Some focus on colonial poetic accounts, which were written by Africans during the German colonial period, and others are by current scholars,103 which cover war stories under German colonial rule. The recent artistic works on German colonial history dipict, according to Vincensia Shule, "the exploitative, violent and brutal nature of that history." <sup>104</sup> A few other studies, which are limited thematically and historically, have paid attention to post-colonial memories but have tended to concentrate on German legacies and the memories of individuals.105 In attempting to bridge this apparent research gap, this study not only analyses how German colonialism features in social memory and is reflected in cultural memory, but also how its legacy influenced the imperial politics of commemoration during the inter-war period. The study shows that there was a marked departure from British memory politics, which manipulated memories of the Maji Maji War and suppressed German imperial symbols in Tanzania in favour of African politics of the 1950s, which invoked memories of the Maji Maji War in support of independence (Uhuru) in the United Nations.

The study adopts Michael Rothberg's multi-directional approach, according to which "memory is fundamentally and structurally multi-directional," hence "open to different possibilities." <sup>106</sup> Rothberg believes in the idea of relativazation of

Prominent among these are: Jose Arturo Saavedra Casco, Utenzi, War Poems and the German Conquest of East Africa: Swahili Poetry as Historical Source, (Eritrea: Africa World Press, 2007), p. 1; Gudrun Miehe, Katrin Bromber, Said Khamis and Ralf Groβerhode (eds), Kala Shairi: German East Africa in Swahili Poems (Kӧln: Rϋdiger Kӧppe Verlag, 2002); Hemedi bin Abdallah bin Said elbuhriy "Utenzi wa Vita vya Wadachi Kutamalaki Mrima: The German Conquest of the Swahili Coast", with translation and notes by J.W.T. Allen, East African Swahili Committee Journal, No. 25, (1995); Dark Gӧttsche, Remembering Africa: The Rediscovery of Colonialism in Contemporary German Literature (USA: Camden House, 2013), pp. 116–164.

Vicensia Shule, "Navigating through German Colonial Past in Tanzania through Artistic Productions", Tanzania Zamani: The Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. X, No. 2, (2018), p. 113.

Marie Aude Fouerere, Remembering Nyerere in Tanzania: History Memory Legacy (Dar es Salaam: Mkukina Nyota, 2015)); E.S. Etieno Odhiambo, "The Landscapes of Memory in Twentieth-Century Africa", in Gregory H. Maddox and James Giblin", In Search of Nation: Histories of Authorities and Dissidence in Tanzania (Oxford: James Currey Ltd, 2005), pp. 114–125; Christof Hamman und Alexander Hanold, "Der Kilimandscharo", in Jürgen Zimmerer (ed), Kein Platz an der Sonne: Errinerungsorte der deutschen Kolonialgeschichte (Frankfurt: Campus Verlage, 2013), pp. 81–84; Leander Schneider, "Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Authoritarianism in Tanzania: Connects and Disconnects", Africa Studies Review, Vol. 49 No. 1, (2006), pp. 93–113.

Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory (California: Stanford University Press, 2009), p. 12.

memory, by which memory is essentially multi-dimensional.107 According to Rothberg, memory "is not a zero-sum game" but competitive.108 Rothberg's approach corresponds to Lutz Niethammer's life cycle approach, by which collective remembrance "involves an interpretive attempt to grasp the multiplicity of experience and individuals' attempt to order and make sense of their everyday lives." <sup>109</sup> By using Rothberg and Niethammer's theoretical approach to memory history this study intends to achieve what Field calls "open-ended representation of [colonial] memories." <sup>110</sup> According to Reinhart Kößler, African colonial memories manifest themselves in four forms: assertion, commemoration, denial and amnesia.111 Assertion refers to a "proactive approach that advocates public recognition of memory contents" and commemoration "refers to a potentially more inward-looking form of jointly and systematically producing memory." <sup>112</sup> Denial refers to total disregard of the past or suppression of memories, unlike amnesia, which is "lack of awareness or outright forgetting." 113

#### Areas of the Study

As already mentioned, German colonial memories in Tanzania vary from place to place depending on two major factors. First, the experience of German colonialism was not similar all over Tanzania and, second, the nature of German colonial legacy varies from one area to another. Therefore, it is logical that no single study can address German collective memories in all places in Tanzania, because it is so large (See Map 1 below), and especially when many interviews have to be conducted, which requires a lot of time and resources. Concentrating on one area, say a single region, is also likely to counteract the unbalanced memory history of German colonialism. Therefore, this study focused on three major areas of

Rothberg, Multidirictional Memory, p.12.

Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory, pp. 9–11.

Lutz Niethammer, Memory and History: Essays in Contemporary History, (Berlin: Peterlangs, 2012), p. 79.

Field, "Imagining Communities", p. 108.

Kößler, Namibia and Germany, p. 5.

Kößler, Namibia and Germany, p. 5.

Kößler, Namibia and Germany, pp. 5–6. According to David W. Blight, "deflections and erosions, careful remembering and necessary forging, and embattled and irreconcilable versions of experience are all stuff of historical memory." Cited in David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (USA: The Belknap Press, 2001), p. 5.

Tanzania mainland, namely, Dar es Salaam, Moshi-Rural District114 and Songea for the following three reasons.

First, Dar es Salaam, which was the administrative centre for the Germans and afterwards the British, was the most developed township in colonial Tanganyika. Its architectural heritage and colonial monuments form a unique collection of German cultural sites of memory worth studying. Second, German evangelical activities and the experience of war in Moshi had a long-lasting impact on the Chagga community, which is where nostalgia for German colonialism and traumatic memories of German colonial violence co-exist. Third, post-colonial commemoration of anti-colonial heroes and heroines and the erection of monuments were widely experienced in Songea, which was hard hit by the Maji Maji War. By focusing on the collective memories of the Maji Maji War in Songea, this study is able to coherently document the memory history of colonial violence in Tanzania. The study, therefore, not only takes a holistic approach to memory history of German colonialism in Tanzania, but it also covers a reasonable and manageable geographical scope. However, two chapters of this study do not address specific regional memories as those outlined here, but they deal with memory issues which transcend regional boundaries. These chapters analyse the imperial memory politics of the mandatetrusteeship period and examine how the buried German records were recovered, utilized, and preserved as archival records. Examples used in these chapters are cited from different parts of Tanzania. In this way the study documents both the regional and national memories of German colonialism.

#### Methodology

This study was done using different sources of information, ranging from archival documents and interviews to field observation. Various archival documents were consulted, including old newspapers (archived and non-archived), official correspondence, speeches, circulars, minutes, gazettes, reports, diaries and so on. These archival documents were obtained from Germany, Britain, and Tanzania and a few came from online archives. Some useful information of a semi-archival nature was obtained from Missionakademie an der Universitӓt Hamburg and Asien-Afrika Institut in Germany. A substantial amount of archival data was collected from the National Archives of London (hereafter NA) and Tanzania National Archives (hereafter TNA). These archives provided information on the mandate-trusteeship period and the early

The district is home to Chagga people. For convenience, the words Moshi or Uchagga are used throughout this study to refer to Moshi-Rural District.

Map 1: Tanzania Mainland. Map created for this study by Costa Mahuwi. Source: Costa Mahuwi, 2018.

years of independence in Tanzania. Supplementary archival data was collected from the National Record Centre in Dodoma,115 Tanzania, and from the zonal archives affiliated to TNA, such as the Southerwestern Zonal Archives in Mbeya and the Northern Zonal Archives in Arusha. The researcher gathered useful data, including archived photographs, from various parish offices in Moshi such as Ashira, Nkorango and Kibosho.116 Some important commemoration pamphlets, brochures and government reports were gathered from the Majimaji Memorial Museum in

Access to records kept with the National Record Center is limited to files 'cancelled' 30 years ago only.

Permission to access parish documents such as correspondences or archived historical photographs was granted by the respective parish authorities.

Songea. These provided information on the annual commemoration of Maji Maji. Information from local newspapers, published speeches and unpublished papers was gathered from the East Africana Section of the University of Dar es Salaam old library. Old primary history textbooks and reports of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism came from the National Library (Maktaba ya Taifa) at Dar es Salaam city centre. Almost all the documents collected from NA in London were scanned, except for a section of those collected from TNA, where scanning is strictly limited to five pages per file.

Field interviews were carried out in all areas covered by this study, with Moshi and Songea providing a relatively long list of those interviewed. Research permits to conduct field interviews were granted by the respective regional and district authorities, which had received an introductory letter from the researcher's current employer, the University of Dar es Salaam. In Dar es Salaam, a few officials working with the Department of Antiquities were interviewed on issues relating to the preservation of German buildings in the city centre. In Moshi, a number of elders were consulted and interviewed in different interview settings chosen by them. The majority agreed to be interviewed in their homes by special appointment and were very co-operative. Most of the informants were chosen for interview based on their widely known position as people who 'can remember the German colonial period,' those whose ancestors resisted the imposition of colonial rule or served as Askaris and Porters, or those who received their education from German mission schools. Those who did not fall into these categories were elders whose departed fathers and grandfathers had told them different stories relating to the German colonial period. Most of the information solicited from these elders is therefore trans-generational collective memories of German colonialism. Sadly, some of those interviewed in Moshi have now passed away. May Almighty God rest their souls in eternal peace.

All interview questions, except in Moshi, were organized based on the themes selected for the study. In Dar es Salaam and Songea, where the researcher wanted to know how German colonial places of memory have shaped the social memory of German colonialism or vice versa, specific interview questions were designed but were regularly modified whenever it was considered necessary. In Moshi, the themes were not predetermined by the researcher, but rather the informants were allowed to tell the stories of their choice relating to German colonialism. By using this kind of open-ended interview technique, an outline of the themes reflecting the memory narratives collected was formulated and archival data was thereafter gathered to supplement them. Interviews in Moshi were conducted between January and February 2017, with two alternating research assistants who took the researcher to different villages for interviews, introduced him to the village authorities, and on some occasions assisted in translating the Kibosho dialect which he could not understand. The researcher also organized separate trips to important sites of memory for field observation.

Interviews in Songea were conducted between September and November 2017, mostly involving Ngoni elders and the officials working with Majimaji Memorial Museum. The latter were interviewed first, who were kind enough to provide a list of potential Ngoni informants, to whom the researcher took daily trips to their houses and workplaces to interview them. It was not difficult to locate the houses of these informants because they are widely known locally. Once a person was interviewed, he or she was asked to recommend another knowledgeable elder for further interview. By doing this, the researcher ended up with a new list, which meant he could reach those elders not mentioned on the first list of interviewees. Most of the interviews were tape-recorded, and so in a few cases where they did not want to be recorded, notes were taken.

#### The Structure

This study is organized in seven chapters. This first chapter introduces the argument of the study, areas of the study and important literature on memory history covering both Europe and Africa. The second chapter focuses on the imperial politics of commemoration, which started immediately after the end of German rule in East Africa. It examines the different ways in which the British colonial government that was handed Tanzania as a mandate territory by the League of Nations, and the German government represented by the German community living in Tanganyika at that time, competed with each other in promoting the imperial commemoration of heroism following the mounting politics of colonial revisionism. The chapter explains the extent to which the mandate government struggled to erase the German imperial legacy in Tanganyika. Chapter three discusses how on leaving East Africa after the end of the war the Germans hid volumes of their documents by burying them and how the British, having acquired Tanganyika as an interim colony struggled to recover them for administrative purposes. The chapter starts by conceptualizing the relationship between record and memory. It argues that the idea of establishing a national archive in post-colonial Tanzania came after realizing that most of the German colonial records distributed in various offices in Dar es Salaam were in danger of being destroyed.

The fourth chapter analyses the collective memories of the Maji Maji war in Songea by tracing the origin of Majimaji Memorial Museum and the extent to which Maji Maji war sites led to collective trauma in Songea. The chapter traces the history of commemoration and veneration of war heroes and heroines by explaining how such events were gradually transformed from being secret events to public events. The fifth chapter discusses nostalgia for German colonial legacies and traumatic recollections resulting from colonial violence in Moshi-Rural District. This chapter traces the origin of German colonialism in Moshi and explains the extent to which the nature of social memory is determined by the nature of the contacts that developed between the Germans and the local people. The sixth chapter focuses on topographical memories of German colonialism in Dar es Salaam by first reviewing the history of the city and then then by explaining the extent to which its architectural legacy, layout, streets, and monuments enhance the collective cultural memories of German colonization. The last chapter provides a general discussion of the issues discussed in this study.

# Chapter 2 German War Memories in British Tanganyika: Imperial Rivalries, Commemoriations and Heroism, 1920–1960s

#### Introduction

The mandate-trusteeship1 period saw the Germans locking horns with the British in fostering hegemonic memories of war and colonialism in Tanganyika. While the former were hoping to restore the status quo and possibly regain their lost territory, the latter were struggling to establish their political position in Tanganyika.2 The British, who took over Tanganyika from the Germans after World War One, strove, as much as they could, to erase German heroic memories and propagate their own. However, as the politics of colonial commemoration and revisionism took root in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, the Germans in Tanganyika were becoming increasingly allied with their home government in asserting themselves in the territory.3 The German community in Tanganyika, in addition to struggling

 Thorough discussion on the politics of colonial revisionism (German colonial movement) within Germany and the negotiations for Germany to join the League of Nations as well as commercial and political agreements reached between Germany and Britain is widely covered in literature. See, for examples: Schmokel, "The Hard Death of Imperialism", pp. 301–335; Wolfe W. Schmokel, Dream of Empire: German Colonialism, 1919–1945 (New Haven, 1964), pp. 82–84; Jean Stengers, "British and German Imperial Rivalry: A Conclusion", in Prosser Gifford and WM. Roger Louis (eds), with the assistance of Alison Smith), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967), pp. 345–347; Michael D. Callahan, Mandate and Empire: The League of Nations and Africa, 1914–1931 (Great

The mandate period covered the period from 1919 to 1945, followed by the Trusteeship period which started from 1946 to 1961. For convenience, the term 'mandate' or 'Mandate-trusteeship' will often be used to refer to the entire period of British colonial period in Tanganyika, that is, from 1919 to 1961. The imperial politics evident in the interwar period constituted what some scholars call "continuation of the older Anglo-Germany rivalry. Wolfe W. Schmokel remarks: "In a sense the German colonial claims of the interwar period and the British response to them may be seen as the continuation and the last chapter of the story of Anglo-German colonial rivalry." See, for example, Wolfe W. Schmokel, "The Hard Death of Imperialism: British and German Colonial Attitudes, 1919–1939", in Prosser Gifford and WM. Roger Louis (eds), (with the assistance of Alison Smith), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 302; Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann and Alison Smith, "The German Empire in Africa and British Perspectives: A Historiographical Essay" in Prosser Gifford and WM. Roger Louis (eds), (with the assistance of Alison Smith), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 736.

to attain economic pre-eminence, erected war monuments, formed organizations and campaigned for the return of Tanganyika to Germany. It should be remembered that "after the First World War the Colonial Society struggled to keep the memory of the lost empire alive and agitated for its return." <sup>4</sup> Such actions, and many others, created the necessity for the British mandate government to keep a watchful eye on German activities in Tanganyika. Amidst this political tension, the people of Tanganyika found themselves divided between those who supported the British and those who sided with the Germans, most notably the former Askaris who had served the German colonial government. This chapter explains the extent to which the politics of commemorations and heroism were such a contested terrain in Tanganyika at the time of the mandate.

The chapter opens by providing background information about the end of German colonial rule in East Africa and the eventual transfer of Tanganyika to the British as a mandated territory. It shows how the German community lost its influence on the British community in Tanganyika soon after the end of the First World War and how the two communities competed in promoting their imperial identities in the subsequent decades. This is done by describing different commemorative initiatives and the related events which characterized the mandate period. The chapter argues that Africans were not passive actors in the commemorative events of the mandate period, as they also participated in them by siding either with the Germans or the British for their own reasons.

#### The Transition Period, 1914–1922

Between 1914 and 1916 Tanganyika was a turned into a battleground for the two warring imperial powers, Germany and Great Britain. This stemmed from the fact that Tanganyika, being part of Deutsch Ostafrika, was not spared by the 1914–1918 war. The German force, Schutztruppe, found itself confronting two forces: the British forces, advancing inland from the north-east coast and the Belgian forces, charging eastward from the lake region.<sup>5</sup> The Schutztruppe was defeated in this war, marking the end of German colonial rule in East Africa. Article 119 of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 provided for Germany to cede Tanganyika

Britain: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), pp. 60–67; Birthe Kundrus, "Colonialism, Imperialism, National Socialism", in Bradley Narauch and Geoff Eley (eds), German Colonialism in a Global Age (USA: Duke University Press, 2014), pp. 333–338.

Pierard, "The German Colonial Society", p. 19.

Gedeon S. Were and A. Wilson, East Africa through a Thousand Years: A History of the Years A.D.1000 to the Present Day (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1968), pp. 215–220.

to Britain.<sup>6</sup> Officially turned into a mandated territory in July 1922, Tanganyika was placed under the so-called Class B type, representing the former German colonies "in which the Mandatory Power [was] responsible for the administration" and promotion of"the moral and material welfare of the people." <sup>7</sup> This provision, the so-called article 3 of the mandate laws, saw Britain assuming full administrative control of Tanganyika.<sup>8</sup> They consolidated their political power in their newly acquired 'colony' and strove to undermine German colonial influence in the territory.<sup>9</sup> As elaborated later on, this was achieved through the "gradual elimination of the vestiges of German influence," which not only entailed the demolition of German colonial monuments and erasing all other forms of German heroic memories, but also changing the name of the colony itself, from German East Africa to Tanganyika and adopting its postage stamp.<sup>10</sup> The name Tanganyika, which was chosen by William Cecil Bottomley from the East Africa Department, was officially declared on the 1st February 1920 for what was believed to be "a tangible way to symbolize the transfer to British rule." <sup>11</sup> Another reason for the change of the name was however given: "to differentiate the Tanganyika Mandate from the British East Africa colony of Kenya." 12

Soon after the war, the British repatriated the Germans and confiscated their property. Between 1917 and 1924, Sir Horace Byatt, the first British Governor of

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 49.

Raymond Leslie Buell, The Native Problem in Africa, Vol. I (London: The Macmillan Company, 1928), p. 430. Article 119 of the Treaty of Versailles stated categorically that: "Germany renounces in favour of the principal allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over their overseas possessions." Seen in NA, CO691/160/11. "Colonial Defence Committee's First Bulletin: The Truth Restated in Reply to German Colonial Claims", July 28th, 1938.

Gerald F. Sayers (ed) The Handbook of Tanganyika (London: The Secretary Office, 1930), p. 1930; Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 50.

Article 3 of the mandate laws for Tanganyika territory stated: "The Mandatory shall be responsible for the peace, order and good government of the territory, and shall undertake to promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and the social progress of its inhabitants. The Mandatory shall have full powers of legislation and administration." Cited in Callahan, Mandate and Empire, pp. 194–195.

Addressing the United Nations meeting on 20th December 1956, Nyerere said that, despite the good intention of the Mandate laws, Sir Donald Cameron, the British Governor to Tanganyika, administered the country as though "it were a British colony." Cited in Julius K. Nyerere, Freedom and Unity: A Selection from Writings and Speeches, 1952–1965 (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 41.

Peter A. Dumbuya, Tanganyika under International Mandate 1919–1946 (Maryland: University Press of America, 1995), p. 103; Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 51. Different other names had been recommended for the territory such as Kilimanjaro, New Maryland, Smutsland, Azania and Victoria.

Dumbuya, Tanganyika under the International Mandate, p. 103.

Tanganyika, fully implemented the policy of repatriation with the result that the white population in Tanganyika, mostly missionaries and settlers, had halved by 1921.<sup>13</sup> This policy also involved the confiscation and liquidation of the enemy's property, thus causing protests from the German government.<sup>14</sup> Between 1921 and 1924, the majority of the former German plantations were auctioned to the British, Indians and Greeks.<sup>15</sup> Prior to 1925, the Germans were allowed to return to Tanganyika on the condition that they had to change their nationality.16 However, in accordance with article 7 of the mandate laws which provided for equal rights for all people from the League of Nations member countries to live in the Mandatory, the government lifted a ban on Germans entering Tanganyika in 1925.<sup>17</sup> The next year Germany joined the League of Nations – on the 10th September, 1926 to be precise.18 Consequently, German nationals, particularly settlers, returned in great numbers, much to the annoyance of the British settlers, who feared that the Germans would not only jeopardize their economic interests in the territory, but also outnumber them.<sup>19</sup> In 1925 alone, about 188 German subjects had returned, and by 1939, the German population in Tanganyika was

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 64.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, pp. 122–123.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, pp. 262–303.

J. Clagett Taylor, The Political Development of Tanganyika (California: Stanford University Press, 1963), p. 43; Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 63.

Taylor, The Political Development of Tanganyika, p.63; Bertil Egero, "Colonization and Migration: A Summary of Border-crossing Movements in Tanzania before 1967", The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report No. 52, 1979, p. 17.

J.P.Moffet (ed), The Handbook of Tanganyika, second edition (Dar es Salaam: Government of Tanganyika, 1958), p. 93. Confiscation of German property was in accordance with the Enemy Property (Retention) Ordinance of 1921. See, for example, Dar es Salaam Times, Vol.III, No. 4, 10th December, 1921. However, the Enemy Property Department had been established in Dar es Salaam since 1917 "for the purpose of taking over the control, and subsequently, of disposing and liquidating the property of ex-enemy nationals." See Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika,, p. 118. Part of article 7 of the Mandatory stated: "The Mandatory shall secure to all nationals of States Members of the League of Nations the same rights as are enjoyed in the territory by his own nationals in respect of entry into and residence in the territory, the protection afforded to their person and property, the acquisition of property, movable and immovable, and the exercise of their profession or trade, subject only to the requirements of public order, and on condition of compliance with the local law." Seen in Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 195.

Buell, The Native Problem, p. 442. However, "this influx of Germans into Tanganyika did not distress the local colonial administration or most permanent officials in the Colonial Office" as it did to the British settlers. The authorities in Dar es Salaam and London encouraged German settler farming because it was the most successful one. See, for example, Callahan, Mandate and Empire, pp. 135–136.

23 percent higher than that of the British.<sup>20</sup> As already mentioned, the Germans were emerging as a powerful economic class in Tanganyika, which the British settlers resisted arguing that the mandate authority in Tanganyika was actually "impairing their interests" over the former.<sup>21</sup> In 1938, for example, a section of the report on "German Activities" submitted to the mandate government read thus:

Germans in Tanganyika are an exclusive community. They arrive in German ships, stay at German hotels, buy nothing but German goods from German shops, employ Germans and export their produce in German ships to Germany. Thus Great Britain, who governs and finances the country, protects us with her navy and builds the roads and railways, which enables German produce to be exported, is boycotted by one of our largest producing communities. The effects of this state of affairs can be summarized by: (a) The country loses employment for British nationals, (b) British shipping loses its fair proportion of freight, (c) British export industries suffer, and (d) British trading concerns in the country are being gradually eliminated.<sup>22</sup>

It is evident therefore that as the number of Germans increased in Tanganyika, so also did their activities which angered the British community living in the territory. According to table 1 below, an annual average of 272 Germans returned to Tanganyika between 1927 and 1936. In 1929, the German colonists, save the missionaries, possessed a total of 361,827 acres of land, ranking the second after British nationals who owned 745,029 acres.23 "By 1934 Germans owned more sisal estates than any other group of Europeans or Asians and perhaps controlled as much as one third of the total acreage under cultivation," argues Michael D. Callahan.<sup>24</sup> Statistics shown in table 2 below indicate that between 1931 and 1934 a fare number of German settlers had purchased coffee, tea and sisal estates.

It is important to note therefore that even as the British replaced the German colonial administration of Tanganyika, an expanding class of Germans was becoming increasingly influential, socially, and economically.<sup>25</sup> The following sections indicate how this led to tension between the Germans and British, thus intensifying the politics of imperial identity and the race for commemorations in mandated Tanganyika.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 303; Buell, The Native Problem, p. 442; Michael J. Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time: Policing the End of Empire (London: The Radcliffe Press, 1996), p. 115. According to Macoum 420 German families had returned to Tanganyika by September 1926.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 136.

NA, CO691/160/11, Report No. 36 on German Activities, 19th January 1938.

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 252.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 135.

A similar situation was experienced in British Cameroon where German planters controlled the local economy in Southern Cameroon. See, for example, Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 66 and p. 79.


Table 1: Immigration of the Germans into Tanganyika, 1925–1936.

Source: NA, CO691/153/13/4, March 1937.

#### Colonial Monuments: From the Wissmann Monument to the Askari Monument

German colonial rule in East Africa involved the erection of colonial monuments which honoured important colonial figures. A famous monument that existed in Tanganyika in German times (see Figure 2 below) was that of Major Hermann von Wissmann. Designed by Adolf Kürle in 1908 and officially launched on 3rd April 1909, Wissmann's statue was erected a few metres from the Dar es Salaam harbour which it faced.26 Consisting of a life-sized statue of Wissmann with a lion and an Askari, the monument was meant to honour the late Wissmann as a colonial hero.<sup>27</sup> Naturally, after the First World War, the British could not put up with this sort of monument glorifying the 'enemy.' <sup>28</sup> It was hence removed in 1916 and shipped to London as a war trophy and, afterwards, in 1921 sold to Justus Strandes, a Senator of Hamburg.29 The following year, together with Hans Dominik's Monument,

Michael Perraudin and Juergen Zimmerer (eds), German Colonialism and National Identity (London: Routlidge, 2011), p. 4.

Perraudin and Zimmerer, German Colonialism, p.4.

Expressions of dislike to the Wissmann statue can be seen in F.S. Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory (Formerly German East Africa): Characteristics and Potentialities (London: T. Fisher Unwin LtD, 1920), p. 25.

A thorough discussion on transition of colonial momuments can also be found in Juergen Zimmerer and Kim Sebastian Todzi, Hamburg Tor zur Kolonialen Welt: Errinerungsorte der (post-) Kolonialen Globalisierung, (Hamburg: Wallstein Verlage, 2021).


Table 2: Purchase of Estates by Germans from Government and Other Nationals, 1931–1934.

Source: NA, CO691/139/7/32-33,

the monument was erected in front of the University of Hamburg main building.30 Nine years after its removal from Dar es Salaam, the Askari Monument was erected on the same site. This replacement, as explained in the following section, set in motion the race for colonial commemoration by the mandate government and the German community living in Tanganyika. Other German colonial monuments which existed in Dar es Salaam, and which disappeared with the defeat of Germany were the bust of Bismarck "at the entrance to State House drive" which was donated by Dr. Hans Mayor; the statue of Carl Peters as well as the Kaiser Wilhelm I memorial, located in front of the habour.31

The Askari Monument (see Figure 1 below) was built by the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) during the 1920s. The statue was made in England, staged for exhibition at the Royal Academy of summer 1927, and was brought to Dar es Salaam ready for erection.<sup>32</sup> The physical appearance of this monument was the work of James Alexander Stevenson (1881–1937), featuring an impressive "pedestal with bronze panels and a life-sized figure or larger of a Kings African Rifles soldier on top" and "the panels depicting groups of African Soldiers and Carriers on active service." <sup>33</sup> Its construction was completed in 1927 and officially unveiled on 14th March 1928.<sup>34</sup> The monument was built concurrently with two similar monuments in Mombasa and Nairobi to honour the African Askaris and Carriers as well as the Arabs who fell in the First World War while serving the British Army. One of its bronze panels bore the inscription: "this is to the memory of the Native African troops who were the hands and feet of the army: and to all other men who served and died for their King and country in eastern Africa in the Great War 1914–1918. If you fight for your country even if you die your sons will remember your name." <sup>35</sup> After colonial rule, the Askari monument was

Perraudin and Zimmerer, German Colonialism, p. 4; Jokinen, "Colonial Monuments and Participative Art- Cultures of Remembrance, Myths, Anti-theses, Inversions", http:www.afrika-ham burg.de/English.html, last accessed on 20th March 2017.

W.T. Casson, "The Public Monuments of Dar es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 184; F.S. Joelson, Germany's Claims to Colonies (London: Hurst & Blackett, LTD, 1939), p. 114.

Casson, "The Public Monuments of Dar es Salaam", p. 184.

TNA, AB/754/3, Commanding Troops Tanganyika Territory to the Chief Secretary (hereafter CS), 9th April 1921 and TNA, No. 23428/2, Report by Deputy Director of Works, 4th November 1927.

TNA, AB/754/3, Commanding Troops Tanganyika Territory to CS, 9th April 1921; TNA, No. 23428/2, Report by Deputy Director of Works, 4th November 1927.

The inscriptions were prepared by Rudyard Kipling. Seen in TNA, 23428/2, Report by Deputy Director of Works, 4th November 1927.

Figure 1: The Askari Monument. Photographed by author, 1st February 2023.

Figure 2: Wissmann Monument before its removal from Dar es Salaam. Source: Koponen, Juhan. Development for Exploitation: German Colonial Policies in Mainland Tanzania, 1884–1914. Finland: Finish Historical Society, 1994, p. 86.

inherited by the independent government of Tanganyika, and on 8th September 1995, it was gazetted as the "monument symbolizing the culture of peace." 36

#### Reactions and Counter-Reactions to the Erection of the Askari Monument

As mentioned above, the newly erected Askari monument became the object of opposition by the German community living in Tanganyika in the 1930s. The British colonial government was criticized for having erected the Askari Monument on the site formerly occupied by the Wissmann Monument. The German community complained that the Askari Monument was actually mocking Wissmann, who was still honoured as a colonial hero, because it stood on the same site as the former Wissmann Monument. To replace the Wissmann Monument with "a statue of a native soldier" was thought of as "a most unnecessary insult to [Wissmann] memory." 37 So the Germans wanted it moved to another site. For example, in 1927 they appealed to the government to postpone the unveiling ceremony pending the removal of the monument to what Mr. Howe Bowne called "a more appropriate site in front of the Boma." <sup>38</sup> However, the government went ahead with unveiling the monument, much to the disappointment of the Germans. It is clear that the Germans were angered by the fact that the mandate government took no heed of their complaints and requests. Nevertheless, the Germans in Tanganyika continued to commemorate their colonial heroes even when the Wissmann statue had been removed from the territory. War grave memorials were established in different places to honour German war heroes, particularly the fallen veterans of the First World War. Evidence shows that German war memorials, mostly war graves, existed in different places in Tanganyika. Between 1923 and 1928, IWGC carried out the exercise of identifying all German war graves in Tanganyika in a project called "Concentration and Exhumation of German war Graves." <sup>39</sup> Isolated German war graves were exhumed with the approval of the German government and concentrated in selected sites in urban areas as permanent war memorial cemeteries.40 These were taken care of by

Donatius M.K. Kamamba, "National Cultural Heritage Register Antiquities Division", Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dar es Salaam, 2012, p. 7.

TNA, No. 23428/42, CS to the Governor, October 31st, 1927.

TNA, No. 23428/42, CS to the Governor, October 31st, 1927.

See correspondences in TNA, No. AB 1075, "War Graves Concentration and Exhumation", 1927–1928.

A similar excersise which is thoroughly explained in chapter seven was carried out after independence.

IWGC and the railway authority in collaboration with the German community and the Town Councils. In the post-World War One period, German war memorials existed in places like Bagamoyo, Morogoro, Old Moshi, Dar es Salaam, Songea, Tanga, Lindi, Kilwa, Iringa, Arusha, and in many urban areas of Tanganyika.41 Some of these memorials were established by the Germans themselves without the help of the mandate government.42In 1936, for instance, the German community of Morogoro wrote to the mandate government asking for permission to build a war memorial in honour of their war heroes.43 Their memorial resembled the German Iron Cross Medal on which the words: UNSEREN HELDEN, Die fuer Deutschlands GROESSE starben (Our Heroes who died for the greatness of Germany) appeared. As discussed in one of the subsequent sections of this chapter, the imperial war graves and memorials inherited after independence were taken care of by the government of Tanzania under the umbrella of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

Although German war grave memorials were established across the country with the help of the mandate government, colonial memories which glorified Germany's colonial past in Tanganyika were greatly discouraged. This, as shown in Tables 3 and 4 below, included renaming most German place names and street names or any name which showed German colonial influence.<sup>44</sup> Perhaps worth mentioning here is the renaming of the S.S. Goetzen (See Figure 3), a German steamer which had operated on Lake Tanganyika since the early 20th century. The steamer was scuttled at Kigoma soon after the outbreak of World War One and was salvaged in 1924.45 It was reconditioned in 1925 and resumed service on Lake Tanganyika in 1926.<sup>46</sup> Its name was changed from S.S. Goetzen to S.S. Liemba,

Robert Heussler, British Tanganyika: An Essay and Documents on District Administration (USA: Duke University Press, 1971), pp. 14–55. See also correspondence in Mbeya Zonal Archives (hereafter MZA), No. M.7/3/170, "Tanzania Government War Graves, 1970/71.

After the end of World War One, the War Memorial Committee (with a chairman appointed by the Governor) was formed to take care of all war graves in Tanganyika. In 1946, Provincial Committees were established in each Province for the same purpose. Seen in MZA, No. M.7/3/170, Prime Minister to all Provisional Commissioners, 15th June 1961. See also correspondence in TNA, No. CW 80158, "Maintenance of War Graves," 1961; TNA, No. 33180/68, Province Office (Northern Province) CS, 23rd March 1946. Commemorations of war heroes by the Germans continued after the Second World War. See, for example, Joson Verber, The Conundrum of Colonialism in Postwar Germany (USA: University of Iowa, 2010), pp. 1–2.

TNA, 24678, "Erection of War Memorial at Morogoro Cemetery of Germans", December, 1936.

This point is further elaborated in chapter six. Extensive studies on colonial place names in Tanganyika have been done by G.N. Shann, "Tanganyika Place Names of European Origin", TNR, (1960), Nos. 58 and 59, (1960).

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 295.

NA, CO 691/87/2/11, Extract from the General Manager, 25th July, 1927; NA, Co691/87/2/14A, Secretary of State to Millbank Westmister, 8th April 1927; Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika,

because the British colonial officials did not like the idea of a ship being named after the German Governor, Graf von Goetzen. A suggestion was even made earlier that the steamer be named after the British Governor.47 Generally speaking, the decade proceeding the end of the First World saw the British trying to efface German legacies in East Africa. For example, a British economist complained in 1922: "it is now several months since the Treasury received the English paper money and the new shillings, yet no effort has been made to put our money into circulation." <sup>48</sup> His fear was that the local people "[were] becoming used to seeing Kaiser Head on the coin" which would affect British political influence in Tanganyika.49


Table 3: Re-named German Place Names in 1920.

Source: The Tanganyika Territory: Official Gazette, Vol. I., No. 35, 14th October 1920, p. 209.

p. 295. These included Kibweza, Sumbua, Kirando, Kala, Lufu River, Mpungulu, Kasanga and Kirambo.

NA, CO 691/85/13/No. 496, L.S.Amery to Sir Donald Cameroon (Governor), 5th August 1926.

"Paper Currency", Dar es Salaam Times, Vol.III, No. 14, 18th February 1922, p. 6.

Dar es Salaam Times, Vol. III, No.14, 18th February 1922, p.6. According Terence Ranger, 'the Kaiser stood as the dominat symbol of German rule.' Seen in Terence Ranger, "The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa", in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition (Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 211.

Table 4: Re-named German Roads and Streets in 1920.



#### Table 4 (continued)

Source: The Tanganyika Territory: Official Gazette, Vol. I., No. 35, 4th October 1920, p. 209.

The mandate government also ensured that German political activities in the territory did not flourish. Archival sources mention some organizations which were formed by the German community in Tanganyika with political ambitions.50 Judging from the evidence at hand, the formation of such organizations was meant to achieve two important things: first, to unify all German nationals in Tanganyika in the hope of the future return of their colony, and second, to maintain cooperation between the German nationals living in Tanganyika and those in Germany. Michael J. Macoum describes the German nationals who returned to Tanganyika after the First World War as people who "were obsequious towards officials, friendly with the Asians and benign to the Africans," hoping to win "acceptance and fame among the people of Tanganyika." <sup>51</sup> Macoum adds that "Germany was aiming

A wide coverage of these activities can be seen in NA, CO 691/160/11, "Permanency of Mandate, German Aspiration", 1938; Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 118.

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 117.

Figure 3: Liemba Ship. Photogaphed by Eliane Kurmann. Photo: © Eliane Kurmann.

to regain pre-eminence in her former colonies through peaceful commercial penetration." <sup>52</sup> It was clear that the Germans were determined to have total control of the economy as they were optimistic that Tanganyika would revert to Germany in the near future. Within the British community in Tanganyika, rumours circulated that the Usagara Company was being used by the German government to import German commercial capital into Tanganyika. Jointly owned by a Greek and a German, the company was, among others, thought to finance German settlers, particularly German coffee growers in north-eastern Tanganyika.53

As far as the politics of commemoration were concerned, the formation of the German Association (Deutscher Bund) in July 1933, for instance, exacerbated antagonistic relations between the British and Germans in Tanganyika.54 In a meeting held at Dodoma to inaugurate the association, Troost was appointed the Landesgruppenleiter for Tanganyika and Ortsgruppenleiter for Moshi District, and Captain

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 117. It must be remembered that article 6 of the Anglo-German Commercial Treaty of 1924 provided for the Germans to engage in commercial activities in Tanganyika. See, for example, NA, CO691/160/11, Telegrams Nos. 187 and 188, 18th September 1938. Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 116.

This was registered by the mandate government as a Cultural Association. Seen in NA, CO691/ 160/11/89–90, Letter to District Office of Moshi, 26th July 1938.

von Schoenfeld was installed as the first leader of the Deutscher Bund. <sup>55</sup> Another German organization with a similar political impact was the Hitler Youth Movement/Association, formed in February 1934.<sup>56</sup> Its members constituting some 140 adults and 210 children in 1937 were often accused by British officials of wearing military uniforms in the 1930s.57 Other organizations with marginal political influence were Bund Deutscher Frauen, an organization for German women in Tanganyika, and the Sports Club, founded by Dabaga-based youths in 1936.58 Others were Deutsche Arbeitsfront, German Labour Front, founded in the early 1930s and later in 1933 renamed, Deutscher Handlungsgehilfenverband or German Commercial Assistants' Union, as well as Stützpunkt, a sort of help-post, originally established in Dodoma and later on its activities extended to Moshi and Dar es Salaam.59 The so-called German School Association (Deutscher Schulverband) was formed in October 1935 under P. Rheinbaben as president to supervise and co-ordinate all German schools in Tanganyika.60

The founding of German associations indeed worried some British officials that the Germans might take up arms against the British government in order to regain their colony. These officials greatly feared German underground military activities, such as smuggling arms and ammunition into Tanganyika and establishing arms caches. In 1937, a British Officer had warned that the Germans were militarily prepared to overthrow the mandate government.61 He further warned that in the event of a German attack, the chances were that about 40 percent of the Africans would support them in fear of revenge.62 Despite the absence of evidence for all these allegations, the government tightened security regulations in the territory. German activities in Tanganyika were therefore closely watched and regarded with suspicion. Upon the arrival of the S.S. Tanganyika at the port of Tanga in September 1938, for example, a company of the Kings African Rifles (KAR) was immediately dispatched by order of the Deputy Governor to inspect

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, pp. 119–120. Before then, Troost was working as a manager of the Usagara Company's training school at Altona in Hamburg.

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, pp. 122–126; NA, CO 691/153/13/21, C.Y. Carstairs to Captain Graham, 3rd September 1937.

NA, CO691/160/11/89, Eric Reid to Bruce Hutt, 26th July 1938; NA, CO 691/153/13/21, C.Y. Carstairs to Captain Graham, 3rd September 1937.

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, pp. 122–126. For the statistics see NA, CO 691/153/13/21, Y. Carstairs to Captain Graham, 3rd September 1937.

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, pp. 122–126.

See correspondences in TNA, 23256, "German School Association", 1936.

NA, CO691/160/11, Telegrams Nos.187 and 188, 18th September 1938; NA, CO691/160/11/26A, Air Ministry to Colonial Office, 12th May1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/77, Telegrams Nos.187 and 188, 18th September 1938.

the ship for the presence of arms and ammunition.<sup>63</sup> Six months before this event, British security officers were on the alert concerning rumours of "contingents of Germans from Tanga and Dar es Salaam" visiting the Schleswig-Holstein, a Germany naval training ship at Zanzibar.64 Similar incidents happened in Dar es Salaam. A mere beer-drinking party held by high-ranking German leaders on board the S.S. Adolph Woermann in the harbour of Dar es Salaam drew the suspicious eyes of Government officers who had mistaken it for a political meeting.<sup>65</sup>

As mentioned earlier, the wearing of political uniforms was another means used by some members of German organizations to express their political motives.<sup>66</sup> Because there was no law preventing individuals from wearing political uniforms, it was decided that no action should be taken to regulate or control it "unless the local situation deteriorates." <sup>67</sup> Therefore, the absence of a legal mechanism to control the wearing of political uniforms allowed the Germans to openly express their political feelings, such as singing songs and hoisting flags and the like. They would, for example, wear political uniforms on the day when the mandated territory celebrated His Majesty's birthday. One such incident occurred in August 1938 at Moshi, where it was reported that a German leader, Mr. Delfs-Fritz, attending such a celebration wore a political uniform.68 Present at the party were other Germans dressed normally as well as "children from the German school at Mweka." 69

The event at Moshi became the focus of debate by the mandate government. Although some British officers saw nothing wrong with German political uniforms, others did. For instance, the District Officer of Moshi stated that "Mr. Delfs-Fritz wore the uniform because he was officially representing his home government." <sup>70</sup> He added that the wearing of such a uniform by Mr. Delfs-Fritz was

NA, CO691/160/11/77, Telegrams Nos.187 and 188, 18th September 1938. To hide the reason for moving KAR Company to Tanga, it was suggested that the government should announce that 'the troops had been moved to Tanga for training purposes.'

CO691/160/11/8, Dispatch No. 24, NA, 12th May1938; NA, CO691/160/11/11, Dispatch No. 23, 16th May 1938; NA, CO691/160/11/146, Report from S.F. Sayers (Deputy Governor) to W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, M.P (Secretary of State for the Colonies), 23rd April 1938. It was estimated that about 75 and 35 Germans from Tanga and Dar es Salaam respectively visited the naval ship in question.

NA, CO691/153/13/77, Commissioner of Police to CS, 12th August 1937.

Wearing of military uniforms by German youths at Moshi was not uncommon See, for example, NA, CO 691/153/13/88, F.A.B. Nicoll (Commissioner of Police) to CS, 15th July 1937.

NA, CO691/160/11/6c, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 8th September 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/6c, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 8th September 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/6c, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 8th September 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/6c, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 8th September 1938.

nothing other than "a mark of respect" for the mandate government.71 However, this did not allay the fears of some British officers.72 It became a matter for discussion in the House of Commons, and although it appeared there was not much to worry about, a proposal was made to legislate against the wearing of political uniforms in Tanganyika.<sup>73</sup> Within the territory, however, some people wanted the government to regulate the wearing of political uniforms.

By and large, the commemorative initiatives discussed so far indicate that the Germans and British living in mandated Tanganyika had mutual and conflicting interests. The mandate government played the leading role in regulating commemorative events, because it wanted to strengthen its political position and show the German community its imperial identity and superiority. Africans were rarely involved in the events discussed so far. The following sections examine the extent to which the African community was involved or participated in the politics of imperial identity and commemorations.

#### Africans Involvement in the Politics of Commemoration and Heroism

Some African elites allied with either the Germans or British in supporting imperial motives in mandated Tanganyika. Records indicate that in some cases ex-German Askaris were lured into supporting colonial revisionism. In the Western Province, for example, efforts were made by individual Germans to draw ex-German Askaris closer to them by making them believe that the British were bound to cede Tanganyika to Germany. For example, "Herr Schroeder-Wildberg, a well known supporter of colonial revisionism, "had managed to gather round him a small clique of ex-German Askaris and a sprinkling of Indians" whom he had made to believe that Tanganyika would at no distant date revert to the

NA, CO691/160/11/6c, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 8th September 1938. In his congratulatory letter submitted to the District Officer, Herr Delfs-Fritz wrote: "On the occasion of celebrating the birthday of His Majesty The King of Great Britain I beg to convey in the name of the NationalsozialistischeDeutscheArabeiterPartei my sincerest wishes for the health and life of His Majesty The King. May His Majesty's reign be most successful for the Nations embodied in the British Empire and for the whole World." Seen in NA, CO691/160/11/87, Landesgruppe to District Officer (Moshi), 9th June 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/89–90, Eric Reid, Silverdale Estate to District Officer (Moshi), 26th July 1938. The Consuls for Germany in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi wrote to apologize for what had happened. NA, CO691/160/11/161, "German Propaganda in Tanganyika, Alleged Intensification of Activities", Cutting of the Tanganyika Standard, 26th February 1938.

Germans.74 On learning of this situation, the government closely watched his activities. In April 1938, a similar incident was reported in Tabora and Bukoba, where ex-German Askaris dressed in 'German uniforms' were on parade.<sup>75</sup> The report added that some members of the African Association at Bukoba had established close ties with the Germans there. Generally, towards the outbreak of the Second World War both the British and Africans greatly feared that the Germans would take back Tanganyika. The Africans were particularly worried about the political situation of the late 1930s, when the Germans were more open about their political ambitions in Tanganyika.76

The foregoing "indiscretions," as British officers often called them, not only angered the mandate government and German consul, but also impeded the development of good "Anglo-German relations in the territory." <sup>77</sup> Nevertheless, both the local German leaders and British officials were at times disturbed by some papers for misreporting German activities in the colonies. In such cases, the mandate government would blame the reporters. D.W. Kennedy, the Acting Governor, described the local news reporters in Tanganyika as follows: "they are of poor calibre and seem, through stupidity or intent, to be doing all they can to stir up racial animosities at a time when there is absolutely no justification for their outpourings." <sup>78</sup> To give but one example, on 23rd June 1937, the Tanganyika Standard reported on the digging of trenches and military training by members of the Mweka-based Hitler Youth Movement in Moshi.<sup>79</sup> Much to the annoyance of the government, the investigation carried out afterwards showed that no such thing had ever happened in Moshi. The new report came out with new findings indicating that German boy scouts were "at their annual jamboree and camp," actually doing no military training or preparation as reported earlier.<sup>80</sup>

However, it is an undoubted fact that the underground political activities of the Germans posed a great challenge to both the German Consulate and the mandate

NA, CO691/160/11/95, "Notice: Agents of the Consulate", September, 1938, p. 4.

NA, CO691/160/11/145, Cutting from The Daily Times of 22nd April 1938; CO691/153/13/13, Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 8th June 1937.

NA, CO691/160/11/50, Governor to the Secretary of State, September, 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/95, "Notice: Agents of the Consulate," September, 1938, p. 5. When Major Alan Dower visited Tanganyika in July 1938 he remarked thus: "I hope this country and Germany will be the greatest of friends, but the handing over of Tanganyika Territory would not certainly lead to greater friendship." See also NA, CO691/160/11 "Tanganyika Cannot Be Surrendered, by Major Alan Dower, M.P., Addresses East African Groupe", 28th July 1938.

NA, CO691/153/13/22, D.W. Kennedy to W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, M.P (Secretary of State for the colonies), 19th August 1937.

NA CO691/153/13/95, Cutting from the Tanganyika Standard, 23rd June 1937.

NA, CO691/153/13/16, D.W. Kennedy to W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, M.P, 17th July 1937.

government. On 26th February 1938, the German Consul in Dar es Salaam warned the Germans in Tanganyika to desist from engaging in politics because they were "guests in a foreign country." <sup>81</sup> But as the campaign for re-acquisition of former German colonies continued through the 1930s in Germany, the Germans in Tanganyika were becoming increasingly involved in political activities.82 In a colonial festival organized by the Reich Colonial Association on the 4th July 1938 in Hamburg, Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg made it clear that former German colonies were rightfully "German property." <sup>83</sup> He further argued that the mandate arrangement was nothing other than a disguised form of colonialism. However, the mandate government, in collaboration with German officials in Tanganyika, had to make sure that the campaign for colonial revisionism did not result in political chaos.84 Addressing a German meeting at Moshi, Herr Roediger told a gathering of Germans that "the German colonial problem would not be solved in Africa but in Europe" and for this reason they should "leave that matter alone." <sup>85</sup> They were warned "not to occupy themselves with foreign policy." De Carriere, The German Consul in Nairobi, stated:

Every German and especially every German living in Tanganyika has the right to hope for and to look forward to it. But he has no right whatever to occupy himself with this eminently political question to conduct any propaganda in connection with it. This question can only be dealt with by the cabinets in Berlin and London. There is not a single German who could further or hinder it. Whoever discusses it with his countrymen or with British subjects offends our hosts and does harm to himself as well as to the German community in this country because he creates a false impression among the British.86

The above reaction to German political attitudes by individual colonial officials was not the only one. Another reaction came from the Africans who, covertly, expressed their fear of the return of Tanganyika to Germany. Africans, together with Indians, were always overwhelmed each time it was rumoured that Tanganyika would revert to the former colonial master.<sup>87</sup> In this connection, an anonymous

NA, CO691/160/11/8, "Kilimanjaro Meeting," 1938.

NA, CO 691/153/13 "Permanency of Mandate: German Aspirations", 1937.

NA, CO691/160/11/45/403, Extract from the Daily Telegraph, 4th July 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/158, H. Peeng (German Consul in Dar es Salaam) to CS (Dar es Salaam), 9th March 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/146, Report from S.F. Sayers (Deputy Governor) to W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, M.P, 23rd April 1938. The meeting was attended by Ludwig Aeldert, Consul General for East Africa stationed at Nairobi. Herr Roediger was Acting German Consul General at Lourenco Marques who was on leave.

NA, CO691/160/11/158, H. Peeng to CS, 9th March 1938.

NA, CO691/160/11/166, Governor to CS for the Colonies, 11th November 1938; NA, CO691/160/11, "Uncertainty of the Future of Sovereignty of Tanganyika" by F.J. Anderson, November, 1938; NA,

bishop from Masasi believed: "There can be no doubt that, apart from a few ex-German 'akidas' or 'jumbes,' who under indirect rule no longer receive monthly salaries, the revival in this country of German rule would be regarded as an immeasurable tragedy." <sup>88</sup> This fear was widely shared in the colony. In November 1938 it was reported by Mr. Mark Young, the Acting Governor:

There is doubt that in almost every district recent rumours have given rise to considerable discussion and that there is among the African population a feeling of insecurity and anxiety which is not confined to the educated native. So far as the latter are concerned, I am told that every penny they earn is being saved and that, in the event of the Territory being transferred, a number have expressed their intention of migrating to adjoining territories.<sup>89</sup>

#### A year before, a similar view was shared by the Bishop above:

In November 1935 I spent two days at the village of the Yao Sultan Kandulu, in the Tunduru area. He asked me privately what was the meaning of all that was being said about the country being handed back to Germany, 'because,' he went on, it concerns me intimately, as I fought on the British side. It would therefore be necessary for me to move into British territory before a German government became re-established. I made light of it and told him not to believe all he heard, and that many rumours have no truth in them at all, but it impressed me greatly that this man, living in a remote district 250 miles from the coast, should, before the rather agitated campaign of 1936 had begun, already have been told that the country would probably return to Germany. Thousands of Africans fought in the war on the British side, and I have no doubt that rather than face German rule, a number of these who like Kandulu would feel compelled to move out of this territory into Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Uganda, or perhaps Kenya, would be very considerable.<sup>90</sup>

Discernible in these accounts is an indication that traumatic memories of German colonialism still lingered in the minds of the majority of the local people who did not wish to see Tanganyika reverting to Germany.91 Thus, the memories of ruthless exploitation by the Germans heightened the anxiety and confusion of local people over the allegation of the possible return of the Germans. To allay this fear, the mandate government, in collaboration with the home government, issued statements to the effect that Tanganyika would continue to be administered under

CO691/160/11/158, "The Mandate "Agitation: The Right Method," November, 1938; NA, CO691/153/11/ 12, Extract from Morning Post, 21st June 1937.

Cited in NA, CO 691/153/14/18, The Bishop of Masasi to Secretary of State for the colonies, 25th June 1937.

NA, CO691/160/11/166, Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 11th November 1938.

NA, CO 691/153/14/18, The Bishop of Masasi to Secretary of state for the colonies, 25th June 1937.

NA, CO691/153/13/44, "Colonies and the Native", A Cutting from Manchester Guardian, 29th August 1937.

mandate laws until further notice.<sup>92</sup> Additionally, British newspapers published views of the Africans on their dislike of German colonial rule. Individual British officers used the memory of the Maji Maji war to tarnish the image of the Germans. The Manchester Guardian of August 29th 1937 reported: "they [the local people] remember too well the slaughter of their fathers which followed the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905; they know that Germany has a long memory." <sup>93</sup> According to this report, some African chiefs and the ordinary men of the territory frowned at the thought of the return of Tanganyika to the Germans as the majority of them "personally or by tradition [remembered] what German rule was like." <sup>94</sup> For example, one of the arguments put forward in support of British acquisition of German colonies in the House of Commons in 1915 was that British colonial administration had gained acceptance among the Africans primarily because of German past experiences in the continent.95 By 1916, the politics of annexation in Britain had attracted people from outside the government, particularly human right activists and scholars, who opposed German colonies "be returned to Germany because of the atrocities committed by the Germans against the natives." <sup>96</sup> However, this accusation, the so-called "colonial guilt lie" was strongly opposed in Germany in the subsequent decades.<sup>97</sup> Wolfe W. Schmokel has written that "the German representatives on the League's Permanent Mandates" in the period between 1927 and 1933 "were sensitive to [. . .] anything in the annual reports submitted by the mandatory powers that reflected in any way unfavorably on German prewar colonial practice." 98

At the government level, a referendum, which was code-named An Appeal from the Peoples of Tanganyika, was held which the Africans were required to

NA, CO691/160/11/142, Telegram No. 226, 2nd December 1938. Part of this Telegram stated: "On November 29th Legislative Council of Tanganyika by unanimous resolution made clear the desire of the peoples of Tanganyika to remain under British rule and expressed the hope that confidence would be restored to them by recent assurances given by the Prime Minister of Great Britain."

NA, CO691/153/13/44, Manchester Guardian, 29th August 1937; NA, CO691/153/13/1, The East Africa and Rhodesia, 21st January 1937.

NA, CO691/153/13/44, Manchester Guardian, 29th August 1937.

Gaddis Smith, "The British Government and the Disposition of the German Colonies in Africa, 1914–1918," in Prosser Gifford and WM. Roger Louis (eds), with the assistance of Alison Smith), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 15.

Smith, "The British Government", p. 284.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 64.

Schmokel, The Hard Death of Imperialism, pp. 303–304. See also Strandmann and Smith, The German Empire in Africa and British Perspectives, p. 734.

sign.99 It is interesting that when this particular exercise was being carried out at Masasi, people refused to disclose their identity for fear of the Germans taking vengeance on them in future.100 Overall, fear of the Germans in the Southern regions of Tanganyika was widespread because of the ruthless suppression of the Maji Maji uprising. This fear, unfortunately, lingered in the minds of these people even after independence. Cases of people hiding or refusing to be interviewed on matters concerning the Maji Maji War were reported after independence. When doing his oral research at Matumbi between 1966 and 1967, Gilbert Clement Kamana Gwassa failed to solicit information from some 'survivors of the war' who had fresh memories of the German crackdown on Maji Maji war fighters.<sup>101</sup> However, one should not underestimate the fact that colonial reports on this particular aspect could have been exaggerated for the simple reason that the British did not welcome the idea of losing Tanganyika to the Germans. "The Likelihood," Gaddis Smith reflected, "that the German East Africa, once captured, would be returned in a peace settlement diminished as the British expenditure in men and treasure in the campaign mounted. To think of abandoning what has been won at excessive cost is not easy." <sup>102</sup> The following section provides more details on how the payment of the ex-German Askaris became an issue of political significance.

#### The Politics Involved in the Payment of Ex-German Askaris

Payment of the ex-German Askaris who had fought in the 1914–1918 War influenced the politics of colonial heroism in the inter-war period. After the end of the First World War, the Germans left Tanganyika before paying the men who, during the war, had served them as Askaris, porters, auxiliary combatants or as servants of "the German military and Imperial German Postal Service." <sup>103</sup> When these claims appeared in the early 1920s, the German government responded quickly by sending a delegation to Tanganyika to go round the country, moving from


NA, CO 691/153/14/18, The Bishop of Masasi to Secretary of State for the colonies, 25th June 1937.

NA, CO 691/153/14/18, The Bishop of Masasi to Secretary of State for the colonies, 25th June 1937.

For this classification of groups of people who rendered support to the Germans during the First World War see for example, TNA, No. 193/17, Accession No. 69, Circular letter No. 12 of 1926, 22nd February 1926.

district to district, making the payments.<sup>104</sup> In comparison to a similar exercise carried out by the British to return the money surrendered to the British war officers by the ex-German Askaris who had been detained as war prisoners, the German delegation was able to make the payment in a shorter time and with fewer difficulties. Due to this, some British officers expressed their worry about the negative feelings the local people were developing towards the British colonial government. This section therefore throws some light on the extent to which issues of fame and local influence were brought to bear on the mandate government's handling of the payment of the ex-German Askaris.

There were two groups of claimants, as far as the above-mentioned groups of Africans who participated in the First World War are concerned: those who had fought on the side of the Germans and had not received their 'war wages' from the German colonial government, and those who had ended up being prisoners of war in the British prisoner-of-war camps and whose money they possessed upon entering the camps were taken from them by British army officers. In view of this, the German delegation was only concerned with the first group. The latter claimed their money back from the British Army when they were released at the end of the war. As already mentioned, the Germans responded swiftly to settle the claims made by their former so-called "Native Comrades." The total claims amounted to an estimated sum of £500,000.<sup>105</sup> Some British officers in the government, fearing that the beneficiaries of these arrears would end up squandering the money, thought of encouraging them to open bank accounts "to promote savings among the natives." 106

The German delegation arrived in Tanganyika in early 1926 and immediately circular letters were distributed to the local governments to make preparations for the payment. The British colonial government fully co-operated with the German delegation in carrying out this exercise in the country. It was mandatory

R.W. Gordon was appointed as the District in charge of the German Delegation. Seen in NA, CO691/90/12, R.W. Gordon to CS, 21st March 1927.

TNA, No. 193/10/10, Accession No. 69, confidential circular letter from CS to all Senior Commissioners and Administrative Officers in charge of District and Sub-Districts, 18th February 1926. TNA, No. 193/10/23, Accession No. 69, The Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd. (Dar es Salaam) to CS, 3rd March 1926; TNA, No. 193/10/10, Accession No. 69, Confidential circular letter from the Chief Secretary, 18th February 1926. On reporting the amount of money to be used for this purpose, the Acting CS, C.C.F. Dundas said that the majority of people received "relatively large sums." "It is most desirable", he added, "that some influence be brought to bear on these natives to induce them to make the best use of this money either by expending it on real benefits, or by placing it on deposit. Nothing should be done which might be construed as a direct order or coercion but Administrative Officers should suggest to the natives the best means of making use of the money and endeavour to dissuade them from squandering it in a thriftless manner."

that all payments were made through Administrative Officers.<sup>107</sup> In fact, before the permission was granted to the German delegates to proceed with payment plans, the mandate government had to ensure that "the mission would have nothing of a military character, and the proceedings would be under the direction and control of [. . .]" British colonial officers.<sup>108</sup> The local governments were required to prepare a list of the claimants with the necessary supporting documents. The list had to indicate particulars such as the "districts to which the [claimants] originally belonged in German times as well their tribe, current residence, and evidence of their employment like letters of appointment and salary details." <sup>109</sup> In comparison, the German delegates were less pedantic in approving the claims, which meant that the payments were made without any hurdles. As a matter of fact, payments were made "according to the merits of each individual case, notwithstanding the fact that the claimant [was] no longer in possession of German receipts or other documents." <sup>110</sup> What is more, German war records, unearthed at Njombe in October 1918, consisted of "full records of German troops and followers in the field," which were of great use in cross-checking the claims made by the Africans.<sup>111</sup>

As noted above, some ex-German Askaris claimed a refund of their money forcibly "surrendered to the British military authorities in East Africa" on entering British prisoner-of-war camps or on admission to hospital.112 The Military Claims Commissioner from the War Office came to Tanganyika in 1921 to look into these claims.113 The Africans were encouraged to submit their claims, though no immediate payments were made.114 The War Office was reluctant to make payments even

TNA, No. 193/10, Accession No. 69, Circular letter No. 0238/92 from John Scott to all Senior Commissioners and Administrative Offices in charge of District and Sub-districts, 16th January 1926.

Sr. Donald Cameron, My Tanganyika Service and Some Nigeria (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1939), pp. 66–67.

TNA, No. 193/10, Circular letter No.0238/92, 16th January 1926; TNA, No. 193/10/6, Accession No. 6, H. Grieson, D.O, Moshi, to all Chagga chiefs, 4th February 1926.

TNA, No. 193/17, Accession No. 69, Circular letter No. 12 of 1926, 22nd February 1926; NA CO691/102/15/1, Governor's Deputy (Dar es Salaam) to The Right Honourable (London), 13th February 1929. The British colonial government emphasized: "the claims of ex-German for moneys surrendered by the British Military Authorities might be settled where the Government was satisfied that the claim was genuine.

TNA, No. 193/10/4, Accession No. 69, District Officer to P.C (Northern Province), 5th February 1926.

NA, CO 691/90/12/13, Secretary of State Office (Dar es Salaam) to The War Office (London), 18th October 1927; NA, CO 691/90/12, Minutes No. 10, 14th July 1927; NA, CO691/90/12, G.W. Gordon to Chief Secretary, 21st March 1927.

NA, CO 691/90/12, Entry No. 10, 14th July 1927.

NA CO 691/102/15, Entry No. 4, War Office, 28th June 1929.

when the claims and all necessary supporting documents were submitted. Due to this, the local authority in Dar es Salaam continued to be at loggerheads with the War Office, blaming it for delaying the payments. For its part, the War Office complained about exaggerated claims, which, above all, lacked supporting documents or evidence.115 "In principle," complained R.W. Gordon, "I beg to submit that our Military Authorities were technically to blame. Money or notes taken away on capture should have been returned to these ex-German Askaris etc. on their release." 116

After the foregoing huffing and puffing, an agreement was reached in early 1929 whereby the money owed by the government to the Africans should be paid as soon as possible. When submitting the report on the total claims, estimated at £4,266, to the higher authority in London in early 1929, the Deputy Governor wrote: "I trust that you will be able to see your way to pressing this matter strongly upon the War office, thus removing an injustice which cannot but rankle in the minds of the natives concerned and affect the prestige of the British Administration in their eyes." <sup>117</sup> Undoubtedly, the slackness of the British in settling the Ex-German Askaris' claims not only annoyed some Government officials in Dar es Salaam, but also made them fearful that British influence was declining relative to that of the Germans whose payments were made without a hitch.118 R.W. Gordon, who was the District Commissioner in charge of the German Commission of Payment, warned and advised the government that:

The native's sense of injustice has been thoroughly proved by the creation of the present unhappy contrast: on the one side he sees that the German Government has honourably paid its arrears of war wages, whereas on the other our Government has, up till the present, repudiated native claims to refund part of the aforesaid war wages, of which he was deprived while lingering in British captivity! But there happily remains time for us to efface this one dark stain that, in regard to German payments, does particular and exceeding injury to our fame." 119

NA CO 691/102/15, Entry No. 4, War Office, 28th June 1929; NA, CO 691/90/12/7, Confidential Letter, 28th May 1927.

NA, CO691/90/12, G.W. Gordon to CS, 21st March 1927.

NA, CO691/102/15/1, Governor's Deputy (Dar es Salaam) to The Right Honourable (London), 13th February 1929.

John Scott, the Acting Governor, admitted that payments by Germans "were completed so rapidly and without friction," that the whole exercise was handled fair[ly] and scrupulous[ly]", NA, CO691/90/12/18344/11, John Scott (Acting Governor) to The Right Honourable, 14th July 1927; Cameron, My Tanganyika Service, p. 68.

NA, CO691/90/12, R.W. Gordon to the CS, Dar es Salaam, 30th June 1927.

This view was seconded by the Acting Governor, who cautioned the government that immediate measures had to be taken to settle the claims lest it would create what he called a "deplorable" impression in the eyes of the local people.120

It must be noted that the mandate government co-operated with the German delegation in making payments to the former German Askaris with a view to concealing the German gesture of honour by creating the impression among the claimants that the British were instrumental in effecting the payments. This view was confirmed by John Scott with reference to R.W. Gordon that far from "causing a reaction of feeling in the native mind in favour of Germany, the payments tended to increase [British] prestige." <sup>121</sup> Therefore, it was this good image that the Government had, through the German Commission of Payment, painstakingly created among the local population, which they feared would amount to nothing if the government did not settle the claims of the Africans once and for all. It can be seen therefore that the British jumped at the chance of settling this matter hoping to paint a good image of their administration in the eyes of the Africans, to the detriment of the Germans' reputation. The readiness and swiftness of the Germans in honouring the claims of their former Askaris set a record which could not easily be broken by the British. However, the British attained a similar achievement to that of the Germans when they were able to return the skull of Chief Mkwawa to the Hehe people and award war medals to all Tanzanians who were recruited into KAR during the Second World War.122 The story of Mkwawa is covered in the following section.

#### Campaign for the Return of the Skull of Chief Mkwawa, 1918–1955

The campaign for the return of the skull of Mkwawa, the former chief of Uhehe, was another commemoration, which invoked memories of German colonialism in mandated Tanganyika. It is worth beginning this section with a few glimpses of the military history of Uhehe. Pre-colonial history indicates that by the time the Germans sent military expeditions to Uhehe, Mkwawa and his father, Muyugumba,

NA, CO 691/90/12/18344/10, Acting Governor (Dar es Salaam) to the Right Honourable (London), 14th July 1927.

NA, CO 691/90/12/18344/10, Acting Governor (Dar es Salaam) to the Right Honourable (London), 14th July 1927.

The exercise of awarding war medals was conducted all over Tanganyika during the 1950s. Seen in various correspondences: TNA, C 1/1, "Ceremonial: Honours, Medals, Kings/Queen's Birthday, Celebrations and Funerals", 1938–1962, Accession No. 155.

had achieved lordship through war over the adjoining chiefdoms and those located far afield.123 Muyugumba, who died in 1879, had fought successful wars of expansion and plunder (cattle raids) against the Mbunga people and Kipeta of Songea Ngoni in 1875 and 1878, respectively.124 In killing Kipeta, whose position as chief was taken over by Chabruma, Muyugumba almost suffered defeat in a counterattack launched by the latter. In one of the skirmishes engineered by Chabruma, the advancing Ngoni soldiers were able to besiege Muyugumba at Lugalo, but he was rescued by his son, Mkwawa.125 By 1879 when he died, Muyugumba had, for the purpose of expanding sources of captives, ivory, and stock, exerted military influence as far as Pawaga, Ugogo, Usagara, Usangu and Ubena, as well as Ruaha and Kilombero river valleys.126

With the death of Muyugumba, Mkwawa became the new chief of Uhehe. Following in the footsteps of his father, Mkwawa wanted to extend his sphere of trade in ivory and slaves as far as possible. For this reason, his neighbouring chiefdoms continued to be terrified of him. To save his skin, for example, chief Merere of Usangu established blood relations with Mkwawa by giving him two daughters as wives in exchange for the latter's elder sister.<sup>127</sup> To punish his father's old enemy, Chabruma, Mkwawa charged at the Ngoni soldiers at the battle of Lupembe in 1882 and defeated them, hence forcing Chabruma to make peace with Mkwawa.<sup>128</sup> Although Mkwawa was able to terrorize his neighbours, his chiefdom was not immune to external invasions. He was at one time overpowered by chief Mwambamba of Unyamwezi and "forced to retreat to Gogo territory but soon came back and beat Mwambamba at the battle of Rusawira." <sup>129</sup> During

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," 1954, p. 1. The origin of Muyugumba, the founder of Uhehe chiefdom, is traced to Mujinga who initially lived in the lowlands of Usagara as a hunter. He migrated to "the Nguruhe area of Lower Dabaga and married a daughter of the Chief of that area." "He ultimately returned to Usagara, where he died. His son, also named Mujinga, became Chief of Nguruhe, and was succeeded in turn by his son, grandson and great-grandson, named Kitowa, Mdegela and Kilonge. The last of these, Kilonge, extended his chiefdom to included Rungemba by marrying the daughter of the Chief of that area." His son, Muyugumba, therefore emerged as a powerful chief of Uhehe.

See, for example, Edger V. Williams, "Trade and Warfare in Uhehe in the period 1850–1900" in Social Science Conference Papers, Vol. 1, 1969, p. 194.

Williams, "Trade and Warfare in Uhehe", p. 194; NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," 1954, p. 1.

Williams, "Trade and Warfare in Uhehe", pp. 194–195. Muyigumba's wars against the Bena and Sangu were fought between 1874 and 1875.

Williams, "Trade and Warfare in Uhehe", p. 19.

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," Second Edition, 1954, p. 2.

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," Second Edition, 1954, pp. 1–2.

his last war against Mwambamba in 1882, the battle of Igumbiro, Mkwawa successfully halted the advancing Nyamwezi troops.130

Therefore, between the 1880s and early 1890s, Mkwawa demonstrated unrivalled marshal skills to his neighbours, thereby establishing himself politically and militarily. His swiftness to assimilate new warfare methods, particularly the use of firearms and fortifications, coupled with his extensive experience of war in the region, had made his chiefdom strong enough to put up stiff resistance to the German troops. At the first attack by German forces in August 1891, Mkwawa's men were able to kill more than 200 African mercenaries, 10 Germans and Emil von Zeleweski, the German Commander.<sup>131</sup> More than four years elapsed before the Germans could launch a counter-attack in October 1894 to punish Mkwawa, when his fort was stormed and he and his men were put to flight, abandoning an arsenal of guns at his capital of Kalenga.<sup>132</sup> Thenceforth, Mkwawa fought a defensive war in the bush against the Germans who had offered a bounty of 5,000 rupees equivalent to £400 for his capture.<sup>133</sup> He was found dead on July 19th 1898. Historical accounts of his death attest to the fact that Mkwawa chose to take his own life rather than surrender to the Germans.134 Upon finding his body, the Germans, incensed at their failed mission of catching him alive, resolved to decapitate it and shipped the head to Germany as a trophy of victory.135

The circumstance in which the skull of Mkwawa became a matter of concern to the mandate government cannot be solely accounted for by article 246 of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which had instructed Germany to return it to Tanganyika.<sup>136</sup> The article stated: "the skull of Sultan Mkwawa, which was removed from German East Africa and taken to Germany [. . .] shall be handed over to the

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," Second Edition, 1954, p. 2.

James Leonard Giblin, A History of the Excluded: Making Family a refuge from State in Twentieth-century Tanzania (USA: Ohio University Press, 2005), p. 24.

These included "field-pieces, machine guns and numerous M/715." Seen in Helge Kjekshus, Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History: The Case of Tanganyika (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1977), p. 144.

NA. No. 13/172/01/75, Speech by His Excellency the Governor at the Ceremony of the Return of the Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe to Chief Adam Sapi and the People of Uhehe on Saturday, 19th June 1954, p. 3.

NA. No. 13/172/01/75, p. 5. Giblin gives a new version of the death of Mkwawa which challenges the view that Mkwawa died as "a lonely fugitive" in the bush. Giblin's interviews reveal that Mkwawa had close contact with his family to which he said his farewell before killing himself. This oral account reveals as well that Mkwawa was given a befitting traditional burial by his relations. For more discussion on this aspect see Giblin, A History of the Excluded, pp. 24–28.

G.L. Steer, Judgement on German East Africa (London: Hodder and Stoghton Ltd, 1939), p. 255.

Steer, Judgement on German East Africa, p. 255.

British Government." <sup>137</sup> For the British, the need to return the skull of Mkwawa to Tanganyika was of 'political importance.' <sup>138</sup> This is due to the fact that, soon after the war, the Hehe people took the matter up with the British Administrators whom they hoped would do anything in their power to make sure that the skull was returned to them.139 As a matter of fact, the British could not just ignore the Hehe's claims, because they had supported the British forces during the 1914–1918 war.<sup>140</sup> Thus, the British felt obliged to assist in returning the skull as a gesture of honour to the Hehe people. The intention to return the skull was initially that of a British officer who, on 14th November 1918, wrote to the Foreign Office advising that a clause instructing the Germans to return the skull should be inserted in the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.<sup>141</sup> The returned skull was hoped "to give [the Hehe people] a due sense of both the power and benevolence of their new rulers." 142 That was not the only reason for the British to intervene in this matter. It is obvious that British support was also meant to create a good impression and wield influence among the local population, consequently damaging Germany's image. Hence, they saw the possibility of achieving this by helping the Hehe people, who were desperate to have their sacred skull which was still in the Germans' possession. However, Sir Donald Cameron reveals that the skull saga which had hit the House of Commons in the late 1930s had never been an issue among the Hehe people. Wondering why Mkwawa's Skull had caught the attention of the House of Commons, Cameron had written in 1939: "I met no native in Tanganyika, not even Mkwawa's son, who was much interested in the subject." <sup>143</sup> Of course, Cameron and some of his colonial government officials in Tanganyika seemed to challenge the Treaty of Versailles for having demanded restoration of Mkwawa's Skull as he further wrote: "It seemed to us a strange course thus to commemorate in the midst of purely native country such a serious blow to German prestige." 144

It must be emphasized that the Germans frowned on some provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, which were, in the language of Michael S. Neiberg, utterly "symbolic or just bizarre." <sup>145</sup> This included the above-mentioned provision as well as two more provisions: the first demanded that "all French flags captured during

NA, No. 13/172/01/53, "Skulls for Selection", Der Spiegel, 25th August 1954, 1954–1956.

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 71.

NA. No. 13/172/01/8/8, Cutting from Evening News, 1955.

NA. No. 13/172/01/75, "Speech by His Excellency", 19th June 1954, p. 2.

NA, CO 691/112/16, Entry No. 1/F.O/9151/19, 18th October 1930.

NA, CO 691/112/16, Entry No. 1/G.E.A/4135, 18th October 1930.

Cameron, My Tanganyika Service, p. 50.

Cameron, My Tanganyika Service, pp. 49–50.

Michael S. Neiberg, The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History (USA: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 61.

the 1870–71 war" should be given back to France and the second instructed Germany to return to "the king of Hejaz a historic Koran that the Ottoman sultan had once given to Kaiser Wilhelm." <sup>146</sup> In the eyes of the Germans, these provisions sounded ridiculous, which explains why the German government was hesitant to comply with the British demand in the first place. After all, according to a translated article of Der Spiegel, "the corpus delicti of Article 246 of the Versailles Treaty was never received by the German government." <sup>147</sup> For the Germans, therefore, giving back the skull was something they could not approve of easily. Initially, they were somewhat cagey in giving information about it. According to British archival sources, the Germans pleaded ignorance and denied existence of the skull in Germany. Apart from their attempt to cover it up, the Germans also found fault with the provision of the Treaty of Versailles for not presenting it to them officially. In particular, Der Spiegel reported in 1954 that the British were using the skull saga as a pretext for enticing the Hehe people to join the battalion of the KAR, which was fighting against the Mau Mau in Kenya.148 "The young Wahehe," it was reported, "were given to understand how they could show their gratitude for the British solicitude for the happiness of the Wahehe tribe, namely by volunteering to fight against the Mau Mau." <sup>149</sup> Evidence in Sir Edward Twining's speech delivered on the day the skull was being officially presented to the Hehe people in Iringa indicates that, apart from praising the Hehe people for their fine "martial qualities," he asked chief Adama Sapi (the grandson of chief Mkwawa) to allow what he called "the cream of [his] youth to come forward and join the KAR." <sup>150</sup> Attending this ceremony was also the Officer commanding the Sixth battalion of the KAR who had planned to recruit about 70 Hehe youths on the spot.151 Although this battalion was based in Dar es Salaam, a similar Sixth battalion of the KAR existed in Kenya, which was one of the KAR troops fighting Mau Mau guerrillas in Kenya during the 1950s.152 Others were the First Lancashire Fusiliers, the Fourth KAR of Uganda and

Neiberg, The Treaty of Versailles, p.61.

NA. No. 13/172/01/53, "Skulls for Selection", 25th August 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/53, "Skulls for Selection", 25th August 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/53, "Skulls for Selection", 25th August 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/75, "Speech by His Excellency", 19th June 1954," p. 2. According to Luanda and Mwanjabala, 'By 1931 the soldiers of 6 K.A.R. were mostly Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Hehe, Yao and Ngoni, but also some Nubi and a Congolese Company Sergeant Major." See N.N. Luanda and E. Mwanjabala, "King's African Rifles to Tanganyika Rifles: A Colonial Sliceup", in Tanzania People's Defence Forces, Tanganyika Rifles Mutiny January 1964 (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 1993), p. 8.

NA. No. 13/172/01/75, "Speech by His Excellency", 19th June, 1954," p. 2.

Wunyabari O. Maloba, Mau Mau and Kenya: An Analysis of Peasant Revolt (UK: James Currey Publishers, 1993), p. 81; Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 96; Luanda and Mwanjabala, "King's

the local KAR of Kenya.153 There is however no evidence that the Dar es Salaam battalion was used in the Mau Mau War. The Committee of Imperial Defence declared that the Dar es Salaam battalion be excluded from "defending British interests in India, Middle East, and other parts of East Africa." <sup>154</sup> Of course, article 4 of the Mandatory forbade any military activities within and outside Tanganyika except for local policing.155 The only KAR battalion which could be used outside the territory was the Second battalion which was stationed in Tabora after it was moved from Nyasaland (Malawi) to Tanganyika.156 "At the outbreak of the second world war the 6 K.A.R. left Dar es Salaam for Moshi for re-training. It was destined for Nanyuki where it was responsible for the defence of the inland sector." 157

The enforcement of above-mentioned article 246 in the early 1920s did not bear fruit. After some failed efforts in 1920 and 1921, the matter was shelved until 1930 when it was mentioned again in the government. Such a sustained lack of interest in the skull question was due to the lack of co-operation and commitment by the German and British governments, respectively.158 When the German government was asked to return the skull of Mkwawa in the early 1920s, the German Foreign Officer, Gustav Stressemann, hastily ordered the museum authorities to "give them simply three skulls of their choice." <sup>159</sup> The museum authorities immediately sent three skulls to London for the British Foreign Office "to choose one of them as the head of the Sultan [Mkwawa]." Whereas nothing was ever reported by the British Foreign Office on the final decision made, the colonial government in Tanganyika was satisfied that none of the three skulls was found to belong to the late chief Mkwawa.<sup>160</sup> However, the colonial government did not do anything until the late 1930s when there was renewed interest in this matter.

African Rifles to Tanganyika Rifles", p. 11. The Sixth battalion of Dar es Salaam aimed at recruiting "local Africans who would not serve outside mandatory territory."

Maloba, Mau Mau and Kenya, pp. 81–82. By early 1953, the K.A.R troops "had failed to isolate and eliminate the Mau Mau guerrillas," hence the need for urgent reinforcements. See also Colonial Office, The Colonial Territories, 1952–1953 (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1953), p. 16.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 96.

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, p. 195. The article stated: "The Mandatory shall not establish any military or naval bases, nor erect any fortifications, nor organize any native military force in the territory except for local police purposes and for the defence of the territory."

Callahan, Mandate and Empire, pp. 96–97.

Luanda and Mwanjabala, "King's African Rifles to Tanganyika Rifles", p. 12.

NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/E/IV, Translation of an article Appearing in the German Monthly Periodical of'Der Spiegel', 6th July 1954.

NA, CO 691/112/16, Entry No. 1/F.O/40726/21, 18th October 1930.

Towards the end of the 1930s, the question of Mkwawa's skull was brought up again in the mandate government. The Governor, Sir Edward Twinning, played an instrumental role in initiating the process of searching for the skull.161 From his personal observation when visiting Iringa in 1949, he learned that the Hehe people "still attached considerable importance to the return of the skull" of their ancestor.162 In realization of this, he started a new process of searching for the skull with assistance provided by the United Kingdom High Commissioner for Western Germany. In April 1953, he was informed that the chances were that Mkwawa's skull could be among the many skulls stored in the Ethnological Museum of Bremen.163 On learning this, he gathered details of the shape and size of Mkwawa's skull in Iringa, which could be used for identification purposes.164 The elders' recollection of the unusual small head of the late Mkwawa, akin to that of Chief Adam Sapi and his sister, prompted him to measure the skull of the latter. The finding was 'a cephalic index of 71 percent,' a quite unusual size in scientific terms. This information, together with the knowledge that the skull had a hole "caused by a firearm with a caliber of 21.5 mm," typical of Schutzetruppe's firearms in wide use during the late 19th century, facilitated identification in Bremen.165 On his official trip to England in July 1953, Sir Edward Twinning resolved that he should not go back to Tanganyika before going to Bremen to investigate the skulls personally in the hope of recognizing the one belonging to the late Mkwawa.166 To identify the skull in Bremen, Sir Edward Twining was assisted by the British Consul, Mr. Massey, and the Director of the Bremen Museum, Dr. Wagner.167 They were finally able to find a skull whose physical appearance tallied with the information collected earlier by Twining in Uhehe. Thus, Mkwawa's skull had been found.

Transported in a special container from Bremen to Dar es Salaam via London, the skull arrived in Dar es Salaam in June 1954.168 We must add that transporting

NA. No. 13/172/01/8/8, Cutting from Evening News, 1955. Sir Edward Twining was appointed Governor of Tanganyika in June 1949 and that same year he "began to take a personal interest in the affair. It was largely due to his efforts that the matter was taken up once more."

NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe", 1954, p. 5.

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe", 1954, p. 5.

NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/66, "The Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe," 1954, p. 5.

NA. No. 13/172/01/21, Alan M. Streete to R.W. Francis (Colonial Office), December 1st, 1955; NA, CO 822/12/5/2, B.E. Rolfe to C.H. Fone, Esq, December 24th, 1957. The skull was handed over to Chief Adam Sapi on the 18th June 1954 after signing "a legal document" which was also "counter-

the skull from Dar es Salaam to Iringa was not an easy task for the team responsible. A number of mishaps befell those involved in transporting it, much to their bewilderment. In an attempt to transport it by air, "the emergency exit was blown off" and "the plane had to return to Dar es Salaam for repair." <sup>169</sup> The skull continued to misbehave even when transported by train via Dodoma. One person, a bandmaster by the name of Gulab Singh, died on the train, another one fell sick and had to go to hospital, "the head boy had a soda water bottle burst in his face and the cook was struck on the face by a flying saucer." <sup>170</sup> Puzzled by these mysterious happenings, Sir Edward Twinning had to open the box containing the skull at Dodoma to be sure of its contents, before he allowed it to be transported to Iringa.<sup>171</sup>

The successful return of the skull to Tanganyika was lauded by the Hehe people, and, indeed, its return served to foster good relations between the Hehe people and the Germans on the one hand and between the former and the British on the other. In a ceremony organized to officially receive the skull at Kalenga on the 19th June 1954, Chief Adam Sapi showered the Governor with praises:

We Tanganyikans are all aware, Sir, of the distinguished service you have rendered to this territory in return for which we have nothing to offer, Sir, but our deep-rooted loyalty to Her Majesty's Government and to Your Excellency, our simple thanks.<sup>172</sup>

Germany's contribution was equally appreciated by both the Hehe people and the British colonial government. A letter of appreciation was written to the Bremen Museum for its assistance. As a sign of friendship, the Hehe people gave some ethnological objects as "a token of gratitude" to the Museum of Bremen.173 Although some Hehe people remained skeptical about the authenticity of the skull returned to them, the majority, after having seen the "bump in the middle of the forehead" which, according to the elders, matched that of Chief Mkwawa, were satisfied that the skull in really belonged to him.174

signed by members of his family." See, for example, NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/218, E. Twining to E.B. David (colonial office, London), 15th February 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/218, E. Twining to E.B. David (colonial office, London), 15th February 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/218, E. Twining to E.B. David (colonial office, London), 15th February 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/74, Speech by Chief Adam Sapi, M.B.E., M.L.C. at the Ceremony of the Return of the Skull of Chief Mkwawa of Uhehe on Saturday, 19th June 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/198/8, Inward Telegram from Sir Edward Twining to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 21st June 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/10/72, Governor to Principal Secretary of State for the colonies, 6th July 1954.

To avoid complaints from the German side, the British government tried to control publicity about the return of the skull to Tanganyika. Owing to what was described as "German touchiness about the Treaty of Versailles," the British Foreign Office ordered the press to avoid as much as possible mentioning article 246 of the Treaty of Versailles in their reports.175 This decision was based on the assumption that referring to the article would, for reasons mentioned earlier in this chapter, cause some negative responses by the Germans. Nevertheless, the colonial government in Tanganyika found fault with this instruction saying that the Germans had only themselves to blame. In view of this, Sir Edward Twining wrote in reply to the directive from the British Foreign Office: "the Germans should not have cut his head off: they should not have sent it to Germany when they had cut it off and if they did not want to return it they should not have lost the war, I will do my best to see that publicity is not given, but I cannot guarantee this." <sup>176</sup> The following section focuses on the issues concernig preservation and mainanace of the inherited Imperial War Graves in post-colonial period.

#### The Imperial War Graves in Post-colonial Tanzania

The graves of European soldiers who fell in the two world wars in different parts of Tanzania were initially preserved by the British colonial government under IWGC until the Tanganyika government took over this responsibility on 1st July 1961.177 The work of maintaining the war graves cemetery after independence was undertaken by the respective town councils, the Area Commissioner's Office or the town clerks, and in certain areas by the mission stations.178 The war graves across Tanganyika were usually marked by memorial crosses and headstones. Most of these were maintained by salaried monument guards and gardeners, who received funds from the government to cover these expenses.179 In 1968, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Tanganyika Agency, under the then Prime Minister's and Second Vice-President's Office, was formed for the purpose of constructing and

NA, No. 13/172/01/3, E.B. David to Colonial Office, 27th February 1954.

NA. No. 13/172/01/206, E.F. Twining (Governor of Tanganyika) to E.B.David (Colonial Office), 8th March 1954.

From various letters seen in NRC, CW 80155, "Maintenance of War Graves by Town Councils", 1960/68, No. 46; NRC, M7/3/113, Circular letter from Permanent Secretary (Prime Minister's Office) to All Provincial Commissioners, 15th June 1961.

MZA, M7/3/170/192, "51st Annual Report of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Tanganyika Agency)", 14th April 1970, pp. 1–9.

Correspondences in NRC, CYE/7, "Estimates 1962/63 Antiquities", 1962, No. 6.

preserving the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, with 1770 and 34 graves of the first and second World War, respectively.180 In addition to these graves are 112 graves of the German and Belgian soldiers and those of other nationalities who died during the First World War.181 The construction by CWGC of the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery along the Bagamoyo Road started in 1968 and was officially inaugurated on 3rd December 1969.182 The CWGC Tanganyika Agency also maintained Upanga and Kinondoni war cemeteries.183 It should be noted that, in British times, only two war cemeteries existed at Upanga and on the sea front in Dar es Salaam.184 Approximately 660 First World War graves on the sea front were relocated by CWGC to Dar es Salaam War Cemetery in 1968 to give way for the construction of Ocean Road.185

In 1974, the government carried out what was called a "regrouping exercise," which involved the exhumation of the war graves in 25 areas of Tanzania, the remains of which were transported to Dar es Salaam to be reburied by CWGC at the War Cemetery there.<sup>186</sup> Statistics indicate that 1000 war graves were exhumed from different parts of the country and transported to Dar es Salaam for reburial at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery.187 This was in response to the request made by the West German embassy in 1960 for the Tanganyika government "to carry out the exercise of finding out the places with graves of the German soldiers (who died in the First World War) which [were] not being maintained" so that immediate steps could be taken to ensure their proper maintenance.188 The Tanganyika government responded by circulating letters to all regional and district authorities

The Citizen Reporter, "World War I, II Heroes Honoured in Dar City", The Citizen, 14th November 2016, p. 3; MZA, .M7/3, M.A. Katongo (CWGC Tanganyika Agency) to Director General (CWGC London), 11th May 1972, p. 6.

The Citizen Reporter, "World War I, II Heroes Honoured in Dar City", The Citizen, 14th November 2016, p. 3.

MZA, M7/3/192, M.A. Katongo (CWGC Tanganyika Agency) to The Director General and Secretary (CWGC London), 14th April 1970, p. 3. It is interesting to note that during the construction of Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, the University College of Dar es Salaam offered plants obtained from its nursery, which was appreciated by the Principal Secretary of CWGC Tanganyika Agency in his annual report of CWGC for 1970.

MZA, M7/3/192, M.A. Katongo (CWGC Tanganyika Agency) to The Director General and Secretary (CWGC London), 14th April 1970, p. 3.

MZA, M7/3/15, Report on the Graves of the 1914–1918 War, June 1943, p. 2.

The Citizen Reporter, "World War I, II Heroes Honoured in Dar City", The Citizen, 14th November 2016, p. 3.

MZA, M7/1, T.H. Wildy to Mbeya Regional Commissioner, 1st October 1974, p. 8.

The Citizen Reporter, "World War I, II Heroes Honoured in Dar City", The Citizen, 14th November 2016, p. 3.

MZA, M7/3/195, Principal Secretary to H. Vogt (Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany), 26th October 1970, p. 1.

requesting them to carry out the exercise and submit reports showing (a) "the names of places having those graves," (b) "the number of graves in each place" and (c) "the names of soldiers who were buried there." <sup>189</sup> Between November and December 1970 reports accumulated in the Ministry of Regional Administration and Rural Development, although most of them showed that there were no such graves.<sup>190</sup>

The government allocated Tanzanian Shillings 60, 000 as an annual budget for the maintenance of European war graves in the country during the 1970s.<sup>191</sup> Although some members of parliament challenged the government's decision to shoulder the cost of maintaining these graves, they were told that the move was meant "to establish good relations with other people in the world" and that the government had willingly agreed to take on this responsibility from the British in 1961.192 The maintenance of German war graves was also funded by the German War Grants Commission of West Germany,<sup>193</sup> which donated some amount of money for the maintenance of German war graves in Usagara and Tanga in 1969/ 70.194 The annual remembrance services were, as now, held at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery during Heroes' Day, although not regularly. Evidence at hand indicates that one such event took place on 13th November 2016.195 It should be borne in mind that before 1974 ceremonies or services of remembrance were held independently at different war grave sites distributed in different parts of the country.196 Ceremonies of remembrance are associated with ceremonial parades and the laying of wreaths, usually attended by dignitaries.197


MZA, M7/3/195, Principal Secretary to H. Vogt (Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany), 26th October 1970, p. 1.

MZA, M7/3/170/192, "51st Annual Report of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Tanganyika Agency)", 14th April 1970, p. 9.

The Citizen Reporter, "World War I, II Heroes Honoured in Dar City", The Citizen, 14th November 2016, p. 3.

MZA, M7/3, "53rd Annual Report of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission", 23rd March 1972, p. 3.

Similar ceremonies were performed in British times. Correspondences in TNA, 11239 Vol. XI, "Remembrance Sunday", 1952.

#### Conclusion

This chapter has examined the political landscape which characterized colonial commemorations and heroism in British Tanganyika. The chapter has shown that the British strove to suppress German colonial influence in the eyes of the Africans by: (1) manipulating Germany's colonial past, (2) erasing all forms of German heroic memories (3) taking full advantage of their political power to delimit and control German political activities, and (4) allying with the local people to tarnish the image of the Germans. British actions, however, did not go unchallenged. The Germans, as we have seen, reacted by engaging in political activities which jeopardized British imperial interests. As a matter of fact, the race for imperial commemoration in Tanganyika manifested in forms of moves and countermoves.

Left with no choice, the Africans were dragged into these bi-polar politics of commemoration and heroism by allying with either the British or the Germans. Their participation in these politics was not without positive results. The Hehe people of Iringa, for example, got back the skull of their chief from Germany. Despite British efforts to obliterate German colonial legacy in Tanganyika, German imperial image embedded in buildings, monuments and in other important cultural sites survived through independence. Evidence for this argument is provided in chapter six which explain the extent to which Dar es Salaam city centre bore German architectural imprints which is the country's cultural heritage pride. British imperial intervention notwithstanding, German imperial memories remained almost unchallenged. They were, to use Dominick Geppert and Frank Lorenz Mϋller's words, "present in the demarcation of state borders, in architecture and urban geographies, on the pedestols of monuments, in books . . . [and as shown in chapter five] in public rituals and in political debates." <sup>198</sup> The presence of the Askari monument and Commonwealth War Graves in the city of Dar es Salaam exemplify, in my view, the legacy of the above bi-polar politics of commemoration and heroism.

Geppert and Mϋller, "Beyond National Memory", p. 1.

# Chapter 3 Recovering German Buried Memories, 1920–Present

The records of the past of this country are a collective memory of the government.

In them a vast amount of social, statistical, technical, legal and administrative information has been accumulated about Tanganyika, which will be of the utmost value to future historians and administrators. If papers are lost or cannot be found because they are buried in a welter of useless material, much of this information will have to be collected afresh, probably at considerable expense, as basic data for future government action. Even in a newly independent country continuity of administration has to be maintained and future policy must, to a considerable extent, be based on past experience and knowledge and on past mistakes.1

#### Introduction

This chapter begins by quoting Marcia Wright, who eloquently summarizes the central argument of this chapter. Wright, who was "seconded from the Library of Congress in Washington to be an important architect of the nascent Tanzania National Archives," was actually referring to German records available in Tanzania, which were at great risk of being totally destroyed at independence.2 She therefore stressed the importance of preserving them for future use and national identity. This chapter examines the processes and actions involved in searching for, collecting and archiving German colonial records from the end of the First World War to the early 1960s. The chapter explains how, before leaving East Africa, the Germans hid their records to prevent the allied forces, or anyone else, from accessing them.3 This chapter argues that German colonial records played a significant role in the administration of mandate Tanganyika and were inherited by the independent government of Tanganyika not only as a record of past for historians and other social scientists who used and still use them to answer their research questions, but also as cultural objects that symbolize historical continuity, collective memory

Marcia Wright as cited by J.M. Karugila, "A National Archives in a Developing Country", TNR, Nos. 84 & 85, (1980), p. 118.

Lorne Larson, "The Making of African History: Tanzania in the Twentieth Century", Paper presented to The 12th Annual International Ethnography Symposium on "Politics and Ethnography in an Age of Uncertainity" at the University of Manchester, 29th August–1 st September 2017, p. 25. Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

and national identity. As Joan Schwartz and Terry Cook argue, "archives – as records – wield power over the shape and direction of historical scholarship, collective memory and national identity, and over how we know ourselves as individuals, groups and societies." <sup>4</sup> German colonial records are the collective memories of German colonialism, and Tanzania National Archives, which houses them today, is one of the places in which memories of German colonialism can be found in Tanzania.5 According to F.T. Masao, colonial objects such as "literary documents of local administration, pictures of rulers and the colonial masters" are part of "Tanzania's movable cultural heritage." 6

Their collection and preservation started in British times and continued soon after the attainment of independence, which gave rise to the national culture of archiving that speeded up the process of establishing Tanzania National Archives in Dar es Salaam and its affiliated zonal archives.

Joan Schwartz and Terry Cook, "Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory", Archives Science, (2002), p. 2. The authors give the second post-modern interpretation or conception of what an archive is. In their view, achieve is an institution, a cultural institution for that matter. As an institution, archives 'wield power over the administrative, legal and fiscal accountability of governments, corporations, individuals, and engage in powerful public policy debates around the right to know, freedom of information, protection of privacy, copyright and intellectual property . . . ." It appears therefore that an archive has two meanings: it refers to records and at the same time to an institution.

NA, FCO 12/70, Mr. Maurice Foley to Mr. Philemon Paul Maro, 5th November 1969; NA, FCO 12/70, Mr. Maurice Foley to Mr. Philemon Paul Maro, 6th November, 1969; FCO 12/70, Mr. H.G.G. Harcombe to Mr. Cheeseman, Library and Records Department Office, 29th October, 1969. It should be noted that Tanzania National Archives contains all colonial records inherited by the independent government. It has some post-colonial records created by the Tanzanian government. Before granting independence, the British Colonial Office had to declare documents which: (a) should remain in the territory as legacy, (b) should be inherited by the successor government, (c) should be destroyed, and (d) should be transferred to [Britain].' Therefore, all secret records, such as those dealing with Her Majesty's policies as well as defence records, were withdrawn from Tanganyika soon after the attainment of independence. When Mr. Philemon Paulo Maro, Tanzania High Commissioner in London, asked for the release of such records in October 1969 was informed: 'It has always been HMG [His Majesty's Government] policy to assist the successor Government by passing to them as many of its local records as possible. However, it has not been the practice to hand over the very small number of records dealing with the policies of HMG nor the few accountable documents concerned with such matters as defence.' He was also informed in another letter sent to him afterwards that "the problem of the return to Independent Commonwealth countries of records created and subsequently removed to this country prior to Independence is far from new. The Southern Irish have been battling away with us for nearly half a century; and, more recently, the Kenyans raised the matter in 1967."

F.T. Masao, Museology and Museum Studies: A Handbook of the Theory and Practice of Museums (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2010), pp. 152–155.

It is pertinent, as far as this study is concerned, to begin this chapter by conceptualizing text (record/document) and its relation to social memory. Text constitutes an important genre of cultural memory, because the latter not only refers to topographical memories such as monuments, but also to records or documents which have accumulated over a particular period of time in a given society.<sup>7</sup> These can be books, letters, reports, memoirs, maps, minutes, circulars or any other form of private or public document. Texts play the same role as monuments in representing the collective memories of society insofar as they are "embedded in and refer to [. . .] a specific social/cultural situation." <sup>8</sup> In fact, the current notion of records as cultural objects redefines the meaning of archives as "places that permanently memorialize what societies and institutions regard as essential transactions." <sup>9</sup> Based on this definition, archives are therefore conceived as places or institutions of cultural memory which "fix and monumentalize memory." 10 However, this conception, as Francis X. Blouin JR and William G. Rosenberg put it, does not mean that the archive ''is a formal place of historical memory,''<sup>11</sup> for the traditional assumption that archives are the prime sources of authentic historical evidence has come under attack.<sup>12</sup> In fact, social memory has challenged archival records as being genuine historical facts. By and large, scholars across the social sciences and humanities have repudiated the long-held view of a single past or unified past in what has come to be known as a cultural or post-colonial stance.13 The net result of this view was the birth of the post-modern theory challenging the modernist epistemological approaches to producing knowledge.<sup>14</sup>

Assmann and Czaplicka, "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity", p. 129.

Hendrik van Gorp (ed), Genres as Repositories of Cultural Memory (Amsterdam – Atlanta: GA, 2000), p. iii.

Blouin JR and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, p. 17.

Blom, "Rethinking Social Memory", p. 12.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, p. 98.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, pp. 97–99.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, pp. 97–98, 99; Sebastian Jobs and Alf Lüdtke, "Unsettling History: Introduction", in Id., Unsettling History: Archiving and Narrating in Historiography (Germany: Deutsche Nationalbibiothek, 2010), pp. 17–19. According to Jobs and Lüdtke no single past can be reconstructed using a single methodological approach. The post-colonial stance emphasizes a critical approach to post-colonial "inequalities of power' whereby 'critics attacked the practices of domination as exercised through and by the networks of Western thought in academia."

See, for example, Donald E. Polkinghorne, "Narrative Psychology and Historical Consciousness", in Jürgen Straub (ed), Narration, Identity, and Historical Consciousness, (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), p. 3.

Moreover, past records as repositories of cultural memory are preserved for their political, socio-economic, and symbolic value. "An archive(s) housing such records is not only a state institution of power" or "mere scholarly playgrounds for staff and researchers," as argued by Richard J. Cox and David A. Wallace, but is also "a symbol of historical continuity." <sup>15</sup> Archives are therefore described as political institutions mirroring a particular cultural identity, hence they are "bastions of social memory and national identity." <sup>16</sup> According to Hendrik van Gorp, cultural memory signifies the following:

Our capacity, both of writers and readers, to remember in a present situation things (human experiences, individual or collective attitudes, feelings and discussions reflected in any document) that in the past have been relevant to us as far as our cultural identity, roots and selfimage are concerned, and as far as their memory helps us to solve some problems we are confronted with.<sup>17</sup>

Collective remembering as an endless social process continues to influence archived documents and archival practices.18 This process has, in turn, created room for memory historians to use archives not only as repositories of past records with which to answer their research questions, but also as a focus of their studies. It has now been established that social memory influences archival practices and the other way round.19 As a matter of fact, the actual act of using archival records (an exteriorized memory) to reconstruct the past is, according to Schwartz and Cook, an act of collective remembering taking place within "a framework of shared cultural understanding." <sup>20</sup> Exteriorization of memory occurs when memory is transformed from a collective memory stored in people's minds to a written document, artifact, monument or any other form of concretized memory; that is, when "memory is preserved by means of an external medium." <sup>21</sup> An exteriorized memory is an

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, p. 17; Schwartz and Cook, Archives, Records, and Power, p. 13. Richard J. Cox and David A. Wallace, "Introduction", in Id., Archives and Public Good: Accountability and Records in Modern Society (Westport: Quorum Books, 2002), p. 7.

Cox and Wallace, "Introduction", p. 7.

Hendrik, Genres as Repositories of Cultural Memory, p. ii.

According to Jobs and Lüdtke, there are two types of archival documents: textual documents and textual monuments. Seen in Jobs and Lüdtke, Unsettling History, p. 14. Archival practices refer to all activities performed by archivists and record managers in the archives such as processes of appraisal, collection, classification, preservation and destruction of records.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, pp. 111–112; Schwartz and Cook, Archives, Records, and Power, pp. 2–3.

Schwartz and Cook, Archives, Records, and Power, pp. 6–7.

Kurtz Danziger, Making the Mind: A History of Memory (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 3.

"archive of external memory." <sup>22</sup> Implicit in this is the fact that collective remembering, as far as archival usage and practices are concerned, takes place "outside the human faculty of memory," and not necessarily within the framework of individuals' memories.23 According to Blouin and Rosenberg, archives "reinforce [. . .] abstractions of memory," <sup>24</sup> which shows how inseparable records and memories are. Indeed, they are two sides of the same coin. From the point of view of memory, therefore, archives are an extension of human memory, which helps preserve part of "the collective memory of mankind." <sup>25</sup> It is important to quote Michael Foucault's explanation of how the relationship between history and documents has changed over time:

history, in its traditional form, undertook to 'memorize' the monuments of the past, transform them into documents, and lend speech to those traces which in themselves are often not verbal, or which say in silence something other than what they actually say; in our time, history is that which transforms documents into monuments.26

Having explained the link between records (archives) and collective memory, the discussion now focuses on examining the processes involved in hiding, searching for, using, and archiving German records in the mandate-trusteeship period and after. When the British acquired Tanganyika as a mandate territory, they were confronted with administrative challenges as they did not have much knowledge of the country, of its people's history, culture, and distribution or of the environment. Therefore, they needed to acquaint themselves with Germany's experience of Tanganyika. With its land covering 943,000 sq. km., Tanganyika was much larger than Kenya (580,367 sq. km.) and Uganda (241,559 sq. km.), with a wide diversity of culture, ethnicity, resources, and traditions. Knowledge of this huge country, which was readily available in German records, would have definitely helped the British in their administrative matters.

No wonder that during the First World War the early British Administrator in Tanganyika "spent much of his time studying the country and examining the

Danziger, Making the Mind, p. 4.

Schwartz and Cook, Archives, Records, and Power, p. 3; Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 43.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, pp. 115.

Cited in Leopold Auer, "Archival Losses and Their Impact on the Work of Archivists and Historians", in M. Andr'e Vanrie and Mr. David Leitch, Memory of the World at Risk: Archives Destroyed, Archives Reconstructed, International Council on Archives, Vol.XLII (München: A Reed Reference Publishing Company, 1996), p. 1.

Michael Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge, translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith (UK: Travistock Publications, 1972), pp. 7–8.

copious German records in the hope of being able to formulate an administrative policy which could be adapted to the needs of the country when peace was restored." <sup>27</sup> The fact that German records had been hidden underground posed the challenge of recovering them. The hiding, searching for and archiving German records was, indeed, a manifestation of the extent to which records of the past can, at a particular point in time, exert an influence on the administrative matters of governments. As the following discussion reveals, the value of archival records as memories of past human experience changes with time and context, depending on the needs of the government, the nature of the records and their future value.

#### Searching for Hidden German Records

German records were hidden underground and some were destroyed during the First World War by order of the Governor of German East Africa.28 It should be remembered that during the German period, all records belonging to the central government were stored in the Central Office (Zentral Buero) in Dar es Salaam.29 However, before the British forces attacked Dar es Salaam intending to capture it, the German seat of government was, for security reasons, transferred to Morogoro in 1914/15, and soon afterwards to Tabora, together with all the records of the Zentral Buero. <sup>30</sup> As the Belgian forces advanced on Tabora in July 1916, threatening its security, the Governor ordered his deputy, Mr. Brande, and the District Judge of Tabora, Mr. Kirsch, to bury all government records in and around Tabora.31 Following this instruction, volumes of German records were put in cases and hidden underground in different parts of the country. By the summer of 1916,

Kenneth Ingham, A History of East Africa (London: Longmans, Green & Co LTD, 1962), p. 262.

John Iliffe, "The German Administration in Tanganyika, 1906–1911: The Governorship of Freihers von Rechenberg", Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1965, p. 5; Koponen, Deveopment for Exploitation, p. 679.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118; United Republic of Tanzania (hereafter URT), "Guide to the German Records: National Archives of Tanzania and Archivschule Marburg-Institut für Archivwissenschaft, Dar es Salaam/Marburg" Vol. I, 1973, p. 48.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

During the First World War Belgian forces attacked Tanganyika, which was part of German East Africa, from Belgian Congo. They captured Mwanza, Tabora and Kigoma in 1916. See L. Evans, The British Tropical Africa: A Historical Outline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929), p. 331; Judith Listowel, The Making of Tanganyika (London: Chatto and Windus Ltd, 1965), p. 60; URT, Guide to the German Records, p. 48.

the Commandos of the Schutztruppe had managed to bury some records at Morogoro while retreating southwards.32

As the skirmishes intensified, some remaining records were buried, some were destroyed and some were surrendered by the Schutztruppe while retreating to Mozambique.33 Most of the records destroyed were those pertaining to political matters.<sup>34</sup> Apparently, some records got lost because, given the environment of warfare, everything was done in a hurry. In addition, the fact that the records were moved from one point to another for security reasons means that some of them might have got lost or destroyed in the process. In 1916, the Land Register (Grundbücher) for Dar es Salaam was transferred to the southern part of the country, where it lay hidden until August 1923 when it was discovered at Liwale by the British and brought back to Dar es Salam.<sup>35</sup>

However, it should be emphasized that burying their records was not the only method used by the Germans to prevent them from falling in the hands of the 'enemy,' nor did they manage to hide all the records in their possession before leaving the territory. For instance, of all the files found in Tabora, 96 were hidden in a log cabin formerly owned by the German Central Railway Authority or Zentralbahn. <sup>36</sup> Some important papers and files in most District Offices were taken by German colonial officers on leaving office after the war, while the rest were abandoned, burned or got lost in the repatriation process.37 As shown later, records kept at Wilhmestal (now Lushoto), like District Registers (Bezirksamtsregistraturen), remained there until they were discovered later by the British. Between July and August 1923 volumes of German files were discovered by the British at Lushoto and Tanga.38 While those at Lushoto were hidden in a cellar, volumes of files discovered at Tanga had been stored in a special records room.

Records "were kept top secret by the Germans." <sup>39</sup> For instance, when the British colonial government demanded the release of these records from the German government, they were initially told that they had all been destroyed during the war. In 1920, R.W. Gordon, the official British Translator of German documents appointed on 15th October 1919, discovered secret instructions that had been given by

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 48.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p.48.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 6.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 48 and p. 51.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 49.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", pp. 48–49.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 51.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

the last Governor of Tanganyika in 1916 to hide German records at Tabora.40 With the help of these instructions, Gordon was able to unearth "a huge amount of government documents in the Boma at Tabora." <sup>41</sup> This discovery, therefore, prompted the Berlin authorities to send a delegation of two former German East African officials, W. Brandes and Ludwig Schoen, to Tanganyika in 1921 to assist in searching for German records hidden in different parts of the country. The Berlin authorities agreed to support the British in searching for the records "on condition that those files, which would be discovered and were not of direct use to the British administration in Tanganyika, would be handed over to the authorities in Berlin." <sup>42</sup> Moreover, all current legal and financial records were supposed to be handed over to the German government.43 Most of these files, together with those taken away by the Germans on leaving Tanganyika during the First World War, formed part of the socalled "records of the Imperial Colonial Office," most of which are sites in the Central Archives, Deutsche Zentralarchiv. 44

When the German delegates arrived in April 1921, they joined R.W. Gordon and toured Tabora where excavations were made. About 11 cases of files were discovered. The British government retained some of these documents and released the rest to the Berlin authorities as agreed earlier. Those which were discovered after the German delegation had left the country were retained by the mandate government, which form the majority of the files transferred to Tanzania National Archives after independence.

Searching for German records was a tedious task. It involved a lot of tours to different parts of the country where excavations were made. The records recovered were sorted to identify those which were of use to the mandate government and the rest were released to the German government. The records retained by the British colonial government were immediately transported to Dar es Salaam for archiving and translation. Some were distributed to different government departments on request. In Dar es Salaam, all records were kept in the office of the Keeper of German Records (KGR), the position Gordon held until 1926. The aim was to have all German records concentrated in Dar es Salaam which was the seat of government. A special post for this was created by the government so that there would be a permanent officer in charge of searching for, preserving, archiving and

Before this appointment, Mr. Gordon was working in Nyasaland (Malawi). For evidence see TNA, No. AB/158/28, Principal Secretary, Tanganyika, to the Governor of Tanganyika Territory, 17th December, 1924.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 119.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 119.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 5.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 8.

translating German records. Gordon was appointed as the Official Translator of German documents in 1919 and he immediately established ''the Central Record Office for all German files and books'' in Dar es Salaam.45 By July 1924, the office of KGR consisted of an Indian Clerk, Mr. Dharan, who was assistant translator, and an archivist. Mr. Dharan "assist[ed] KGR in preparing translations, typing and cataloging the German library books dealing with the laws of Germany and its late colonies." <sup>46</sup> There was also an African clerk or typist, who produced an index of German files and books.47 He had a "good knowledge of German [which he had] acquired at Oriental Seminary in Berlin." <sup>48</sup> Despite this, Gordon complained about the office being overworked due to the shortage of manpower. According to him, there was increasing demand for translation from different government departments that was beyond the ability of the office of KGR to deal with.49 However, by the end of 1925, the office of KGR had managed to translate a number of German documents, which were distributed to different departments as shown in the table 5 below.


Table 5: German Documents Translated by December 1925.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to C.S, 18th July 1924. According to Gordon, the high demand for translations of German records in 1924, for example, made them work for 8 to 9 hours every day, including weekends.


Table 5 (continued)

Source: R.W. Gordon to CS, TNA, No. AB158/46, 28th December 1925.

Translating German documents was of crucial importance to the various departments, which used them for different activities. The work of KGR benefited these departments and any suggestion to abolish it was met with opposition. For example, the Government Treasurer was criticized when he suggested abolishing KGR:

The translation of German records, the treasurer wrote to the Chief Secretary on 4th July, 1924, appears to have reached a stage when the work can be performed by the land officer who has an official (Mr. Nimmo) qualified to translate such documents as are required to support land titles. The general work of the Keeper of German Records, invaluable in the past, is, I suggest, not now of sufficient importance to justify a separate establishment. The German records relating to land could be handed over to the land office and stored in the same way as other important land documents. Records of general interest might be kept, under the supervision of the land office, in a special room (perhaps the room recently used for British Empire exhibits) with one of the present clerks of the Keeper of German Records to look after them.<sup>50</sup>

While the treasury wanted to abolish the KGR post, other government officials were of the opinion that it should be made permanent and pensionable, owing to the great work which had been done and much still to be done by Gordon. In 1924, Gordon himself advised the government that the post of KGR should continue indefinitely. He cautioned that, although he had "collected most of the important records dealing with all the Central Departments and with the Offices of nearly every District in the late German East African Protectorate," there remained a lot work to be done.<sup>51</sup> He pointed out that a number of unpublished scientific works of the German period had to be interpreted for government use. "To extract all the administrative and scientific information stored by the Germans during their rule of nearly 30 years," he argued, "could only be done by the systematic translation – based on academic knowledge of German – of the vast

TNA, No. AB/158/1, Treasury to CS, 4th July 1924.

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

number of files now centralized in these Offices." <sup>52</sup> As a sign of disapproval of the remarks made by the Treasury above, Gordon wrote: "the character of my work in connection with German records is [. . .] of such a varied nature that the Honourable Treasurer can have no conception of its diversity or its importance." 53 The Acting Governor, Mr. John Scott, in October, 1924, had a similar view when he wrote:

It is I think scarcely necessary to dwell on the value and importance of the great mass of official documents left behind by the German government, constituting as they do a complete record of the history of this country while it was under German rule, and containing information of the greatest value to the present government on all matters connected with the administration of the country. It is to my mind essential that such records should be guarded for a time with the most jealous care, and that they should always be looked after by an officer who is fully qualified to interpret and to report on their meaning and whose duty it would be to make himself completely familiar with their subject matter, their classification and their bearing on current affairs. Such is the policy which has been adopted by the Ceylon government with regard to records of the former Dutch Administration, and the post of Government Archivist in that colony is I understand pensionable. Such is the policy which I strongly recommend that this government should adopt, and which I hope you will approve. This government is fortunate in having Mr. R.W. Gordon, an officer exceptionally well qualified to discharge the duties of the post of Keeper of German records, which he has performed to the complete satisfaction of this government during the last 5 years.<sup>54</sup>

Following the above suggestion and those made by other colonial officials afterwards, the post of KGR was officially declared permanent and pensionable on 8th January 1926.55 In April, Gordon's salary was even increased from £700 to £800 per annum.56 Implicit in these decisions was the fact that the work of KGR had become important for the government. After the retirement of Gordon in 1926, Mr. H. Nimmo was appointed as the new KGR on 1st January 1927, the position he held until his retirement in January 1932.<sup>57</sup> The post of KGR but not the office ended with the retirement of Mr. Nimmo.<sup>58</sup> However, owing to the high demand for translation service, Mr. A.R.M. Forrest was appointed as an interim official

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

TNA, No. AB 158/26, John Scott, Acting Governor, Dar es Salaam, to Principal Secretary of State, London, 7th October 1924.

TNA, No. AB 158/48, CS to R.W. Gordon, 8th January 1926.

TNA, No. AB 158/52, Governor, Donald Cameron to L.C.M.S. Amery, London, 23rd July 1926; TNA, No. AB 158/52, L.C.M.S. Amery to Governor, 14th September 1926.

TNA, No. 1284/138, Land Officer to the CS, 6th July 1932; TNA, No. 1284/125, CS to the Land Officer, 10th May 1932; URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 49.

TNA, No. 1284/125, CS to the Land Officer, 10th May 1932.

Translator of German records in 1932.<sup>59</sup> Soon afterwards, however, this position remained vacant until July 1943 when Dr W. Weidman, an Austrian working with the Land Office, was appointed as official Translator of German documents for the Land Office.<sup>60</sup> The former office of KGR continued to serve as the government archive for all German records except for those dealing with land, which were kept in the custody of the Land Officer.<sup>61</sup> The Land Office, founded in 1926, was "the principal registry of titles and documents." <sup>62</sup> All land documents were stored in the strong room until the end of colonial rule in Tanganyika. These records were preserved without a proper reference system, posing a major challenge for researchers who used them in the 1960s.<sup>63</sup> According to the Registration of Documents Ordinance No.14 of April 20, 1923, all German records dealing with land tenure had to be housed in the office of the Register of Titles of the then Department of Land, Surveys and Mines.<sup>64</sup>

More German records were discovered in different parts of the country and continued to accumulate in the office of KGR during the 1930s and 1940s, except those identified as of a permanent nature, which were kept by the Chief Secretary.<sup>65</sup> The office of KGR housed numerous German files beyond its capacity to accommodate them. A huge collection of records discovered in Tanga was transferred to Dar es Salaam in 1934.66 These included files of Tanga District, German newspapers, and war diaries, which created the challenge of storing them. In an attempt to resolve this, on 23rd May 1934 the office of KGR asked for permission to release about 2000 unused German books to the German community so as to create more space for important German documents.<sup>67</sup> In 1936, plans were under

TNA, No. 1284/125, CS to the Land Officer, 10th May 1932.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 53.

TNA, No. 1284/121, CS to Land Officer, 26th February 1932.

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 120.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", pp. 6–7.

URT, Guide to the German Records, pp. 51–52.

TNA, No. 12841/159, Provincial Commissioner (Tanga Province) to CS, 17th June 1935; TNA, No. 12841/160, the Acting CS to the Provincial Commissioner for Tanga Province, 2nd July 1935.

TNA, No. 12841/153, Director of East African Agricultural Research Station of Amani to CS, 15th May 1934.

TNA, No. 12841/152, Anonymous to Mr. Gillman, 23rd May 1934. Some German records were presented to German companies working in colonial Tanganyika. A case in point is the discovery of a box containing German records in Tanga in October 1934. The Provincial Commissioner had written to the Chief Secretary: "In going through some old records here a case was found with a leather satchel containing papers of the German East Africa Line, Tanga Branch, dated early 1914. Amongst this was a file referring to the building of the new pier at Tanga, with some blue prints [. . . .] Unless you desire to see any of these papers, I propose handing over to the local

way to renovate the KGR office, but this work was not carried out as quickly as anticipated. On 27th March 1936, the Chief Secretary wrote to the office of the department of works inquiring about progress of the work: "I wonder if you have forgotten about finishing off the German Record room where the files are still on the floor . . ." <sup>68</sup> In fact, the lack of enough space for German records tempted officials to destroy some of them, as seen in a letter the Acting Chief Secretary sent to the Director of the East African Agricultural Research Station of Amani in June 1934:

I am directed to inform you that the files belonging to the former German District Office, Tanga, and the complete set of the 'Deutsches Kolonialblatt' should be forwarded to this office [KGR]. It is not considered that the copies of three German newspapers, viz., 'Deutsch-Ostafrika Rundschau' and 'Usambara Post' are now of sufficient interest to be retained and, if you see no objection, they should be destroyed.<sup>69</sup>

The three, "long and more or less complete sets" of newspapers in question were: (1) The Deutschostafrika Rundschau, (2) The Deutsch-ostafrikanische Zeitung and The Usambara Post. <sup>70</sup> A few surviving copies of these three important German colonial newspapers are to be found in the East Africana Section of the University of Dar es Salaam old library.<sup>71</sup> The Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, which represented the interests of the settlers, started as a private newspaper in Dar es Salaam in 1899.72 Funded by the German East African Company, The Deutchostafrika Rundschau started in 1908 as an anti-settler newspaper representing the interests of the German colonial government.<sup>73</sup> Unlike the Deutsch-Ostafricanische Zeitung, which was territorial, the Usambara Post (founded in 1903) was limited to the settlers of the northern District.

It is not difficult to discern how the destruction of records might have been carried out under government orders as the above letter reveals. Koponen gives the following evidence:

Usagara Company's office . . ." See correspondence in TNA, No. 12841/155, Provincial Commissioner for Tanga to CS, 30th October 1934.

TNA, No. 12841/164, The Secretariat, Dar es Salaam, to W. Organ, Esquire, Inspector of works, Dar es Salaam, 22nd March 1936.

TNA, No. 12841/154, Acting CS to the Director, East African Agricultural Research Station, Amani, 6th June 1934.

TNA, No. 12841/153, Director of East African Agricultural Research Station of Amani to CS, 15th May 1934.

Seen by the Researcher.

Ida Pipping-van Hulten, "An Episode of Colonial History: The German Press in Tanzania 1901–1914, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies Research Report No. 22, 1974, p. 9.

Van Hulten, "An Episode of Colonial History", p.9.

Of the documents which were in fact produced in Africa a substantial amount proportion were destroyed when they were first buried in the ground during the First World War, then dug up in the 1920s. Part of this material was never found at all; part was eaten by termites till it was almost or entirely unreadable; and part was destroyed by British rulers who were overwhelmed by its sheer amount.74

Of 1,000 documents discovered in Tanga for example, only 145 were transported to Dar es Salaam.75 Masses of district files discovered in Lushoto and Tanga in 1934 and 1937 were classified as 'unimportant' or as containing nothing of historical interest.76 Most of these were destroyed. Of course, during British times the control of public records (except those affecting land) was based on what J.M. Karigila calls a "laissez faire attitude." <sup>77</sup> Government Circular No. 5 of 1927, the so-called Destruction of Old Records circular, provided for the destruction of any public records except those dealing with land matters which were strictly protected.78

#### Searching for and Excavating German Records

At this juncture it is worth explaining the process involved in searching for German records in different parts of the country. As already mentioned, searching for, and excavating German records started in 1919 with the appointment of Gordon as KGR. Gordon wrote: "On arriving in Dar es Salaam as Official Translator in 1919, I found that no German records had hitherto been collected or dug up. It was therefore my immediate duty to create a Central Record Office for all German government files and books for reference." <sup>79</sup> However, it must be pointed out that a systematic search for German records started in earnest with the arrival of German delegates in April 1921. This delegation, as mentioned earlier, was sent to Tanganyika by the Berlin government to assist in the exercise of searching for and excavating buried records. Prior to its arrival, Gordon, as already revealed, had managed to discover a huge number of German records hidden at Tabora in 1920. Reporting on this discovery Gordon said:

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 679.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 51.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", pp. 53–54.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p.118. Land records were strictly protected and preserved. By 1925, for example, 35 percent of all German documents which had been translated for various uses were actually those relating to land matters. The calculation of the percentage is based on the table provided above.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

During my first visit to Tabora in 1920, I discovered hidden in a loft of the Boma among a mass of German documents, mostly eaten by rats and ants, secret instructions, issued in 1916 by the last German Governor, that all the most valuable Government files should be buried in Tabora and other places, so as to prevent them from falling into the enemy's hands. This discovery led to negotiations with Berlin and to an agreement to send 2 German representatives in 1921, with whose aid I was able to dig up most of these buried records, which now form the nucleus of my present archives.<sup>80</sup>

This discovery prompted systematic tours by KGR to various places in the interior of Tanganyika to look for German records. The German delegates, who arrived in 1921, supplied new information about the whereabouts of German records. The table below shows that between 1921 and 1925 the searching committee, headed by Gordon, criss-crossed the interior of Tanganyika looking for German records. Places like Tanga, Lushoto, Tabora and Morogoro were visited more than once. Some 431 days were spent in this exercise.<sup>81</sup> In April 1921, Gordon and the German delegates dug up 111 boxes of German files at Tabora.<sup>82</sup> The mandate government retained some of these documents and handed over the rest to the Berlin government.<sup>83</sup> In August 1921, the searches at Tabora revealed German weather records in a German government building. In the same year, volumes of German records were also discovered in Morogoro, Ujiji and Kigoma. The searches done in Morogoro revealed buried cases with a considerable amount of records which had already decomposed.84

As said earlier, the searching task was herculean, because it sometimes involved excavating the ground to a depth of several metres. Whenever sketches of the whereabouts of sites were of no use, excavations were done based on trial and error, which often compounded the problem of searching. In the early 1920s for example, efforts to excavate business books and papers of the former DOAG did not bear fruit. In June 1921, a room at Ujiji was dug up to the depth of 8 feet,

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 49.

TNA, No. AB/254/22, Secretary of State for Colonial Office in London to the Clearing Office (Enemy Departments), London, 13th July 1921. Article 13 of the Agreement of the 31st December, 1920 between Germany and Britain stated: "the existing books of account of German businesses liquidated in the United Kingdom or other parts of the British Empire above referred to, except where they have been transferred to the purchaser of a business, will be preserved and ultimately handed to the German authorities. In the meantime the former German Owner will be permitted access to the said books on payment of any incidental expenses, and where such books are in the custody of a purchaser an endeavour will be made to procure access thereto for the former German owner on the like terms."

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 51.

but not one document was found.85 In a similar incidence, the District Officer of Mwanza sent a memo to the Custodian of Enemy Property in Dar es Salaam, saying ''every endeavour has been made to locate these books, boxes, etc., but without result. Have you any information you could give us on the distance between C&D, if so it might help, otherwise we might have to dig up roughly an acre of ground.''<sup>86</sup> Although archival sources are silent on the labour involved in the excavations, it is likely that many African labourers were used for this work.


Table 6: The Searching Tours, 1921–1925.

Source: TNA, No. AB158/46, R.W. Gordon to CS, 28th December 1925.

Although the official searching exercise ended in 1925 as shown in Table 6 above, German records were being discovered in different places, especially in Tanga and Lushoto. New sites of buried records were brought to light through the Germans'

TNA, No. AB/254/18, Memo from A.A.M. Isherwood (District Oficer of Tabora) to the Custodian of Enemy Property, 10th June 1921.

TNA, No. AB/254/23, Memo from District Officer of Mwanza to the Custodian of Enemy Property, 13th September 1921.

request that their records from different sites be excavated, and so the mandate government appointed a government official to supervise the excavation. A case in point is the searching for "a box of documents stated [by the Berlin government] to have been buried in the Madibira Mission Church during the war." <sup>87</sup> The mandate government agreed to dig up the box on condition that it should be done "in the presence of a representative of the Government" and a German representative, and that the contents of the box, if recovered, should be made known to both parties.88 The excavation was carried out in the church building in May 1936 but nothing was found.89

#### Utility of German Records

It is not difficult to imagine the benefits the British colonial government received from the German records they had amassed from different parts of the country. Indeed, the British would have incurred a lot of administrative costs without the records. Gordon's report of 1925 indicated that the German records provided answers to problems, solution to which would have cost the government a lot of time and money. Survey reports such as "German land commissions, Land Registers, Grundbücher, and other land records [. . .] made it possible to define the position, boundaries and extent" of land owned by individual settlers, traders and missionaries as well as forest and game reserves.90 This information saved a huge amount of money which would have been spent on resurveying a total of 4,399,217 acres of land.91 This therefore provides a good example of how an archival record can be used to resolve social problems.92

German records were also used for settling different claims. They were used as evidence for the claims made by the Belgians to the mandate government of Tanganyika and as a source of information with which to cross-check the claims made by ex-German Askaris. Standard practice was that any claim that contradicted German

TNA, No. 12842/165, Provincial Commissioner of Iringa Province to CS, 22nd March 1936; TNA, No. 12841/166, Uhehe Trading Co.- Ltd, Iringa, to the Provincial Commissioner through the District Officer of Iringa, 23rd March 1936.

TNA, No. 12841/169, CS to the Provincial Commissioner of Iringa, 28th April 1936.

TNA, No. 12841/170, Provincial Commissioner, Mr. J.L. Berne, Iringa, to the Manager, Uhehe Trading Co. Ltd, Iringa, 9th May 1936.

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

Hendrik, Genres as Repositories of Cultural Memory, p. iii.

records could not be approved by the British colonial government. The following Belgian claim reported by Gordon is a good example:

In 1922, the Congo government presented a large bill to repay Ph. Holzmann & Co., the German Contractors of the Central Railway, for railway material and installation requisitioned by that government during the German East African campaign. Again the German Record Office was able to supply irrefutable evidence to prove that the said material was not private property but owned by the German government – payment of this claim was subsequently rejected.93

In general, German records were of the utmost importance for cross-checking claims of the above nature. The discovery of a large case buried by order of Lettow Vorbeck in October 1918 at Njombe, "containing full records of German troops and followers in the field," produced records which were used to check the claims made by ex-German Askaris in the 1920s.<sup>94</sup>

Additionally, German records brought to light what Gordon called "municipal and communal property," which may have prevented conflicts over resources between the local community and the government. The foregoing cases also exemplify how archival records, in this case German buried archives, provided legal evidence for different claims.<sup>95</sup> According to Cox and Wallace: "records are not only artifacts for use by historians and genealogists but are also essential sources of evidence and information providing the glue that holds together, and sometimes the agent that unravels, organizations, governments, and societies." 96

The sharing of German records by Britain, Germany and Belgium promoted diplomatic relations between them. The imperial governments were actually willing to share colonial records on conditions decided by themselves. Two examples illustrate this point. First, in 1930, the British colonial government in Tanganyika agreed to release a massive amount of German war diaries, "weigh[ing] approximately ten hundredweight," to the German government "provided that the German government will also give back any captured British documents (including

TNA, No. AB/158/6, Gordon to CS, 18th July 1924.

PC, Arusha, to the KGR, Dar es Salaam, TNA, No. AB/254/49, 13th February 1926.

In essence, during the middle ages in Europe, archives were exclusively used for legal purposes, before later, at the beginning of the 19th century, when they proved useful to historians. "The assumed authenticity of the original or validated documents as preserved by archives was intended to authorize and, thus bolster claims for titles." Seen in Jobs and Lüdtke, "Unsettling History", p. 14.

Cox and Wallace, Archives and Public Good, p. 1.

war diaries)." <sup>97</sup> Documents belonging to von Lettow Vorbeck as his war diaries were given back to him in November 1929 as his personal documents.98

The second example was the exchange of German documents between the British mandate government of Tanganyika and the Belgian mandate government of Ruanda and Burundi, called Ruanda-Urundi at that time. The Belgian colonial government demanded the mandate government of Tanganyika to hand over the German Grundbuch [land register] dealing with Ruanda-Urundi in 1929.<sup>99</sup> Archival records do not reveal whether this document was produced by the mandate government, but the Belgians were informed that "a number of files and records" relating to Ruanda-Urundi were stored in the office of the Secretariat in Dar es Salaam, and that the British colonial government would release them in return for any documents "recovered from Tabora and Kigoma when these provinces were handed over by the Belgian authorities." <sup>100</sup> In March 1930, plans had already been made for this exchange of German records to take place.<sup>101</sup> Between August and December 1930, the Belgians received their documents from the British colonial government: sixty one volumes of Government files and eleven volumes dealing with the registry of residents.<sup>102</sup> Those records belonging to the Belgians were transported to Bujumbura.<sup>103</sup> However, nothing is known of the records handed over to the British in return. The following section examines how German records were archived in mandate Tanganyika.

TNA, No. 12841/81 S. Gasele to Monsieur Friedrich Shamar, 18th July 1930. It is interesting to note that even when individual Germans asked (especially former businessmen whose records were kept with the office of the Custodian of Enemy Property in Dar es Salaam) for the handover of private documents by the mandate government they were also told that the documents would be released to them on condition that they would be willing "to hand back certain files the Custodian may require for his purposes." Seen in NA, CO 323/883, Secretary of State (Colonial Office) to the Representative of the German Clearing Office, 9th December 1921.

TNA, No. 12841/81, Gasele to Monsieur Friedrich Sthamer, 18th July 1930.

TNA, No. 12841, Andre De Beys, Consul for Belgium in Dar es Salaam to CS, 27th December 1929; TNA, No. 12841/49, Donald Cameroon, the Governor of Tanganyika to the Governor of Ruanda-Urundi, 17th February 1930.

TNA, No. 12841/8, John Scott, Acting Governor of Tanganyika to the Governor of Ruanda-Urundi, 8th January 1929.

TNA, No. 12841/58, CS to KGR, 22nd March 1930; URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 51. Most of German records for Kigoma were confiscated by the Belgian troops which had occupied the area in 1916.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 52.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 5.

#### Archiving German Records of the Land Office

From the late 1930s to the 1950s German records received a lot of attention in relation to preservation. Emphasis was placed on analyzing and classifying all records which had already been discovered and those still being discovered in different places in the country. In fact, the attitude towards German records changed from that of selecting important documents of immediate use and ignoring the rest, to that of evaluating all records, selecting the historical or useful ones and destroying the rest. The ultimate goal was to classify and archive all important records and dispose of those which proved to be of no use. In 1945, Dr. Weidmann embarked on classifying volumes of German files lying in Tanga. About 300 to 400 volumes of records dealing with land, forest, mining, and medical matters were carefully selected from a huge mass of files.<sup>104</sup> A handful of records were abandoned as useless. A similar exercise was carried out in Tabora where a huge collection of German records remained unclassified. These files (3,000 volumes in total) were kept in the custody of the Western Province Office in Tabora to be distributed to government departments on request.105 Most land records were transferred to the Land Office in 1945 where they were systematically archived by Dr. Weidmann.<sup>106</sup> Some were handed over to the Office of Enemy Property. The rest remained there until 1952 when they were transported to Dar es Salaam.

Modern archiving was started by Dr. Weidmann in the strong room of the Land Office in 1952. Dr. Weidmann was able to systematically archive German land files, which had hitherto been packed in sacks. He was assisted by Mrs. Organ, a German woman married to a British Colonial Officer, who worked with the Land Office until 1969.<sup>107</sup> The files were indexed, listed, assigned names and placed on wooden shelves.<sup>108</sup> They were classified in three groups: List A files which were marked "quite useless for any practical purpose;" List B files identified as useful for other departments, and List C files to be destroyed.<sup>109</sup> Those under list B were distributed to various departments in 1953 and retrieved by Tanzania National Archives between 1963 and 1964. Files in lists A and C, numbering 1167,

URT, "Guide to the German Records", pp. 53–54.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 54.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 55.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p.55.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 57. Files on the wooden shelves were affected by insects, hence posing the challenge of fumigation/disinfection.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 56.

were to be destroyed in 1953 but the exercise was suspended following opposition by Makerere College of Uganda.

The foregoing classification of records is a reminder of how social memory influences archival records and how they are actually "objects of memory formation." <sup>110</sup> Social memory affects how archivists analyse and classify their records, which is purposely carried out to achieve different goals the owner of the archives wants to achieve.<sup>111</sup> Blouin and Rosenberg clarified that "the way documents are arranged and described [in the archives] has to be distinguished from the simple fact of preservation itself." <sup>112</sup> The same is true when selecting documents for preservation and destruction. "Archival activities," argue Jobs and Lüdtke, "revolve around acts of preservation and acts of destruction, which reflect people's experience." <sup>113</sup> The last section of this chapter traces the history of Tanzania National Archives.

#### Establishment of the National Archives in Tanzania

This section argues that the idea of establishing the National Archives by the independent government of Tanganyika in the early 1960s was to preserve German records in danger of disappearing. Public records at the time of independence were in a state of disarray. Hence it was necessary for the government to salvage colonial documents or files, which were in danger of getting lost forever by establishing a national archive, among others. The first government action was to legislate against the destruction of public records to prevent their further destruction The second one was to collect German records which had been distributed to different government offices or departments.

It must be said at the outset that before the end of colonial rule in East Africa, the British colonial government had contemplated establishing "a joint East African Archive Service for Kenya, Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1951." <sup>114</sup> This archive service was expected to be organized in a similar way to the Central African Archives, which acted as a repository for British colonial records of Northern and Southern Africa. The Chief Archivist of the Central African Archives, Mr. V.W. Hiller, was asked to come to Tanganyika in 1951 to carry out preliminary research on how East

Cox and Wallace, Archives and Public Good, p. 2.

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, pp. 111–114. "All archives, the authors add, exist to support the needs of those who create them, whether these needs are public or private."

Blouin and Rosenberg, Processing the Past, p. 111.

Jobs and Lüdtke, "Unsettling History", p. 15.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 117.

African Archives could be established.115 However, the project fizzled out, for two possible reasons. First, Zanzibar did not approve of its records being transferred to Entebbe which was chosen for the archives project.116 Second, colonial officials in Uganda, as Karugila observes, were engrossed in "more pressing matters," and so were unable to execute the plan.117 Thus, the idea died despite several attempts to resurrect it.118

After independence, the government took this matter seriously, whereby action was taken to collect and preserve colonial records in an archival setting. In the first instance, a legal instrument was put in place to control the preservation and destruction of public records. In 1962, Wright, a PhD student from the United States, was assigned the task of reporting on the state of public records in Tanganyika by UNESCO.<sup>119</sup> Her report indicated that public records, particularly German records, were "stored in a virtually roofless warehouse" where they "were in grave danger of disintegrating." <sup>120</sup> This report prompted Parliament to allocate a budget for the creation of a central state archive in Dar es Salaam.<sup>121</sup> On 2nd December 1963, President Nyerere issued Circular No. 7 "which forbade the unauthorized destruction of records, invited cooperation in their collection, and announced the establishment of national archives." <sup>122</sup> Mr. Jeffery Ede, the British Archivist (succeeded by Mr. Michael Cook) worked as Archivist for the government of Tanganyika with UNESCO's support.<sup>123</sup>

The President Circular No. 7 of 1963, which formed the legal basis of the 1965 National Archives Act, was aimed at putting checks and balances on the preservation and disposal of public records. The 1965 National Archives Act, which came into effect on 28th December 1965, gave the Director of National Archives the power to select public records for preservation.124 The Act legislated against the export or

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 58.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 117.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 117.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

Karugila, "A National Archives", pp. 117–118.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 117; URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 58. The Government asked for assistance from UNESCO which it complied with and commissioned Marcia Wright a history student and archivist to come to Dar es Salaam and prepare a report on the state of public records in Tanganyika and recommend the establishment of the national archives. Unnamed Author, "Tanganyika National Archives", TNR, No. 66, (1966), p. 180.

Unnamed Author, "Tanganyika National Archives", pp. 180–181; Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 120.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 58.

For this point and its subsequent elaboration, see Unnamed Author, "Tanganyika National Archives" p. 180 Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 120.

attempted export of records already identified by the Director of National Archives as historical records. This offence was punishable by a penalty of up to 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings or six months in prison. In addition, the Act declared the duration of 30 years for government records to be closed and released for public consumption. Last but not least, the Act mandated the centralization of public records.

#### German Records in the National Archives

German records, disorganized and scattered as they were at the time of independence, called for immediate government action, which included the establishment of the National Archives. Public records, particularly German records, were collected from different government offices and departments to which they had been distributed in the early 1950, stored in safe rooms, and finally transferred to the National Archives. Those in the Land Office were transferred to an airconditioned room of the Ministry of Land in the former Ardhi building, whereas those housed in the former German Record Room were transferred to a dry cellar in the Ministry of Education building.125 Not all records distributed to the departments could however be recovered, as some had been lost. The majority of files in Dar es Salaam came from the Land Office, Survey Office, Forestry Division, Water Development and Irrigation Division, as well as from the offices of the East African Railways and Harbours.126 In 1963, records relating to education matters were kept in the care of the Headmaster of Tanga School.<sup>127</sup> Some German records still lying in District Offices of Kilwa and Lushoto in the 1960s were also transferred to the National Archives. In response to the Presidential Circular No. 7 of 1963, an Archival Section within the Ministry of National Culture and Youth was established to supervise the preservation and destruction of public records in the country.<sup>128</sup>

In 1964, Reinhard Spilker, a doctoral candidate from Hamburg, offered to arrange the German files in their original files using the German file lists of 1901.129 It should be remembered that "the British Administration [had] superimposed a second filing system on the German one." <sup>130</sup> Spilker recorded and prepared a list

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 61.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 7.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 7.

Karugila, "A National Archives", p. 118.

URT, "Guide to the German Records", p. 59.

Iliffe, "The German Administration", p. 6.

of them. Two years later, the National Archives benefited from the so-called Deutsches Hilfsprogramm, by which the Federal Foreign Office of Germany agreed to provide personnel and technical support for archiving all German records.<sup>131</sup> This work was assigned to the Marburg Institute for Archival Studies (Marburg Archivschule) of Germany, which sent Peter Geißler as Archive Inspector to Dar es Salaam in June 1967 to spend two years recording the files for archival use. He was assisted by Dr. Eckhart and G. Franz, who spent six weeks in the National Archives in 1967 and 1969 working as archive technicians. The Deutsches Hilfsprogramm was expected to accomplish the indexing and listing of all German records stored in the National Archives and those collected from the Land Office afterwards.132 The idea was to have a general list of all German records existing in the country, and have all files properly preserved in the National Archives for public use. The work of classifying colonial records continued during the 1970s. In 1971, for example, the government invited Dr. R. Rejman from Czechoslovakia to act as the Director of Tanzania National Archives.133 Rejman "started for the first time in Tanzania with systematic recording of nationally important documents" to be preserved for their historical significance.

After independence therefore, there was renewed interest in collecting the scattered German records, concentrating them in an interim archive and then archiving them. Such exercise involved also collecting and archiving British colonial records which were left in the country after the attainment of independence. To ensure that this objective was attained, the government sought professional support from outside the country, which was readily provided by the Germans during the early years of independence. In 1998, the Minister for Education and Culture, Professor Juma A. Kapuya, underscored the point that his ministry was determined to protect the German records from white ants, fire, water, theft and faintness.<sup>134</sup> "These German records", he reiterated, "contain important administrative, legal and historical information." <sup>135</sup> He was proud to inform the public

URT, "Guide to the German Records", pp. 59–60. Further discussion on German aids to Tanganyika during the 1960s can be seen in Britha Schilling, Postcolonial Germany: Memoris of Empire in a Decolonized Nation (UK: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 113–123.

Not all German records affecting land matters were transferred from the Land Registry to the National Archives. Some of them remained there, and they were, as late as 1973, still accessible to researchers who could use them with permission granted by the administration of the National Archives.

TNA, 126/6, "Tanzania-Czechoslavakia Co-operation", 9th December 1971, Accession No. 589.

Cited from Minister's Speech: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania (hereafter JMT), "Hotuba ya Waziri wa Elimu na Utamaduni Mhe. Professor Juma A. Kapuya (Mb) Kuhusu Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 1998–1999", p. 75.

JMT, Professor Juma A. Kapuya, p. 75.

that the German records existing in the country had been chosen for the "Memory of the World Register." 136

To conclude, German buried records played a major role in facilitating British administrative activities in the mandate-trusteeship of Tanganyika. The fact that these records were buried posed the challenge of recovering them. The British colonial government had to familiarize itself with the vast territory of Tanganyika, knowledge of which had accumulated in German files for over thirty years. The easiest way they could achieve this was to have access to German documents. Searching for them was not an easy task, but eventually a substantial amount of German records were recovered, which were of great help in the administration of Tanganyika in settling various claims made in the aftermath of the First World War. After independence, efforts were made to gather the German documents distributed in different inherited colonial offices, which were in danger of being destroyed. Records are created for certain functions, and so are intrinsically valuable, but as they age they assume symbolic value, showing the extrinsic value of records. The various examples given in this chapter confirm the view of Cox and Wallace that archival records, apart from the primary function for which they were created, "perform symbolic and memory functions." 137 However, this does not deprive them of the ability to provide practical solutions to particular social, economic, or political problems in future, which is the secondary function of records.

JMT, Professor Juma A. Kapuya, p. 75.

Cox and Wallace, Archives and the Public Good, pp. 3–7.

# Chapter 4 Commemorating the Maji Maji War in Tanzania: The Case of Songea

Memories that were previously considered off-limits, becauseof the pain associated with the death of loved ones in losing a war, now gain resolution and become a viable landscape of meaning. 1

This chapter opens by quoting John Nelson above who, like other scholars, agree that war memories are increasingly gaining importance in the field of memory.<sup>2</sup> Although Nelson has studied the history of veneration of the war dead at Yusukuni Shinto Shrine in Japan, his argument is applicable in the case of the Maji Maji war (1905–1907), which pitted Africans against Germans in Southern Tanganyika and is the colonial event most remembered by the Ngoni people of Songea.<sup>3</sup> They remember how their ancestors fought against the Germans in the Maji Maji war, how they were defeated, held prisoners of war and finally hanged. Their memory narratives reveal the historical development of veneration and commemoration of fallen war comrades. Similar to the Mau Mau war in Kenya or the Nama and Herero genocide in Namibia, the Maji Maji war, as examined in this chapter, has engendered post-colonial collective recollections of people whose ancestors were the victims of atrocities committed by colonial armies.4

John Nelson, "Social Memory as Ritual Practice: Commemorating Spirits of the Military Dead at Yusukuni Shinto Shrine", Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 62, No. 2, (2003), pp. 444–445.

A similar view is shared by Rosa Cabecinhas, "Conflicting Memories: Representations of the Colonial Past Among European and African Youths", in Helena Goncalves da Silva, Adriana Alves de Paula Martins, Filomena Viana Guarda and Jose Miguel Sardica, Conflict, Memory Transfers and the Reshaping of Europe (Britain: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), p. 1.

'The Ngoni were originally cattle-rearing Bantu people, linguistically related to the Swazi, Zulu and Xhosa' of South Africa. Their presence in Songea and elsewhere is traced to the Mfecane wars in South Africa which caused northward migration of the Ngoni beginning in the mid-1840s. See, for example: Reinhard Klein-Arendt, "Bridging the Unbridgeable: Historical Traditions of the Ngoni of Northern Malawi", in Wilhelm J.G. Mӧhlig, Wortkunst und Dokumentartexte in Afrikanischen Sprachen, Band 19 (Kӧln, Rϋdiger Kӧppe Verlage, 2003), pp. 9–11; Andrew Roberts, "Political Change in the Nineteenth Century", in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, A History of Tanzania, (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), pp. 68–69.

For these examples see Zimmerer, "Kolonialismus und Kollective Identitat", pp. 9–37; Id., "The First Genocide of the 20th Century", in Deutsches Historisches Museum, German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2017), pp. 138–145. Annie E. Coombes, "Monumental Histories: Commemorating Mau Mau with the Statue of Dedan Kimathi", African Studies, Vol. 70, No. 1, (2011), pp. 202–219.

This chapter explains the extent to which memories of the war in Songea exemplify Zoni Weisz's concept of "trans-generational transfer of war trauma." 5 Trans-gerational transfer of war trauma or transgenerational war memory is used in this study to mean war memories which have been handed down over generations via various forms of commemorations such as construction of war memorials or monuments. The chapter argues that war memorials in Songea started as secret Ngoni shrines in colonial times, which were gradually transformed into public memorial sites. The chapter is based on written sources and oral interviews collected in Songea. Those interviewed, mostly Ngoni elders, remember how commemoration of war heroes started and how they collaborated with the government to establish a national war museum in Songea. Their stories, as explained in this chapter, echo Michael Keren's argument that "veterans find it harder and harder to initiate acts of commemoration" because they often "feel orphaned." <sup>6</sup> The discussion begins by reviewing the historiography of the Maji Maji war, followed by a brief discussion on how the war was, and still is, remembered at the national level and taught in schools. From there, the chapter analyzes Maji Maji memorial sites and commemoration events in Songea. It finally reveals the mounting pressure from the bereaved family members or descendants of war heroes and heroines, the so-called vizazi vya mashujaa, for reparation and restitution.

In an attempt to bridge such an apparent research gap, this chapter examines the ways through which the Ngoni community remembers, commemorates and honours the dead of the Maji Maji war. The chapter supports the view that the traumatic events associated with the Maji Maji still linger in the minds of Ngoni people today. After independence, the Ngoni embarked on a project that was meant to honour their ancestors, who were publicly hanged by the Germans, by constructing a regional war museum. This museum was constructed at Mahenge in Songea, the grave site of Africans executed by the Germans in 1906. As revealed in the subsequent sections, however, it was not until 27th February 2006 that this regional war museum was declared a National War Museum.7 This belated declaration has seen

Zoni Weisz, Transgenerational Transfer of War Trauma within the Roma and Sinti Community", in Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Esteban Acuna C. and Piotr Trojanski, (eds), Education For Remembrance of the Roma Genocide: Scholarship, Commemoration and the Role of Youth, (Cracow, 2016), pp. 7–10.

For the concept of narrative memories see Michael Keren, "Introduction", in Michael Keren and Holger H. Herwig (eds), War Memory and Popular Culture: Essays on Modes of Remembrance and Commemoration (USA: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2009), pp. 2–3.

Commemoration pamphlet by Songea Municipal Council (hereafter SMC), "The History of Maji Maji Museum", 2006.

the museum grow in importance as it commemorates Maji Maji on 27th February each year. Its management was overhauled and for the first time was manned by permanent salaried employees. Why was there such a dramatic change in the museum and why did it take place when it did? An attempt is made to answer this question by providing the history of the commemoration and veneration of war heroes in Songea.

#### A General Survey of the Historiography of the Maji Maji War

The Maji Maji war has been widely studied by historians and non-historians alike. Historians have reconstructed the history of Maji Maji, focusing on its social, economic, and political aspects. The net result of this scholarly endeavour has been the provision of a vast amount of historical knowledge of the war. Various studies have analyzed the impact of Maji Maji on political developments, local economies, the environment, diseases and the population.8 In recent years, there has been a renewed interest among scholars from fields other than history to analyze the war from its visual, literary and legal perspectives, bringing the subject much closer to memory history.9 A few students from the Department of History of the University of Dar es Salaam studying for a diploma in Heritage Management and Tour Guidance have focused their attention on Maji Maji memorial sites.10 Historians generally have shied away from analyzing collective memories of Maji Maji in Songea;

For diseases see, Musa Sadock, "The Maji Maji War and the Prevalence of Diseases in South-Eastern Tanzania, 1905–1910", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VII, No. 1, (2010), pp. 59–75.

For literary perspective see, E.S. Mwaifuge, "Art and History" in Ebrahim Hussein's Kinjekitile, Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol.VI, No. 2, (2009), pp. 26–46 and M.M. Mulokozi and Shani A. Kitogo, "Depiction and Impact of the Maji Maji War on Oral and Written Literature", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol.VI, No. 2 (2009), pp. 1–25 and Lilian Temu Osaki, "Imaginative Literature as History: Similarities and Differences in the Records of the Maji Maji War", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VII, No. 1, (2010), pp. 104–121. For visual perspective see, Nancy Rushohora and Eliane Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji! A Plea for Historical Photographs in Tanzania", African Studies, Vol. 77, No. 1, (2018), pp. 87–104.

See for example, Maryciana A. Mapunda, "Management Plan of Maji Maji Memorial Museum Songea", Unpublished dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, December 2006, pp. 1–15; Chachu P.M. Minogape, "A Tourist Circuit of Songea Municipality", Unpublished dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, December, 2006, pp. 7–15 and Joachim J. Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea, Southern Tanzania", Unpublished dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, June, 2009, pp. 2–39.

those who have attempted to do so in their discussions are either too general in their approach or their content is limited.11

The general historiography of Maji Maji started with colonial writers. The German Governor, Gustav Adolf von Gӧtzen, made the first attempt to reconstruct the Maji Maji events. His work (Deutsch-Ostafrika Aufstand 1905/06) which Gwassa called "the classic colonial account of the war" was, in the view of nationalist historians, apologetic in outlook.12 As a colonial leader, Gӧtzen's work was meant to justify colonial undertakings by "[. . .] legitimizing the brutality of colonial warfare under his governorship." <sup>13</sup> The next publication after Gӧtzen was that of R.M. Bell, a British Colonial Officer, who published The Maji Maji Rebellion in Liwale District in 1941.14 Put simply, colonial narratives of the war had associated it with a rebellious attempt by a barbaric and superstitious group of Africans who, in the eyes of colonial officers, were the enemies of progress.15 Such a conspiracy theory, as John Iliffe calls it, is refuted on the grounds that it lacks concrete evidence.16

Gwassa admits that Maji Maji has passed through different phases of interpretation, thus posing "fundamental historiographical problems." <sup>17</sup> Whereas colonial narratives upheld the view that Maji Maji was "a fanatical and blind repudiation of the civilizing agents," the post-colonial nationalist narratives emphasized the point that the war was actually an expression of Africans' resentment against colonial domination and oppression.18 According to Elijah Greenstein, scholars and students researching on Maji Maji in the 1960s produced narratives which were in line with the politics of nation building.19 In fact, the historical knowledge produced by nationalist

Greenstein, Making History, p. 62.

According to Schmidt 'historians have paid little attention to Songea'. See Heike Schmidt, "Deadly Silence Predominates in this District: The Maji Maji War and Its Aftermath in Ungoni", in James Giblin and Jamie Monson (eds) Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War (Laiden: Brill, 2010), p. 187.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 20.

Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", p. 185.

Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", pp. 197–198. Archival evidence at hand indicates that Bell's work appered for the first time in Songea District Book. Seen in TNA, NA/24/1/2/II, Saving Telegram from Provincial Commissioner (Lindi) to Political (Songea), 14th September 1948.

John Iliffe, Tanganyika Under German Rule, 1905–1912 (London: Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1969), pp. 21–22.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 21.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", p. 117; Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 19.

Elijah Greenstein, "Making History: Historical Narratives of the Maji Maji", Penn History Review, Vol. 17, Issue 2, (2010), pp. 1–15.

historians in the late 1960s was "a history tailored to meet the needs of a new state and its new governing class." <sup>20</sup> To support the politics of national unity and identity, for example, nationalist historians emphasized the role of Maji medicine in unifying the people of Tanganyika.21 However, this is not to downplay the fact that such nationalist historians wanted at the same time to refute colonial interpretation of Maji Maji which had dominated the history syllabus up to 1969.22

To achieve the above goals, the Department of History of the then University College of Dar es Salaam under Terence Ranger (1964–1969) embarked on the Maji Maji Research Project between 1968 and 1969 involving university students.<sup>23</sup> The aim of this project, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, was to collect oral information on Maji Maji by undergraduate students from the southern regions.24 The project saw a series of pamphlets published on the Maji Maji war. In 1968, Gwassa and John Iliffe edited Records of the Maji Maji Rising Part One, one of the earliest Maji Maji publications exclusively based on oral sources.<sup>25</sup> A year later, two students, O.B. Mapunda and G.P. Mpangara, working for the Maji Maji Research Project at the History Department of the University of Dar es Salaam, co-authored the first pamphlet on The Maji Maji War in Ungoni. This work was entirely based on oral information the authors had collected in Songea in 1966.<sup>26</sup> A groundbreaking Maji Maji work came from Gilbert Clement Kamana Gwassa, who did oral fieldwork for his PhD project on The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War between 1966 and 1969. His aim was to reconstruct the

Henry Slater, "The Production of Historical Knowledge at Dar es Salaam: Thoughts on Two Recent Histories of Tanzania", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol 1. No. 2, (1992), p. 122. See also Jan Vansina, "The Use of Ethnographic Data as Sources for History", in T.O. Ranger, Emering Themes in African History (Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1968), p. xxi.

A thorough discussion on the extent to which the department of history was shaped by national policies of the 1960s is found in Kimambo, "Three Decades of Production of Historical Knowledge at Dar es Salaam", pp. 1–19.

Yusufu Q. Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism in the Teaching of the Maji Maji War in Tanzania Schools", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VI, No. 2, (2009), p. 72.

Slater, The Production of Historical Knowledge at Dar es Salaam, p. 120.

Larson, "The Making of African History", p. 8.

G.C.K. Gwassa and John Iliffe (eds), "Records of the Maji Maji Rising Part One", Historical Association of Tanzania, No. 4, (1968), pp. 5–30.

See the review by Walter T. Brown, "Student Research on Maji Maji", TNR, No. 72, (1973), pp. 99–100. See also O.B. Mapunda and G.P. Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", The University College, Dar es Salaam, 1969, p. 6.

history of the war from an African perspective or from what he called "oral reminiscences." <sup>27</sup> His PhD thesis, published posthumously in 2005, became a seminal work. In its editorial preface, Wolfgang Apelt wrote: "at the time of preparing actions in connection with the anniversary of the Maji Maji War in the former colony of German-East Africa we encountered the doctoral thesis of Gilbert Clement Kamana Gwassa. We were amazed that it had not been published, although very often quoted." <sup>28</sup> Gwassa's work, like that of his contemporaries, was based on the nationalist perspective, which emphasized the role of Africans in resenting German oppressive policies in Tanganyika. As a whole, "an analysis of both the historiography that precedes the 1960's narratives as well as the collection of seminar papers written by students at Dar es Salaam in 1968 indicates that the historical context in which these works were produced shaped their interpretation." 29

In the late 1960s, when the subject of history had temporarily "enjoyed considerable popularity" in the country due to the "nationalist politics and ideology" of the time,<sup>30</sup> Maji Maji became an area of research that appealed to historians. In fact, scholars became increasingly focused on Maji Maji "because of its intrinsic historical interest" as well as "its perceived value in stimulating a sense of shared history and national consciousness . . ." <sup>31</sup> In Dar es Salaam, efforts were made to reconstruct the history of Maji Maji and disseminate its knowledge beyond the university community. This was achieved through publishing seminar papers and newspaper articles. For example, five articles on Maji Maji featured in Ngurumo, a local newspaper, between September and October 1967. These articles provided a coherent account of how the war entered Songea and the subsequent predicament that befell the Ngoni community.<sup>32</sup> The Nationalist

He interviewed a total of 81 informants from different places of southern Tanganyika. The texts were grouped according to areas from which they were collected which included Kilwa, Liwale, Masasi, Matumbi, Ngarambe, Ruvu, Samanga Ndumbo and Utete.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 5.

Greenstein, Making History, p. 1.

For this argument see Y.Q. Lawi, "Towards an understanding of the Basic Problems in the Teaching of History in Post-Colonial Tanzania", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. 1, No. 4, (1996), pp. 1–2.

John William East, "The German Administration in East Africa: A Selected Annotated Bibliography of German Colonial Administration in Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi from 1884 to 1918", Fellowship Thesis, Library Association of London, 1987, p. viii.

Edward Mhina, "Vita ya Maji Maji Omari Kinjalla Aongoza: Askari wa Peramiho Auwawa, Ngurumo", No. 2841, September 2, 1967, p. 4; "Vita yaelekea Songea", Ngurumo, No. 2847, September, 9, p. 7;"Vita ya Maji Maji Songea: Omari Kinjalla Afika Songea", Ngurumo, No. 2859, September 23rd, p. 4; "Vita ya Maji Maji-Songea: Bwana Shauri Mjerumani Atubu", Ngurumo, No. 2876, October, 1967, p. 4; "Vita ya Maji Maji-Songea: Songea Yachomwa Moto", Ngurumo, No. 2888, October, 28, p. 4.

published a story with the title: "On the Ashes of Maji Maji Our New Nation was founded." 33

The foregoing pace of publications and publicity of Maji Maji, which continued through the 1970s, slackened in subsequent decades. During this period not much was written to challenge what James Giblin and Jamie Monson call "compelling" and "persuasive" accounts of Maji Maji.34 However, the publication of Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War in 2010 tilted the scales.35 The book prompted fresh research, the findings of which challenged the authoritative nationalist narratives. In fact, the nationalist conception of Maji Maji as solely an anti-colonial movement was faulted. The critics of nationalist narratives see political tension within and between Maji Maji societies, which equally contributed to the eruption and spread of the Maji Maji war.<sup>36</sup> As a result, "the monolithic statist interpretations" [of Maji Maji], argues Koponen, "are eroding and giving way to a post-colonialist predilection of seeing Maji Maji as a contingent collection of local uprisings and struggles." <sup>37</sup> One thing is certain as far as this discussion is concerned. Although the study of Maji Maji cuts across social disciplines, historians have seldom addressed its collective memory, that is, its cultural and communicative memories. These historians have frequently used the social memory of the war as their methodology, but not in a noticeable way as the object of their study.

Seen in Greenstein, Making History, p. 64.

James Giblin and Jamie Monson, "Introduction", in Id., Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War (Laiden: Brill, 2010), p. 2.

Giblin and Monson, "Introduction", pp. 1–5.

For details see, Alexander De Juan, "State Extraction and Anti-Colonial Rebellion: Quantitative Evidence from the Former German East Africa", GIGA Working Papers, No. 271, April 2015, p. 10; Jamie Monson, "Relocating Maji Maji: The Politics of Alliance and Authority in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, 1870–1918", The Journal of African History, Vol. 39, (1998), No. 1, pp. 95–120; Juhan Koponen, "Maji Maji in the Making of the South", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal Historical Research and Writing, Vol VII No. 1, (2010), pp. 1–58; Seth I. Nyagava, "Were the Bena Traitors?: Maji Maji in Njombe and the Context of Local Alliances made by the Germans", in James Giblin and Jamie Monson (eds), Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War (Laiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 241–257; James Giblin, "Taking Oral Sources Beyond the Documentary Record of Maji Maji: The Example of the War of Korosani at Yakobi, Njombe", in James Giblin and Jamie Monson (eds), Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War (Laiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 259–290.

Koponen, "Maji Maji in the Making of the South", p. 56. The organizational principles adopted by the Maji Maji fighters owed their origins to cultural, political and economic forces. See, for example, John Iliffe, "The Maji Maji Rebellion", in Robert O. Collins, James McDonald Burns and Erik Kristofer Ching (eds), Historical Problems of Imperial Africa (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994), pp. 236–243.

#### Remembering Maji Maji at the National Level: Maji Maji as a National Epic

The notion that Maji Maji was a national epic was widely proclaimed by nationalist historians.<sup>38</sup> But what does this concept mean? The following definition answers this question:

A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation; not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations for independence or autonomy. National epics frequently recount the origin of a nation, a part of its history, or a crucial event in the development of national identity, such as other national symbols.39

In the light of the above definition, Maji Maji as a historical event (not an epic poem or a literary work as described above) can be conceived as "one of the beginnings of the struggle for lost independence" and the foundation of national unity and identity.<sup>40</sup> The Maji Maji war, unlike the former resistance to colonialism, was multi-ethnic resistance with wider territorial coverage and long-lasting social, political and economic consequences.<sup>41</sup> Nationalist narratives describe Maji Maji as large-scale African resistance to colonial exploitation and oppression that erupted in colonial Tanganyika. According to nationalist historians, Maji Maji was a rigorous attempt to achieve independence from German colonial rule and therefore an expression of African unity and integrity.42 "Nationalism in Tanganyika", wrote M.H.Y. Kaniki, "[had] its roots in the distant past . . ." 43

The nationalist historians writing in the late 1960s and afterwards described Maji Maji as the event which inspired and shaped the nationalist struggle. Their main argument is that the war broke out because Africans had rejected colonial exploitation and oppression.44 In this war, they see Africans resenting the forced cultivation of cotton, the enforced payment of colonial taxes and forced labour. They

Gwassa, The German Intervention, p. 117.

Gwassa and Iliffe, "Records of the Maji Maji Rising", p. 2; Gwassa, "The German Intervention", p. 117; Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 20.

https://www.definitions.net, last accessed on 5th February 2023. See similar description of a national epic in Gauti Kristmannsson, "The Epic Nature of the Nation: the Need for an Epic in European National Literature", in Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien, Band 6, (2012), pp. 87–88.

Gwassa and Iliffe, "Records of the Maji Maji Rising", p. 19.

See, for example, A.J. Temu, "The Rise and Triumph of Nationalism", in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu (eds), A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 189.

M.H.Y. Kaniki, "The End of the Colonial Era", in Id., (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), p. 347.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", p. 76.

also see Africans resisting the harassment and maltreatment inflicted upon them by the Akidas and Jumbes, who worked as German agents or supervisors. They saw Maji Maji as an anti-colonial movement organized collectively by societies of southern Tanganyika, drawing its organizational strength from maji ideology. Africans at Matumbi rose up against the Germans encouraged by the power of Kinjekitile Ngwale's maji medicine, which was believed to change bullets into water. The supposedly miraculous power of this war medicine encouraged local people to fight against the Germans and their loyalists. From Matumbi, the war spread like wild fire, expanding as far west as Songea and as far north as Dar es Salaam. In this war, Africans were the losers; roughly 120,000 Africans died. Crops were burnt, houses demolished, families disrupted and political units destroyed. The war devastated the southern societies of Tanganyika, affecting them politically and economically and leaving the majority of Africans psychologically affected. Though the Africans lost the war, the spirit of the war was rekindled by the nationalist politics of the 1950s. Maji Maji and other forms of African resistance predating it was therefore a precursor to the nationalist struggles of the 1950s, by which the independence of Tanganyika was achieved.45 Such is the conventional narrative of Maji Maji which nationalist historians have endeavored to uphold.

As argued earlier, Maji Maji was among the traumatic colonial events that could not be forgotten by those who had experienced it or by those who knew about it through those who had fought or witnessed it. Nyerere is remembered for having said: "memories of the Hehe and Maji Maji wars against the German colonialists, and of their ruthless suppression, were deeply engrained in the minds of our people." <sup>46</sup> A similar view is shared by Giblin and Monson, who agree that the war was "an event with long-term consequences." <sup>47</sup> "It was [therefore] impossible," Gwassa added, "for the people to forget the [Maji Maji War] and the frightfulness and ruthlessness of the colonial power" because "it left shattered memories." 48

Not surprisingly, the nationalist struggle, organized by Tanganyika African Association (TAA) and afterwards by Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), was aimed at achieving independence peacefully, and not leading to similar troubles caused by Maji Maji. In one of his speeches Nyerere talked about how some elders remained skeptical of TANU's campaign for independence. They asked

John Mtwale Kasembo, Miaka Hamsini ya Uhuru wa Tanzania Bara: Tulikotoka, Tulipo na Tanakokwenda (Kenya: Franciscan Kolbe Press, 2011), p. 40. According to Kasembo, "the blood of the freedom fighters is the seed of our national independence."

Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, p. 2.

Giblin and Monson, "Introduction", p. 1.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 20.

him: "How can we win without guns? How can we make sure that there is not going to be a repetition of the Hehe and Maji Maji wars?" <sup>49</sup> In Songea, the elders "were very suspicious of the TANU movement", for they feared that TANU was engaging in events that would lead to another catastrophe like the Maji Maji war.50 Such expressions of fear, which have been described at length in chapter one, are not difficult to account for. The fact of the matter is that struggles for independence took place at the time when memories of the horrors of the Maji Maji war still lingered in the minds of those who had fought it.<sup>51</sup> In December 1956, Nyerere addressed the 579th meeting of the fourth Committee of the UN Security Council thus:

As you know our country was once a Germany colony. The Germans first began to occupy the country in 1885. For fifteen years, between 1885 and 1900, my people, with bows and arrows, with spears and clubs, with knives or rusty muskets fought desperately to keep the Germans out. But the odds were against them. In 1905 in the famous Maji Maji rebellion, they tried again for the last time to drive the Germans out. Once again the odds were against them. The Germans, with characteristic ruthlessness, crushed the rebellion, slaughtering an estimated number of 120,000 people. The people fought because they did not believe in the white man's right to govern and civilize the black. They rose in great rebellion not through fear of a terrorist movement or a superstitious oath, but in response to a natural call, a call of the spirit ringing in the hearts of all men, and of all times, educated and uneducated, to rebel against foreign domination. The struggle against the Germans proved to our people the futility of trying to drive out their masters by force. They were left without hope.<sup>52</sup>

Memories of Maji Maji and those of other rebellions were evoked in the 1950s "in defence of African liberation and as a source of legitimacy for the fledgling Tanganyika nation." <sup>53</sup> Similar to the Mau Mau war in Kenya, collective memories of Maji Maji were used by nationalist leaders to authenticate the nationalist movement in Tanganyika.54

Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, p. 2.

Subira H. Kumbuka, "TANU in Songea District", Unpublished Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, 1974, pp. 8–10.

This fear is also explained by the fact that the slogans used in the Maji Maji War and TANU movement resembled: "Machi-Machi" or "Mbyu-Mbyu" for Maji Maji and "Uhuru-Uhuru" or Kazi-Kazi" for TANU. Seen in Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 29. Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, pp. 40–41.

Greenstein, Making History, p. 5.

Gwassa, The Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 288.

#### Memories of Maji Maji after Independence

Maji Maji continued to be remembered and often mentioned in speeches after independence. In a statement he made in 1962 Nyerere cited Maji Maji as the foundation of national unity.55 Within TANU party, the Maji Maji had become a symbolic event to be honoured by party members. For example, "in the October 1967 TANU conference in Mwanza, delegates were asked to observe a minute's silence to remember those who died in the Maji Maji movement." <sup>56</sup> This act of commemorating freedom fighters at party level paralleled what Oscar S. Kambona, the then Minister for External Affairs and Defence, once remarked:

The blood that was shed and the suffering that was endured are today Africa's advocates for freedom and unity. Those men who refused to accept the judgment passed upon them by the colonizers, who held unswervingly through the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from political, economic and spiritual domination will be remembered and revered whenever Africans meet.57

Thus, "as an authoritative text, the Maji Maji story was particularly important during Tanzania's post-independence period," <sup>58</sup> and as a mass movement uniting several ethnic groups, Maji Maji was "one of the pillars of nationalism in Tanzania." 59 Those who lost their lives fighting the war were (as now) remembered and honoured as heroes.60 More often than not, Maji Maji is mentioned in speeches made by government leaders during Independence Day. When addressing the public on 9 December 2001 on the anniversary of forty years of independence, for example, President Benjamin William Mkapa remarked: "we Africans opposed colonial rule right from the beginning and today it is good that we remember (in a grateful way) the former freedom fighters like Abushiri and Bwana Heri of Uzigua [. . .] and the heroes of the Maji Maji War, 1905 – 1907." <sup>61</sup> Five years later, when the country

See the quotation by Gwassa, The Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, pp. 289–290 as cited in John Iliffe, "Reflections on the Maji Maji Rebellion," Spearhead, Vol. 1, (1962) p. 21 and The Nationalist, TANU Daily, Dar es Salaam, 31st July 1965.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", p. 118; Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 21.

Haile Selassie as cited by the Hon. Oscar S. Kambona, the Minister for External Affairs and Defence, in "Tanganyika at the United Nations: Speeches made by Tanganyikan Delegates to the 18th Session of the United Nations General Assembly" (undated), p. 11.

Monson, Relocating Maji Maji, p. 97.

Gwassa, The Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 289.

Gwassa, The Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 289.

"Hotuba ya Rais wa Jamhuri wa Muungano wa Tanzania, Mheshimiwa Benjamini William Mkapa, Kwenye Sherehe za Miaka 40 ya Uhuru wa Tanzania Bara, Uwanja wa Taifa, Dar es Salaam, 9 Desemba 2001" (no page).

celebrated its forty five years of independence, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete reiterated the role played by the Maji Maji fighters and other chiefs in different parts of the country in pioneering the struggle for independence.62 Again, during the fifty years' celebration of Uhuru in December, 2011, Maji Maji was not only mentioned but also a poem was composed.63


One should remember that the poem above was the continuation of Maji Maji poetic accounts, which were published in the colonial period.64 The oldest poem was written by Hemedi bin Abdallah, Utenzi wa Vita vya Wadachi in 1908. It "contains

"Hotuba ya Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Mheshimiwa Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Kwenye Sherehe za Kuadhimisha Miaka 45 ya Uhuru wa Tanzania Bara, Uwanja wa Taifa, Dar es Salaam, Tarehe 09 Desemba, 2006" (no page).

M.M. Mwanakijiji, "Utenzi wa Miaka Hamsini ya Tanzania, 1961–2011: Kutamalaki kwa Taifa Miaka 50 ya Uhuru", 5th December 2011 (no page).

In most of the African countries, especially Namibia, praise poems are frequently composed to glorify past wars of independence. Seen in Melber, "Namibia, Land of the Brave", pp. 308–321.

an explanation of the rebels' defeat" and inefficacy of the magic water.65 Another poem by Abdul Karim bin Jamaliddin, Utenzi wa Vita vya Maji Maji, was translated into German and English in 1933 and 1958 by A. Lorenz (a German schoolteacher) and W.H. Whitely, respectively.66 The latter poem, published posthumously, shows how the war was expressed in Kilwa and Lindi, and is "a unique document for studying the social and cultural history of the Swahili people in the last years of German rule in East Africa." <sup>67</sup> It can therefore be argued that individual government leaders, historians and poets have held the view that Maji Maji was a national epic.

#### Maji Maji in Schools

History textbooks, argues Isurin, reflect and influence collective memories of a nation in which such books are used.68 Maji Maji as a topic of study in the school syllabi started in the 1950s when Tanganyika was still under British colonial rule.<sup>69</sup> The topic was, for obvious reasons, partially taught in classrooms and it is noteworthy that pupils were made to believe that Maji Maji was never a war but rather a rebellion, the notion which is now under attack.<sup>70</sup> In their lessons, however, some African teachers employed in colonial schools challenged this interpretation of Maji Maji, which reduced it to an act of rebellion rather than a massive African war of independence.<sup>71</sup> The colonial history syllabus was by and large prejudiced against Maji Maji and the idea was to suppress anti-colonial sentiments among African youth. It is unfortunate that the colonial rendering of Maji

Casco, Utenzi, pp. 256–289. According to Casco, political poetry became famous beginning in the 1960s. Examples of such poems were: Utenzi wa Jamhuri ya Muungano (The Poem of the United Republic) by Ramadhani Mwaruka; Utenzi wa Zinduko la Ujamaa (Poem of the Establishment of Ujamaa) by Zuberi Kamali Lesso (1972), Utenzi wa Ukombozi wa Zanzibar (Poem of the Liberation of Zanzibar) by Muhammed Seif Khatib (1975) as well as Utenzi wa Vita vya Kagera (Poem of the Kagera War) by Henry R. Muhanika.

Miehe, et al, Kala Shairi, p. 24.

Casco, Utenzi, p. 256.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 17.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", p. 69.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Tatriotism", p. 70. Some writers have continued to hold the view that Maji Maji was not a war but rather an uprising. Their main argument is that the Maji Maji fighters did not target the German colonial state but its "subordinates" and "supporters" such as individual Europeans, Akidas, Jumbes, missionaries, Askaris, Indians and Arabs. See, for example, Miehe, et al, Kala Shairi, pp. 24–25; Jamie Monson, "Relocating Maji Maji: The Politics of Alliance and Authority in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania 1870–1918", The Journal of African History, Vol. 39, No. 1, (1998), p. 96.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", p. 72.

Maji in schools remained intact until the late 1960s when the school syllabi were changed to suit the newly adopted policy of self-reliance.72 From that period on, nationalist narratives of Maji Maji, which sharply contrasted colonial narratives, became an important entry in schools' history syllabi.<sup>73</sup>

The current history syllabi for primary schools show that lessons on Maji Maji begin in standard five, when pupils are taught the basic knowledge of the war like its timing, organization, causes and effects.<sup>74</sup> Evidence shows that during the 1980s children in primary schools were required to master the knowledge of the Maji Maji war by demonstrating, among others, skills in drawing maps of the areas covered by the war.<sup>75</sup> The 1985 history syllabus instructed history teachers to invite, whenever possible, elders who had witnessed or participated in Maji Maji to come to the schools to share their memories of the war with pupils.76 In so doing, communicative memories of the war could be incorporated in the elementary school curriculum, thereby representing social memory of Maji Maji War.77

Providing knowledge of the war in primary and secondary schools in postcolonial Tanzania not only raised youth's awareness of the German colonial past, but also served the purpose of promoting their patriotism and heroism.<sup>78</sup> Some primary and secondary schools organized (and still do) trips to visit Maji Maji sites in different parts of the country.79 Ndunguru Gerold, the Headmaster of Chabruma Secondary School in Songea (see Figure 5), revealed that his school organizes trips to the Majimaji Memorial Museum80 in Songea for his students to learn about

Mbwiliza, Historia Shule za Msingi, pp.19–26.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", p. 73–75.

Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", pp. 73–77.

For evidence see history textbooks for primary schools like those written by N.K. Ndosi, Tujifunze Historia Darasa la 5 (Dar es Salaam: Educational Books Publishers Ltd, 2008), pp. 100–103; Juma Azika, Historia Darasa la Saba: Kitabu cha Mwanafunzi 6 (Dar es Salaam: Macmillan Aidan Ltd, 2010) p. 37; See also Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", p. 77.

See, for example, J.F. Mbwiliza et.al, Historia Shule za Msingi: Kiongozi cha Mwalimu, Taasisi ya Elimu Tanzania (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam Publishing House, 1985), p. 29. An important textbook that was used for teaching the Maji Maji War in primary schools was writted by J.F. Mbwiliza e.t. al (eds), Historia Shule za Msingi: Jamii za Watanzania Tangu Mwaka 1880, Taasisis ya Elimu, Chapa ya Pili (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1984), pp. 19–26.

A thorough discussion on the concept of social representation of history can be seen in Cabecinhas, "Conflicting Memories", p. 260.

An articulate discussion on patriotic rendering of Maji Maji in post-colonial Tanzania has been done by Lawi, "Pros and Cons of Patriotism", pp. 78–86.

"Mhifadhi Kiongozi Makumbusho ya Taifa ya Maji Maji", http://www.matukiodaima.co.tz/ 2013/04/, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

This site will be dealt with in the subsequent chapters.

the war and appreciate the role of the freedom fighters.81 Gerold remarked: "we want our students to realize the connection our school has with Maji Maji; we want them to be aware of the fact that their school is named after a Maji Maji hero, who is Chabruma." Gerold believes that visiting the museum each year gives his students a better understanding of the history of Maji Maji.

Figure 4a and 4b: 4a) Students who visited the Majimaji Memorial Museum in 2015. 4b) Tanzanians who visited the Majimaji Memorial Museum between 2010 and 2016.

Interview with Ndunguru Gerold, Lilambo B, Songea, 28th September 2017.

Interview with Ndunguru Gerold, Lilambo B, Songea, 28th September 2017.

It is therefore evident, as Gail Weldon reports in the case of South Africa, that teaching history in Tanzanian schools is done in such a way that it promotes the culture of remembering past traumatic events rather than forgetting them.83 This kind of education has increased students' awareness of Majimaji Museum when they visit it each year. As shown in Figures 4a and 4b above, the number of students who visited the museum between 2010 and 2016 increased from 671 to 3,486, with an average of 1,839 students visiting it annually.84 These statistics exclude the 87 foreign students who visited the museum at that time.85 The first graph suggests that the highest number of students visited the museum in 2015. The second graph indicates that between 2014 and 2016 there was a marked increase in the number of Tanzanians who visited it for various purposes.

Figure 5: Chabruma Secondary School named after Nkosi Chabruma of Ungoni. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

Gail Weldon, "South Africa and Rwanda: Remembering or Forgetting?" in Robert Guyver (ed), Teaching History and the Changing Nation State: Transnational and International Perspectives (London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLc., 2016), p. 108.

MMM, Visitors Annual Report from January 2016 to December 2016 (no page).

MMM, Visitors Annual Report from January 2016 to December 2016.

#### Maji Maji Memorial Sites and Commemorative Events in Songea

This section introduces the important Maji Maji memorial sites in Songea, most notably Majimaji Memorial Museum the location of which is shown on Map 2 below. It describes this site and provides its historical background by explaining how the Maji Maji war reached Songea. The purpose is to show how and why the Ngoni chiefs (Nkosis) and sub-chiefs (Ndunas) joined the war, and how, finally, they were defeated, pursued, imprisoned, and hanged. The discussion covers the long history of commemorating war heroes and heroines as practised by the Ngoni. At the end it reveals the extent to which the proliferation of acts of commemoration and veneration of the war dead has inflamed feelings of the need for reparation and restitution.

Majimaji Memorial Museum, famously called the hero-square, which was constructed during the 1960s was officially opened on 6 July 1980.86 The museum (see Figure 6 below) is located in Songea town, walking distance from the current location of Songea Regional Office. The site of the museum is where the Maji Maji war captives are buried. Records show that more than sixty people, including some Ngoni chiefs and sub-chiefs, were executed on 27th February 1906.87 The hanging site, locally called kinyongeoni, is near the Regional Commissioner's Office. The site (see Figure 7 below) is an extension of the present Majimaji Memorial Museum. On this small piece of land stands a tower with the names of all the people who were hanged. There is also a hanging stand, comprising two vertical wooden poles standing apart and joined together on top with a wooden crossbar on which four hanging ropes are tied.88

Inside the museum site is a small roundish building which is used as an ethnographic hall.<sup>89</sup> Next to it stands a dome-like one-storey building that is used for museum activities, and adjacent to it is another building housing offices. At the entrance of the museum building stands a concrete-roofed, non-walled building, which had sheltered the statue of the Nyerere. In front of the museum building is a huge statue of an Askari facing twelve life-sized busts of Ngoni chiefs and subchiefs. Behind the museum is a mass grave of Maji Maji war heroes and heroines who were hanged by the Germans. Next to this mass grave is the grave of Nduna

Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea", p. 2; "Mhifadhi Kiongozi Makumbusho ya Taifa ya Maji Maji", http://www.matukiodaima.co.tz/2013/04/, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

The second day for execution, according to Father Ebner was 12th April 1906. Fr. Elzear Ebner, OSB, The History of the Wangoni (Peramiho: Benedictine Publications Ndanda-Peramiho, 1987), p. 143. The tower stands right at the site where the hanging tree stood. The tree collapsed due to old age. See, for example, http://www.matukiodaima.co.tz/2013/04/, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

The description of the museum is based on the researcher's field observation.

Map 2: The Distribution of Maji Maji Memorial Sites in Songea. Mape created for this study by Costa Mahuwi. Map: © Costa Mahuwi.

Songea Mbano who was also hanged by the Germans. Over the entrance to the museum is a huge concrete arch bearing the Swahili words: Karibu Makumbusho ya Maji Maji. viz., "welcome to the Maji Maji Memorial."

The history of Majimaji Memorial Museum, as its name suggests, owes its origin to the era of the Maji Maji war, which was fought in Songea between 1905 and 1906. The literature shows that Maji Maji skirmishes, which started at Matumbi, expanded westward to Songea, where severe battles between the Ngoni and Germans were fought. News of the war reached Songea through the Ngoni traders who used to trade with the coastal people.<sup>90</sup>

Explanations on how the war entered Songea are provided by historians. A wellknown account maintains that the war reached Songea through the influence of a Maji Maji medicine man from Liwale called Omari Kinjala,91 who was commissioned

Gwassa, The Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 60.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 15.

Figure 6: A view of Majimaji War Museum from its Entrance. Photo: Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

Figure 7: The hanging site monument (kinyongeoni). Note the hanging stand on the left. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

by his community to bring maji medicine to Songea as a punishment for his refusal to take the medicine when it was introduced to him.92 The medicine, as already mentioned, was believed to turn German bullets into water. To make his medicine accepted by the Ngoni, Kinjala temporarily married Mkomanile, the only woman subchief (nduna) in Ngoni territory.<sup>93</sup> With this marriage or whatever it is called by other scholars,94 Kinjala was able to persuade Nkosi Chabruma, whose wife served as a sub-chief (nduna), to prepare for the coming of the Maji Maji war by making him accept and believe in maji medicine.<sup>95</sup> However, it seems that Nkosi Chabruma did not trust the efficacy of Kinjala's war medicine in the first place. He consulted his own medicine men and his war diviners for advice before accepting Kinjala's medicine.<sup>96</sup> He also took time to test the medicine, first on a dog and second on a man, and in both cases the medicine failed to work as the dog and the man died instantly from the bullets fired at them.97 Kinjala's justification for the failure was attributed to the violation of the instructions given.98 However, having made up his mind to fight, Nkosi Chabruma accepted the medicine as he was made to believe that it would only work on the battleground. He encouraged his subordinates to take the medicine and afterwards summoned Nkosi Gama, who also accepted the magic medicine99 At this point, preparations for the war were now over.

Having tested the efficacy of the maji medicine, the Ngoni Chiefs, Nkosi Chabruma of Mshape in the North and Nkosi Mputa bin Gwezerapasi Gama of Njelu in the South, waged war against the German community in Songea by engaging the services of nduna Songea Mbano, who was the commander-in-chief (Nduna above all Ndunas).100 The rest of the Ndunas in Mbano's chiefdom were Mgendera Mawaso Gama, Kahongo Magagura, Mputa Mkuzo Gama, Magodi Mbamba Mbano and Mtekateka

Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", p. 196.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 15; Philipo Maligisu as interviewed by Yasinta Ngonyani, "Historia: Songea Mbano Kiongozi Shujaa wa Wangoni Anayestahili Kuenziwa Daima", www.ruhuwiko.blogspot.co.tz, last accessed on 15th January 2016.

Schmidt discusses the contradictions arising in various studies as regards the relationship between Kinjala and Mkomanile. See, for example, Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", pp. 197–199.

Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, pp. 133–136; Gwassa, Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, pp. 59–60; Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 15.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 15.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 21.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p.21.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 19; Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", p. 199.

Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, pp. 134–135; Gwassa, Rise and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 55.

Muyamuya Tawete, Fratela Fusi Gama, Maji ya Kuhanga Komba, Zimanimoto Gama, Mpambalyoto Soko Msalawani, Mtepa Hawaya Gama and Mkomanile.101

It is arguable whether the maji medicine alone could have caused the outbreak of the Maji Maji war in Songea. There were other underlying factors. The literature tells us that news of the war had reached Ungoni at the time when Nkosi Mputa Gama had issues with the authority of Peramiho mission which was under the Benedictine missionaries of St. Otillien from Bavaria.<sup>102</sup> Father Francis Leuthner from the mission had set ablaze a sacred traditional prayer hut (mahoka) of the Ngoni people at Maposeni (Gama's home base),<sup>103</sup> which to them was an intolerable abomination. Nkosi Gama was greatly disappointed in him. Of course, Leuthner's action was motivated by the fact that the whole concept of the prayer hut was at variance with Christian doctrine, which forbids ancestor worship like that of the Ngoni.<sup>104</sup> Added to this tension was German exploitative policies, such as forced labour and taxation, which explains why the Ngoni fought against the Germans soon after the arrival of Kinajala with his maji medicine.<sup>105</sup> Although the colonial authorities in Songea had resolved this conflict by having the mission pay compensation, Nkosi Gama was not satisfied. This became evident when he ordered his worriors to attack the mission soon after the outbreak of the Maji Maji war in Songea. Peramiho church as shown in Figures 8 and 9 below was burnt down on 9th December 1905 and Father Francis was killed at Maposeni where his memorial cross stands today. The rest of the Benedictine missionaries at the mission fled to Kigonsera where they took refuge.106

It should be noted however that the first military confrontation in Songea took place on 3rd September 1905 between Nkosi Chabruma of Ngoni Mshape and the German soldiers,<sup>107</sup> when 200 Ngoni were killed. Just as this battle took place, Nkosi Gama of Njelu attacked the fort of Rashid Masudi, an Arab resident who

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 22.

John Nditi, "Songea Walivyoweka Historia Katika Vita ya Maji Maji", https://habarileo.co.tz/ habari/2019-02-035caee1c5da.aspx, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

Kanisa Katoliki Tanzania (hereafter KKT), Jubilei ya Miaka 150 ya Uinjilishaji Tanzania (Dar es Salaam: Desk Top Productions Limited (DTP, 2018), pp. 2–5.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", pp. 14–15.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 15; Karim F. Hirji, "Colonial Ideological Apparatuses in Tanganyika under the Germans", in M.H.Y. Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), p. 197.

Hirji, "Colonial Ideological Apparatuses", pp. 12–15. The Ngoni were also subjected to harsh punishment like flogging by using a cane locally called Mbalamatora. Their cattle could be confiscated as communal punishment. See, for example, Kumbuka, "TANU in Songea District", pp. 7–8. www.peramiho.org/tz/abasia/historia/vita-ya-maji-maji.html, accessed on the 3rd September 2018.

Figure 8: Peramiho church after the burning. Photo obtained from Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea.

Figure 9: Peramiho Church as it looks today. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

refused to accept maji medicine, hence construed as a potential German ally.108 Although in both battles the Ngoni insurgents were successful repelled, several

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 24.

other attacks were attempted by both chiefs at the close of 1905 in different places. Between November 1905 and June 1906 both chiefs had resorted to defensive guerrilla warfare.109

Owing to this insurgency, the German colonial authorities had to use excessive military force to end the war, and the way they did it exemplifies how "resistance in German territories resulted in massive slaughter." <sup>110</sup> Unable to confront German reinforcements, the Ngoni chiefs and sub-chiefs were captured. They were detained as war captives and executed on 27th February 1906. Unfortunately, however these events have not been fully documented by historians. Whereas Father Elzear Ebner explains the executions in six lines, O.B. Mapunda and G.P. Mpangara summarize them in a quotation from an informant they had interviewed in May 1968.111 The following sub-section, therefore, examines at length the transgenerational narrative memories of the hangings.

#### Memories of the Hangings

Memories of the Maji Maji war fighters who are honoured today as heroes preoccupy the minds of most of the elders interviewed in Songea Town. There are several Maji Maji war sites in and around Songea, which these elders have preserved and continue to preserve. These sites include Majimaji Memorial Museum (which is also the graveyard of the war heroes), the hanging site (Kinyongeoni) and Chandamale Hill (see Figure 10a), the hiding place of Songea Mbano. Most of these sites are used by the Ngoni for ancestor worship. As a matter of fact, the Maji Maji memorial sites in Songea are historical-cum-ritual sites. According to Jean Comaroff and John Camaroff, rituals are not meaningless practices, but "signifying practices." <sup>112</sup> Ritual, they further argue, is 'a vital element in the processes that make and remake social facts and collective identities.113

Memories of the hangings in Songea exist as narrative and cultural memories. Cultural memories are manifested in monuments like the hanging site monument and the museum itself. The latter contains collections of photographs of those who

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 25.

A.D. Roberts (ed), The Colonial Moment in Africa: Essays on the Movement of Minds and Materials 1900–1940 (Great Britain: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1990), p. 16.

Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, p. 143; Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 27.

Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff, "Introduction", in Id., Modernity and its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. xvi. Comaroff and Comaroff, "Introduction", p.xvi.

Figure 10a and 10b: 10a) Chandamale Hill. 10b) The Grave of Songea Mbano. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

were hanged. Narrative memories exist as stories of the hangings told by elders. These stories have been created through Maurice Halbwachs' process of localization.114

For the process of localization see, Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, pp. 52–53.

Halbwachs has written that if a group of people (say a family group) is interested in certain memories (or have a "community of interests and thoughts" in them) and "is able to call them to mind," then such memories "hang together" and "resemble each other." <sup>115</sup> In Songea, for example, the elders have maintained common narratives of the hangings. Roshohora and Kurmann observe that "in the area around Songea, the execution of Ngoni leaders is the central event of Maji Maji." <sup>116</sup> As recorded in Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War, Songea was "the apex of violence" due to the extensive annihilation of local chiefs and sub-chiefs which preceded the war.117 In fact, hardly a knowledgeable Ngoni elder would recount the history of Maji Maji without mentioning the execution of Ngoni leaders, particularly the execution of Nduna Songea Mbano. 118

Figure 11: Chained Majimaji captives. Photo obtained from Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea. Photo: © Fr. Johannes Hӓfliger.

Schmidt, "Deadly Silence", p. 183.

Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, p. 52.

Rushohora and Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji!", p. 94.

John Nditi, "Songea Walivyoweka Historia Katika Vita ya Maji Maji", https://habarileo.co.tz/ habari/2019-02-035caee1c5da.aspx, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

Stories of the hangings begin with the capture of Ngoni chiefs and subchiefs (see Figure 11 above) soon after the end of the war. As already elaborated, between September 1905 and January 1906 the whole of Ungoni experienced bitter fighting between German forces and Ngoni insurgents.<sup>119</sup> By January 1906 the Germans had won the war in much of the Ungoni region except in Chabruma's territory, where the skirmishes extended to June 1906.<sup>120</sup> The people interviewed in this study remember how the Maji Maji fighters in Songea were captured, imprisoned, and finally hanged. The prison where they were taken was originally a wooden building which was rebuilt in 1948.121 The building which is still used for its original purpose exists together with the current police post and German Court as German colonial sites.122

#### Memories of the Capture and Execution of Nduna Songea Mbano

The capture of Songea Mbano and his execution is the event most remembered in Songea. Unlike other prisoners of war who were executed on 27th April 1906, Mbano was hanged on a different day. Prior to his execution, his colleagues in captivity were ordered to dig a hole unaware that they were digging their own grave.123 Local memories maintain that all the war captives, save Mbano, were hanged (four at a time) and their bodies were "heaped into a pit," which is believed to be a mass grave.124

Before his surrender and finally his capture, Mbano used Chandamale Hill, which is located some kilometres away from Songea town, as his hiding place, where he held meetings with his worriers and planned his attacks and counterattacks.125

Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, pp. 140–143; Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", pp. 20–25.

Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, p.,143.

The photo of the chained captives was taken by Fr. Johannes Hӓfliger: a Benedictine missionary who worked at Paramiho. See, for example, Rushohora and Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji", p. 92–93; Ebner, The History of the Wangoni, pp. 142–143; Minogape, "A Tourist Circuit of Songea", p. 11.

Minogape, "A Tourist Circuit of Songea", p. 9; SMC, "Regional Administration and Local Government: Investment Profile", September 2006, p. 1.

Interview with Mzee Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila, 29th September 2017; Bantazari Nyamyusya, Maji Maji Museum, 25th September 2017.

A handful of informants interviewed in this study share similar information. See also Mzee Mayika of Mshangao Songea as interviewed by Mapunda and Mpangara in Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", pp. 27–28.

Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017; Bahati Ali Mbano, Mfaranyaki, 22nd September 2017; Mzee Ali Songea Mbano, Mfaranyaki, 29th September 2017.

The top of the hill provided an underground cave, the entrance of which was concealed by massive stones. Local memories reveal that Mbano entered the cave when forced to retreat by advancing German soldiers, which prolonged his freedom. Even when the Germans discovered Mbano's hiding place, they could not penetrate the entrance to the cave. A myth survives in Songea that Mbano's marshal skills, which were cherished locally, were rooted in his magical abilities and his vast knowledge of traditional war medicines.126 Local people believe that Mbano's military tactics and strategies defied conventional warfare methods, thereby preventing his capture by the Germans for a long time. In addition to the maji medicine, Mbano relied on his own war medicine. This medicine, which was already in use in Ungoni before maji medicine, was believed to turn humans into ant hills.127 With the help of this medicine, Mbano is believed to have escaped several attempts by the Germans to capture him. This collective supposition, which presents Mbano as a mythical hero, gives credence to Isurin's argument that collective memory, unlike formal history, "reduces events to mythic archetypes." 128

Narrative memories vary in the way they portray Mbano as a super-hero who escaped capture by the Germans through warfare. There is, for instance, disagreement among the people interviewed in this study about how Mbano finally fell into the hands of the Germans. Some say Mbano was captured by his pursuers,129 while others argue that the Germans failed to capture him through warfare, but he surrendered upon learning that all his comrades had already been hanged.130 For those who hold the latter position, they portray Mbano as a pathetic fugitive who surrendered to the Germans after all his comrades had been annihilated. A description of how Mbano surrendered to the Germans was given by Mapunda and Mpangara in the late 1960s<sup>131</sup> and can also be seen from a recent interview with Zainabu Mangoma:

After days of solitude in his hiding place, Songea Mbano asked himself: why should I not submit to my pursuers? For it makes no difference now that all my comrades are dead. Then he came out from his hiding place, faced the Germans and announced to them: I am

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017; Bahati Ali Mbano, Mfaranyika, 29th September 2017.

G.C.K. Gwassa, "African Methods of Warfare During the Maji Maji War 1905–1907", in Bethwell A. Ogot (ed), War and Society in Africa (London: Frank Cass & Company Limited, 1972), p. 126.

Isurin, Collective Remembering, p. 15.

Interview with George Milinga, Peramiho, 25th September 2017; John Nditi, "Songea Walivyoweka Historia Katika Vita ya Maji Maji", https://habarileo.co.tz/habari/2019-02-035caee1c5da.aspx, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 27.

here, kill me! This I have decided myself; you just go ahead! He was told: we have no plans to kill you, but we want you to tell us the whereabouts of your colleagues. Mbano retorted: No, I know nothing. By the way, you have already killed all of them.132

Similar stories of how Mbano presented himself to the Germans are narrated by different people interviewed in this study. It should be noted however that, although the narrative memories described above attest to the fact that Mbano surrendered to the Germans, the fact remains that Mbano has not lost his position of being a hero. Those interviewed in this study would argue that Mbano chose death rather than accept German rule, and for this reason he is a hero.

The conflicting memories regarding Mbano's capture do not however feature in the collective memories of his hanging. Memories of the execution portray Mbano as an exclusively heroic and patriotic figure, who adamantly refused to collaborate with the Germans at the risk of his life.<sup>133</sup> Mbano was detained for three days while the Germans tried to convince him to co-operate, but to no avail. The Germans finally decided to hang him after their efforts to convince him proved futile. He was brought out for hanging and his people were invited to witness the event. He was prepared for hanging but miraculously the rope fell away from him. His persecutors pleaded with him to choose life and befriend them. Mbano refused again. He was hanged for the second time but the rope failed to support his weight and he fell down still alive.<sup>134</sup> He was hanged for the third time and once again survived. The Germans finished him off by shooting him. His body was buried in a separate grave next to the mass grave. After seven days, the Germans sent out prisoners who dug up Mbano's body and cut off his head.

Yasin Yusuph Mbano describes the conversation held between Mbano and the Germans when the first attempt to hang him failed:

Still wondering why Mbano fails to die, the Germans asked him politely: "Dear Mr. Mbano we sincerely want to save your life; we don't want to execute you anymore." Mbano replied: "Why shouldn't you? I must die. You have killed my chief (referring to chief Mputa who was the first person to be hanged). You have killed all my colleagues. Whom should I keep

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Information about Mbano's hanging as provided in this paragraph was collected from different informants: Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; Mzee Mstafa Abdala (Kifimbo), Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017; Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017; Erick Sokko, Maji Maji Museum, 26th September 2017; Bahati Ali Mbano, Mfaranyaki, 29th September 2017; Mzee Ali Songea Mbano, Mfaranyaki, 29th September 2017 and Mzee Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila Village, 29th September 2017.

This did not happen to Songea Mbano alone. Similar incidences were reported of other people who failed to die by hanging. Seen in Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", pp. 27–28.

company with? You must kill me, but I must first ask your favour not to kill my young son, Ali Mbano." He then warned them that they should kill him lest he starved himself. The Germans decided to kill him but they honoured his plea not to kill his young son.<sup>135</sup>

It is apparent therefore that the narrative memories describe Mbano as having an exceptionally heroic personality, which is revealed in the way local people talk about the nature of his death, his exceptional marshal skills and his burial, that is, he was hanged on a different day and buried in a grave of his own, and, unlike his colleagues, he was decapitated. The fact that Mbano survived three hanging attempts makes him the most remembered and revered Ngoni hero. His heroic status is elevated above the other Ngoni chiefs and sub-chiefs who were hanged before him. It is no wonder that portraits of Mbano and photos taken

Figure 12: Photo of Songea Mbano. Photo obtained from Maji Maji Memorial Museum in Songea.

Interview with Mzee Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila Village, 22nd September 2017. See also John Nditi, "Songea Walivyoweka Historia Katika Vita ya Maji Maji", https://habarileo.co.tz/ha bari/2019-02-035caee1c5da.aspx, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

before his death corroborate the fact that he was a distinguished hero, which survives in people's memories to date.<sup>136</sup> His photos taken by the colonialists to be found in museums and history books (see Figure 12 above) have been modified to give a heroic impression of his personality.<sup>137</sup> In fact, Roshohora and Kurmann are right in arguing that "Songea Mbano's portrait is an example of how Tanzanians appropriated photographs taken in the colonial period were redefined and used to narrate the history of Africa." <sup>138</sup> Figures 13 and 14 below show the busts of Songea Mbano and Mputa Gama respectively.

Figure 13: The bust of Songea Mbano at the Majimaji Memorial Museum. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

Rushohora and Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji!" pp. 94–97.

Rushohora and Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji!", pp. 96–97.

Rushohora and Kurmann, "Look at Majimaji!", p. 97.

Figure 14: The bust of Chief Mputa Gama at the Majimaji Memorial. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

#### Underground Commemoration of War Heroes in Colonial Ungoni

Commemoration by way of venerating the Maji Maji heroic spirit in Songea started before independence. However, after the end of the Maji Maji war and the outbreak of the First World War the Ngoni did not have the courage to commemorate or venerate their war heroes for fear of the Germans. It was not until the end of German rule in 1919 that the descendants of the Maji Maji war heroes started visiting the sites for commemorative and ritual practices to honour the war dead.139 Nevertheless, these activates were not as publicly or officially organized as they are today. A few elders in Songea remember how the war graves were secretly preserved by local people during the colonial period for fear of the colonial authorities. They also remember the clandestine rituals of commemoration practised by their ancestors on the graves of the war heroes – a typical example of ancestral veneration or spirit

Interview with Mzee Mstafa Abdala, Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017.

veneration.140 Like many other ethnic groups in Africa, the Ngoni honour and respect the spirits of their departed relations. The war dead are honoured and venerated as heroic spirits. Their graves have been preserved and turned into shrines, where they are used as prayer sites, places where the living communicate with the dead.141

In Africa, therefore, "ancestor worship is very important not only among tribes but also within nations." <sup>142</sup> This kind of worship was not uncommon in Ungoni. During the colonial period, the burial sites of the Maji Maji heroes were secretly visited by the Ngoni who offered their prayers and paid respects to their fallen ancestors.<sup>143</sup> However, the Ngoni could not care for the sites properly for fear of the colonial authorities and so the sites were somewhat abandoned.<sup>144</sup> Mstafa Abdala revealed: "people used to point to the abandoned graves and say, that is where Songea Mbano is buried." <sup>145</sup> Simoni Daniel Gama, a descendant of Nkosi Mputa, recalls:

We used to visit the graves and practise our rituals there, but we did it secretly. One would go there pretending to be a passer-by, and on reaching the graves (whose markings were known to us), he or she prayed to the spirits of the dead depending on his or her faith. Then, he or she would leave unnoticed.146

The above information testifies to the fact that secrecy dominated commemorative events during the colonial period. In addition, evidence shows that the elders held secret meetings to discuss issues pertaining to the commemoration or veneration of their heroic spirits.<sup>147</sup> Thus, "ancestor veneration was conducted without the knowledge of the colonial masters." <sup>148</sup> George Milinga recalls: "after the war and

Interview with Simon Daniel Gama, Maposeni, 28th September 2017. Ancestor veneration is a topic thoroughly examined by Nelson, Social Memory as Ritual Practice, p. 450 and David M. Gordon, "History of the Luapala Retold: Landscape, Memory and Identify in the Kazembe Kingdom", The Journal of African History, Vol. 47, No. 1, (2006), pp. 21–42.

Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 20; Interview with George Milinga, Peramiho, 25th September 2017.

Ali A. Mazrui, On Heroes and Uhuru Worship: Essays on Independent Africa (London: Longmans, 1967), p. 21.

Interview with Mzee Mstafa Abdala, Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017; Interview with George Milinga, Peramiho, 25th September 2017.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Interview with Mzee Mstafa Abdala, Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017.

Interview with Simon Daniel Gama, Maposeni, 28th September 2017.

Interview with Simon Daniel Gama, Maposeni, 28th September 2017; Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017.

Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 17.

subsequent hangings of the captives, the Ngoni developed an indescribable fear of the German colonial government and would shiver on mentioning their name." 149

Generally, the Ngoni were emotionally and spiritually attached to the graves of their ancestors (particularly the chiefs) because they believed in the dead spirits. Pre-colonial religious history of the Ngoni was built on worshiping ancestor spirits, the so-called mahoka or chapanga. <sup>150</sup> It was common for the Ngoni to pray to the spirits of the dead chiefs to save the community from serious dangers such as famine and diseases.151 As a matter of fact, the Ngoni not only respected the dead souls, but also feared them.152 This inherent cultural trait of the Ngoni pushed them to secretly venerate their ancestors who had been hanged by the Germans. According to Margaret Read, Ngoni youth are historically known for their passion for heroism. War heroes were greatly esteemed by the community, and so when war broke out youths would fight hard to become war heroes.153 "In the Ngoni community", Read adds, "there was no place for a coward or shirker." 154

#### The Construction of Majimaji Memorial Museum

Father Martin Chengula, originally a Ngoni from Peramiho Mission, is locally remembered for his contribution to the establishment of the Majimaji museum. He collected important photos and records of the hangings and encouraged the Ngoni elders to pursue their goal of establishing a regional shrine to honour their fallen ancestors.155 The Ngoni elders established the so-called Elders' Committee whose intention was to speed up the process of constructing a regional war memorial. The committee asked the then Regional Commissioner of Ruvuma Region, Mr. Martin Haule, to support its commitment to establishing a war memorial, which he agreed to do. Mr. Haule's

Interview with George Milinga, Peramiho, 25th September 2017.

C.B. Nyandindi, "Missionary Impact on Development in Songea District", Unpublished Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, 1973, p. 8; Mapunda and Mpangara, "The Maji Maji War in Ungoni", p. 9.

Interview with George Milinga, Peramiho, 25th September 2017; Margaret Read, "The Moral Code of the Ngoni and their Former Military State", Africa: Journal of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Vol. xi, No. 1, (1938), p. 6.

Read, "The Moral Code", p. 5.

Read, "The Moral Code", p. 4.

Read, "The Moral Code", p. 4; The Ngoni people are generally known for their martial skills and are often referred to as the 'martial Ngoni.' See, for example, Michael Adas, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (USA: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979), p. 30.

Interview with Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017.

first action was to identify the location of the mass grave, which was known to only a few people at that time.<sup>156</sup> He achieved this with the help of Mr. Jumbe Darajani, the surviving witness of the hangings and burials, who could give the precise position of the mass grave.157 Identifying Songea Mbano's grave was not difficult, because the burial site was marked by a local tree (known as chingunguti/dichcrostachys cinerea), which is relatively small and known for its unusual hardness and slow growth.158 To be sure of the location of the graves, Mr. Haule ordered the site to be excavated for proof of human remains, the outcome of which was positive.159

The 'discovered' mass grave caught the attention of local people, who wanted the site to be preserved and protected for their progeny.160 The regional government under Mr. Haule immediately expressed its intention of developing the site to become a protected area of historical importance. However, this idea could not be implemented immediately as Mr. Haule left Songea for another region in 1964.161 Although by 1965 construction at the site had started, it was not until 1979 when Dr. Lawrence Gama became the new Regional Commissioner of Ruvuma that serious efforts were made to develop the site.162 As one of the members of the bereaved families of the hanged heroes, Gama realized the urgency of developing Maji Maji memory sites which had lacked proper supervision and preservation.163 He offered to support the project by collaborating with Father Chengula and the elders in

Interview with Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017.

Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017.

Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; Erick Sokko, Maji Maji Museum, 26th September, 2017; Interview with Mzee Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila, 29th September 2017. According to Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Mzee Darajani supervised located the grave of Songea Mbano when a decision was made by the Regional Commissioner to open it in the 1960s.

Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila, 29th September 2017. The tree stands next to Songea Mbano's grave and is widely known locally. The local people consider it to be a sacred marking of Songea Mbano's grave. SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

Flower Manase Msuya, "Resistance, Freedom, Nation-Building: Reminiscences of the German Colonial Past in Tanzania Past, in Deutsches Historisches Museum, German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum 2017), p. 72; SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

Interview with Mzee Yasin Yusuph Mbano, Matimila Village, 29th September 2017. Gama became the Regional Commissioner of Songea when parliament was debating on the National Museum Bill of 1979. During the 1970s, the government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, encouraged government officials to establish museums at village, district and regional level. This explains part of the reason why Gama up embarked on Maji Maji Memorial project for his region. See, for example "Majadiliano ya Bunge (Hansard), 17th Meeting 2nd–4th January 1980", pp. 123–129. See also, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): "Official Report (Tenth Meeting), The Antiquities Bill of 1964, 18th–21st February 1964 (Second Reading)", pp. 85–112.

reconstructing the war graves, which at that time were simply burial mounds.164 The mass grave where the two Ngoni chiefs (Mputa Gama and Tamatama) were buried together with other Maji Maji fighters was reconstructed alongside Songea Mbano's grave. To make the two graves look somewhat modern, they were walled in using burnt bricks and cement and the names of the people buried there written on them. The museum buildings and statues of the war heroes were erected. By the early 1980s, the construction of the Majimaji museum had been completed. The museum was officially inaugurated on 6th July 1980 by Nyerere.<sup>165</sup> Figure 15 below shows a tower erected on top of the mass grave at Majimaji Museum.

Figure 15: The Mass Grave at Majimaji Memorial Museum with 66 names of those buried there. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

The construction of the memorial went hand-in-hand with the construction of new sites honouring war heroes.<sup>166</sup> One of these was Maji Maji Stadium. Its

Interview with Erick Sokko, Maji Maji War Memorial, 26th September 2017.

Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 2 and 20; Interview with Mzee Tarimo, 28th September 2017; Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017.

Gama is today honoured for his efforts to promote football game in Songea and beyond. He was the brain behind the successes of the Maji Maji Football Club in the 1980s. His idea of using

construction started on 1st July 1977 and was officially opened on 11th October 1978 by Nyerere. The stadium, together with the Maji Maji Football team, was meant to popularize memories of the Maji Maji war in Songea and beyond.<sup>167</sup> The platforms of the stadium were named after the Ngoni war heroes.<sup>168</sup> Several other places and public institutions were named after Maji Maji or its war heroes. There were Maji Maji Street (Songea), Maji Maji Hall (Songea), Maji Maji Village (Tunduru), Maji Maji Prison (Tunduru), Maji Maji Primary School (Songea), Mkomanile Primary School (Namtumbo) and Chabruma Secondary School (Songea).<sup>169</sup> Archival evidence suggests that these names were proposed by special committees appointed for that purpose.170

It should be borne in mind that the construction of the Maji Maji War Memorial, including the Maji Maji stadium (see Figure 16 below), was supervised by Gama himself. As the Regional Commissioner (1977–1989) Gama authorized the collection of contributions from local people in all the districts of Ruvuma region. People who registered with the local co-operative unions agreed that some of their money could be deducted from their payments for the memorial project.171 Although the project was heavily funded by the regional government, much of the labour was freely provided by local people.172 For instance, they participated in making bricks and constructing traditional Ngoni huts, which were meant to strengthen the ethnographic concept of the Majimaji museum.173 Mustafa Abdala, the chairperson of traditional healers of Songea, proudly remarked: "we built the Ngoni traditional huts ourselves and I

football to honour colonial war heroes did not end with his tenure as the Regional Commissioner for Ruvuma region. While serving in this capacity in Tabora (1989–1994) he established Milambo football club (to honour chief Mirambo) and constructed the Ali Hassan Mwinyi Stadium. See, for example, "TFF Ivalie Njuga Ubora wa Viwanja", https://www.mwanaspot.co.tz/kolamn/1799642- 5giemsz/index.html, last accessed on 4th February 2019; majira-hall.blogspot.com/2012/07/wadauuwanja-wa-majimaji-unatia.html, last accessed on 4th February 2019; stephanomango.blogspot. com/2011\_01\_17\_archive.html, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

See, for example, Paul Msemwa, Fabian Lyimo, Emanuel Lucas and Balthazar Nyamusya, "Kumbukumbu ya Miaka 100 ya Vita vya Maji Maji", Makumbusho ya Nyumba ya Utamaduni, Dar es Salaam, November 2005, p. 1; Interview with Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017. Interview with Erick Sokko, MMM, 26 September 2017.

See Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 4; Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017. Note that some information provided here is based on field observation.

National Record Centre, (hereafter NRC), No. PK/UA/59/18, "Songea Mikutano", 17th August 1982, p. 2.

Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017.

Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 18.

Kizimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Memorial", p.18; Interview with Mzee Mstafa Abdala, Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017.

Figure 16: The Maji Maji Stadium in Songea. Photographed by author, 25th April 2017.

supervised the exercise as chairperson. The regional government invited us to do the job after the huts they had constructed collapsed." <sup>174</sup> These were two grass-thatched, wattle and daub huts exemplifying a typical Ngoni house. The ethnological hall houses numerous photos and cultural objects, which were collected in and around Songea from individuals who offered them for free.

Supervision of the museum remained under the regional government (the Department of Culture) until 1st September 2005 when it was handed over to the Songea Municipal Authority.175 This happened after it was realized that the memorial was in a bad state regarding its preservation and management due to lack of funds.176 As a result, the regional government, in collaboration with the Municipal Council, started looking for funds from different sources to rescue the museum from its financial woes.177 The Municipal Council negotiated successfully with the higher government

Interview with Mzee Mstafa Abdala, Namanyigu village, 27th September 2017.

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum,"; Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017. In 2005, the museums of Singida and Ruvuma were independent regional museums with no direct link to the National Museum of Tanzania. See, for example, Norbert A. Kayombo, "Management of Movable Heritage in Tanzania", in Bertram B.B. Mapunda and Paul Msemwa (eds), Salvaging Tanzania's Cultural Heritage (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2005), p. 273.

Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; Tarimo, 28th September 2017; Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September, 2017. According to Kazimoto, the Department of Culture which received funds from the government to run the museum was abolished in 1977. See, for example, Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 2.

Interview with Tarimo, MMM, 28th September 2017.

authorities for the museum to be placed under the National Museum of Tanzania.178 The result was that the museum was declared a national war museum by President Kikwete on 27th February 2006.179 On 8th December 2009, the museum was registered under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) and on 27th February 2010 it was officially transferred from the regional government of Songea to the MNRT.180 The museum was thenceforth run by the National Museum of Tanzania under the MNRT.181

#### Post-independence Commemorations of War heroes, 1960s to the Present

Secret commemoration and veneration of the war dead continued after the end of colonial rule in 1961. Acts of commemorations were no longer performed individually or secretly as in colonial times, but were openly and collectively organized by the Ngoni elders in collaboration with the regional government.<sup>182</sup> Traditional ceremonies to commemorate the war heroes and heroines were organized by a voluntary committee of elders.183 Among those who formed this committee were Daniel Gama, Shaibu Mkeso, Teacher Duwe, Alana Mbawa, Agatha Shawa, Ali Songea Mbano, Daudi Mbano, Xavery Zulu and Father Chengula.<sup>184</sup>

The annual commemoration of Maji Maji started in Songea in 1980 and continues to date.185 It takes place on February 27th, involving modern commemorations by government officials and traditional commemorations by Ngoni elders. This is supervised by the regional government in collaboration with Songea

Interview with Tarimo, 28th September 2017; Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017.

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum"; Msemwa, "Kumbukumbu ya Miaka 100", p. 2. The commemorative events to mark 100 years of the Maji Maji War started in July 2005 and were finalized in February 2006.

Albano Midelo, "Rashidi Kawawa ni Mcheza Filamu wa Kwanza Tanzania," http://www.una pitwa.com, last accessed on 26th April 2017; Interview with Erick Sokko, MMM, 26th September 2017. Msuya, "Resistance, Freedom, Nation-Building", p. 72.

Individuals continued to visit the site for their private prayers.

http://www.matukiodaima.co.tz/2013/04/, last accessed on 26th April 2017; SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

Albano Midelo, "Rashidi Kawawa ni Mcheza Filamu wa Kwanza Tanzania," http://www.una pitwa.com, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

Elders' Council (SEC).<sup>186</sup> SEC or Baraza la Wazee la Mila na Desturi was a traditional institution which supervised the day-to-day activities of the museum on behalf of the regional government until 2005. The members of the council were basically the custodians of Ngoni customs and traditions. The Songea Club building (see Figure 17b below) served as the SEC's headquarters until it was relocated in Majimaji museum.187 SEC was incorporated in the museum as a traditional institution responsible for promoting and preserving Ngoni customs and traditions. The reason for this was most members of SEC were related by blood to the Maji Maji heroes who are buried at the museum.188 The bereaved families actually owned the war graves, the right of which could not be violated by the government which took over the site.

As stakeholders of the museum, therefore, the elders of the council performed some duties as required of them by the SEC constitution which is shown in Figure 17a below.189 For example, they were required to gather historical information on the Ngoni community and share it with people who visited the museum for research purposes.<sup>190</sup> In addition, they were required to critically review new publications on Maji Maji and give advice to the authors when necessary.<sup>191</sup> More importantly, the elders were supposed to give advice on the best way the war graves and other historical sites in the region could be protected and preserved for posterity.<sup>192</sup> Last, but not least, the elders were expected to solicit funds from different sources on behalf of the museum.<sup>193</sup>

Prior to 2006, traditional commemorations of war heroes had embraced specific features, which have remained intact to date. The main acts of commemoration were a procession, singing Ngoni song (known as ligiu), offering prayers to the dead spirits of the war heroes, narrating the history of the Maji Maji war, and eating and drinking traditional food and drink.194 Collections of traditional weapons are also

SMC, "Katiba ya Baraza la Makumbusho".

SMC, "Katiba ya Baraza la Makumbusho"; SMC, "The History of the Maji Maji Museum".

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum"; Albano Midelo, "Makumbusho ya Taifa Kutoa Tuzo ya Heshima ya Utamaduni na Sanaa kwa Hayati Rashidi Kawawa", htttp://www.fikrapevu. com, last accessed on 12th April 2016.

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum"; Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017.

The constitution was prepared by Father Chengula in collaboration with the Ngoni elders. With it, Songea Elders' Council was founded. See, for example, Kazimoto, "Managerial Problems Facing Maji Maji Memorial", p. 16.

SMC, "The History of Maji Maji Museum".

SMC, "Katiba ya Baraza la Makumbusho ya Maji Maji, Mila na Desturi" (hereafter Elders' Constitution), Peramiho Printing Press, (no date and page provided).

Figure 17a and 17b: 17a) The front page of the Constitution of Majimaji Memorial Museum Council prepared by Ngoni elders. Note the symbol showing a hanging rope, a shield and traditional weapons. Source: By courtesy of Dr. Tarimo. 17b) Songea club building with a watch tower. Photographide by author, 25th April 2017.

displayed. Commemorations like these are what scholars of memory history call celebratory and commemorative rituals.195

The above commemorations were financed by the regional government and SEC. During annual commemoration of Maji Maji, other councils from the rest of the districts of Ruvuma Region (Mbinga, Nyasa, Namtumbo, Tunduru and Songea Rural) were, for the most part, invited to showcase Maji Maji memorabilia existing in their area of origin.<sup>196</sup>

Modern commemorations which started in 2005 did not interfere with the preexisting traditional ways of commemorating war heroes, but were superimposed on them. Modern commemorations added some national symbolic acts of commemoration to the pre-existing Ngoni acts of commemoration. They included a military parade to be held at the memorial ground as well as the laying of traditional weapons on the graves of the war heroes or on their monuments by the guests of honour, mostly top government leaders. Another symbolic event that was incorporated was a session of prayers to be said by both Muslim and Christian leaders at the graves. It should be remembered that modern commemoration of war heroes in Tanzania started long ago with the so-called Hero's Day. These symbolic acts of commemoration, which sought to harmonize commemorations of war heroes in the country, had been performed during Hero's Day since independence. Between 1961 and 1999, for example, Mnazi Mmoja (in Dar es Salaam) was the only place where the events to commemorate war heroes took place.197 Whereas Heroes Day honoured all war heroes, such as those who fell in the nineteenth century, during African resistance movements as well as during two World Wars and the Kagera Wars, those who died fighting against colonial imposition in Songea are specifically honoured as Maji Maji war heroes. According to Ali A. Mazrui, "recognizing the heroes as common heroes" is the process for achieving what he calls "national selfidentification." <sup>198</sup> The national acts of commemoration as practiced in Songea strengthen Kirk A. Denton's argument that "sites of memory 'deritualize' local and

Discussion on national rituals and performances can be found in Eric Taylor Woods and Rachel Tsang, "Ritual and Performance in the Study of Nations and Nationalism", in Rachel Tsang and Eric Taylor Woods (eds), The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building (New York: Routledge, 2014), pp. 1–11; Anthony D. Smith, "Elites, Masses and the Re-enactment of the National Past", in Rachel Tsang and Eric Taylor Woods (eds), The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building (New York: Routledge, 2014), pp. 21–24.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 22nd September 2017; Tarimo, 28th September 2017.

Anonymous Reporter, "Maadhimisho ya Mashujaa Yafanyika Kabaga, Kagera", Mtanzania, No. 1182, 26th July 1999, p. 3.

Mazrui, On Heroes and Uhuru Worship, p. 21.

traditional forms of memory and impose on them a collective national memory." 199 This in turn leads to "new forms of state memorialism." 200

The common practice in Songea is that commemoration of the Maji Maji war heroes begins on 25th January and reaches its climax on 27th February. The first day is arrival day when preparations are made for the commemoration. On the second day the invited elders from different places hold a wake at the museum, when they slaughter a cow and two goats as part of their commemorative ritual and ceremony.201 These elders usually arrive in their special clothes that are worn at commemorations.202 The third day is when modern commemorations are merged with traditional commemorations and several activities are performed. The elders, invited government officials, army officers, students and the rest of people attending the event meet first at the Regional Commissioner's Office before they gather at the nearby hanging site where prayers are said in memory of war heroes.<sup>203</sup> Traditional weapons, such as a bow, an arrow, an axe (chinjenje), a war shield (chikopa) and a club (chibonga) – typical Ngoni weapons used during a war – are placed at the hanging monument which is a tower.204 At the bottom of this tower is a list of the names of the people who were hanged there. The longest commemorative event was held during the centenary commemoration of Maji Maji from February 2005 to July 2005, and it is widely mentioned in literature.205

Once all these activities are done, the procession starts moving towards the museum while the Ngoni war song (ligiu) is sung.206 According to Zainabu Mangoma (see her photo in Figure 18), the ligiu song is different from a war drum in that the former involves the use of Ngoni weapons (those used in Maji Maji) as sound-making instruments and it is accompanied by actual singing of the people,207 while the latter

Denton, Exhibiting the Past, p. 11.

See, for example, Alessandro Triulzi, "The Past as Contested Terrain: Commemorating New Sites of Memory in War-torn Ethiopia", in Preben Kaarsholm (ed), Violence, Political Culture and Development in Africa (Oxford: James Currrey, 2006), p. 125.

Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017; Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017.

Interview with Blandina Raphael, MMM, 26th September 2017.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; stephanomango.blogspot. com/2011\_01\_17\_archive.html, last accessed on 4th February 2019.

See, for example, Fuhrmann, Screening the German Colonies, p. 4; Bendex, Global Development and Colonial Power, p. 21.

Minogape, "A Tourist Circuit of Songea", p. 13; Interview with Bantazari Nyamyusya, MMM, 25th September 2017; Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017. The ligiu song was hitherto sung in Songea Club building, including all commemorative ceremonies.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

does not involve singing. On reaching the museum, prayers are said at the graves, the army officers' parade and the invited guests of honour pay their respects to the war heroes by laying traditional weapons on their graves.208 The history of Maji Maji is then narrated by a person who is chosen for that purpose. The actual celebration comes at the end and involves eating and drinking and singing the ligiu song. Traditional Ngoni food like millet cake and local brew, muyakala, are made available at the museum for people attending the events.209

Figure 18: Zainabu Mangoma in her special bark cloth she wore for commemoration event in Songea. Photo by courtesy of Zainabu Mangoma.

This section has described the Maji Maji memorial sites in Songea, indicating how they influenced both individual and collective commemoration of the war dead.210 The section has shown that commemorative events are nothing other than "collective memories [which] are both reflected and reinforced through specific cultural and temporal activities and behaviour, such as rituals, commemorative ceremonies

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017.

This argument is also supported by James Giblin as cited by Joubert, "History by Word of Mouth", pp. 44–45.

and bodily practices." <sup>211</sup> The history of commemoration of Maji Maji as articulated above suggests that events involving commemoration and veneration of the war dead in Songea have changed over time. The section has traced the origin of commemorative events in Songea and has shown the protracted process of constructing the war museum.

#### The Agonies of the Bereaved Families: From Where they Stand

One of the outcomes of organized colonial violence is that the victims of Maji Maji have passed on their traumatic memories to their descendants, while in Namibia, restitution has been made to the Nama and Herero on account of the genocide.212 On the one hand, the descendants of the Maji Maji heroes and heroines in Songea are satisfied that their government has recognized and honoured their fallen ancestors by constructing the Majimaji museum and by organizing annual commemorations of war heroes. On the other hand, they grieve that the skull of their great warrior, Songea Mbano, has not been given back to them for its proper traditional burial, nor have the descendants of those who were executed been compensated. Therefore, there is mounting pressure on the authorities to return the skull and compensate the victims' descendants.

Interviews conducted in Songea indicate that Songea Mbano's missing skull predominates. Local memories indicate that the issue of the skull is more important than compensation.213 However, in recent years, both have caught the attention of parliament and the media. The Ngoni elders have continued to use the Maji Maji annual commemoration to air their views regarding the missing skull. Records indicate that demands for restitution of the skull became vocal in 2007. During the commemoration of Maji Maji on 27th February 2007, the Ngoni elders gave a joint statement asking the German government to consider giving back the skull and compensating the bereaved families.214 They asked the then Regional Commissioner of Ruvuma to see to it that the missing skull was given back to them for a proper

Kate Davian-Smith and Paula Hamilton, "Introduction", in Memory and History in Twentiethcentury Australia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 2.

Zimmerer, "Kolonialismus und kollektive Identitӓt", pp. 17–20; Rein Kӧβsler, Namibia and Germany: Negotiating the Past, (Namibia: University of Namibia Press, 2015), pp. 247–329; Bendex, Global Development and Colonial Power, p. 21.

Interview with Zainabu Mangoma, Matogoro Shuleni, 27th September 2017; Tarimo, 28th September 2017;

"Wangoni Wataka Wajerumani Warudishe Fuvu la Chifu Wao", Nipashe No.043364, Friday 2 nd March 2007, p. 9.

traditional burial.215 In a statement quoted by Nipashe, a well-known local newspaper, the Ngoni elders remarked: "we want Germany to pay compensation to the families of the 64 people who were hanged and buried in a mass grave for fighting in the Maji Maji war." 216

The question of compensation was raised in parliament in 2015 and 2017. In 2015, the Minister of Defence remarked that demands for compensation should also consider the fact that the government has continued to honour all the people who lost their lives fighting for their country.217 He stressed that the best way to do that is to construct national war memorials in memory of the war dead.218 In 2017, the Member of Parliament, Vedasto Ngombale, raised the question of compensation in parliament.219 In response, the Minister of Defence said: "we are taking up this matter, and we are going to officially write to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and liaise with them to take the complaint to the relevant parties." <sup>220</sup> He also assured parliament that the government was going "to file an official complaint to Germany seeking an apology for the atrocities the colonial power committed during the Maji Maji war." <sup>221</sup> In a dialogue between the minister and the Deutsch Welle following this parliamentary debate, the former clearly stated that plans were underway to demand compensation for the victims of the Maji Maji war from Germany.<sup>222</sup> He classified those who deserved compensation as victims of the war who had survived and the members of bereaved families.223 To justify the government's decision, the Minister cited the example of Kenya, which had done the same thing in the case of the Mau Mau war, and Namibia, which was doing it also.224

Nipashe No.043364, Friday 2nd March 2007, p. 9.

Nipashe No.043364, Friday 2nd March 2007, p. 9.

URT, Parliament of Tanzania, Supplementary questions, http://www.parliament.go.tz/index. php/supplementary\_question/127, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

http://www.parliament.go.tz/index.php/supplementary\_question/127, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

Athumani Mtulya, "Maji Maji War in the Spotlight", https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Maji-Maji-War-in-the-spotlight/1840340-3805982-format-xhtml-n0enl5/index.html, last visited on 5th February 2023.

https://www.citizen.co.tz/news/maji-maji-war-in-the-spotight/18403440-3805982, last accessed on 8th December 2017.

https://www.citizen.co.tz/news/maji-maji-war-in-the-spotight/18403440-3805982, last accessed on 8th December 2017.

"Tanzania Kuidai Ujerumani Fidia kwa Ukatili Ulioufanya Wakati wa Ukoloni", posted in February 2017, http://swahilitimes.com, last accessed on 8th December 2017.

http://swahilitimes.com, last accessed on 8th December 2017.

http://swahilitimes.com, last accessed on 8th December 2017.

It goes without saying that individual government officials, particularly members of parliament and ministers, were at the forefront in supporting compensation. A similar situation can be seen in the restitution saga. During the annual commemoration of Maji Maji held in Songea on 27th February 2017, the member of parliament (special seat), Jackline Msongozi, pleaded with the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism to ensure that Mbano's skull was returned to the Ngoni people.225 This clearly demonstrates that between 2007 and 2017 the government came under mounting pressure to take action regarding reparation and restitution.

In 2017, the parliamentary debate on the question of compensation provoked mixed feelings among the public. In his online article of May 2017, for instance, Markus Mpangala phrased his title-cum-question thus: Ni Sahihi Tanzania Kudai Fidia ya Ukoloni wa Ujerumani? loosely translated: Is it right for Tanzania to demand compensation for German colonialism?<sup>226</sup> He argued that there was nothing wrong with reparation, but he questioned whether material compensation alone could erase the traumatic memories of the Maji Maji war and the irreplaeable loss of life it caused.

It is important to note that the issues of reparation and restitution as far as Maji Maji is concerned have, in recent years, begun to find space in scholarship.227 Balla F.Y.P. Masele in his article titled The Unfought Maji Maji War has metaphorically spoken about the question of compensation.228 Similarly, a journal article by Khoti Chilomba Kamanga analyzed Maji Maji from a legal perspective, showing very clearly how the war was an organized crime and a total violation of international law existing at the time of the war.229 To support the view that Maji Maji was a war crime, Kamanga provides evidence that deliberate action taken by the German colonial army violated the 1856 Lieber Code, the 1864 Geneva Convention on Land Warfare, the 1874 Brussels Final Protocol, the 1880 Oxford Manual and the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions.230 He also mentions the illegal actions taken by

Bendex, Global Development and Colonial Power, p. 21.

Muhidini Amri, "Mbunge Ataka Kichwa Kirudishwe", Habarileo, http://www.co.tz/index.php/ habari-za-kitaifa/21048-mbunge, last accessed on 26th April 2017.

Markus Mpangala, "Ni Sahihi Tanzania Kudai Fidia ya Ukoloni wa Wajerumani?, Rai, 4th May 2017, http://www.pressreader.com, last accessed on 28th March 2019.

Balla F.Y.P. Masele, "The Unfought Maji Maji Wars: The Lessons of History are Never Learnt", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VII, No. 1, (2010), pp. 100–101.

Khoti Chilomba Kamanga, "The Maji Maji War: An International Humanitarian Law Perspective", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VI, No, 2, (2009), pp. 54–65.

Kamanga, "The Maji Maji War", p. 54.

the Germans during the war, such as plundering, executing, "cruelty, targeting the civilian population," causing starvation, "the mutilation of the dead bodies of fallen rebels," <sup>231</sup> "collective punishment" and "forced relocation." 232

#### Conclusion

It can be argued that Maji Maji, as the most violent and 'famous' anti-colonial war to have erupted in German Tanganyika, has continued to foster collective memories of the atrocities committed by the German colonial army.<sup>233</sup> Both the narrative and cultural memories of the war analyzed in this chapter have revealed that trans-generational traumatic memories of the war have occupied and continue to occupy the minds of the Ngoni people. Having witnessed the annihilation of the people they had once revered as their rulers soon after the end of the war, the Ngoni people wanted to openly express their traumatic feelings by commemorating their dead heroes and heroines but given the violent nature of the colonial state the odds were against them. They did not have the courage to freely exercise their freedom of commemorating or venerating their war dead as this was likely to cause trouble. During the struggle for independence, Nyerere evoked memories of Maji Maji to defend his argument for independence at the United Nations. Still burdened and haunted by horrific memories of the war, some Ngoni elders could not bring themselves to openly support TANU's campaign for they feared that history would repeat itself. After independence, commemoration of Maji Maji began to take shape at both the local and national level. The Ngoni's fear of commemorating and venerating the war heroes vanished. Monuments were erected and commemorations of war heroes and heroines started in earnest. Gwassa wrote: "since independence, monuments of important Maji Maji Sites have been built or replenished and the demand for them is ever growing." 234

Although the Ngoni, in collaboration with the regional government, managed to construct the Majimaji Memorial Museum in the 1980s and supervise it, decades passed before it was transformed into the National War Museum for various reasons. First, the National Museum of Tanzania (in Dar es Salaam), which was

Kamanga, "The Maji Maji War", p. 64.

Kamanga, "The Maji Maji War", p. 65.

The report prepared by the government during the event to mark 50 years of the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in April 2014, cited in the Maji Maji War as a famous anti-colonial movement. See, for example, JMT, "Taarifa ya Miaka 50 ya Muungano wa Tanganyika na Zanzibar 1964–2014", April, 2014, p. 2.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War. p. 21.

responsible for the development of museum activities in the country, lacked finance and personnel and so was unable to extend its services or construct new museums.<sup>235</sup> As a result, all regional museums were placed under the regional government, which allocated meagre resources for museum activities.236 Second, the National Museum of Tanzania seemed to give most of its attention to the development of museums elsewhere other than Songea.<sup>237</sup> Third, national Hero's Day, which was observed on 1st September each year, might have discouraged further attempts by the government to establish a national war museum.238 But why was the status of the Maji Maji Memorial site changed from private to regional or from regional to national? According to Assmann and Shortt, the status of any memory may change from informal to public, from unofficial to official or from private to public.239 Memory becomes official when "it is organized by the state or important political actors." 240

The discussion on collective war memories suggests that commemorative events linked to Maji Maji have not only led to public awareness of the war in Songea but have also inflamed feelings of the need for reparation and restitution at both the local and national level.<sup>241</sup> However, these events have achieved one more thing. They have served the purpose of popularizing the heroic personalities involved in the Maji Maji war.<sup>242</sup> This chapter has focused on Songea, a heroic town named after nduna Songea Mbano, but, due to lack of space, has excluded numerous other isolated yet important Maji Maji memorial sites existing in different areas of southern Tanzania. To gain a better understanding of spatial variations in the cultural remembrances relating to Maji Maji, further research is needed in those areas not included in this chapter.

E.B. Njombe, "Makumbusho ya Taifa: Historia, Shughuli Zake na Yaliyomo Ndani Yake" (With an Abstract in English), National Museum of Tanzania Occasional Paper No. 3, 1974, p. 50. Njombe, "Makumbusho", pp. 50–54.

NRC, No.HU/SH/CCM 22/Vol. 1, "Kumbukumbu za Mkutano wa Kamati ya Uongozi", 20th May 1986, p. 4.

Gwassa, The Outbreak and Development of the Maji Maji War, p. 21.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 9.

Jan Kubik and Michael Bernhard, "A Theory of the Politics of Memory", in Id., Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration (USA: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 7–8.

For public awareness of Maji Maji see, for example, P. Malekela Samson, "An Assessment of Public Awareness on the Role of Maji Maji War toward Tanzania's' Independence Struggles (1940s–1950s): A case of Songea District", Unpublished MA Dissertation, Saint Augustine University of Tanzania, September 2014, pp. 1–55.

According to John Iliffe, "African history lacks personalities" and Tanzania is no exception. See, for example, John Iliffe, "Introduction", in John Iliffe (ed), Modern Tanzanians: A Volume of Biographies (Dar es Salaam: East African Publishing House, 1973), p. 5.

### Chapter 5 The Chagga People's Collective Memories of the Germans: Nostalgia, Trauma and Legacy

#### Introduction

Memories of German colonialism in Moshi are varied. Oral interviews conducted in this area of study reveal that the Chagga people<sup>1</sup> remember the Germans as people who came to colonize, brutalize, evangelize, teach them how to read and write and train them in some handcraft skills such as stone masonry and woodwork. They generally agree on the fact that although German colonial rule functioned alongside the missionaries who taught them the word of God which they quickly embraced, it was utterly exploitative and oppressive in nature.<sup>2</sup> They regard German colonialism as an historical epoch, which produced African heroes who are honoured locally, and African collaborators who are blamed for betraying their own people.<sup>3</sup> German missionaries are remembered for their evangelical activities in Moshi, which left a long-lasting legacy.

The word Mdachi (plural Wadachi) is the Swahili commonly used by the Chagga to refer to the Germans.4 "Keri kila kya Wadachi, viz., in the era of the Germans," is a common way an elderly Chagga woman or man would start narrating a story relating to the German colonial past.<sup>5</sup> This chapter explains, among others, the extent to which remembrance of the Germans in Uchagga takes place within

Chagga is an ethnic group (Bantu Speakers) whose settlement on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro started in the 15th century. Derik Nurse writes that the Chagga originated from different ancestral stock: Taita, Kamba, Maasai, Pare, Shambaa, Kahe and Waarusha, with the first three groups constituting the major ancestral stock. For more details about the origin and linguistic classification of the Chagga see: Derik Nurse, "Classification of the Chaga Dialects: Language and History on Kilimanjaro, the Taita Hills and the pre Mountains with 24 tables ad 3 Maps," PhD Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, 1977, Chapter 1.

See also the similar argument by Laumann for the case of Ewe people of central Volta Region in Ghana as explained by Laumann, Remembering the Germans in Ghana, p. 2.

According to Luanda three chiefs were German collaborators in Moshi. These were Marealle of Marangu, Shangali of Machame and Rindi of Moshi. Seen in N.N. Luanda, "The Meru and Arusha People, Christianity and the German Conquest", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. 1, No. 2, (1992), p. 96.

This is a Swahili word meaning German. The word, now old fashioned, was corrupted from a German word, Deutsch. Another word in common usage is Mjerumani (singular) or Wajerumani (plural).

Based on the author's personal observation during field interviews.

the framework of collective cultural memories and trans-generational narratives. To provide an understanding of the genesis of these memories, the chapter begins by giving background information about German colonial history in Moshi. The chapter sheds light on the advent of colonialism in Kilimanjaro by explaining how the Germans arrived with the intention of colonizing and evangelizing. It explains the nature of the contacts between the Germans and the Chagga and the extent to which they influenced the way the former are remembered today. The researcher argues that the Chagga's contact with German missionaries and imperialists, which started in the second half of the 19th Century and finished at the end of the First World War, left the Chagga people with enduring memories of Germany's colonial past.6

Regarding the Chagga's contact with German imperialists, the chapter explains how some Chagga chiefs collaborated with the imperialists while some opposed them. The chapter goes on to examine the extent to which memories of violent colonial experiences, such as wars and executions, engineered the transgenerational collective narratives of heroism in Moshi today. It also explains how the German colonial legacy of enforcing law and order, introducing technology and education and evangelizing have resulted in collective nostalgia and trauma. Is there public awareness of German places that are remembered in Moshi? Are they preserved? These two questions are addressed towards the end of this chapter.

#### Chagga Contact with Missionaries

The Chagga's interactions with the few missionaries and travellers, who had entered their land a little earlier than the German imperialists were generally friendly. The first three persons to visit Kilimanjaro were Rev. Johannes Rebmann (1848–1849), Baron Carl Claus von der Decken (1861–1862) and Rev. Charles New (1871).7 Rebmann, the first European to report on the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro to the Europeans, arrived at Kilema on 13 May 1848, having trekked from Mombasa for one month and two weeks.8 At Kilema, he was warmly welcomed by chief Masaki. On his second visit to Uchagga on 6 January 1849, Rebmann who belonged to Church Missionary Society (CMS) went to Machame (in German times Madschame) where

The Centenary Book Committee (hereafter CBC), The Catholic Church in Moshi: A Centenary Memorial 1890–1990 (Tanzania: Ndanda Mission Press, 1990), p. 19.

Kathleen M. Stahl, History of the Chagga People of Kilimanjaro (London: Mouton & Co. Publishers, 1964), p. 36.

C.G. Richards, Johann Ludwig Krapf: Missionary, Explorer and Africanist (Germany: The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1973), pp. 43–44.

he was cordially welcomed by chief Mankinga.<sup>9</sup> Rebmann's first visit to Machame led to the construction of the first Protestant church of Nkwarungo. His second trip to Machame in April 1849 was not productive; he was cold-shouldered by Chief Mankinga.<sup>10</sup> Mankinga refused to take him to Unyamwezi, looted his money and spat on him.<sup>11</sup> Rebmann went back to Rabai (Kenya) a disappointed man.

Rebmann and his companion, John Krapf, were German nationals who received their evangelical training at Basel in Switzerland before being employed by Anglo-Lutheran CMS.<sup>12</sup> Rebmann's explorations led to the establishment of the first Christian mission at Old Moshi in 1885, which was later replaced by the Leipzig Society in 1892.<sup>13</sup> Following this successful exploration, other missionaries were encouraged to follow suit.14 The Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society (LELMS) arrived at Machame in 1893 with the intention of establishing their mission station.<sup>15</sup> LELMS quickly expanded to other parts of Moshi.16 On arriving at Nkwarungo, they were warmly received by chief Shangali of Machame.<sup>17</sup> Between 1893 and 1909, eight Lutheran mission stations were started in Moshi, four in Upare and two in Meru.<sup>18</sup>

CBS, The Catholic Church, p. 20.

Bengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed, A History of the Church in Africa (London: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 518.

Carl-Erik Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa: Historia ya Kanisa Tanzania, second edition (Tanzania: Moshi Lutheran Printing Press, 2015), p. 10.

Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church, p.10.

CBS, The Catholic Church, p. 19.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 20; Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 20. CMS moved to Taveta in Kenya and from there they extended their activities to Mpwapwa and Nassa.

The early missionaries published books on missionary experiences in East Africa which encouraged other missionaries to come to East Africa. Johann Ludwig Krapf who visited Usambara in 1848 published Reisen in Ostafrika, which was translated in English in 1860 and whose readership in Europe promoted more missionary explorations. See Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 11; CBS, The Catholic Church, p. 20.

These were Gerhard Althaus, Emil Muller, Albin Bohme and Robert Fassmann. They were later joined by Traugott Pasler from Tamils in south India who, banking on his long experience of missions, was given the task of founding the Lutheran mission at Machame. LELM started as a Society for Mission Help (Missionshilfsverein) in Dresden in 1819. Its name was changed to Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society (ELMS) in 1839 before it was called Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society (LELMS) in 1856 when its headquarters moved to Leipzig. See Daniel Jeyaraj, "Missionary Attempts of Tamil Protestant Christians in East and West during the 19th Century" in Klaus Koschorke, Transcontinental Links in the History of Non-Western Christianity (Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002), pp. 131–134.

Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 32.

Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapt Hadi Rugambwa, pp. 32–33.

Figure 19: The current Nkwarungo Church which was built between 1925 and 1927. Photographed by author, 18th January 2017.

The early German missions in Uchagga did not suffer much from internal conflicts as happened in other missions elsewhere, nor did they face much opposition from the local people.<sup>19</sup> Chief Rindi, for example, welcomed the missionaries to come and work in his chiefdom of Moshi, promising them his maximum co-operation.<sup>20</sup> However, the early missionaries were received with suspicion in most Chagga chiefdoms. Their sudden arrival caused the local chiefs not to trust them, and so to overcome this, the chiefs had to make sure the missionaries took traditional oaths of friendship before granting them permission to establish their mission stations. A particular case in point is the arrival of Father Auguste Gommenginger of the Holy Ghost Fathers (spiritans) from France at Kilema

For instability see Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 543.

In fact, he even wrote a letter to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Mombasa asking it to come and establish itself in his chiefdom. He eagerly wanted missionaries to come and teach him how to read and write and had promised to give them children to teach. See, for example, Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 547. See also, O.W. Furley, A History of Education in East Africa (USA: NOK Publishers Ltd, 1978), p. 50; Sally Falk Moore and Paul Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, edited with and introduction by William M O'Hare (London: International African Institute, 1977), p. 14.

in August 1890.<sup>21</sup> Father Gommenginger, a German of the French Holy Ghost Fathers, arrived at Kilema from Mombasa accompanied by three African guides.<sup>22</sup> One of them is remembered by the name of Nderingo,<sup>23</sup> who lived in Mombasa and offered to take Father Gommenginger to his homeland of Kilema where he would introduce him to the chief.<sup>24</sup>

When Father Gommenginger arrived at Kilema he was not allowed to start a mission there before he took an oath of friendship with chief Pfumba of Kilema. This oath is narrated by Angelina John Njuu: "Mangi Pfumba had a he-goat slaughtered. Then, Father Auguste and Mangi Pfumba took turns in cutting four small pieces of meat, rubbing them with each other's blood before eating them. The oath meant that the two parties were thenceforth friends for life". <sup>25</sup> Pfumba took a similar oath with Father Alexander Le Roy.26 Traditional oaths of friendship or what other scholars call alliances of blood-brothers were not uncommon in pre-colonial Uchagga.<sup>27</sup> Henry Hamilton Johnston (known later as Sir Harry Johnston) reports that when he visited Marangu chiefdom in 1884 with his porters he was not allowed into the palace until he swore that his visit was of no bad intention.28 Almost everywhere in Uchagga, missionaries were not allowed to establish settlements before taking traditional oaths of friendship like the one related by Njuu. Their readiness to comply with this traditional demand enabled them to acquire several sites in Uchagga where they established their mission stations.29

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 20. Information about his arrival at Kilema was collected from Mkyeku Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017; Meku August Meela, Samanga, 18th January 2017; Meku Serafini, Kilema Kati, 2nd January 2017; Meku Gabriel Kessy, Kimbogho, 1st January 2017, Mkyeku Helena Elias, Samanga, 7th February 2017.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 35; TEC, Jubilee, p. 13; The Holy Ghost Fathers or Spiritans worked on the Coast of Senegal and Gabon before extending their services to Angola and then to East Africa. See, for example, Richard Gray, "Christianity", in A.D. Roberts, The Colonial Moment in Africa: Essays on the Movement of Minds and Materials 1900–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 159.

TEC, Jubilee, p. 13.

CBC, The Catholic Church, pp. 44–45.

Interview with Mkyeku Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017.

Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church, p. 548.

CBC, The Catholic History p. 51; Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church, p. 548.

H.H. Johnston, Kilima-njaro Expedition (London: Kegan Paul, 1886), pp. 247–256.

D. Swatman, "Missionary Education and the Modernization of Tanzania", TNR, Nos. 88 and 89, (1982), p. 83.

Because of Father Gommenginger's good relationship with the Chagga people, they nicknamed him Mahoo, a Chagga word meaning 'good friend.' <sup>30</sup> He was, as Sundkler and Steed put it, "the generous benefactor of the people" and the Chagga called him Mopia Ang'anyi, which means the Great Priest.<sup>31</sup> The people of Kilema commemorate him every year by celebrating a mass for him and putting flowers on his grave at Kilema mission graveyard.32 As the first resident priest in Kilimanjaro, Father Gommenginger was assisted by Brother Blanchard and Father Martin Rhomer until the latter, together with Brother Damase, was sent to Kibosho to start a new mission station in 1894.33 Though Father Commenginer was a German by birth he had opted to become a French citizen.34 It appears generally that in German East Africa "the composition of missionary rank and file showed a strong tendency toward Germanization, as the dynamic French-run Catholic societies employed a steadily rising number of German nationals." <sup>35</sup> Estimates show that by 1913, 70 percent of all missionaries working in Tanganyika were German nationals.36 As a matter of fact, the number of German members of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Tanganyika increased after Germany captured part of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.37 In Kilimanjaro alone, seventeen out of thirty two Catholic Brothers working with the Catholic Church between 1885 and 1962 were German nationals.<sup>38</sup> Although only 5 percent of priests were German nationals according to the records, several French priests had German names.39 In general, Catholic missionaries of Moshi were, as Kathleen Stahl refers to them, "German Roman Catholic Fathers." 40

Local memories indicate that the land granted to missionaries by the local chiefs in most of Uchagga were those which were, according to Chagga traditions, unfit for human settlement. These were pieces of land on which bodies of youths were abandoned for wild animals to devour. In the Chagga community, the death

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 27; TEC, Jubilee, p. 13.

Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church, pp. 876–877; Mkyeku Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017.

Interview with Meku Serafini, Kilema Kati, 2nd January 2017.

Ludoviki Petro, "Kilema Moshi", Mambo Leo, Vol. xvi, Tanganyika Territory, September 1938, p. 143; CBC, The Catholic History pp. 50–54.

Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church, p. 877.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 577.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p.577.

Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, pp. 36–37.

CBC, The Catholic Church, pp. 188–189.

CBC, The Catholic Church, pp. 182–188.

Stahl, History of the Chagga, p. 37.

of a youth, Ndaka, was, in the olden days, interpreted as a sign of bad luck.<sup>41</sup> The body was not buried, but was abandoned in a bush set aside so that hyenas, Mambonda, could feed on them.42 The same applied to the bodies of spinsters and barren women. The essence of granting sites formerly used for this purpose to the missionaries is explained by the fact that Moshi did not have enough land, although some informants interviewed in the field argued that the chiefs wanted to scare off the missionaries.<sup>43</sup>

The first church at Kilema was a small hut thatched with dry banana leaves, locally called Ndawa. <sup>44</sup> In 1892, the mission station was officially started at Kilema.<sup>45</sup> By 1910, the modern stone church as shown in figure 21 had been completed and was designed to resemble French architecture.<sup>46</sup> Narrative memories collected in different villages of the district abound in stories of how the building was erected using Chagga communal labour organized by the chief.<sup>47</sup> The construction of the church was a herculean task, recalls Serafini: "the roofing materials were carried by men all the way from Tanga port to Kilema as there was no railway at that time.<sup>48</sup> August Meela also recalls that the builders used volcanic clay soil as cementing material due to absence of industrial cement.<sup>49</sup>

The founding of Kilema mission encouraged the Holy Ghost Fathers to extend their services to other places in Uchagga. After establishing the first mission at Kilema, they proceeded to Kibosho and Mkuu-Rombo where they established two

Interview with Meku Anthony Kachema, Rauya, 3rd January 2017. According to Kachema Mandaka, a similar area given to the Spiritans at Kilema, was derived from the word Ndaka, which means a young man.

Interview with Meku Anthony Kachema, Rauya, 3rd January 2017.

Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church, pp. 547–548. This is particularly the case with informants interviewed at Kibosho.

Interview with Meku Serafini, Kilema Kati, 2nd January 2017.

Stahl, History of the Chagga, p. 37.

TEC, Jubilee, p. 14. Kilema mission had for a long time served a wider section of Christian populace, particularly those from neighbouring chiefdoms. Meku Dominick Msalanga, who turned 100 years in December 2017, remembered his old days when he used to trek all the way from his homeland of Mamba to Kilema to celebrate the mass. Interview with Meku Dominick Msalanga (with assistance of Augustina Dominick Msalanga), Mamba-Kimbogho, 2nd January 2017.

Interview with Meku Serafini, 2nd January 2017; Mkyeku Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017; Meku A. Kifai Mlay, Samanga, 4th January 2017; Meku Joseph Msaki, Samanga, 9th February 2017; Meku August Meela, Samanga, 18th January 2017; Meku Serafini, Kimaroroni, 2nd January 2017; Meku Gabriel Kessy, Rauya, 2nd January 2017. The use of African free labour "was the most usual way" in mission stations. Seen in TNA, No. 225923, Minutes by CS, 22nd July 1935.

Meku Serafini, 2nd January 2017. These iron sheets, obsolete and unhealthy due to asbestos's contents, were replaced by modern iron sheets in recent years.

Interview with Meku August Meela, 18th January 2017.

more mission stations in 1893 and 1898, respectively.<sup>50</sup> The latter whose church building is shown in figure 20 below was named Fisherstadt as a tribute to Bishop Fisher who consecrated the mission. This name was dropped because the local people could not pronounce it properly.<sup>51</sup> Bishop Fisher worked as the Auxiliary Bishop to the Cardinal of Cologne in Knechtsteden.<sup>52</sup> In all these areas stone churches were erected and have remained as a permanent German legacy.

The missions established close ties with the Chagga community. In fact, "one of the first things the missionaries did after their arrival was to establish reliable relationships with the people they found on the mountain . . ." <sup>53</sup> The communities surrounding German mission stations greatly depended on the services they provided, such as education and health.54 The report published in Kusare in July 1961 showed that Kibosho Mission had contributed significantly to the social and economic development of Kibosho community.55 Referring to Kilema mission, the Chief Secretary remarked in 1935: "the mission here has an enormous influence over the Chagga and to a very large extent control the social life of the people." <sup>56</sup> Missionary activities transformed African lives in different ways as Professor A.Adu Boahen reveals:

By 1880 all the various activities of Christian missionary activities had had a profound impact on African societies. In the first place, the standard of living of the converts had changed, for some were wearing European-style cloths, had gained access to modern medicine, were living in houses built in a modern style, were practicing monogamous marriage . . .57

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 20.

CBC, The Catholic Church, pp. 58–59.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 58.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 49. The situation was however different at Tukuyu in Southwest Tanzania where the local people resented German missionaries in favour of British missionaries. They actually wrote to the governor in 1927 to express their views: ". . . the English missionaries have taught us many things and a great deal of real knowledge. But we do not see any good work done by these people of the German mission since their long sojourn in this country." Seen in TNA, 10297/1, Natives of Tukuyu District to the Governor, 26th April 1927.

Provision of education and health services started with the missionary sisters of the Precious Blood at Kibosho Kilema and Rombo in 1902, 1904 and 1906 respectively. See, for example, Severian Alex Mafikiri, A Christ as the Mangi, Ideal King of Christian Transformation: A Christology from the Chagga Perspective (Nairobi: The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, 2010), p. 26.

Anonymous Reporter, "Mission ya Kibosho imeinua hali za maisha kwa watu wengi", Kusare, No. 190, 29th July 1961, p. 9.

TNA, No. 225923, Minutes by CS, 22nd July 1935.

A. Adu Boahen, African Perspectives on Colonialism (USA: John Hopkins University Press, 1987), p. 16.

Figure 20: Stone church building erected at Mkuu Rombo by German Missionaries. Photographed by author, 15th January 2017.

The Kilema mission stands at the bottom of old Pfumba hill (now Ngangu Hill) which is preserved due to its history of colonial evangelization. On this hill a wooden cross was erected by Father Gommenginger on his arrival at Kilema to symbolize the arrival of the Catholic faith.58 The current concrete cross, standing 28 feet high, was designed by Brother Cere Spiekerman, and erected in July 1935 as a monument to the Holy Year.<sup>59</sup> The cross also commemorated the Jubilee of Redemption.60

Interview with Meku Serafini, Kilema Kati 2nd January 2017.

The church acquired this site from Mangi Joseph of Kilema whose tenure had ended after he was deposed some months before the erection of the monument. Seen in TNA, 225923, Minutes by CS, 22nd July 1935. Further details of ownership rights are found in TNA, No. 22923/10, Draft letter from CS to Reverend Father Superior of Kilema mission, 1935.

TNA, No. 225923, Extract from The Universe, 13th July 1935; TNA, No. 225923, Minutes by CS, 22nd July 1935.

Figure 21: Kilema church building. Photographed by author, 28th January 2023.

Kilema mission started a modern school (see figure 22) at Marangu from which the Chagga people got their education.<sup>61</sup> This three-storey stone school, now an abandoned building, can still be seen near Kilema mission today. This school and other colonial missionary schools are remembered by the majority of elderly people who received their education from them. As Anza Lema writes: "many of the present leaders of the government as well as senior officials of the civil service gained their elementary education in such schools [and] most of them remember their days in the mission with deep gratitude." <sup>62</sup> It is interesting to learn that in Tanganyika generally memories of German colonial education varies from place to place due to the uneven distribution of church and government-owned schools. Whereas missionary schools were numerous in German Uchagga, as for example only a few existed in Unyamwezi, a person from Unyamwezi complained in 1943:

There were about 222 mission schools in Uchagga. The number of pupils attending them had reached 2300 by 1906. Seen in Swatman, "Missionary Education", p. 83. By 1956, Lutheran missions alone had opened over 160 bush schools. Bush schools were only for standard I and II. See, for example, Missionakademie an der Universitat Hamburg, "Annual Report of the Lutheran Missions in Bukoba, Southern Highlands, Usambara, Uzaramo and Northen Areas in Tanganyika Territory East Africa", Reference No. B 624, 1956, p. 72.

Anza Amen Lema, "The Lutheran Churches Contribution to Education in Kilimanjaro 1893–1933", TNR, No. 68, (1968), p. 94.

the Germans had stayed here [in Unyamwezi] for years, but they did nothing worth mentioning. Unyamwezi was in the dark in terms of education. It was not until the British came when big colleges and schools were built such as Government Junior Secondary School of Tabora, Teachers Training School of Usokwe and White Fathers College of Tabora.63

It is therefore wrong to assume that German colonial education benefited all communities equally, because the provision of social services was unequally distributed in colonial Tanganyika as they were concentrated in those regions which were economically productive or those with high economic returns.64 Areas which were less productive such as Unyamwezi ended up being labour reserves.65

#### Memories of Holy Ghost Fathers at Kibosho

As already mentioned, the missionaries who founded Kibosho mission were sent from Kilema Mission. Acquiring land for the mission at Kibosho was not an easy task on the part of the Holy Ghost missionaries. Although some written sources show that Sina invited the missionaries to his territory, he is also reported to have demonstrated open opposition to the early missionaries who visited his territory in 1890.<sup>66</sup> Two years elapsed before Father Gommenginger summoned up courage to visit Kibosho when chief Sina invited him.67 Even this second attempt did not bear fruit until the German administrator, Captain K. Johannes, warned chief Sina to allocate land to the missionaries.68 Trans-generational memories surviving in Kibosho today are indicative of how the Holy Ghost Fathers from Kilema

Unnamed reporter, "Habari za Miji", Mambo Leo, No. 11, November 1943, p. 124.

G.T. Mishambi, "Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Tanzania", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. I, (1992), pp. 26–27.

Pipping-van Hulten, "An Episode of Colonial History", p. 16; John Iliffe, "Wage Labour and Urbanization", in Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), pp. 279–283. The Nyamwezi excelled in porterage trade in the 19th century before they became migrant labourers in colonial times. See, for example, Stephen J. Rockel, "A Nation of Porters: The Nyamwezi and the Labour Market in Nineteenth-Century Tanzania", Journal of African History, No. 41, (2000), pp. 173–195.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 54; TEC, Jubilei, p. 14. These were Bishop Courmont and Father Le Roy.

There was a general tendency in the 19th century for the Chagga chiefs to welcome the missionaries to their chiefdom for what they hoped that they would build schools for their communities. This was particularly the case with Chief Rindi of Moshi, Marealle of Marangu and Salema of Moshi. See, for example, Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 515.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 54.

Figure 22: An abandoned German-period school at Kilema lying precariously due to seismic activities. Photographed by author, 28th January 2023.

had to plead with Chief Sina before he could allow them to stay in his territory. Agness Stefan recalls:

The missionaries approached Mangi<sup>69</sup> Sina to ask for permission to stay in his territory. The chief turned them away. Then the missionaries walked back to the lower part of Kibosho and stopped at a place called Kiweruweru. Here they found a small cave. They said to themselves: "we are going to sleep in this cave which is enough to shelter half of our bodies; we don't care if a lion comes and eat our legs" The next morning, Sina sent out his people to check on them. When they found them and reported back to him he felt pity for them. He changed his mind and allowed them to establish the mission station.<sup>70</sup>

The narrative above might mean that, although chief Sina invited the missionaries to come and live in his territory, he did not throw caution to the wind. To satisfy himself that the missionaries had no ill intentions, it would seem that he refused their request to test their fighting spirit. Yet another widely shared

Mangi is a Chagga word which means chief.

Mkyeku Agnes Stefan, Maua, 1st February 2017. Kiweruweru is now an important shrine which is preserved by the church. In 2018, when the church was preparing to celebrate Jubilee of 125 year of the Parish, plans were underway to erect the Cross there. Seen in Father Peter S. Materu, "Kibosho Parish Short History", Correspondence on Jubilee of 125 years of Kibosho Parish, 2018, p. 5.

tradition at Kibosho reveals the following conversation held between an unnamed missionary and chief Sina of Kibosho:

Mangi Sina: "Please, can you talk to this foreigner; what does he want? (the chief could not understand the language spoken by the missionary and he asks one of his assistants to help).

Missionary: I am asking for a piece of land on which to build a church.

Mangi Sina: I don't understand you.

Mangi Sina: Please, show him that stony place there; I don't care if he eats stones there". 71

The place referred to by Sina was then called Kwakoromu or maboronyi, a derivative of Kibosho's word, iboronyi, meaning a skull.72 Whereas Sina was remembered as being described as a person who was somewhat unfriendly and reluctant to grant land to the missionaries, official records describe him as being hesitant and offensive. It therefore seems as if the narrative memories wanted to avoid as much as possible painting a black picture of Sina's dealings with the missionaries.

As in the case of other missions, the site given to the Holy Ghost Fathers at Kibosho was formerly used for dumping corpses. The missionaries quickly adapted to this area and established their mission station without delay. They built modern residential houses using the stones readily available at the site, erected a grass thatched church and started going from house to house converting people to Christianity.73 As the site grew in importance and influence its name changed from maboronyi to its present name of Singa. A huge modern church was erected later on. The entire building as shown in figure 24 is of excellent stonework, which the mission resolved to preserve for the history of the Chatholic Church in Moshi.74

Attracted by these mission buildings, Chief Sianga, one of the successors of chief Sina, asked the missionaries to build a modern stone house for him as a quid pro quo for the land he had granted them.75 The missionaries agreed to his request and erected a one-storey building for him which, as shown in figure 23a, can be seen at Kibosho today. Another version of this story is that chief Sianga, unlike his predecessors, was rather submissive. He fully co-operated with the German missionaries

Interview with Bernadeta Victor, Maua, 1st February 1917.

Interview with Pastory James Massawe, Maua, 3rd February 2017.

Interview with Mkyeku Bernadeta Victor, Maua, 1st February 2017.

Interview with Father Materu, Kibosho Mission, 1st February 2017.

Group interview with Pastory James Massawe, Joseph Kirango Mushi and James Lelo Massawe, Maua, 3rd February 2017.

Figure 23a and 23b: 24a) An abandoned stone and wooden building at Kibosho built by the Germans for chief Sianga in the early twentieth century. 24b) A stone school building at Kibosho mission. Photographed by author, 12th January 2017.

and administrators.76 Oral information collected in the area supports the view that the Germans built him the house in question as a token of appreciation for his cooperation. These two viewpoints are indicative of the fact that Sianga, unlike the former's chiefs, developed a close rapport with the Germans for his personal gain.

Interview with Raphael Olumali Mushi, Kirima Juu, 1st January 2017. The successors of chief Sina were: Malamia, Molelia, Sianga, Ngilisho and Alex.

Figure 24: The rear side of Kibosho church building. Photographed by author, 18th January 2017.

Sianga's house, now derelict, influences the way that local people remember their past leaders. The building is the surviving political symbol of the Kibosho chieftainship, which evokes memories of the colonial past. A number of Kibosho people interviewed in the course of this study regard the building as the essence of the land problem which started with German colonization. They blame their past leaders, particularly the successors chief Sina, for giving away big chunks of shamba to the Germans, who started plantation agriculture in the lowlands of Kibosho.<sup>77</sup> This continued under the British administration, which meant that the shortage of shamba land at Kibosho continued throughout the British period. When the paramount chief of Moshi visited Kibosho in November 1954 he was informed of a serious problem of land scarcity in the area,78 which forced people

In 1922, four coffee plantations totalling 176.5 hectares acquired from the German settlers at Kibosho were made available for sale by the British Colonial government. Seen in Ernest Adams, "Disposal of Enemy Property (Custodians of Enemy Property), Dar es Salaam Times, vol.III, No. 16, 4th March 1922, pp. 8–10. Shamba is a traditional land tenure for the Chagga community which refers to land used for growing food crops such as maize and beans.

Anonymous Reporter, "Shida Kubwa ya Watu wa Kibosho ni Mashamba", Komkya: Chagga Dawn, No. 27, 1st November 1954, p. 1.

to encroach on plantations owned by Europeans, such as those of Mawingo and Tchibbo Estates.79

#### Father George Fritze and Memories of him at Ashira

Father George Fritze, like Gommenginger, is the most remembered German missionary at Ashira. Father Fritze, who also worked at the nearby village of Mamba, joined Ashira Lutheran Parish in the inter-war period. Although a number of famous German missionaries had worked in the area before the war, memories of him have prevailed over his predecessors. The Chagga people remember not only the kind of life Fritze led in Moshi, but also the way his parish was attacked by British forces during the Second World War. Oral evidence shows that Fritze was detained and repatriated after the war and nothing was ever heard of him afterwards.80 Memories of his private life, his teachings, his socialization skills, his disciplined attitude to work, his capture and repatriation are deeply engrained in the minds of the local people interviewed in this study. Fritze is remembered by most of his former students who attended his confirmation classes (See figures 25a and 25b below).81 Unlike Bruno Gutmann and other German protestant missionaries preceding him, Fritze carried out his evangelical activities rather authoritatively.82 This was the case not only with Fritze but also with almost all Protestant German missionaries who returned to Tanganyika after the end of the First World War.83 Most of them complained that the missionaries who took over German protestant missions after the war had failed to maintain discipline in the missions. On their return therefore they were faced with the immediate task of restoring discipline in the missions.

Fritze himself complained about alarming indiscipline, which he vowed to arrest by re-introducing "the old German law and order in the missions." <sup>84</sup> He took

Joseph F.N. Leena Shio, "Mashamba ya Wazungu Kibosho", Kusare, No. 216, 27th January 1962, p. 3.

Interview with Esther Tumain Kisamo, Sengia, 4th January 2017; Mzee Hendrish Moshi, Samanga, 12th January 2017.

Interview with Esther Tumani Kisamo, Sengia, 4th January 2017.

He left German for East African when German Youth Movement was still active. See, for example, Klaus Fielder, Christianity and African Culture: Conservative German Protestant Missionaries, 1900–1940 (The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1996), p. 87.

TNA, No. 27466/7, Provincial Commissioner to CS, 26th September 1939.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 87–88. Fielder's findings are based on oral interviews he had conducted at Mamba in 1974. The problem of indiscipline in Mission Stations abandoned by the German missionaries after the First World War is reported in many other places of Tanganyika. See, for example, Isaria N. Kimambo, "The Impact of Christianity among the Zaramo:

over the Ashira parish, also called Marangu Mission, determined to restore discipline among the youth. To achieve his goal, beginning in 1932 he started to prepare them for confirmation using the age group system.85 This came to be known as the Rika policy. The boys recruited into an age group had to go through some sort of 'paramilitary drill,' the so-called exerzieren. <sup>86</sup> For example, they had to live in camps, go hunting with Fritze himself, do hard work and spend sleepless nights as watchmen.<sup>87</sup> The local chiefs had to make sure that these boarding pupils (the pages) were available for the missions.88 Fritze's rika policy was warmly applauded

Figure 25a and 25b: 25a) Father George Fritze. Source: Framed photo obtained from Ashira Parish Office by courtesy of Rev. Ivan W. Lyatuu and Rev. Jerome B. Kimaro. 25b) Rev. Yohane Josefu Mtui at his home at Ashira village who was baptized and confirmed by Father Fritze in the 1930s. Source: Photographed by author with permission from Rev. Yohane Josefu Mtui, 27th January 2023.

A Case Study of Maneromango Lutheran Parish", in Thomas Spear and Isaria N. Kimambo (eds), East African Expressions of Christianity (Oxford: James Currey Ltd, 1999), p. 75.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 89–90.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp.89–90.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp.89–90.

Roland Oliver, The Missionary Factor in East Africa (London: Longman, Green & Co, 1952), pp. 174–175.

by the Church authorities as it disciplined the youth and plans were made to introduce it in other mission stations within and beyond Kilimanjaro.89

Some oral interviews conducted at Marangu describe this kind of training as typical military training. According to Esther K. Sengia, Fritze, for example, taught the youth how to become soldiers.90 A similar view is shared by other informants who argue that, apart from its religious orientation, Fritze's exerzieren was meant to prepare Chagga youth to defend German missionaries against any British military attack.91 A surviving memory of such inter-war religious movements passed down the present generation of Pretestant believers at Marangu in form of a Chagga song which was and still is sung to God for protection of Protestan missions.92

It must be said that during the inter-war period rumours were reported by the British colonial government in Tanganyika of underground military training and political meetings conducted by the Germans living in Moshi.<sup>93</sup> There were rumours of military drill, the smuggling of arms and operational orders,94 which involved "route matches, field exercise and grenade throwing." <sup>95</sup> Although the central government in Dar es Salaam treated these events as mere rumours, the local officials in Moshi were very concerned about them.96 In fact, British intelligence officers at Moshi had warned that the German community was, militarily, prepared enough to overthrow the British government.<sup>97</sup>

Thus, Fritze is widely remembered for his strict management of age grade or rika classes and the way he handled his confirmation classes. Those who received his instructions remember how Fritze liked his kiboko, a Swahili word for the instrument used by the Germans for flogging local people.<sup>98</sup> Memories of how he

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 118.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 88–98.

Interview with Esther Tumani Kisamo, Sengia, 4th January 2017.

Interview with Yohane Josefu Mtui, Mshiri, 27th January 2023.

Seen in KKKT, Kyitabu Kya Shiimbo: Sherumisha Ruwa Kui Mrerie O Kyichaka Kya Unjo, (Moshi: Moshi Lutheran Printing Press, 1929), pp.234–244.

British Colonial Authorities in Tanganyika referred to these rumours as "secret drilling" and smuggling of arms." Seen in NA CO691/147/12/9, "Permanency of Mandate: German Occupation", 1936; NA, CO 691/153/13/22, D.W. Kennedy to W.G.A. Ormsby-Core, 19th August 19 1937 (no page); NA, CO691/160/23, "Sayer's Report", 23rd April 1938 (no page).

Macoum, Wrong Place, Right Time, p. 130.

NA, CO691/160/23, Report by S.F. Sayer (Governor's Deputy) to Secretary of State for the colonies, 23rd April 1938 (no page).

NA, CO691/160/77, Unanimous Secret Report, 9th December 1938 (no page).

According to Swahili-English Dictionary, second version (2014), Kiboko (plural viboko) means a 'whip' or a strip of hippo hide.

administered corporal punishment survive to this day. Mzee Mtui, former student of Fritze, demonstrated to me how Fritze flogged him when he caught him stealing fruit from his garden: "he held my head strongly between his thighs and he flogged me repeatedly. His whip [otherwise called Sua in Chagga language] resembled a plastic whip." <sup>99</sup> The Chagga people who worked with Fritze were also known for their liking of kiboko. <sup>100</sup> Mzee Kweka's father, Althaus, was another student confirmed by Fritze at Ashira Parish and recalls: "my father took after the Germans. He flogged and gave orders as did the Germans." <sup>101</sup> The use of kiboko in missions is confirmed by Koponen as he writes: "the Kiboko was to be found almost everywhere, not only in military stations and plantations but also in many villages and mission stations." 102

A number of Chagga people are remembered growing fond of Kiboko because of the mission's influence. Prominent among them was Filipo Njau, a former student of Gutmann. In 1926, Filipo was appointed to assist as a German language teacher at Marangu Teachers Seminary.103 His former students, like Mzee A. Kifai, remember him as a person who liked to flog his students whenever they wronged him.104 Most Leipzig missionaries are generally remembered through their students who took after them. These people are revered today as the first prominent African church leaders to have passed down the religious values they had inherited from the German missionaries. It is important that these people are mentioned here. From Fritze came Yakobo Lyimo (Marangu) Simeon Moshi (Mamba) Elifasi Mnene

Interview with Meku Mtui, Ashira, 10th January 2017; Meku Yohane Josefu Mtui, Mshiri, 27th January 2023.

Interview with Kweka, Rauya, 15th January 2017; Meku August Meela, Samanga, 18th January 2017.

Interview with Kweka, Rauya, 15th January 2017.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 360. Further evidence of the use of Kiboko in missions is provided by Fr. Fidelis Mligo OSB, The Role of Benidictine Missionaries of St. Ottilien in the Promotion of Human Dignity in Southern Tanzania (Tanzania: Peramiho Publications, 2014), p. 20 and by Kathleen R. Smythe, "The Creation of a Catholic Fipa Society: Conversion in Nkansi, Ufipa", in Thomas Spear and Isaria N. Kimambo (eds), East African Expressions of Christianity (Oxford: James Currey Ltd, 1999), p. 137.

Marangu Teachers College (TTC) started as Teacher Assistant School owned by the Lutheran Mission in 1912. It was opened by Pastor Johannes Raum on 8 April 1902 with 9 students. In a meeting held at Machame in 1901, Pastor Johannes made a proposal that a college for teachers should be started in Uchagga. Hardly a year passed before the college was constructed. See, for example, O.W. Furley and T. Watson, A History of Education in East Africa (USA: NOK Publishers: 1978), p. 51; Lema, "The Lutheran Churches Contribution to Education", pp. 89–91; Sundker and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 550.

Interview with Meku A. Kifai Mlay, Samanga, 4th January 2017.

and Simeoni Minja (Kidia).105 Those influenced by Gutmann were Joseph Merinyo, Filipo Njau, Petro Njau, Seth Kileo Chuma and Yohane Kimambo.<sup>106</sup> All except Merinyo who learned the language while in Germany, received their language lessons in the missions.<sup>107</sup>

Memory narratives relating to protestant missionary activities emphasize the role played by individual German missionaries in promoting the Chagga language. The informants interviewed in this study describe German missionaries who worked in Moshi as people who were quick at learning languages.<sup>108</sup> Mzee Hendrish Moshi (now late) recalled: "Bwana (Mr.) Fritze knew the Chagga language better than the Chagga themselves. His lessons were all in the Chagga language. There was nothing he could not understand in Chagga." <sup>109</sup> In his research Ernst Jaeschke reveals similar information about Gutmann as he argues: "Through his painstaking ethnological studies, he [Gutmann] knew even old words and phrases no longer known by the younger generation." <sup>110</sup> Jaeschke interviewed Nahum Mrema on this matter:

I once asked Nahum Mrema whether he was able to understand the Kichagga spoken by Gutmann. I asked him because I knew how difficult it was to understand Gutmann's German lectures. Nahum laughed aloud and replied, "Gutmann? He knows Kichagga better than all the rest of us put together.111

Admittedly, Chagga texts in today's Lutheran Church of Moshi constitute an important legacy of German evangelization. It should be remembered that Lutheran missionaries in Uchagga, as elsewhere in Tanganyika, preferred the local vernacular to Kiswahili for two major reasons.112 First, they were convinced that the vernacular was the proper medium of instruction for teaching the Bible. Second, they were prejudiced against Kiswahili because of what they thought was its "association

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, p. 89.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 45–76.

Anonymous Reporter, "M. Joseph Merinyo alifika ujerumani mwaka 1907", Komkya: Chagga Dawn, No. 183, 15 May 1961, p. 2.

Interview with Kweka, Rauya, 15th January 2017.

Interview with Mzee Hendrish Moshi, Samanga, 12th January 2017.

Ernst Jaeschke, Bruno Gutmann: His Life, His Thoughts and His Work (Erlangen: Verlag der Ev.Luth.Mission, 1985), p. 50.

Jaescke, Bruno Gutmann, p.50.

C.Maganga, "Kiswahili: Language as a Cohesive Factor", TNR, No. 83, (1978), p. 131; Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 503.

with Islam." <sup>113</sup> This does not mean however that the Chagga people never learnt German. The early African teachers and church leaders taught by German missionaries like those mentioned above had mastered the German language.114

Translating German hymns and the Bible into Chagga started long before the era of Fritze. Gerhard Althaus, the founder of Ashira Parish, succeeded in translating some German hymns into Marangu dialect in 1897.115 Similarly, Bruno Gutmann, who worked in Uchagga between 1902 and 1938, locally honoured as Wasuhuye Wachagga (Chagga grandparent) published his first book, Ditchten und Denken der Dschagganeger (Thoughts and Endeavors of the Chagga negros) in Chagga in 1909 and Das Volksbuch der Wachagga (Folklore of the Wachagga) in 1914.116 He also published other books in German during the 1920s and 1930s: Das Recht der Dschagga (Laws of the Chagga) with Professor Felix Krϋger; Das Dschaggaland und seine Christen (Chagga and its Christians); Stammelehren der Chagga (Chagga Tribal Concepts) as well as Gemeindeaufbau aus dem Evangelium (Congregation Structuring from the Gospel).117 He also translated the New Testament in Chagga.118 Then came Fritze who published a Chagga manuscript, Rika Lyikanyie, in the 1930s.119

In the light of the foregoing, the Chagga language was not only developing linguistically, but was also gradually becoming a scholarly language within the Church. In 1910, for example, a Chagga grammar book for Kimochi dialect was published in German and it became "a masterpiece of thorough African linguistic science." <sup>120</sup> The result was that the Lutheran church of Moshi accumulated a substantial knowledge of the Chagga language as prayers and hymns were all in the Chagga language. It is an undeniable fact therefore that the Lutheran Church, which started with the coming of the Leipzig missionaries from Germany, played a significant role in preserving the Chagga language, which continues to dominate the church today. The use of the Chagga language in Protestant churches today is, indeed, an indelible legacy of German evangelical activities in Moshi. The following map shows some Mission Stations established in Uchagga in German times.

Furley and Watson, A History of Education, pp. 59–60. Further debates over the language of instruction in mission schools can be seen in Anthony Smith, "The Missionary Contribution to Education (Tanganyika) to 1914" TNR, No. 60, (1963), p. 99.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 46–47.

Lema, "The Lutheran Churches Contribution to Education Lema", p. 88.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 28–33; Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 34.

Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 34; Jaeschke, Bruno Gutmann: His Life, His Thoughts and His Work, p. 15.

Jaeschke, Bruno Gutmann: His Life, His Thoughts and His Work, pp. 23–33.

Fielder, Christianity and African Culture, pp. 88–98.

Jaeschke, Bruno Gutmann: His Life, His Thoughts and His Work, p. 49.

Map 3: German Mission Stations in Moshi. Map created for this study by Costa Mahuwi. © Costa Mahuwi.

#### Contacts with Germans as Imperialists

The Chagga people came into contact with the Germans as colonizers in the late 19th century when Moshi (in German times Moschi) was under the chieftainship of Rindi or Mandara, a famous warlord and slave raider.121 News of African resistance to the Germans along the coast had reached Rindi well before Dr. Karl Juhlke, the agent of Germany's Society for Colonization (Gesellschaft fϋr deutsche Kolonisation) had arrived in his chiefdom.<sup>122</sup> Rindi did not resist the Germans when they sent their agents to conclude a treaty of friendship.<sup>123</sup> He signed the treaty in May 1885, which meant that he had accepted German colonial rule and denounced any commercial influence of the Sultan of Zanzibar whom he had served before.<sup>124</sup> This came to be known as the Moshi treaty by which Moshi and the entire Pangani Valley were defined by German law as areas belonging to Germany's East African Protectorate.<sup>125</sup> To consolidate their sovereignty, the Germans, using African forced labour, constructed a small military station in Moshi in 1887, which was administered by three leaders in succession: Otto Ehlers, von Eltz and Captain Johannes.126

The timing of colonial penetration in Kilimanjaro was propitious for the Society for German Colonization, which was operating in East Africa Region in the late 19th century under the leadership of Karl Peters, Karl Juhlke and Count Pfeil.<sup>127</sup> That was the time when tense political relations existed between the many chiefdoms of Uchagga.<sup>128</sup> Inter-chiefdom wars of plunder, locally called messa, were the order of the day.<sup>129</sup> By using the policy of divide and rule, the

Johnston, Kilima-njaro Expedition, pp. 96–248.

Charles Dundas, Kilimanjaro and its People: A History of the Chagga, Their Laws, Customs and Legends, together with Some Accounts of the Highest Mountain in Africa (London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1968), p. 98.

Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, pp. 14–15.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 98; Institute of Kiswahili Research, Zamani Mpaka Siku Hizi: Yaani Habari za Tanganyika Tangu Zamani za Kale Mpaka Siku Hizi (Nairobi: Sheldon Press, 1930), p. 52; Moffat, Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 51.

Isaria Kimambo, Penetration and Protest in Tanzania, (London: James Currey, 1991), pp. 45–46.

Kimambo, "Penetration", pp.45–46.

Kimambo, "Penetration", pp.45–46.

By 19th century, there were more than thirty chiefdoms in Uchagga. See, for example, Sally Falk Moore, Social Facts and Fabrications: Customary Law on Kilimanjaro 1880–1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 16–17.

Interview with Mkyeku Helena Mariki, Samanga, 7th February 2017; CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 18. The wars are sometimes referred to as "scorching wars." The booty was in the form of cattle, goats and women.

Germans took full advantage of the warring Chagga chiefdoms to establish their rule. They allied with Chief Rindi against Mangi Sina of Kibosho, who was successfully crushed.<sup>130</sup> They also allied with chief Marealle to weaken the remaining chiefs who were yet to comply with colonial rule.<sup>131</sup> As far as resistance to colonial rule was concerned, however, Sina proved to be a tough nut to crack. Described in the language of Brengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed as 'Napoleon of Kilimanjaro,' Sina was able to cause a temporary retreat of German troops who had attacked his stone-walled fort.132 He eventually suffered a humiliating defeat in a counter attack that was planned and organized by von Weismann in collaboration with Rindi.133 Although in this second battle the Germans conquered Sina easily, von Weismann is remembered for appreciating the bravery of Sina's men.<sup>134</sup>

Rindi's collaboration with the Germans won him the position of superior chief of Uchagga. This was after he had assisted the Germans in defeating the powerful chief Sina, hence becoming an ally of the Germans. Sina was a threat to Rindi and to the Germans who wanted to establish imperial rule in Moshi. The defeat of Sina was followed by a period of relative political stability in Uchagga, with Germany's political position becoming increasingly strong. However, the pendulum swung back when Rindi died in 1891.135 Chief Meli, the son of Rindi and heir of his father's throne, was not on good terms with the Germans. Trouble broke out when he refused to co-operate with the German authorities to punish the Kirua chiefdom, which had been involved in the killing of a German officer.136 This angered von Bulow, the German Military Officer based at Marangu who resolved to punish him. In an attempt to overthrow Meli, Bulow's troops were almost wiped out and he himself was killed later by Meli's mercenaries.137

Following the death of von Bulow, the political stability which the Germans had enjoyed in Kilimanjaro was temporarily shaken. Indeed, German political authority at that point was extremely destabilized, allowing the chiefdom of Moshi to enjoy a short period of political independence. It was not until 1893 when the

Iliffe, Tanganyika under German Rule, pp. 157–158.

Iliffe, Tanganyika under German Rule, pp.157–158.

Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 547. A comprehensive history of Chief Sina has been attempted by Stahl, History of the Chagga People, pp. 118–122.

Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 15.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 100; Erick J. Mann, "The Schutztruppe and the Nature of Colonial Warfare during the Conquest of Tanganyika, 1889–1900," PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998, p. 149.

Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 15.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, pp. 101–102.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 102.

Germans engaged the military service of von Schele that they were able to restore their political hegemony in Moshi by overthrowing Meli. With this achievement, German colonialism was established in Moshi once and for all.138 They used excessive force to re-establish their political power because "they wanted to avoid any risk of rebellion." <sup>139</sup> In 1900, some chiefs and their assistants were hanged when accusations were made against them by Chief Marialle, which were later found to be false. He had informed the Germans that chiefs Meli of Moshi and Molelia of Kibosho had planned a rebellion against the German government in Moshi, which resulted in their arrest and hanging.<sup>140</sup> Several other people were hanged afterwards in more or less similar circumstances. While Iliffe puts the number of those hanged at seventeen, Sundkler Steed and G.C.K. Gwassa give the figure of nineteen.141 According to N.N. Luanda, the number of Chagga and Arusha chiefs who were hanged in Moshi between February and July 1900 totalled ninety.<sup>142</sup> It is therefore not difficult to imagine how the second phase of Chagga contact with the Germans was so brutal as to generate traumatic trans-generational memories of colonial history, which this study is able to establish in the subsequent sections.143

At the turn of the 20th century, the Chagga community had totally submitted itself to German colonial rule. The settler economy was rapidly taking shape as a massive amount of land was being acquired for the settlers. The German settlers from Southern Russia and South Africa were induced to come to Moshi to invest in wheat production.144 The first five years of the 20th century saw both German and non-German settlers coming and going due crop failure, particularly those who had invested in wheat production, which was badly affected by diseases.<sup>145</sup> But in the following years their number started to rise rapidly, from eight settlers in 1906 to fifty settlers in 1907.146 As the settler economy blossomed, so also did the peasant economy. The Chagga working in the missions and on settler farms

Luanda, "The Meru and Arusha People", p. 96.

Moore, Social Facts and Fabrications, p. 96; Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 547.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 104; Stahl, History of the Chagga People, p. 75.

Gwassa, "The German Intervention", p. 110; Iliffe, "Tanganyika under German Rule", p. 157.

Luanda, "The Meru and Arusha People", p. 104.

For further evidence of 'open violence' see Ludger Wimmelbϋcker, "Production and Living Conditions: The Kilimanjaro Region c.1800–1920", PhD Dissertation, University of Hamburg, 1999, pp. 251–252.

Iliffe, Tanganyika under German Rule, pp. 59–61.

Iliffe, Tanganyika under German Rule, p. 62.

Iliffe, Tanganyika under German Rule, p. 63. These settlers and those who came later on were granted freehold land titles. Land alienation in German era was implemented under the socalled German Land Ordinance (Herrentos Kronland). See, for example, Reginald Elias, "Land

quickly learned how to grow coffee. They started planting coffee in their farms (vihamba) and soon peasant agriculture started, with some chiefs owning coffee plantations.147

By the early 20th century, Moshi was under total German colonial control. The Chagga quickly learnt how to cope with the new colonial social setting by taking the opportunities brought about by colonialism, including 'European technology and knowledge.' <sup>148</sup> They were forced to pay taxes and sell their labour to settler farms and, in addition, were required by the law to take good care of their own farms, or corporal punishment awaited them. Meanwhile, mission activities were expanding rapidly on the mountain. Missionary schools sprouted up to outnumber government schools.149 One study shows that by 1906 the Holy Ghost Fathers alone owned a total of 222 schools in Uchagga.<sup>150</sup>

#### Memories of the First World War

The First World War broke out in 1914 and with it Moshi became the first battleground for two obvious reasons: (1) it bordered the British protectorate of Kenya to the east, and so Moshi became an immediate point of attack by British forces, and (2) the Germans had established a strong military base at Moshi to counter the advancing British lines from Kenya.151 In fact, "the major enemy operations [. . .] were confined to the road between Taveta and Moshi." <sup>152</sup> Although this war decided the end of German colonial rule in East Africa, it must be pointed out that as strong as the fight between German and British forces was at Moshi the war constituted an important historical event whose memory survives today. Memories of this war come from people whose fathers or grandfathers served the Schutztruppe as Askaris, Porters or Drivers. The war is remembered as the fiercest war which has ever been fought in colonial Uchagga. The bloodiest battle that is remembered today is the battle of Kahe. This was a two-day battle fought between 20 and 21 March 1914, when Lettow Vorbeck, locally called the "Lion of Tanganyika", was forced to withdraw

Conflicts in Moshi-Rural District", 1930–2000, MA Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, 2012, pp. 39–41.

For plantations see Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 435.

Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 73.

Statistics indicate that by 1914, 99 percent of schools were run by Christian missions in German East Africa. Swartman, "Missionary Education", p. 83.

Swartman, "Missionary Education", p.83.

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 84–85.

G.M. Wrigley, "The Military Compaigns against Germany's African Colonies", American Geographical Society, Vol. 5, No. 1, (1918), p. 58.

further south to Lembeni.153 Njuu recalls what her grandfather told her about this battle: "the whole battleground turned red as blood was all over place." <sup>154</sup> She also recalls how Germans soldiers invaded the Church of Kilema while celebrating mass and forced men to join the war. "They blocked the main entrance of the church and told all the men to join the war. Some women had to share their dresses with their men to hide their sexual identity when passing through the church gate, which saved some men from going to war." <sup>155</sup> Memories of forced conscription are reported elsewhere in East Africa. According to Kathebu Agubiko as interviewed by Melvin E. Page the Germans, whenever they lacked soldiers, "forced any one they saw to join their forces." <sup>156</sup> In Tanganyika most of porters were involuntarily conscripted.157

The Askaris who fought for the Germans in this war came back home with war stories to share with their kith and kin. These stories have passed down to the present generation as memories of the First World War. "My father who fought on the German side," recalls Msaki, "had learnt some German. When he lost his temper, he would speak to us in German although we did not understand him." <sup>158</sup> This example shows that the war increased the number of Africans who spoke German in Tanganyika. The Askaris had to learn some German so that they could work with German soldiers on the battleground.<sup>159</sup> There are also memories of how the Askaris fought the war and the challenges they faced. African Askaris "endured severe privation while fighting with all the discomforts of fast-moving, open, defensive guerrilla warfare." <sup>160</sup> Msaki recalls that the Askaris fought in the front line and were tactically used as enemy targets. He elaborates:

They (the German soldiers) would tell you (the Askari), go there and use your arrow on any person you see. Then, the Germans would wait and see what would happen. If the Askari is shot dead by the enemy, then the armed German soldiers, having spotted the enemy position, would quickly take safer positions before they charged. When the Askari died in a fight and his wife brings food without the knowledge of his husband's death, the German

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 85; Reusch, History of East Africa, p. 326.

Interview with Mkyeku Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017.

Angelina John Njuu, Nkiashi, 3rd January 2017.

Melvin E. Page, "Black Men in a White Men's War", in Id., Africa and the First World War (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1987), p. 6.

Terence O. Ranger, "The Movement of Ideas", in in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 176.

Interview with Joseph Msaki, Samanga, 9th February 2017.

British soldiers who recruited the ex-German Askaris towards the end of the First world were forced "to learn German methods and words of command and use them until the operations were over." Seen in Luanda and Mwanjabala, "King's African Rifles to Tanganyika Rifles", p. 5.

R.F. Eberlie, "The German Achievement in East Africa", TNR, No. 55, (1960), p. 210.

soldiers would not talk to her; instead, they would grab her food and throw it away in her presence. Then, the poor woman would understand that her husband is no more; she would sadly start back home to mourn his death.161

It is important to explain, albeit briefly, the extent to which the official record corroborates the above war memory. From the late 19th century, the Askari was only allowed to use the M/71 Single-Shot Rifle, an obsolete gun used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871.<sup>162</sup> The risk involved in using this type of gun was that it exposed the position of its user to the enemy because it emitted smoky powder when fired. Erick J. Mann quotes Wissmann, who admitted that "the cloud of smoke betray[ed] the enemy with rapidity and certainty." <sup>163</sup> The Schutztruppe had thought that this kind of gun "was more suitable for African soldiers than modern rifles." <sup>164</sup> Three reasons explain why it was recommended for the Askaris: (1) not enough modern rifles could be made available because of financial constraints, (2) mechanically, it was a simple gun which could be repaired and maintained cheaply, and (3) there was no other suitable place for the use of the 'stockpile' of the M/71 in Germany than East Africa.<sup>165</sup>

#### Legacy of German Stone Building Technology

It must be said at the outset that stone building technology did not start with the Germans. An important piece of evidence of stone technology in the pre-German period was the construction of stone walls or forts by Chagga chiefs for defence purposes such as Rongoma's fort in Figure 26 below. As Charles Dundas reveals, "constant warfare had developed the art of defence to a considerable degree in Kilimanjaro" like using stone walls, underground tunnels and war trenches.166 "The use of stone walls, he adds, was long known to the people; the remains of ancient walled villages built even before the establishment of the earliest chiefships are still visible." <sup>167</sup> Based

Interview with Joseph Msaki, Samanga, 9th February 2017.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe", p. 58.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe", p.58.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe", pp. 57–58.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe", p. 58.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, pp. 95–96. See further evidence of pre-colonial stone technology in J.A. Hutchinson, "Note by H.N. Chittick", TNR, No. 61, (1963), p. 217.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 96. Photographs of stone-walled ruins built in the era of Horombo are also seen in Charles Dundas, Asili na Habari za Wachaga (The Origin and History of the Chaga Tribe of Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika Territory – Swahili), translated by R.K. Watts and P. Mzaba. (London: The Sheldon Press, 1932), pp.61–66.

Figure 26: The entrance of Rongoma's Fort still intact in British times. Source: Dundas, Charles. Kilimanjaro and its People: A History of the Chagga, Their Laws, Customs and Legends, together with Some Accounts of the Highest Mountain in Africa. London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1968, p. 97.

on these records, it can be argued that residential stone houses also existed, meaning that stone technology was there before the Germans.

The advent of the Germans marked a new era of stone building technology in Uchagga. As already explained, German missionaries built modern stone churches and residential buildings. Some Chagga (see Figures 28 and 29 below) learned the skills and started building their own houses using stones. Missionaries at Kilema mission like Spiekerman, famously called Brother Cere, taught people how to put up stone buildings.168 Modern stone technology, including woodwork, expanded rapidly when twelve Tamil masons and carpenters were brought to Moshi by missionaries in the early 20th century.169 These, as mentioned earlier, were the South-Indianbased Leipzig missionaries. It was at Machame where they built the first modern stone building before they proceeded to Ashira where they built the church which is shown in figure 27a and figure 27b below.170 With the establishment of the colonial state, more administrative and residential stone buildings were erected in different parts of Kilimanjaro.

TNA, No. 22923, "Natives to Erect Cross for Holy Year: Extract from the Universe", 10th May 1935.

Jeyaraj, Missionary Attempts, p. 135.

Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church, p. 548. The site of the church was granted to Althaus from the chief of Mamba.

Figure 27a and 27b: 28a) Ashira church building under construction in the early 19th century. Framed photo obtained from Ashira Parish Office by courtesy of Rev. Ivan W. Lyatuu and Rev.Jorome B. Kimaro. 28b) Ashira church as it looks today. Photographed by author, 27th January 2023.

Figure 28: An example of a stone building erected by Alex Mariki at Kyala village having learned the skills from the German artisans at Kilema mission. Photographed by author, 10th January 2017.

Several stone buildings owned by Germans, Greeks, Italians, Somalis, and Indians in Moshi had been erected in and around Moshi before the outbreak of the First World War.171 There were stone houses owned by Marangu Rubber Estates Ltd. and several other residential and government houses. The number of stone buildings at Marangu alone was over twenty. Mentioned in the British war diary were the following famous stone buildings: "the massive stone buildings of Kibosho mission;" The Usambara Magazine building in Moshi town, and Kibo Hotel building at Marangu.172 Others were the Sauerbrun, a large two-storey stone store owned by German coffee planters at Kibongoto and the government station (Boma) at Old Moshi. The latter was fortified by a stone wall 8 feet high with a stone blockhouse on each entrance. Inside the boma were more stone buildings, a two-storey government office building, a one-storey court house and a store.

#### Hamsa Ishirini: Memories of Corporal Punishment

Flogging, as discussed previously, was not uncommon in the colonial period. The Kiboko was used throughout colonial period as "the instrument in greatest use and the most telling symbol of German power." <sup>173</sup> Whilst the number of corporal punishments administered rose from 3,500 in 1901/02 to 6,300 in 1905/06, the number of floggings between 1912 and 1913 reached 8,057.<sup>174</sup> As most of this kind of punishment went unrecorded, any statistical data on the number of floggings administered during the German period is likely to underestimate the actual number of floggings.<sup>175</sup> Kiboko, otherwise called the Negro whip or hippopotamus hide whip, was carried out by German administrators wherever they went.176 Berhard Dernberg, the state Secretary of the Imperial Colonial Office, was astounded to see "too many whips on the tables and in the hands of the planters and colonizers" when he visited East Africa in 1907.177 He vowed to protect the rights of the Africans who had suffered corporal punishment at the hands of German settlers

Information provided in this paragraph was collected from NA, WO 158/1449, 1914–1915, "Report to the Headquarters of British East Africa", 23rd March 1915.

NA, WO 158/1449, 1914–1915, "Report to the Headquarters of British East Africa", 23rd March 1915.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 360.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 360; NA, CO 1071/366, Report on Tanganyika Territory, July 1921, p. 31.

Foreign Office, "Treatment of Natives in the German Colonies", in German East Africa Possessions by G.W. Prothero (ed), London: H.M. Stanley Office, 1920, No. 114, p. 15.

Foreign Office, "Treatment of Natives", p. 114.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 193.

and administrators.<sup>178</sup> It is therefore not difficult to imagine why German East Africa was nicknamed by the people from the neighbouring colonies the twentyfive or flogging colony. <sup>179</sup> In West Africa, the Africans living under German colonial Togo envied their fellow Africans in the neighbouring British Gold Coast where corporal punishment was less severe and infrequent.<sup>180</sup> Twenty-five or hamsa ishirini, as was famously known, involved twenty five lashes of the hippopotamus whip commonly administered for a single crime committed by an African in German East Africa.<sup>181</sup> No two floggings were administered to a person at a time; "an interval of two weeks had to elapse between the floggings." 182

A few Chagga elders remember what their parents and grandparents told them about hamsa ishirini. They are not only able to explain what actually hamsa ishirini was but are also able to demonstrate how it was administered. Their memories are filled with sorrow and nostalgia, to think of how crude this form of punishment was. Their reflections on hamsa ishirini have taught them that the punishment of crimes committed by Africans during the German period was extremely violent and inhumane. However, they heard that cases involving Africans in court started with the coming of the British.183 "Our ancestors," recalled Joseph Msaki, "told us that the Germans tortured our people; courts did not exist and as such any offence committed by an African was punishable corporally." <sup>184</sup> High Courts under the German colonial administration existed mainly for the Europeans so that they could 'maintain justice' among themselves.185 Five such courts were established in Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Moshi, Mwanza and Tabora for this purpose.<sup>186</sup> As for the Africans, "punishments were inflicted for deeds which

Richard V. Pierard, "The Dernburg Reform Policy and Germany East Africa", TNR, No. 67, (1967), pp. 35–36.

Foreign Office, Treatment of Natives, p. 8.

Arthur J. Knoll, "Decision-Making for the German Colonies", in Arthur J. Knoll and Lewis H. Gann (eds), German in the Tropics: Essays in German Colonial History (USA: Greenwood Press, 1987), p. 124.

It should be noted that 'Act No. 59 of April 1896, imposed certain limitations on corporal punishment.' Seen in NA, CO859/389, "Corporal Punishment Report", 1953, p. 2.

NA, CO 1071/366, Report on the Tanganyika Territory, July 1921, p. 31.

This view is shared by Cameron, My Tanganyika Service", p. 192.

Interviews with Joseph Msaki, Samanga, 9th February 2017. Similar view was shared by Meku August Meela, Samanga, 7th February 2017; Meku Gabriel Kessy, Kimbogho, 1st February 2017.

NA, CO 1071/366, "Report on Tanganyika Territory", 1921, p. 31.

NA, CO 1071/366, "Report on Tanganyika Territory", 1921, p. 31.

were only later defined as crimes in laws and statutes; the function of legislation was more to codify established practices than to indicate mutually agreed norms of justice." <sup>187</sup> The Germans in Moshi replaced the pre-colonial Chagga African Courts and established the so-called 'Native Court of the Imperial District.' <sup>188</sup> Very few cases were however decided in this court.189

Although flogging continued under the British administration, its excessive use during German rule had a long-lasting social effect. Some informants interviewed on this aspect suggest that corporal punishment minimized crimes significantly. Public opinion in favour of corporal punishment in Tanganyika became apparent when the British government held a referendum on this matter in 1950.190 The report showed that there was a strong body of public opinion in support of corporal punishment countrywide. In Moshi in particular, some Chagga were anxiously looking forward to the return of flogging. For example, a meeting was held by the Chagga Council in November 1953 at which the elders clearly stated that "imprisonment was insufficient punishment" for certain crimes, and especially for "people who had no mercy on their fellows." <sup>191</sup> They, therefore, suggested that imprisonment should be supplemented by corporal punishment.

Arguments in favour of corporal punishment in Moshi did not end with the attainment of independence either. In the letter published by Kusare on 5 October 1963, Mr. E. Uchai from Mbokomu applauded the government's decision to legalize corporal punishment, as he said: "I am so grateful to our Law Makers for enacting the Corporal Punishment Act (viboko). This Law resembles the past German Law and my wish is that you follow in the footsteps of the Germans in dealing with criminals as this is important to our economy." 192

Nostalgia for corporal punishment in post-colonial Africa, as seen above, is not new in Africa however. One study has shown that Africans, particularly elders, tend to associate corporal punishment with a reduction in the crime rate, the so-called deterrent or reformative value of corporal punishment.<sup>193</sup> In most

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 358.

Moore, Social Facts and Fabrications, p. 104.

Moore, Social Facts and Fabrications, p. 104; A thorough discussion on German Imperial laws has been done by Helmuth Stoecker, "The Position of Africans in the German Colonies", in Arthur J. Knoll and Lewis H. Gann (eds), German in the Tropics: Essays in German Colonial History (USA: Greenwood Press, 1987), pp. 119–128.

NA, CO 859/389S "Tanganyika: Corporal Punishment,", 1952–1953.

NA, CO859/389/31, "Flog Robbers Says Chagga Council", 3rd November 1953.

E. Uchau,"Viboko kwa Wahalifu," Kusare, No. 305, 5th October 1963, p. 3.

See, for example, David Crawford Jones, "Enduring Violence: Wielding the Opokolo, Corporal Punishment and Traditional Authority in Colonial Ovamboland", The Journal of African History, Vol. 56, No. 2, (2015), pp. 302–319.

African societies, therefore, there is a tendency to support corporal punishment, especially in those areas where it existed in the colonial period.

#### Memories of Executions

As already demonstrated, German colonial penetration in Uchagga as elsewhere was achieved through the excessive use of force. African resistance was suppressed by the most atrocious use of force. In fact, the northward expansion of German colonization from the Coast to Moshi via Pangani Valley was largely achieved by exterminating the local chiefs who resisted colonial penetration.<sup>194</sup> A close reading of the literature indicates that the executions of African local chiefs during the German period had much in common. Hanging was done in public whereby people were summoned or literally forced to witness it, which explains

Figure 30: Fenced tree at Kisimayu on which chief Meli and other African Chiefs were hanged. Under this tree which is labelled "Mangi Meli Execution Tree" is a grave of Meli. Photographed by author, 15th January 2017.

James L. Giblin, The Politics of Environmental Control in North-eastern Tanzania, 1840–1940 (USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), pp. 102–104; Letter from G. Hornsby of Tanga Secondary School to the Editorial Board, TNR, No. 61, (1963), p. 221; Dr. A. Becker, "The Capture and Death of the Rebel Leader Bushiri: Excepts from Aus Deutsch Ost Afrikas Sturm-und Drangperiode" (Translated by Davies), TNR, No. 60, (1963), pp. 2–6.

why these hangings were embedded in the memory of each African community that had experienced them.

Collective memories of public hangings in Moshi Rural District have in recent years been manifested in the creation of sites or monuments which honour and commemorate the local chiefs who were executed in German times. Chief Meli was among those who were captured and publicly hanged at Kisimayu, a preserved site outside his former capital with his grave and the tree on which he was hanged.<sup>195</sup> Figure 30 above and Figure 31 below show the Kisimayu site, a legacy of colonial violence, has survived to this day possibly due to local people's realization that resistance to colonial penetration by some Chagga chiefs was an act of heroism, which should be appreciated and remembered for generations to come.<sup>196</sup> The Centenary Book Committee (CBC) wrote in 1990: ". . . the chiefs who stood openly against German rule ended up being deported to Kisimayu where most of them perished. There are among us old witnesses who can tell us about the Wamangi waliopelekwa Kisimayu. viz., the chiefs sent to Kisimayu." <sup>197</sup> In German East Africa, generally, all chiefs who resisted the imposition of German colonial rule "were driven to surrender or death." <sup>198</sup> Those who could not put up with either of these demands had to seek refuge in the nearby territory of Kenya.<sup>199</sup> Exceptional cases were reported of chief Shangali of Kirua, who was temporarily imprisoned but later set free and of chief Sina who appeased the Germans by sending them an elephant tusk soon after he was defeated.200

Following the successful return of Chief Mkwawa's skull in the 1950s, there was growing concern over the return of Meli's skull in Moshi. Demand for restitution of the skull became vocal in the 1960s when local people asked the government to intervene in this matter.201 A long time passed before this saga resurfaced in recent years. In 2000, for example, local people wrote officially to the district government urging the District Officer to ensure that their skull was returned. This effort bore

Were and Wilson, East Africa through a Thousand Years, p. 208. Information about preservation of the site is based on field observation.

Another similar site not as famous and protected as this one was a Mango tree which stood near the German boma in Moshi on which some African chiefs were also hanged. See Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, p. 547.

CBC, The Catholic Church, p. 18.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 101.

Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church, p. 547.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 104; Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 15.

Adam Ihucha, "Moshi Community wants Mangi Meli's Skull Returned", The Guardian, 18th October 2005, web.archive.org/1998–2005 IPP Media Ltd, last accessed on 12th October 2015.

Figure 31: The portrait of Mangi Meli placed at the grave of Chief Meli. Photographed by author, 16th January 2017.

no results. In 2005, local people gave a joint statement: "The skull should be brought back. We should not get tired until the skull is brought back as it is of historical significance." <sup>202</sup> Since then, Meli's descendants and his people of Old Moshi have never ceized to expres their desire for the return of the missing skull. Between 2018 and 2019 the story Meli's execution featured in different social media.203 This demand for restitution would appear to serve the purpose of publicizing colonial sites of violence in Moshi. In February 2019 Meli's grave was reconstructed.204

Ihucha, "Moshi Community".

Freddy Macha, "The Saga of Mangi Meli and the Old Moshi Chaggas", The Citizen, No. 5159,

<sup>29</sup>th December 2019, p. 7.

Based on field observation.

Figure 32: Meli Secondary School at Kisimayu named so in honour of Mangi Meli. Photographed by author, 16th January 2017.

#### Execution of Mrekereke and Molelia

Interviews conducted at Kibosho reveals that the execution of chief Molelia and his assistant Mrekereke in 1900 is widely remembered. In this particular area, people narrate how Molelia and Mrekereke bravely submitted themselves to hanging by the German commanders at Kisimayu. Despite the fact that Molelia and Mrekereke do not feature much in most history books available today, Kibosho abounds in memories of their execution.205 According to local memory, Molelia was hanged because he contradicted the Germans on matters concerning land.206 Oral interviews reveal that he openly opposed land alienation by the Germans. All that the local

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, pp. 108–109; Luanda, "The Meru and Arusha People", p. 104.

Interview with Meku Masawe, Maua, 2nd February 2017; Pastory James Massawe, 3rd February 2017; Raphael Olumali Mushi, 1st January 2017. Masawe is the grandson of Chief Sina.

people remember is that Molelia was hanged because he resisted land alienation and he was never "a strong supporter of the Germans" as Dundas put it.207 The Germans summoned him to Moshi to talk him into accepting land alienation in his chiefdom but he refused and was hanged. According to local memory, Mrekereke, who had accompanied Molelia, demanded that he should be hanged with his boss as he could not bring himself to tell his people that he had witnessed the hanging of their chief.<sup>208</sup> This information, however, contradicts official records which show that chief Molelia was executed because he was accused of conniving with chiefs Meli of Moshi and Kalami of Shira to overthrow the German government.209 Implicit in this contradiction is the local perspective, which sees Molelia as someone who was more interested in protecting the interests of his own people than in supporting rebellion, which was bound to fail.

Local memories survive today that the deaths of Molelia and Mrekereke marked a peaceful period of interactions between the Germans and the succeeding chiefs of Kibosho who had resolved to cooperate.<sup>210</sup> These chiefs are described by the people interviewed in this study as opportunistic, in that they wanted to maintain the status quo at the cost of losing land which would otherwise benefit their own people, who did not have enough land for the cultivation of food crops. Despite this criticism, Chief Sina is remembered for his unfailing strategy of making sure that his chiefdom never suffered from want of food.<sup>211</sup> He organized communal labour to cultivate food crops.<sup>212</sup> However, allowing land alienation at Kibosho would mean that food security could no longer be ensured. The Kibosho people therefore associate the problem of land shortage facing them today with land alienation, which was authorized by their past leaders in German times. What followed after the deaths of Molelia and Mrekereke was, according to oral interviews, a period of internal political tension at Kibosho, where members of the royal family struggled for power. Generally, the local people see German colonization as having plunged the Kibosho chiefdom into the abyss of political chaos and landlessness.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 108.

Interview with Meku Masawe, 2nd February 2017. Similar oral information provided by Pastory James Massawe, 3rd February 2017 and many other people who were interviewed in the area of study. The original Swahili texts were translated by the researcher.

Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 109.

Interview with Meku Masawe, Maua, 2nd February 2017.

Interview with Raphael Olumali Mushi, Kirima Juu, 1st January 2017.

J.E.F. Mhina, Mashujaa wa Tanzania (Dar es Salaam: Longman Tanzania Ltd, 1971), p. 31.

#### Preservation of German Cultural Memories in Uchagga

The main point to be kept in mind is that German memorials like buildings are being exclusively preserved by their owners.<sup>213</sup> As regards Kilema and Kibosho mission stations, the cost of renovating the church buildings is, for the most part, borne by the churches themselves.214 In fact, the church authorities are obliged to preserve the church buildings to preserve their history and they ensure that repair of the buildings does not alter their original architectural design.<sup>215</sup> Because most of the sites have not yet been gazetted as national monuments, they naturally fall within what the Antiquities Act No. 10 of 1964 and its Amendment Act No.22 of 1979 classifies as "sites of local interest" or "sources of local pride." 216 This legislation provides for the district authority to identify such sites and cooperate with the owners in preserving them.

Therefore, contrary to places like Dar es Salaam, the preservation of German memorials in post-colonial Uchagga has not received much government attention. In the course of the 1950s, however, important national heritage sites were identified by the British colonial government, but no serious measures were taken to preserve them. A case in point is the ruins of the Sina's fort, which was bombarded by Weismann's forces in the late 19th century.217 The wreckage of the fort, visible as late as the 1950s, has now disappeared leaving no trace of its original location. When interviewed on this aspect, Mzee Raphael Mushi, one of Sina's kinsmen, had this to say: "the site of the former fort of Sina cannot now be traced." <sup>218</sup> Following his visit to Kibosho in March 1953 T. Griffith-Jones wrote to Thomas Marealle, the then paramount chief of Uchagga:

When at Kibosho recently I spent a little time with Mangi Ngilisho examining the ruins of Sina's fort and the site of the big battle against the Germans. Whilst most of this huge fort is now rubble as a result of German orders, there is one section of the wall which doubtless you know is in excellent condition, containing three loopholes for firing rifles and arrows. To my mind this is a valuable piece of Chagga history and will be more so in a few years when some of the younger generation become more aware than they are today of the importance of history and ancient monuments. I therefore propose to apply for it to be made a Reserved

Interview with Dr. Fabian Kigadia, Dar es Salaam, 7th November 2016.

Interview with Fr. Peter Materu, Singa, 3rd January 2017.

Interview with Fr. Peter Materu, Singa, 3rd January 2017; Meku Serafini in 2nd January 2017.

Tanzania Library Service Board, "National Cultural Heritage Register and Antiquities Divi-

sion of the Ministry of National Resources and Tourism", Dar es Salaam, 2012, pp. 1–2.

See, for example, Charles Dundas, Kilimanjaro, p. 100.

Interview with Raphael Olumali Mushi, Kirima Juu, 1st January 2017.

Monument and have persuaded Ngilisho to part with a portion of his Kihamba without compensation for that purpose! Before going ahead I should like to know if you agree.219

But did he agree? Archival information at hand indicates that the paramount chief (Mangi Mkuu) was interested in protecting and preserving underground defence caves (mireshe) and neglecting other historical sites, which people like Griffith wished to see preserved for their historical value.220 Although the table below mentions a number of monuments suggested for preservation in the 1950s, Sina's fort was for some reason omitted from the list. The Government Anthropologist in 1950 remarked: "the walls of the fort at Kibosho might also receive attention, but there seems less urgency here." <sup>221</sup> The same Anthropologist had a premonition that "some thoughtless Mangi might use the stones for building himself a new house," and so he advised the government to consider "gazetting, sign boarding and [taking] some preservation measures." <sup>222</sup> However, nothing was reported on any action being taken by the local government to salvage the fort, with the result that that the site sank without trace. Similar stone walled fortresses of chief Horombo (sometimes Orombo) of Keni and chief Rongoma of Kilema were already under government protection and being conserved in the 1950s.<sup>223</sup> Conservation funds were allocated by the government for these forts in addition to seventeen other monuments.224 It should be remembered that British put in place the Monument Preservation Ordanance in 1937 with a view to protect monuments in Tanganyika.225 During the 1950s, the British colonial government renewed its interest in

TNA, 38/19/25, Accession No. 5, T. Griffith-Jones to the Mangi Mkuu, Chagga Council, 26th March 1953.

Chief Thomas Marealle ruled as the paramount chief of Uchagga between 1951 and 1958. See Kathleen M.Stahl, "The Chagga", in P.H.Gulliver (ed), Tradition and Transition in East Africa: Studies of the Tribal Element in the Modern Era (US: University of California Press, 1969), p. 211; Mathew V.Bender, "Being 'Chagga: Natural Resources, Political Activism and Identity on Kilimanjaro", Journal of African History, Vol. 54, No. 1, (2013), p. 199; NA, CO 822/214, "Chagga Affairs", 22nd February 1960, p. 1.

TNA, No. 38/19/2, Accession No. 5, Government Anthropologist to PC of Arusha, 21st December 1950. TNA, No. 38/19/2, Accession No. 5, Government Anthropologist to PC of Arusha, 21st December 1950.

TNA, No. 38/19/53, A.L.B. Brunett to District Commissioner (Moshi), 13th November 1957; Horombo's fort was built when Horombo assumed power in the early 19th century. See Juhan Koponen, People and Production in Late Precolonial Tanzania: History and Structures (Finland: Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy Jyvӓskylӓ, 1988), p. 348; Roberts, "Political Change", p. 66.

TNA, 38/19/10, H.A. Fosbrooke to PC (Arusha), 5th March 1952; TNA, No. 38/19/53, 25th June 1952; TNA, No. 38/19/53, 13th November 1957.

Thomas J. Biginagwa, "Development of Cultural Heritage Registration in Post-Colonial Tanzania," Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. XII, No. 1, 2020, p. 133.

identifying and preserving sites of archaeological and historical interest in Tanganyika territory.226 By the 1957, a total of twenty such sites had been identified in Kilimanjaro as shown in the table 7 below. The paramount chief used this opportunity to preserve historical monuments in Moshi. In May 1956, he established the so-called Chagga Trust, whose functions were to preserve historical sites, compile a list of Chagga customs, rites and ceremonies and collect materials for a Chagga history.227



Although the above sites were identified for protection in the 1950s, none of them were registered with the Government as national monuments.228 In general, the British colonial government failed to preserve pre-colonial fortresses which survived through German times, particularly in the case of Sina's fort at Kibosho, Horombo fort at Keni and Rongoma's fort at Kilema. This failure is explained by the fact that the Monument Preservation Ordinance of 1937 favoured colonial heritage

TNA, 38/19/17, Humanities (Dar es Salaam) to Provincial Commissioners, 25th June 1952.

TNA, 38/19/53, Accession No. 5, A.L.B. Bennett, Chairman of Chagga Trust to the District Commissioner of Moshi, 13th November 1953. It was expected that the book on Chagga history would be published in 1959.

Recent statistics indicates that there is a total of 131 registered cultural heritage sites in 17 regions of Tanzania Mainland. Unfortunately, Kilimanjaro region (Moshi) is not on the list of these regions. See, for example, Biginagwa, "Development of Cultural Heritage", p. 138.

sites much to the exclution of what Thomas J. Biginagwa calls "African traditional heritage resources." <sup>229</sup> Like colonial governments, the local chiefs used their oppourtunies to preserve traditional sites of their interests and ignored the rest because of some political and historical reasons. However, there were some personal reasons as well. For example, some chiefs in Moshi promoted historical sites they thought would promote cultural tourism in their areas. When the paramount chief wrote to his divisional and sub-chiefs in May 1955 instructing them to submit the list of monuments available in their localities, he said: "we want people in other parts of the world to know more about our beautiful country. We want to attract a tourist trade and above all we want to attract foreign friendship." 230

Political and historical reasons explain why Chief Sina's fort vanished, despite all the efforts made to convince the government to preserve it. Oral information collected at Kibosho portrays Sina as having two personalities. First, he was a strong patriotic chief who tenaciously fought against German colonial encroachment. Although he was defeated and forced to accept German rule he was the sort of a person the Germans would hesitate to trust. For example, official records indicate that when Sina surrendered to the Germans on 15th February 1891 he "still had over 1,500 warriors in reserve," which Wissmann later admitted could not have halted Sina if he had extended the fight a little longer.231 To demonstrate this point the informants remember how Sina avenged his weak subordinates who failed to halt the German troops by killing them.232 Sina died in 1897 from what is believed to be poisoning.233

On the other hand, the policies Sina used to exploit his own people and the wars of plunder and extermination he had waged against the neighbouring chiefdom of Machame left a bitter taste in the mouths of Kibosho people.<sup>234</sup> These two conflicting characters of Sina have given rise to two viewpoints, which cut both ways. First, are people who honour him because he was a hero and, second, are those who think he was a killer and at the same time a dictator.

A fortnight before Independence Day, Sina's portrait featured on Kusare's front page which is shown in figure 33 below. Below it were the Swahili words: "Huyu alipinga kutawaliwa na Wajerumani akapigana mpaka aliposhindwa. Leo

Biginagwa, "Development of Cultural Heritage", p. 133.

TNA, 38/19/40A, the paramount chief of Wachagga to the Divisional chiefs of Hai and Rombo, 23rd May 1955.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe", pp. 148–149.

Mann, "The Schutztruppe",p. 148.

Stahl, History of the Chagga People, p. 331; Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 15.

Much about these wars is eloquently explained by Stahl, History of the Chagga People, pp. 118–120.

uhuru wa Tanganyika unapatikana kwa njia za halali," loosely translated as "This man resisted German colonial rule; he fought till he was defeated. Today, Tanganyika gets its independence legally." <sup>235</sup> Nationalist historiography, which triumphed after independence in Tanganyika, publicized African resistance to the imposition of German colonial rule, which resulted in history books for primary schools emphasizing the role of African heroism. One such book was titled Mashujaa wa Tanzania translated as The heroes of Tanzania. <sup>236</sup> This book is a collection of stories of individual African chiefs from different places in Tanganyika, who fought against the imposition of German colonial rule. In this book, Sina is described as "a powerful and intelligent chief who was the first Chagga chief to oppose German imperialism" in Kilimanjaro.237 Today, Sina's name is not without a symbolic place which honours his heroic deeds. A Street in Moshi town and a secondary school at Kibosho have been named after Sina.

Figure 33: The portrait of Mangi Sina on the front page of Kusare No. 201 of 25th December 1961.

Unnamed Reporter, "Mangi Sina wa Kibosho," Kusare, No. 207, 25th November, 1961, p. 1.

Mhina, Mashujaa wa Tanzania, pp. 1–45.

Mhina, Mashujaa wa Tanzania, p. 29.

#### Conclusion

This chapter has revealed that memories of the Germans in Moshi are different, depending on the nature of the interaction which developed between the Chagga people and the Germans. The collective and cultural memories discussed in this chapter are the outcome of three major German colonial experiences. First, the creation of German colonial physical and social infrastructure had a far-reaching impact, influencing why local people remember the Germans nostalgically. Secondly, the suppression of African resistance, the punishment for crimes and other exploitative policies pursued by the Germans were accompanied by the extreme use of violence, which have left traumatic memories in the minds of the local people interviewed in this study. Thirdly, the First World War, which saw the end of German colonial rule in East Africa, left unforgettable memories on the part of those people whose ancestors fought on the German side as Askaris or whose ancestors witnessed and experienced the war. The Chagga people interviewed in this study not only remembered the lives of individual German missionaries who worked in the isolated protestant and catholic mission stations in German and British times, but also how they arrived and struggled to establish good relationships with the local chiefs who granted them land and permission to establish mission stations.<sup>238</sup> The post-colonial period in Uchagga witnessed the triumph of anti-colonial heroism, which was manifested in the erection of monuments and the construction of public sites, which in one way or another honour those chiefs who fought against the imposition of German colonial rule.

The race for evangelization between missionary societies divided the chiefdoms of Moshi between those with majority Protestants and Catholics. See, for example, Moore and Puritt, The Chagga and Meru of Tanzania, p. 74. See also "Annual Report of the Lutheran Missions in Bukoba, Southern Highlands, Usambara, Uzaramo and Northen Areas in Tanganyika Territory East Africa", Reference No. B 666, 1953, pp. 34–37.

### Chapter 6 Places of German Colonial Memories in the City of Dar es Salaam

#### Introduction

This chapter examines the cultural memories of German colonialism in Dar es Salaam that can be seen in some of the buildings in the city, which are, as Greg Dickinson (et al.) put it, "infrastructure of collective memory." <sup>1</sup> The chapter supports the view that "collective memory finds expression [not only] in ritualistic behaviour [and] cultural values [but also in] artistic representations, such as literary texts, pictorial art, sculpture or architecture." <sup>2</sup> Places of colonial memory in the city of Dar es Salaam today and elsewhere in Tanzania are preserved by the government not only because it archives past information but also because these places are important economically.<sup>3</sup>

Formerly existing as a small caravan town exclusively owned by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam was further developed by the Germans who used it as their capital (Hauptstadt) beginning in the late 19th century.4 As the biggest commercial city in Tanzania today, Dar es Salaam features a number of German topographical legacies worth studying.5 The centre of the city is dotted with a number of old buildings built by the Germans and some inherited from the Arabs and Indians. Prominent among them are St. Joseph's Cathedral (figure 34), Azania Front (figure 35), the High Court building, the German Boma (Old Boma), the Ocean Road Hospital (figure 36), the Railways Station and its headquarters, the General Post Office Building, the City Hall and the State House. Another important building, "shorn of its past elegance," was

Greg Dickinson, Carole Blair and Brian L. Ott (eds), Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials (Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2010), p. 10.

Asuncion Lopez-Varela Azcarate, Cityscapes: World Cities and their Cultural Industries (USA: Common Ground Publishing LLC, 2004), p. xiv.

Azcarate, Cityscapes, p.xiv. A thorough discussion on the economic significance of the cultural heritage can be found in Bertram B.B. Mapunda's, "Cultural Heritage and Development in Tanzania" and Bertram B.B. Mapunda and Paul Msemwa's Salvaging Tanzania's Cultural Heritage (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2005), pp. 243–258.

Harm J. de Blij, A Study in Urban Geography: Dar es Salaam (USA: Northwestern University Press, 1963), p. 3.

Dar es Salaam became the first municipality on 1st January 1949 and was elevated to the status of a city by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 9th December 1961. Seen in N. Kazimoto, "The City Council of Dar es Salaam", TNR No. 71, (1970), p. 172; Laura S. Kurtz, Historical Dictionary of Tanzania: African Historical Dictionaries, No. 15 (London: The Scarecrow Press, 1978), p. 43.

New Africa Hotel or the former Dar es Salaam Kaiserhof which was demolished after independence.<sup>6</sup> Several other old buildings were demolished after independence. By and large, "the core of [Dar es Salaam] reflects the German impact upon the place which Sultan Majid had chosen as the centre of his continental possessions." <sup>7</sup> According to Amin A. Mturi, all buildings from the German period are found in two major locations.<sup>8</sup> The first is the City Drive area, which is encircled by City Drive, Railway Street and Independence Avenue. The second location, Kivukoni-Magogoni, is bounded on each side by Kivukoni Front, Ocean Road, Garden Avenue, Mirambo Street and City Drive.

Figure 34: St. Joseph Cathedral as it looks today. Photographed by author, 1st January 2023.

Buell, The Native Problem, p. 426. Amin A. Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania with Case Studies of Kilwa Kisiwani, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam", Unpublished Dissertation, University of York, July 1982, p. 127.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 5.

Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", pp. 132–133.

Such historical buildings, referred to by Mturi as "the historic quarters of Dar es Salaam," are found together with numerous other old buildings (especially mosques and temples) erected by Arabs and Indians, which is one of the reasons why Dar es Salaam was designated a conservation area.<sup>9</sup> By using the Antiquities Act No. 10 of 1964 and its Amendment Act. No. 22 of 1979, on 8th September 1995, the government officially recognized the city of Dar es Salaam as a historic township.10 As a consequence, several historic buildings dating back to the German period were gazetted as protected national monuments, which also involved recognizing and protecting places owing their origin to the German colonial era, such as the Askari Centre (the site where the Wissmann Stature once stood) and the Botanical Gardens located along Samora Avenue. The latter were planted by Dr. Stuhlmann in the early 20th century and were initially used for agricultural exhibitions.11 One such exhibition took place in 1904.12

Dar es Salaam was gazetted as a conservation area not only because of its German colonial legacies, but also because it is rich in other important sites of historical significance, which are indirectly linked to German colonialism. For example, the Mnazi Mmoja area with its Uhuru (freedom) Torch is an important site that lends credit to the historic status of the city,<sup>13</sup> and so on 8th December 1961, J.K. Nyerere officially inaugurated this site as a symbol of independence, as at that time Dar es Salaam was "the centre of political power in the territory." <sup>14</sup> Initially marked by an ancient baobab tree, locally called Simbamwene, Mnazi Mmoja was a famous site used for political meetings before and after independence.<sup>15</sup> For many years after independence this site, as already explained, hosted commemorations of war heroes. Creation of this empty urban space is traced to

Kamamba, "National Cultural Heritage Register Antiquities Division", p. 7; Amini A. Mturi, "State of Rescue Archaeology in Tanzania" in Bertram B.B. Mapunda and Paul Msemwa's Salvaging Tanzania's Cultural Heritage (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2005), pp. 297–298. According to Casson, "the architectural character of Dar es Salaam", referring to commercial and tenement buildings, "has been largely formed by Islamic and German influences, with some variations contributed by the Indian communities." See W.T. Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam" TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 183.

Kamamba, "National Cultural Heritage Register Antiquities Division", p. 183.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", pp. 200–202.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 200.

"Mnara wa Ukumbusho Wafunguliwa", Ngurumo, No. 821, 9th December 1961, p. 2; A.J. Temu, "The Rise and Triumph of Nationalism" in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 208.

Temu, "The Rise and Triumph of Nationalism", p. 208.

Luce Beckmann, "A Toponymy of Segregation: The Neutral Zones of Dakar, Dar es Salaam and Kinshasa", in Liora Bigon (ed), Place Names in Africa (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016), p. 118.

colonial times when the Germans used it as a neutral zone that separated African settlements from other settlements.<sup>16</sup> The British maintained this site until it was inherited by the independent government as a symbolic place.<sup>17</sup> Another important historical site is the Memorial Independence Stadium or the National Stadium, which hosts important political meetings like the celebration of Uhuru or Independence Day. The stadium and Mnazi Mmoja area were, together with other places in Dar es Salaam, declared national monuments in 1995.<sup>18</sup>

Why are the above-mentioned German places of memory national monuments? What do they symbolize or how are they interpreted locally? This chapter seeks to answer these important questions in an attempt to document the collective cultural memories of German colonialism in Dar es Salaam. The author subscribes to the view that German colonial cultural sites were inherited by the independent government of Tanganyika as places that enable the trans-generational transfer of collective memories of the colonial past.

It is logical however to begin this discussion with a brief history of how Dar es Salaam was transformed from a small coastal village into a famous commercial and administrative harbour town. The literature indicates that the history of urbanization in Dar es Salaam can be largely but not wholly traced to German times. Since its inception in the mid-19th century, Dar es Salaam has been under different authorities. It first started as a village inhabited by farmers and fishermen, but as time went by it was slowly transformed into a small commercial town under the Arabs who were replaced by the Germans. As the latter established themselves politically in the late 19th century so did Dar es Salaam grow to become the capital of the then Deutsch Ostafrika (DOA)<sup>19</sup> However, Eberlie argues, with no evidence adduced, that "the first twenty years of colonial rule neglected the country's capital." <sup>20</sup> Studies show that the growth of Dar es Salaam accelerated following the construction of the central railway line in the early 20th century, known as the Zentralbahn, Tanganyika Bahn or Mittellandbahn.<sup>21</sup> The railway line linked Dar es Salaam to the vast territories of central Tanganyika and the lake region.

James R. Brennan, TAIFA: Making Nation and Race in Urban Tanzania (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2012), p. 31.

Beckmann's, "A Toponymy of Segregation", pp. 116–118.

JMT, "Hotuba ya Wiziri wa Elimu na Utamaduni Mhe. Professor Philemoni M. Sarungi kwa Mwaka 1995–1996", p. 44.

Jϋrgen Becher, Dar es Salaam, Tanga und Tabora: Stadtentwicklung in Tansania unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft 1885–1914 (Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1997), p. 27. Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 197.

Becher, Dar es Salaam, p. 27; Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 197.

Politically, Dar es Salaam was destabilized by war three times. After the end of the Abushiri wars in the late 19th century, the town enjoyed a period of peace, which ended with the outbreak of the Maji Maji War in 1905.22 Peace was restored when the Maji Maji War ended in 1906, but the bubble burst with the outbreak of the Fist World War. The German wireless tower was bombed by the British Forces on 8th August 1914.<sup>23</sup> Between August and September 1916, British Naval Forces attacked Dar es Salaam and overpowered the German soldiers who abandoned the town "to join Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vobeck in the south-eastern corner." <sup>24</sup> When the town was captured on 4th September 1916, the British forces found 370 non-combatant Germans and the majority of local inhabitants taking refuge in mission buildings.25 The war left the State House and the Railway Station in ruins; the "boma was found unoccupied." 26

By the time the British forces captured Dar es Salaam, the Germans had already relocated their seat of government to inland regions for security reasons.<sup>27</sup> With the defeat of the Germans by the allied forces, Dar es Salaam remained under military control until 1st October 1918, with Lushoto, formerly called Wilhemstal, acting as the British civil headquarters.<sup>28</sup> It was not until February 1919 that the British headquarters were relocated to Dar es Salaam. On arriving in Dar es Salaam, the Governor, Sir Horace Byatt, "set up headquarters in the German Museum attached to the Botanical Gardens," which acted as his residence until reconstruction of the state house was completed in 1922.<sup>29</sup> Under the British administration, the town continued to have similar administrative functions as in German times. The town continued to act as the capital for the entire British period and was inherited as the capital city by the independent government of Tanganyika on 9th December 1961.

Reusch, History of East Africa, p. 323.

Listowel, The Making of Tanganyika, p. 55.

Ingham, A History of East Africa, p. 256; Brian Gardner, German East: The Story of the First World War in East Africa (London: Cassel and Company LTD, 1963), pp. 114–115.

Gardner, German East, p. 115; Jean Mashengele, Historia ya Utawala wa Wadachi Tanganyika (Dar es Salaam: Utamaduni Publishers, 1984), p. 84.

Gardner, German East, pp. 114–115.

See also chapter three.

Ingham, A History of East Africa, pp. 262–263.

Listowel, The Making of Tanganyika, p. 68.

Figure 35: The Ocean Road Hospital, now part of the buildings of the Ocean Road Cancer Institute. Photographed by author, 24th February 2017.

Figure 36: The Azania Front Lutheran Church. Photographed by author, 1st January 2023.

#### Dar es Salaam in the Pre-German Era

As intimated earlier, well before the advent of German colonial rule in the 1860s, some parts of Dar es Salaam emerged as three small African villages, Mzizima, Msasani and Kunduchi, along the Indian coast.<sup>30</sup> Some of these, including those believed to exist at Ras Makabe (around Kivukoni college), started centuries before.<sup>31</sup> As a matter of fact, the oldest settlements along the Indian Ocean coast are said to have started during the Neolithic period.<sup>32</sup> According to Edward A. Alpers, the settlement at Kunduchi, started between the 13th and 15th centuries.33 Mzizima was located where the Ocean Road Hospital was later erected by the Germans.34 The inhabitants of these villages were the Shomvi or Shirazi people, whose ethnic group resulted from intermarriage between Arabs and Africans and whose major economic activities were fishing and farming.<sup>35</sup> Moving inland from these coastal villages were the scattered and fenced Zaramo villages.<sup>36</sup> Evidence shows that Dar es Salaam emerged as a tiny harbour town and expanded to cover the nearby old villages mentioned above.<sup>37</sup> According to Sutton, it is wrong to think that Dar es Salaam grew out of the pre-existing villages, but rather it "was founded specifically inside the harbour," which was completely detached from the villages in question.38

In 1862, Seyyid Majid, the Sultan of Zanzibar, occupied Dar es Salaam for the purpose of establishing a centre for the caravan trade connecting the coast and

J.E.G. Sutton, "Dar es Salaam: A Sketch of a Hundred Years", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 65.

Andrew Burton, African Underclass: Urbanisation, Crime & Colonial Order in Dar es Salaam (London: The British Institute in East Africa, 2005), p. 44.

Felix A. Chami, The Unity of African Ancient History 3000 BC to AD 500 (Dar es Salaam: E&D Limited, 2006), p. 17.

Edward A. Alpers, "The Coast and the Development of the Caravan Trade", in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 39.

Benidict A. Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam Kabla ya Uhuru 1800–1960 (Peramiho: Benedictine Publications, 1987), p. 7.

J.A.K. Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. 20; Becher, Dar es Salaam, p. 27.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 19. Swantz provides three examples of Zaramo villages namely Buguruni, Mtoni and Kurasini. Seen in Lloyd W. Swantz, "The Zaramo of Dar es Salaam: A Study of Continuity and Change" TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 157.

John Iliffe, "The Age of Improvement and Differentiation (1907–45)" in I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1969), p. 143; Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 11.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 3.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p.3.

the interior of the territory.39 Majid acquired Dar es Salaam, where he planned to build his palace and court, from African families who gave him the site in exchange for money and cloth.<sup>40</sup> Having acquired the land, Majid organized the construction of stone buildings for his administrative and commercial activities beginning in 1865, resulting in the creation of a small coastal town that was inhabited by Arabs, Indians and Africans.<sup>41</sup> "He [then] built a broad road ten feet wide through the heavy jungle that encircled the town." <sup>42</sup> To celebrate the birth of his new capital, in September 1867 Majid invited American, German, French and British convoys.<sup>43</sup> The town was christened Bandar-ul-Salaam, meaning the Haven of Peace or Bandari ya Salama, and from it Majid derived the Swahili words, Dari Salama, hence the name Dar es Salaam. 44

It should be noted however that the origin of the town's name and its literal meaning is still a matter of dispute.<sup>45</sup> It is not the purpose of this study to provide further details on this point. Suffice it to say that the town owes its origin first to Majid's personal ambition "to establish an alternative home" in Dar es Salaam, and second to "his uneasiness in Zanzibar." <sup>46</sup> Although Majid wished to relocate his seat of government to Dar es Salaam, he died before this happened.47 His plan was to use Dar es Salaam as his "continental capital for his extensive dominions in order to increase the effectiveness of his government" and to rid himself of "increasing British interference in the affairs of his empire." <sup>48</sup> Sutton provides other possible reasons (not mentioned here) which might have equally motivated Majid to harbour the idea of relocating his capital to Dar es Salaam.<sup>49</sup>

Burton, African Underclass, p. 44. See also the published letter from Acting Political Agent and H.M. Consul, Zanzibar to the C.S (Bombay), TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 201.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 11.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 19; Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, p. 22.

Burton, African Underclass, p. 44; Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 10–11; Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 19. According to Laura S. Kurtz, Majid administered the town through Jumbes of Mzizima. Seen in Kurtz, Historical Dictionary, p. 43.

Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, p. 22.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 5. Another account of how the name came about is provided by Morwenna Hartnoll, "A Story of the Origin of the Name Bandar-es-Salaam which in the old days was called Mzizima", in TNR, No. 3, (1933), pp. 117–119.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 1; Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 9.

For personal ambition see Sutton, "Dar es Salaam",and for uneasiness in Zanzibar see Ingham, A History of East Africa, p. 84.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 3.

Were and Wilson, East Africa through a Thousand Years, p. 143; Koponen, People and Production, pp. 347–348.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 9.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", pp. 3–4.

Majid's stone, two-storey buildings, the remnants of which are the White Fathers' House, the Old Boma and the Seyyid Barghash Building, were erected using slave labour from Zanzibar and Kilwa.50 In fact, during Majid's era, that is 1862–1870, Dar es Salaam, like many other coastal towns of the time, was politically linked to Zanzibar.51 With the death of Majid in 1870, Dar es Salaam lost its political ties with Zanzibar because his successor, Seyyid Barghash, was not equally interested in developing the town,52 with the result that the town lost its commercial influence it had enjoyed before and "was abandoned for several years." <sup>53</sup> In fact, most of Majid's stone buildings had collapsed before the advent of the Germans, as, Leslie argues, three years after the death of Majid "only two houses were habitable . . ." 54

#### Dar es Salaam in German Times

The above period of decline did not last long. The thriving slave trade in Zanzibar saw Dar es Salaam temporarily developing commercially under the influence of Arab slave traders.55 Arab commercial supremacy declined with the coming of the German East Africa Company in 1888, the so-called Deutsch Ostafrikanische Geselschaft (DOAG).56 After the Sultan of Zanzibar was forced to recognize German imperial influence on the hinterland, DOAG acquired Dar es Salaam and Pangani as its sphere of influence in December 1886 and on 25th May 1887 Captain Leue, the early German Administrator, who was locally nicknamed Bwana Loya, arrived in Dar es Salaam accompanied by twelve Arab bodyguards and seven German assistants.57 The following map (Map 4) shows important German colonial sites in Dar es Salaam.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 19; Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 10; Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 5; Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 181.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 11.

A.J. Temu, "Tanzanian Societies and Colonial Invasion 1875–1907" in M.H.Y. Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), p. 95. The coastal towns which sprouted along the Indian Ocean coast (Mrima coast) grew out of thriving trade on slaves and ivory in Zanzibar during the 19th century. These towns were Tanga, Pangani, Sadani, Winde, Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, Mbwamaji, Kilwa Kivinje, Lindi, Mgao Mwanya and Mikindani. See, for example, Alpers, "The Coast and the Development of the Caravan Trade", p. 45.

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 11.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 10.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 20; Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 12.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 10.

Temu, "Tanzanian Societies and Colonial Invasion", p. 95.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 91; Adolf C. Mascarenhas, "The Port of Da es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 88; Moffet, Handbook of Tanganyika, pp. 52–56.

Map 4: Important German Colonial Sites in Dar es Salaam. Map prepared for this study by Costa Mahuwi. Map: © Costa Mahuwi.

Although most of the coastal towns had officially fallen into the hands of the Germans by 1887, it was not until August 1888 that DOAG assumed full political control of these towns, including Dar es Salaam.<sup>58</sup> Having established their physical presence, DOAG administrators introduced new regulations like payment of

Michael Tidy with Donalt Leeming, A History of Africa 1840–1914 Vol 1 (Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, 1981), p. 46.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 11.

taxes and forceful registration of land, much to the dislike of the former inhabitants of Dar es Salaam.59 To resolve the challenge of accommodation for the Germans, for example, the Arabs were forced to vacate their houses.<sup>60</sup> Unable to cope with these unfriendly German regulations, most Arab merchants and Africans fled the town.61 Those who stayed joined hands in resisting the oppressiveness of the Germans.62 Their resistance formed part of the widely known coastal resistance of 1888–1890, pitting the coastal Arab merchants against DOAG.<sup>63</sup>

The above wars left much of Dar es Salaamp undestroyed, except for the Berlin Lutheran Mission station near the ferry.<sup>64</sup> However, the wars resulted in the complete change of the political sphere of Dar es Salaam and German East Africa as a whole. Coastal resistance, particularly that led by Abushiri bin Salim al Harthi (a Swahili-Arab trader), DOAG found difficult to halt. For example, on 13th January 1889, the Abushiri forces set ablaze the Benedictine Mission Station of Pugu, killing three missionaries, Petrus Michel, Benedikt Kantwerg and Maria Wansing.<sup>65</sup> This atmosphere of warfare, which had become unbearable, called for reinforcements from Germany to "restore order and re-establish German superiority" along the coast and in the interior.66 Wissmann, an "able commander" with "wide experience of African conditions," was chosen for the job by Chancellor Bismarck.<sup>67</sup> In February 1889 he left Germany for East Africa, recruited Sudanese mercenaries on his way and arrived at Bagamoyo in April.<sup>68</sup> Using his experienced men, Wissmanntruppe, he confronted Abushiri in May, "stormed [his]

Temu, "Tanzanian Societies and Colonial Invasion", p. 96.

Tidy with Leeming, A History of Africa, p. 46.

Temu, "Tanzanian Societies and Colonial Invasion", p. 96.

A.J. Hughes, East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda (Great Britain: C. Nicholls & Company Ltd), p. 41; Mascarenhas, "The Port of Da es Salaam", p. 88; Mashengele, Historia ya Utawala wa Wadachi Tanganyika, p. 19; Rev. Dr. Richard Reusch D.D, History of East Africa (Hamburg: Evang. Missionverlage, 1954), p. 304.

Buluda Itandala, "The Anglo-German Partition of East Africa", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. I No. (1992) p. 14; Tidy with Leeming A History of Africa, p. 47.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 7.

Sahlberg, Kutoka Krapf Hadi Rugambwa, p. 38.

Tidy with Leeming, A History of Africa, pp. 46–47; Ralph A. Austen, Northwest Tanzania Under German and British Rule: Colonial Policy and Tribal Politics, 1889–1939 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968), p. 22.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 187; Ifor L. Evans, The British in Tropical Africa: A Historical Outline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929), p. 325.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 187.

fortified camp," and decisively drove him from the Indian coast to the interior, forcing him to resort to a defensive war which led to his capture and finally his execution.<sup>69</sup> The result was that the Arabs lost political control of Dar es Salaam to DOAG.70

The end of the Abushiri war created a peaceful environment, which allowed the Germans to strengthen their commercial and political position on the coast. For example, an agreement was reached between the Germans and the Sultan of Zanzibar on 17th October 1890 by which Germany acquired the ten-mile coastal strip of the Indian Ocean coast, formerly under the Sultan, in exchange for four million marks.<sup>71</sup> As the Germans established themselves in the region following this political transformation, Dar es Salaam was, by order from Berlin, declared the capital of German East Africa in January 1891, replacing the former capital of Bagamoyo whose harbour was considered unsuitable for "deep-draught steamships" and "modern ocean traffic." <sup>72</sup> However, this was not welcomed by the officials working with DOAG, who thought that Bagamoyo should continue to act as the capital for German East Africa.73

The inability of the officials working with the Germany East African Company to administer the colony necessitated its replacement by new German colonial administrators,74 who were sent to East Africa to establish a civilian colonial state in place of the failed German East African Company still being ruled by the military, which handed over administration of the territory in April75 to Julius von Soden (1891–1893), the first German Governor, on 1st April.76 When Soden arrived in Dar es Salaam, he stayed in a mission house while awaiting construction of the government house.<sup>77</sup> As a civilian colonial administrator, Soden was put in charge of Dar es Salaam while it was still a coastal military station to develop it along civilian lines.78 In German times, the Governor was "the head of the local government,

 Bernard Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania (Paris: Karthala, 1998), p. 31; Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 197; Brown, "Bagamoyo", pp. 82–83.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 622.

Mashengele, Historia ya Utawala wa Wadachi Tanganyika, pp. 22–25; Reusch, History of East Africa, p. 306.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 187.

Walter T. Brown, "Bagamoyo: An Historical Introduction", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 82.

Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 91; Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 187.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", pp. 188–189.

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 189.

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 17.

Dar es Salaam was one of the military stations established by Wissmann. The rest of the military stations were Tanga, Pangani, Sadani, Kilwa and Lindi. See, for example, Koponen, Development for Exploitation, pp. 114–115.

who was assisted by a Council which met twice a year in Dar es Salaam." <sup>79</sup> With this administrative machinery in place, Dar es Salaam became a famous colonial town. Acting as "the seat of administration, main port, and commercial and communications centre for German East Africa," the town started receiving some German merchants, particularly those migrating from Zanzibar.<sup>80</sup> The advent of the Germans as administrators brought about major changes in the town. New buildings were erected, the colonial administration was strengthened, and new racially based settlements were created. Land for the construction of administrative and residential buildings was acquired from its former holders after they had been compensated.81 Those who refused compensation were evicted from their plots of land.<sup>82</sup>

Thus, having chosen Dar as es Salaam as their capital, "the Germans gave the most sustained attention to [it]." <sup>83</sup> The first Urban Act and the Master plan were already in use in May 1891.84 A total of 46 building plots were identified and categorized in three major zones.85 European architectural style buildings were to be erected along the harbour and in the eastern part of Dar es Salaam to create a typical European settlement, the so-called European Zone. Modern buildings, not necessarily resembling the European architectural style, were to be erected in the second zone in an area also close to the harbour. The last zone was the African zone, which featured traditional African houses. Kariakoo and Kisutu were among the earliest African settlements which began with German colonization.86 In short, "the architectural character" and "the street plan" of Dar as Salaam as it appears today owes much to German urban planning, the so-called Stӓdteordnung. 87

It should be noted that the construction of houses in the first two zones was strictly regulated by an urban legal instrument or "a construction ordinance" called Bauordnung. <sup>88</sup> Among the first German buildings were the High Court and

NA, CO 1071/366, Report on the Tanganyika Territory, July 1921, p. 30.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 7; Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam,p. 18. According to Iliffe, German merchants had established business houses in Zanzibar in the 1840s. See, for example, Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika, p. 89; Moffatt, Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 48.

Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, pp. 32–33.

Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, p. 33.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 623.

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 18.

Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, pp. 33–34.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 22; Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 40; Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 13.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 18.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 623; Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, pp. 33–35.

administrative buildings (Hauptkasse).<sup>89</sup> These early structures were built using stones acquired from the ruins of the former Majid's stone buildings.<sup>90</sup> Most German stone buildings, as reported by Koponen, "were constructed in an ingenious architectural style elegantly combining local and German elements" and were, in addition, designed "to portray the heavy hand of German officialdom." <sup>91</sup> By 1893, several German buildings had been constructed and by 1894 the construction of administrative buildings had been completed.<sup>92</sup> Harm J. de Blij reports that "by 1903 many buildings had been constructed, including hospitals, a number of government department offices, a post office, and the meteorological station." <sup>93</sup> Most of these buildings were concentrated in the former Wilhelms-Ufer, the area known today as Kivukoni Front.<sup>94</sup> The rest of the houses like "the residential quarters for German officials" were erected behind Kivukoni Front, forming the centre of Dar es Salaam town.<sup>95</sup> These "were fine spacious villas, raised above ground level, mostly two-storeyed, with thick whitewashed stone walls, airy rooms and verandahs." <sup>96</sup> Many privately-owned buildings were concentrated along Unter den Akazien (Acacia Avenue), which today is known as Independence Avenue.<sup>97</sup> The new buildings constructed by the Germans, together with an improvement in the harbour during 1900 and 1902,<sup>98</sup> transformed Dar es Salaam from a small Arab-owned coastal town into a fully-fledged commercial and administrative centre for German East Africa. Gideon Were and Derek A. Wilson commented on the Germans' efforts to develop Dar es Salaam town as follows:

The Germans were great town-builders . . . [They] chose Dar es Salaam as the capital of their Colony and raised it from a straggling Arab town of 350 inhabitants (as it was in 1889) to a well-planned port with wide streets, stone buildings and improved harbour facilities. By 1905 it could already boast 24,000 inhabitants.99

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 18.

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 20.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 623; Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 183.

Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 20; Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, p. 32.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 15.

Calas, From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland, p. 32.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 623; Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 11.

Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 11.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 15.

For construction of the harbour see Kandoya, Historia Fupi ya Dar es Salaam, p. 23.

Were and Wilson, East Africa through a Thousand Years, p. 237.

A similar remark was made by Eberlie:

The Germans built well and they built to last, not only their wharves and railway stations, but also the hospitals and hotels, the bomas, offices and official residences. They transformed Dar es Salaam and Tanga from dirty native village into imposing towns. There is no need to elaborate their virtue in this respect, it should be clear to every observer in Tanganyika today.100

It should be remembered however that not all German administrators agreed that Dar es Salaam was a suitable site for the capital. The point has been made that the officials working with DOAG opposed the replacement of Bagamoyo by Dar es Salaam to no avail. However, at the outbreak of the First World War the idea came up of relocating the capital to somewhere else in the interior. Scanty evidence at hand indicates that a survey was made of Mororogo, and two sites, Kisii and Buga located south of Kidete, were suggested for this purpose.101 However, due to the lack of evidence, the reasons for relocating the capital to Morogoro are obscure, but it may have been for geographical reasons.<sup>102</sup> It is widely reported in different parts of Africa that warmer regions, particularly coastal regions, were considered unsuitable for white settlements.

The outbreak of the First World War shattered the hopes of furthering the proposed relocation of the capital, but during the war the administrative centre of German East Africa was moved from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro and soon afterwards to Tabora as matter of necessity for security reasons, because "as a capital and port capable of supporting naval ships, Dar es Salaam became an immediate target at the commencement of hostilities in 1914." <sup>103</sup> Chapter three explained how this relocation took place concurrently with the process of transferring and hiding German colonial records.

Today, Dar es Salaam features a number of old buildings dating back to the German period. The European hospital building in Ocean road, today the Ocean Road Cancer Institute, was built in 1897 for Europeans living in Tanganyika and beyond.<sup>104</sup> Azania Front, an imposing Lutheran Church building reflecting typical Bavarian architecture, was erected by Leipzig missionaries between 1898 and 1902.105 Information available for this study indicates that plans for constructing this church, now protected and conserved for its architectural value, started

Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 202.

TNA, No. 20961/29, Director of Public Works to CS, 15th November 1932.

TNA, No. 20961/1, Minutes by CS, 31st May 1932.

Mascarenhas, "The Port of Da es Salaam", p. 92.

G.J. Ebrahim, "Development of Medical Services in Dar es Salaam", TNA, No. 71, (1970), p. 173.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

before 1898.<sup>106</sup> The Reverend Balten Worms wrote to Soden on 15th May 1891 asking for a piece of land on which to erect the church.<sup>107</sup> The land was granted but was later alienated by the government after the church had failed to meet the condition of erecting the building in two years.<sup>108</sup> The present site of Azania Front was offered as a gift by the German East African Society. The construction could not start until 18th May 1899 when enough money had been raised for the purpose.109 The money was obtained from contributions collected within and outside Tanganyika and was coordinated by the Reverends Johannes Holst, Diakonia Hosbach and Otto Roloff, who succeeded the Reverend Balten Worms.110 Trained African carpenters and stonemasons from Maneromango mission station were some of the people who constructed the church.111 The glass windows were donated by the Kaiser.112 On 2nd May 1902 the church building was officially opened.113

The impressive St. Joseph's Cathedral, built "in the Gothic style," was constructed by the Benedictine missionaries of Otillien between 1897 and 1902.<sup>114</sup> The construction started on 5th December 1897 under the supervision of Father Maurus Hartman and was completed in 1902.<sup>115</sup> The plot of land which was then "a central site in the township of Dar es Salaam" was offered by the colonial government to the Benedictine missionaries on 29th July 1896 on condition that an impressive edifice is erected.116 Having no funds to build the church, Hartman went back to Germany and carried out a fund-rising project whereby he was able to collect enough money for the construction. The architectural drawings for the building were done exclusively by Mr. Schurr from Munich.<sup>117</sup> After the building was completed, the Kaiser provided an altar as his personal contribution to missionary activities in the region.<sup>118</sup>

Information about its architectural value was collected from Dr. Fabian Kigadia, Department of Antiquity, interviewed on 28th November 2016.

Kanisa la Kiinjili la Kilutheri Tanzania (hereafter KKKT), "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa la Azania Front, 1920–1992", pamphlet by Azania Front, May 1992, pp. 3–4.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 4.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 6.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", pp. 4–6.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 6.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 7.

KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 6.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

Kanisa Katoliki Tanzania (hereafter KKT), Jubilei ya Miaka 150 ya Unjilishaji: Furaha ya Injili (Dar es Salaam: Desk Top Production Limited, 2018), p. 42.

D.H. Mbiku, Historia ya Jimbo Kuu la Dar es Salaam (Ruvuma: Ndanda Mission Press, 1985), p. 41; Sayers The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 385.

KKT, Jubilei ya Miaka, 150, p. 42; Mbiku, Historia ya Jimbo Kuu, p. 41.

KKT, Jubilei ya Miaka, 150; Mbiku, Historia ya Jimbo Kuu, p. 42.

The State House which was constructed by the Germans was destroyed by Royal Navy gunfire in 1914 and its reconstruction by the British was completed in 1922.119 During the British period, the building continued to act as the government house or the Governor's residence.120 However, in the late 1950s it was also "used as the district office and the District Commissioner's quarters." <sup>121</sup> Today, the building is gazetted as a national monument due to its political and architectural value, and above all, it is surviving evidence of the devastating impact of the First World War.122 Other important buildings are Dar City Council building, the German Boma, the Old Post Office (1903), Tanzania Railway Corporation Building (1906) and the Secretariat building. The last served as the office of the Governor and the Chief Secretary during the German and British period, respectively.123 After independence, the building was used as the Second Vice-President's Office until the 1970s.124

The German Boma, used in German times as the Governor's office, survives today as a national monument featuring important relics of German architecture, such as carved and studded doors.125 The building has been an object of study by students who visit it for the purposes of learning and researching.126 In addition, the site has been a destination for local and foreign cultural tourists who go there to marvel at the unique and archaic architectural style of the building in question.127 Statistics of German historical buildings indicate that eleven other German Bomas existing in different parts of the country are used as government offices.128

Benoni, "Challenges Facing Conservation", p.18.

Benoni, "Challenges Facing Conservation", p.18

NA, CO1071/366, "Report on Tanganyika Territory for the Year 1922", July 1921, p. 34; William Edgett Smith, Nyerere of Tanzania, (UK: Random House, 1973).p. 23; R.O. Kirundu, "A Guide to Dar es Salaam", undated tourist guidebook, p. 7.

Smith, Nyerere of Tanzania, p. 23.

Moffat, Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 179.

Interview with Dr. Fabian Kigadia, Department of Antiquity, 28th November 2016.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

Salvatore Benoni, "Challenges Facing Conservation of National Historical Building in City Centres: A case Study of Old Boma in Dar es Salaam City in Tanzania", Unpublished Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, November 2013, p. 18. As explained by Donatius Kamamba, The Antiquities Act of 1974 as amended in 1979 recognizes any "wooden door or doorframe carved before 1940" as "objects of cultural heritage". See Donatius Kamamba, "Conservation and Management of Immovable Heritage in Tanzania" in Bertram B.B. Mapunda and Paul Msemwa's Salvaging Tanzania's Cultural Heritage (Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2005), p. 265; Mashengele, Historia ya Utawala wa Wadachi Tanganyika, p. 87.

Mturi, "State of Rescue Archaeology in Tanzania", p. 297. The Bomas in question are those of Bagamoyo, Pangani, Kilwa Kivinje, Utete, Tanga, Tabora, Dodoma, Kondoa, Kigoma, Arusha and Liwale.

#### Dar es Salaam in British Times

The British took over Dar es Salaam and made it their capital from 1919 to 1961 when it was handed over to the independent government. Under British administration, the physical and social setting of Dar es Salaam remained almost the same as in German times. It is obvious that the British chose Dar es Salaam as their capital because the city had already been developed by the Germans to serve that purpose. Building a new capital city would have caused unnecessary government expenditure. Admired for its beauty, in 1928 Raymond Leslie Buell wrote: ". . . the results of German administration are noticeable. Dar es Salaam is without doubt the best laid-out city in East Africa; and is far superior to the native locations one finds elsewhere." <sup>129</sup> A similar view dominated the minds of some British officials, especially when the issue of the British relocating the capital in Tanganyika was raised in the 1930s. Those who did not support relocation thought that Dar es Salaam was modern enough to act as the seat of government.<sup>130</sup> However, there were those who wanted the seat of government to be relocated to Dodoma, the geographic centre of Tanganyika.<sup>131</sup> The idea of relocation remained on paper throughout British colonial rule until independence.<sup>132</sup>

As already mentioned, the British made Dar es Salaam their capital without altering it much. The damage caused by the First World War to its roads, bridges, street lights and so on, were quickly repaired after the War.133 It can be argued generally that "the foundations laid by the Germans were unaltered when the British took over Tanganyika." <sup>134</sup> Faced with the challenge of housing, for example, the British constructed new buildings along the former Burton Street but did not alter the pre-existing urban pattern established by the Germans.135 Racially-based settlements originating in German times were retained and maintained. The Germans fashioned their settlements in Dar es Salaam in such a way that the Africans were

Buell, The Native Problem, p. 426.

TNA No. 20961/49, Director of Medical and Sanitary Services to CS, 5th April 1933.

TNA, 20961/16, CS to Provincial Commissioner, Dodoma, 8th October 1932.

TNA, No. 20961/1, Minutes by CS, 31st May 1932.

NA, CO 1071/366, Report on the Tanganyika Territory, July 1921, p. 88.

Walter Rodney, "The Political Economy of Colonial Tanganyika 1890–1930" in in Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), p. 144.

Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, p. 22; Evidence for shortage of houses is seen in TNA, No. 28684, letter addressed to CS (Dar es Salaam), 28th September 1944; TNA, 28684, Acting Custodian to CS, Dar es Salaam, 11th January 1947.

squeezed into "a well-defined location." <sup>136</sup> Three distinctive residential areas for Europeans, Asians and Africans remained intact.<sup>137</sup> Kariakoo, parts of Ilala and East Magomeni were among the least developed settlements, "a third class residential zone" exclusively designated for the African population.138 Describing these settlements in 1963 Blij had this to say: "these are areas of abject poverty, where streets have not been improved, sewerage systems are often non-existent, and other facilities are scarce at best." <sup>139</sup> In fact, at independence, Dar es Salaam was very much like Lagos in exemplifying what Daniel Immerwahr calls "the legacy of the dual city," <sup>140</sup> which was clearly observable in the way African settlements were poorly planned. They contrasted sharply with the well-planned European settlements, known locally as Uzunguni. <sup>141</sup> These areas, like Oyster Bay, were inhabited by whites and rich Asians, out of reach of Africans.142 The remaining Asian communities settled in "multiple-family residential structures in areas such as Upanga and Chang'ombe." <sup>143</sup> Both European and Asian settlements were separated from the African settlements by a neutral zone (150m wide empty space) to avoid close contact with Africans, shielding their racial policy by arguing that such areas were prone to communicable diseases.144 Consequently, the racially-planned settlements introduced by the German colonial urban policy, the so-called Tote Zone or Dead Zone (256m), remained unaltered during the British period.145

The city of Dar es Salaam was until independence divided into three major zones with distinctive levels of development namely, the European zone (Uzunguni), the Indian zone (Uhindini) and Uswahilinite (Uswahilini). Whereas African settlements were the most underdeveloped and extremely overcrowded, European and Indian settlements were spacious and modern and cut off from the rest

Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, p. 23.

Iliffe, "Wage Labour and Urbanization", p. 144.

Iliffe, "Wage Labour and Urbanization", p. 144; E. Olenmark and U. Westerberg, Tanzania Kariakoo: A Residential Area in Central Dar es Salaam, University of Lund, Department of Architecture II B, 1969, p. 3; Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 30.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 33.

Daniel Immerwahr, "The Politics of Architecture and Urbanism in Postcolonial Lagos, 1960–1986", Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1, (2007), p. 166.

Uzunguni is a popular name which is used to refer to the first class residential areas existing in different townships in Tanzania mainland. The word uzunguni comes from a Swahili word 'Mzungu' (a European) and it literally means 'European area.'

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, pp. 32–33.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, pp. 32–33.

Beckmans, "A Toponymy of Segregation", pp. 108–116.

Beckmans, "A Toponymy of Segregation", pp. 108–116.; Brennan, TAIFA, p. 22.

of the settlements by neutral zones, called "prohibited areas." <sup>146</sup> An ideal European settlement in East Africa generally differed from the rest of the settlements in that it "was the cleanest, most progressive and best built . . ." <sup>147</sup> After independence this colonial legacy of urban settlements was interpreted by Dar es Salaam city dwellers as one of the evils of colonialism.148 As a matter of fact, "the urban pattern established by the colonial powers" in most African countries "[was] as yet unchanged" by the early 1960s, when they had been liberated from colonial rule.<sup>149</sup> The inherited colonial cities like Dar es Salaam had been developed in such a way that "racial residential segregation" was clearly visible.<sup>150</sup> This racial legacy had to be dismantled after independence so that "Africans would no longer have to endure such post-colonial humiliation." <sup>151</sup> In an attempt to "remove the heavy inheritance of racial inequality symbolized by Uhindini," the National Assembly passed a law on 22nd April 1971 nationalizing all unoccupied buildings valued at more than 100,000 shillings, equivalent to £5,000.152 This came as a result of the formulation of Dar es Salaam Master Plan of 1968 which had "dropped the racial factor and substituted it with the standard factor." <sup>153</sup> Nevertheless, the racial legacy of Dar es Salaam settlements remained almost unchanged.154

Most if not all German buildings inherited by the British colonial government and afterwards by the independent government of Tanzania were, "because of their solidity and coolness," used for their primary purpose.155 As a result, these buildings have continued to invoke memories of German colonial history as they are still original and functional. In some instances, however, some German buildings are remembered locally even when they no longer exist. The State House, for

See Joan Vincent, "The Dar es Salaam Townsman: Social and Political Aspects of City Life" TNR, No. 71, (1970) p. 152; Government Notice No. 6 (Rules for the Township of Dar es Salaam) in Occupied Territory of German East Africa: Official Gazette, Vo.1., No. 5, 15th October 1919, p. 50.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 11.

Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, pp. 23–24.

Masood Siridhiki, "Mkoloni Tanganyika", Ngurumo, No. 835, 29th December, 1961; Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 11; Hotuba ya Raisi wa JMT, Mheshimiwa Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Kwenye Sherehe za Maadhimisho ya Miaka 45 ya Uhuru wa Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, 9th December 2006. Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 3; Sutton, "Dar es Salaam", p. 3.

Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, p. 7; Olof Lindberg, "Development Settlement in Dar es Salaam, 1967–1972" Geographical Society of Finland, 1981, p. 135.

Brennan, TAIFA, p. 5.

Brennan, TAIFA, p.5.

W.F. Banyikwa, "The Spatial Impress of Town Planning Practice in East Africa", UTAFITI: Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Vol. IX, No. 2, (1987), p. 62.

Brennan, TAIFA, p. 197.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 183.

example, was destroyed during the First World War and re-erected on the foundations of the former German government house.156 The new building, "a pleasant two-storey ramble of whitewashed Moorish walls," continues to foster collective memories of German colonialism because German colonialism because figures 37a and 37b below show that the British the British reconstructed it in such a way that most of its original architectural elements were maintained.157 The building is widely reported in the literature as a replacement of the former German government house, but social memory often refers to it as the 'German building.' Nyerere, for example, is quoted by William Smith to have cheered up his audience soon after he was sworn into power as the first President of Tanganyika when he said: "you have taken me to that big German house and I have had a good sleep there . . ." <sup>158</sup> Smith and W.T. Casson remind us however that the "State House is not, strictly speaking, an old German house," <sup>159</sup> but a British building re-erected on the foundations of the former German government house which "was badly damaged by British naval gunfire." 160 "The German Governor's palace," a report presented to the British Parliament in July 1921, stated that "it was completely destroyed by shell-fire in 1914, and only the veranda, pillars and ground floor walls remained standing." <sup>161</sup> F.S. Joelson wrote in 1920 that the courtyard of this former German building was overgrown with grass and the surviving parts of the building sheltered nothing other than bats.162

The new British building was constructed using "Moorish-Arabesque" architectural design.<sup>163</sup> The major difference between the new and old building is that the former possessed "a crenellated square tower as the central feature of the composition." 164

Although the British maintained the urban pattern of Dar es Salaam as it was in German times, it was necessary that some cultural images of the town were changed to suit their political ambitions. One good example was the replacement of the Wissmann monument by the Askari monument, which has been thoroughly discussed elsewhere. Evidence in this chapter indicates that although the Wissmann monument was removed, the site continued to evoke memories of German

Smith, Nyerere of Tanzania, p. 23; Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, p. 26.

NA, CO1071/366, "Report on Tanganyika Territory for the Year 1921 Presented to Parliament in July 1922", p. 32.

Interview with Dr. Fabian Kigadia, Department of Antiquity, 28th November 2016; Smith, Nyerere of Tanzania, p. 23.

Smith, Nyerere of Tanzania, p. 23. Emphasis is mine.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p.182.

NA, CO1071/366, "Report on Tanganyika Territory", July 1921, p. 89.

Joelson, The Tanganyika Territory, p. 26.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 182.

Figure 37a and 37b: Colonial Government House: 37a) German government palace before bombardment. 37b) The New British state house. Notice the similarities of the architectural design for the first floor. (Source: Casson, W.T. "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, (1970), pp. 183–184).

colonial history among the inhabitants of Dar es Salaam even when the Askari Monument had been erected on it. Not surprisingly, the site of the Askari Monument was locally called bismini as late as the 1980s.165 Bismini was the Swahili corrupted name of Wissmann, a clear indication that memories of Wissmann and his former monument lingered in the minds of the people of Dar es Salaam.166

It is important at this juncture to examine why former German colonial sites such as the Wissmann monument (bismini) and the government house have continued to engender collective memories of the Germans over those of the British, who replaced them with their own. The answer lies in the fact that such sites communicated memories which were deeply ingrained in the minds of the local people. It is well known that Wissmann criss-crossed East Africa suppressing African resistance in the late 19th century, hence it is likely that he was widely remembered locally for his acts of violence. In Dar es Salaam, where his monument was erected and where the State House was constructed, memories of colonial violence endured until the post-colonial period. Mdundo's poetic work reveals that the Wissmann monument in Dar es Salaam meant that he was a colonial hero in German East Africa.<sup>167</sup> His statue was a symbol of the colonial state in German East Africa, a "colonial self-image" to use Koponen's words, and a site widely known by the inhabitants of Dar es Salaam.<sup>168</sup> It must be emphasised that Wissmann was revered as a colonial hero at home and abroad by his people. In Tanganyika, for example, his name was popularized not only by erecting his monument in Dar es Salaam but also by naming streets in different towns after him. A Street in Dar es Salaam was named Wissmann Strasse, later renamed Windsor Street. <sup>169</sup> Evidence available to this study shows that streets with Wissmann's name existed also at Handeni, Pangani, Bagamoyo and Arusha as late as the early 1920s.<sup>170</sup> It appears therefore that the Askari Monument and State House building have continued to stimulate memories of German colonialism in Dar es Salaam. Records indicate that both were officially declared national monuments on 8th September 2005 alongside other important German sites.

Lt. Minael O. Mdundo assisted by Sajini Taji Nassoro Omari, Utenzi wa JWTZ (Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House, 2005), pp. 23–24. For the former name of Askari Centre see Blij, A Study in Urban Geography, pp. 46–47.

See stanzas number 300, 301 and 302 in Mdundo, Utenzi wa JWTZ, p. 24.

Mdundo, Utenzi wa JWTZ, p. 23.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 86.

The Tanganyika Territory Official Gazette, Vol. I., No. 35, 14th October, 1920, p. 209.

The Tanganyika Territory Official Gazette, Vol. I., No. 35, 14th October, 1920, p. 209; Ernest Adams, "Tanganyika Territory: Disposal of Enemy Property", Dar es Salam Times, Vol. III, No. 7, 31st December 1921, p. 9.

Although the British did not change the urban setting of Dar es Salaam, they constructed new buildings while destroying some German buildings. A particular case in point was the demolition of the Berlin Mission Building.171 This two-storey stone building, exhibiting "the most brutally severe piece of German architecture", was erected to replace the former building used by the mission. This particular building served several purposes before it was demolished in 1959.172 Apart from its primary use, it was used as a hospital prior to the construction of the Ocean Road Hospital and it once served as a residential house for the Governor.173 The Berlin Mission, the so-called Berliner Missionsgesellschaft, extended their evangelical activities from "the southern area near lake Nyasa," where they had started work in 1891, to Dar es Salaam in 1903, taking over the activities of the Bethel mission (the former Berlin III) which had relocated to Usambara.174 The mission's work in Dar es Salaam went beyond evangelization. It was known for manufacturing spinning wheels and handlooms.175 Similarly, the Old German Schule (German school) built for Africans and Asians in 1899 near the present site of the National Museum was demolished and replaced by the Dar es Salaam Boys School in 1921, which was renamed Uhuru Street Primary School after independence.176

Demolition of the above historical buildings took place regardless of the fact that the British colonial government had legislated for the protection and conservation of historic buildings. The 1937 Preservation Ordinance authorized the governor "to declare and gazette structures of historic importance as monuments and sites of archaeological, scientific and historic significance as reserved areas." <sup>177</sup> Despite this legal instrument in place, "no measures were taken during the colonial era to ensure the protection and preservation of [old historic buildings]." <sup>178</sup> Prior to 1937, old buildings in the township of Dar es Salaam were protected and maintained

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 181.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?",p. 173.

German buildings in Dar es Salaam today can be easily identified by their "vaulted roofs on the first floor[s]". See, for example, Laura Sykes and Uma Waide (eds), Dar es Salaam: A Dozen Drives around the City, (Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 1997), p.13.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 181; Plan for demolition started in 1953. TNA, 35946, Acting CS (R.S. King) to Lutheran Personage, Reverend H.S. Magney, 14th January 1953.

Sayers, The Handbook of Tanganyika, p. 385; KKKT, "Miaka Tisini ya Kanisa", p. 4.

W.O. Henderson, Studies in German Colonial History (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 1962), p. 91; Eberlie, "The German Achievement", p. 208.

J.E.F. Mhina, "Education In and Around Dar es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 175.

Amin Aza Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?: Conflict and Contradiction in the Conservation of Historic Structures, Towns and Rock Art in Tanzania" in Peter R. Schmidt and Roderick J. McIntosh, Plundering Africa's Past (North America: Indiana University Press, 1996) p. 170.

through enforcement of the township rules which were gazetted in November 1919.179 Building regulations at this time required that any person who wanted "to erect, add to, alter or repair any building" to seek permission from the "District Political Officer" who "at his discretion [might] refuse or grant such application." 180

#### Conservation of German Buildings after Independence: Opposition, Debates and Consensus

The growing concern over the conservation of historical sites after independence resulted from the increased demolition of historic buildings regardless of the Antiquities Act of 1964 (and its Amendment Act of 1979), which legislated for the conservation of historic sites countrywide. By the 1970s several German buildings had been demolished and replaced by new buildings due to "constant pressure for development" of the city centre.181 These were the German port buildings; the Sewa Haji Hospital Building and the former building adjacent to the Askari monument (the former Chez Clo Bar).<sup>182</sup> The first two buildings had much in common, as they possessed "rectangular pointed turrets and timber beams." <sup>183</sup> Other demolished buildings were the Splendid Hotel, the New African Hotel, a residential quarter near Ocean Road Hospital and the Seyyid Barghash building.<sup>184</sup> The latter building together with Seyyid Majid's Palace were demolished in the 1970s.<sup>185</sup>

Demolition of the above-mentioned buildings did not go unchallenged. Persistent demolition stirred public opposition and debates over the conservation of the inherited colonial buildings. There were groups of people who supported the protection and conservation of historic buildings and those who opposed it. The critics of conservation argued that if some colonial buildings were not demolished to give space for modern buildings, development of the city centre would stagnate or freeze.<sup>186</sup> Those who supported conservation argued that the value of historic buildings transcends their historical and architectural significance as

Government Notice No. 6, Official Gazette, Vo.1, No. 5, 15th October 1919, pp. 49–55.

Government Notice No. 6, p. 52. Further related regulations can be seen in TNA, No. 28684,

<sup>&</sup>quot;Structural Alterations to Enemy Owned Buildings Occupied by Government", 1940–1953. Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", p. 127.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", pp. 182–183.

Casson, "Architectural Notes on Dar es Salaam", p. 183.

Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", p. 127.

Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", pp. 24–25.

Interview with Dr. Fabian Kigadia, Department of Antiquity, 28th November 2016; Mturi,

<sup>&</sup>quot;The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", p. 133.

they offer "historic building resources that should continue to be used within the community." <sup>187</sup> The government's plan to demolish the German Boma in the 1970s, for example, provoked a public outcry, and so the building was spared.<sup>188</sup> As a matter of fact, the decision to demolish historic buildings in Dar es Salaam was condemned by the public media and the Department of Antiquity.<sup>189</sup> However, there was public concern over certain colonial sites whose history was thought to degrade local people.<sup>190</sup> The main question was, should such sites be conserved or destroyed? A consensus was reached in the 1970s when the conservation policy seemed to support the view that:

Although the towns and buildings are associated with historic processes and events that are degrading and dehumanizing, there is no way to erase these events and exclude them from the national history. Some of the tangible remains of this history must, therefore, be protected and preserved for the benefit of present and future generations. The architectural significance of the buildings is the product of local building expertise and especially local craftsmen, who were commissioned and employed by the owners. Conserving these buildings pays tribute to local skills and craftsmanship, which can be further developed and employed in the modern construction industry.191

In 1944, a similar suggestion had been made by the War Memorials Advisory Council of the Royal Society of Arts regarding the conservation of historic buildings in the township of Dar es Salaam. The council opined that "the acquisition and preservation of buildings of historic interest or architectural importance would be a happy tribute to those who have themselves so notably enriched their country's history." <sup>192</sup> Based on these sentiments it can be seen that the conservation of historic buildings (including German buildings) was meant to achieve many objectives. One such objective was to make sure that the buildings honoured those Africans who participated in constructing them. For example, Africans were among those who were involved in the construction of the Azania Front building, a unique colonial legacy of German architecture that was declared a national monument in 1995. The justification given for preserving historic buildings concurs with Kate Davian-Smith and Hamilton's view that "memory links us

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?"., p. 175.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?" p. 129.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?" pp. 133–134.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?", p. 174.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?", p. 175.

TNA, 10203/IA, Survey made by the War Memorials Advisory Council of the Royal Society of Arts, 12th December 1944, p. 4.

to place, to time and to nation; they enable us to place value on our individual and our social experiences, and they enable us to inhabit our own country." 193

German buildings, which constitute a large part of the cultural heritage in Dar es Salaam, have however engendered debates over the rationale for protecting or conserving them. Arguments for conservation emphasize the historic and architectural value of the buildings, and, apart from representing the collective cultural memories of the Germans, that they honour African ancestors. To add to this point Mturi argues that "the historic buildings represent a major investment in terms of materials, labour and money and are therefore a major resource." <sup>194</sup> In realization of these views, which formed part of the cultural heritage conservation guiding principles, the current cultural policy emphasizes "the preservation and development of the cultural heritage for the benefit of society." <sup>195</sup> To implement this current policy, the German Bomas in Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, Biharamulo, Mikindani, Kilwa Kisiwani and Kilwa Kivinje were renovated between 1999 and 2007.196 The first renovation in Dar es Salaam started with the Old German Boma in the 1970s.197

In recent years generally, there has been a marked rise in public awareness of the need to conserve historic buildings in Dar es Salaam, particularly German buildings. Whereas only five out of sixty buildings were listed for preservation in 1973, the number of buildings "exempted from demolition" increased to twenty-five in 2016.198 In 2012, there were 128 monuments and protected objects in Tanzania mainland alone.<sup>199</sup> The awakening of the need to conserve historic buildings attracted the attention of local newspapers, which published articles supporting conservation, while at the same time encouraging the government to take the bold

Davian-Smith and Hamilton, "Introduction", p. 1.

Mturi, "Whose Cultural Heritage?"p. 175.

Kamamba, "National Cultural Heritage Register Antiquities Division", p. 5.

Seen in several Ministers' Speeches: JMT, "Hotuba ya Waziri wa Maliasili na Utalii Mheshimiwa Zakia Hamdani Meghji (MB) Wakati Akiwasilisha Bungeni Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 2003/2004", p. 33; JMT, "Hotuba ya Waziri wa JMT, Hotuba ya Waziri wa Maliasili na Utalii Mheshimiwa Anthony M. Dialo (MB) Akiwakilisha Bungeni Makadirio na Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 2006/2007", p. 8; JMT, "Hotuba ya Waziri wa Maliasili na Utalii Mheshimiwa Prof. Jumanne A. Magembe (MB) Akiwasilisha Bungeni Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Mwaka kwa Mwaka 2007/2008", pp. 58–59; JMT, "Hotuba ya Waziri wa Elimu na Utamaduni Mh.Professor Philemon M. Sarungi (Mb) Kuhusu Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 1994/1995",p. 61; JMT, "Hotuba ya Waziri wa Maliasili na Utatalii (MV) Mhe. Zakia Hamdani Meghji Wakait wa Kuwakilisha Bungeni Makadirio na Matumizi kwa Mwaka 2000/2001", p. 49.

Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", p. 128.

Janeth Mesomapya, "Preserve National Heritage: Forum", The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5; Mturi, "The Designation and Management of Conservation Areas in Tanzania", pp. 132–133.

Kamamba, "National Cultural Heritage Register Antiquities Division", p. 6.

step of protecting the endangered national heritage. It is important to see, for example, how the views presented at the Dar es Salaam Heritage Day Forum on 26th September 2016 were reported in The Citizen. <sup>200</sup> In the article published by this newspaper, Aida Mulokozi (the Dar es Salaam Centre for Architectural Heritage Chief Executive Officer) remarked: "We encourage local communities and Dar es Salaam residents to consider the importance of cultural and architectural heritage for their lives, identity and society at large." 201

According to the above source, Dar es Salaam Centre for Architectural Technology (DARCH) is a non-profit organization and a joint initiative with numerous affiliates.<sup>202</sup> This organization, which is based in Dar es Salaam, has been at the forefront of the campaign against the demolition of historic buildings in the City's Geographic Base.<sup>203</sup> The article further quotes Professor Audax Mabula then the National Museum Director-General: "The buildings are very valuable in terms of architectural design and value, which should not be compromised." <sup>204</sup> Similar news articles supporting the conservation of historic buildings and condemning their demolition have featured in several other newspapers in recent years.<sup>205</sup>

#### Suppressing Colonial Memories by Renaming Streets and Buildings

While most of the colonial buildings in the city of Dar es Salaam were declared national monuments, colonial names for some streets and buildings became the object of opposition. It should be remembered that renaming streets started in British times and continued after independence. As explained elsewhere in this study, having acquired Tanganyika as a mandate territory from the League of Nations, the British rushed into renaming German streets and places to their own

The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5.

The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5.

The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5.

The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5.

The Citizen, No. 4920, 29th September 2016, p. 5.

See, for example: Onesmo Kapinga, "Kumbukumbu za Kale Hatarini Kutoweka", Taifa Letu, No.0342, 2nd–8th June 2002, p. 4; Unknown Author, "Mambo ya Kale ni Urithi wa Taifa", Shaba No.0062, 26th April –2 nd May 1994; Jackson Kalindimya, "HIfadhi Sehemu za Kihistoria, Taifa Letu, No. 0337, 28th May 2002, p. 4; William Nchimbi, "Umuhimu wa Majumba ya Makumbusho", Uhuru, No. 6588, 27th July 1984, p. 7; Bukile Lubunju, "Kuuza Uwanja wa Mnazi Mmoja si Uzalendo, Shaba, No. 0062, 26th April–2nd May, 1994, p. 4; "Harakati za Kuazimisha Vita Kuu ya Kwanza ya Dunia Zinatufunza Nini?", Daily Nation, 26th August 2014, http://www.mwananchi.co. tz/Makala/Harakati-za-kuazimisha-Vita-Kuu-ya-dunia, last accessed on 21st March 2016.

advantage. Similarly, renaming streets and buildings became a matter of urgency soon after independence. During the 1960s, for example, there was mounting pressure to rename the streets that glorified or honoured colonial officials. Such streets, it was suggested, should be named after African leaders who pioneered the struggle for independence. In November 1961, for example, Tom Mgondah, a resident of Dar es Salaam, applauded the government's decision to change Livingstone and Stanley Streets to Independence Avenue and Lumumba Street, respectively.<sup>206</sup> However he complained about retaining streets bearing the names of people who were former slave traders like Tipu Tipu Street in Changombe.<sup>207</sup> "The existing street names", he suggested, "should be thoroughly examined to avoid keeping those which are useless and disgrace our nation." 208

Dar es Salaam City Council changed some street names few months before independence following the recommendations made by Nyerere and the independence committee.209 Six changes were made to street names in October 1961: Acasia Avenue (formerly Unter dem Akazien) to Independence Avenue; Main Avenue (formerly Stuhlmann and Kaiser Strasse) to City Drive; New Street (formerly Neue Strasse) to Lumumba Street; Van de Vantner Road to Kibo Street, Station Street (formerly Bahnhof Strasse) to Ohio Street, Bagamoyo Street to Morogoro Street and Kihwele Street to Uhuru Street.210 It is interesting to note that Nyerere did not approve a suggestion to name any of these streets after him.211 He also declined the offer of the elders of Dar es Salaam to erect his statue in place of the Askari Monument.212

Of all the streets renamed, no street bore a German name except for the recent Hamburg Avenue (formerly Garden Avenue), named to honour "the twinning agreement" between Dar es Salaam and Hamburg cities.213 After independence therefore, officials in Dar es Salaam hastened to rename streets so as to erase what was considered to be a degrading colonial memory legacy. Marie A. Rieger explains that streets


Tom Mgondah, "Majina ya Barabarani Mjini", Ngurumo, No. 805, 18th November 1961, p. 2.

Mgondah, "Majina ya Barabarani Mjini", p.2.

Mgondah, "Majina ya Barabarani Mjini", p.2.

Anonymous Reporter, "Tubadili Sasa Lumumba Street", Ngurumo, No. 769, 6th October 1961, p. 3. Similar measures were taken in Nairobi when nine streets with colonial names were renamed in April 1964. See, for example, Unknown Reporter, "Majina ya Ukoloni Mwiko Nairobi", Mwafrika, No. 1209, 7th April 1964, p. 1.

Peter DM Bwimbo, Mlinzi Mkuu wa Mwalimu Nyerere (Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2015), pp. 39–40.

This decision came after 'a square in the Central HafenCity District' in Hamburg was named Dar es Salaam Platz. Seen in https://www.wantedinafrica.com/news/dar-es-salaams-garden-ave nue-renamed-hamburg-avenue.html, last accessed on 14th August 2019.

generally have two major functions: the locative and memory functions.214 However, she reveals that while these two functions are predominant in the western world, in Tanzania streets perform only the memory function, the so-called secondary function. "Tanzanian street names" Rieger further argues, "can become an important depositary [sic] of the community's cultural memory" and are at the same time sites which archive past knowledge.215 Renaming streets in Dar es Salaam was, among others, meant to achieve this goal. Several streets were renamed after African leaders within and outside Dar es Salaam in pursuance of that goal.216

At Kariakoo, the busiest commercial centre of Dar es Salaam, some streets were named after former ethnic groups which lived there and some after famous political leaders in the past.217 The former Bϋlow Strasse, named so by the Germans and later renamed Stanley Street by the British, was changed to Lumumba Street and then to Agrey Street. This street was later changed to Max-Mbwana Street in tribute to Max Mbwana, a famous political figure in TANU politics of independence in colonial Dar es Salaam.218

Renaming streets in the post-colonial period went hand-in-hand with changing the names of important government buildings which still bore colonial names. To suppress British colonial memory, for example, the former Princess Margaret Hospital was changed to Muhimbili Hospital in 1963.219 One of its buildings, formerly called Twinning Block, was renamed Kibasila Block. Kibasila, whose memory still lives on

Marie A. Rieger, "From Kaiserstraβe to Barabara ya Bandarini: What Swahili Street names can tell us about the past", in Liora Bigon (ed), Place Names in Africa (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016), pp. 1670–1671.

Rieger, "From Kaiserstraβe to Barabara ya Bandarini", p. 1670.

Rayner Ngonji, "Naming Streets after Great Men and Women with a Purpose", The Guardian, No. 3803, 7th February 2007, p. 8.

Interview with Mzee Nusura C. Faraji, Tandamti Street, 3rd February 2006. Examples of streets named after ethnic groups are: Pemba Street, Yao Street, Zaramo Street, Zigua Street, Somali Street and Swahili Street. Note that all the interviews conducted in 2006 chapter were collected by the author in 2006 as partial fulfilment of Bachelors' Degree Course (HI 368: Oral Histories in Tanzania).

Interview with Mzee Alhaji Ahmed Salumu Katungunya, Sikukuu Street, 2nd February 2006; Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era (Pretoria: New Africa Press, 2007), p. 640.

Unknown Reporter, "Majina ya Kikoloni Yamefutiliwa Mbali", Raia: Gazeti la Wilaya ya Geita, No. 33, May 1963, p. 4; Iqbal. I. Dewji (ed). "A Brief History of the Khojas in Dar es Salaam", Khojawiki.org (June 2019), last visited on 17th January 2023. Princes Margaret Hospital replaced the former name of Sewa Haji Hospital in 1956. Other buildings or institutions which received new names included Karunde Hospital (formerly called Livingstone Hospital in Tabora) and Mkwawa High School (formerly called St. Michael and St. George School).

in the minds of some elders in Dar es Salaam, was one of the key Maji Maji leaders who, together with other Africans, was executed in Dar es Salaam.220 He was hanged on a mango tree behind the former Motor Transport Company Building. Renaming the Block in question was meant to erase British colonial memories on the one hand and to pay tribute to Kibasila who lost his life resisting German oppression on the other. Kibasila Block, which remains unchanged to this day, continues to evoke memories of German colonial history in Dar es Salaam. Another Block of the hospital was named Sewa Haji, an Indian merchant who contributed money to the German colonial government for the construction of a hospital for Africans, Indians and Arabs in the early 1890s.221 It appears that people living in Dar es Salaam during the 1960s were sensitive to colonial names there. To give one example, a letter published in Ngurumo in September 1964, written by J.W. Mpangala, wondered why shops in Dar es Salaam were allowed to bear names such as Colonial Stores or Imperial Chemistry when colonialism had already gone.222

#### Conclusion

This chapter has indicated the extent to which the city of Dar es Salaam bore German colonial imprints, which exist in the form of buildings, monuments, gardens, streets, and the inherited urban pattern of settlements. These German legacies are collective cultural memories of German colonial history in the township of Dar es Salaam. German buildings which proved beneficial to the British colonial administration and inherited by the independent government are not only sites of historical significance but are also important economically and politically. These buildings, together with other important German places of memory discussed in this chapter, were and still are valued for their historic, architectural, functional, and symbolic significance. However, the rationale for conserving and protecting German buildings goes beyond their value. The move was not only meant to promote cultural tourism but also to honour the Africans who were involved in creating or constructing the sites.

The chapter has also indicated that renaming streets in Dar es Salaam started with the British, who did away with German street names, followed by the independent government, which renamed the streets that had British names. Whereas German street names disappeared with the end of German colonial rule, German

Raia, No. 33, May 1963, p. 4; Interview with Mzee Issa Hausi, Kariakoo, 5th February 2006. Koponen, Development for Exploitation, pp. 442–443.

J.W. Mpangala, "Majina ya Kizungu", Ngurumo, No. 1664, 14th September 1964, p. 2.

buildings remained as a major tangible memory of colonial Dar es Salaam. However, the chapter has shown that after independence the local authority of Dar es Salaam found another way of using non-German buildings to preserve memories of German colonial history in Dar es Salaam. A building was named after Kibasila, who was hanged in Dar es Salaam for his participation in the Maji Maji War, which became a new memory site that continues to remind people of how colonialism was generally violent.<sup>223</sup>

There is also Kibasila Street.

### Chapter 7 Summary and Conclusion

This study examined the collective memories of German colonialism in Tanzania as reflected in imperial politics, nationalist struggles, commemorations, oral narratives, school curricula, archives, and memorials. The study has shown that, apart from being communicative, collective memories of the Germans in Tanzania are functional, in the sense that they involve rituals, commemorations and ceremonies, and are topographical, meaning that they are represented by buildings, gardens, urban spaces, monuments, statues, cemeteries, archives and museums.1 By doing so the study has therefore reaffirmed the fact that "memories are not limited to oral information and the personal remembrances of individuals." 2

With the colonization of East Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century, Tanganyika experienced tremendous political, economic, and social restructuring, the impacts of which are long-lasting. By the late 19th century, the German colonial administration had been established to supervise colonial production in the newly founded colony of Deutsch Ostafrika. To achieve this, corporal punishment and the use of other coercive instruments became the major way of maintaining discipline among the Africans. Memory narratives and documentary sources employed in this study showed that the Germans demonstrated their strong political domination by crushing local uprisings and establishing their imperial state with its imperial symbols. They transformed African societies by introducing Christianity, western education and several other western cultural values, the legacy of which is observable in Tanzania today. Added to this they came with alien technologies and established modern urban areas that currently exist as a tangible reminder of the German cultural legacy.

The study has also shown that the immediate political ambition of the British, after acquiring Tanganyika as a mandate territory after the First World War, was to dismantle the legacy of German imperialism by replacing monuments, renaming the territory itself (from Deutsch Ostafrika to Tanganyika) and by changing the existing street and place names that seemed to glorify German imperial rule. Assmann and Shortt have explained why this move could not have been avoided by the British, as they argue below:

As classified by Schreiner, "Histories of Trauma", p. 272. See also Podoler, "Monuments", p. 11; Carrier, "Places, Politics and Archiving of Contemporary Memory", pp. 40–47; Cole, "The Work of Memory in Madagascar", p. 614.

Davian-Smith and Hamilton, "Introduction", p. 3.

Political regime change enforces an abrupt reorganization of memory by ushering in a new value system. Its most obvious external signs are the renaming of streets, along with the selection of new obligatory reference points that were common in the past for history textbooks and public commemorations.<sup>3</sup>

Like the British, the independent government of Tanzania renamed colonial streets and introduced commemorations, which honoured national heroes and heroines, and completely suppressed colonial commemorations that had thrived under British colonial rule. School history textbooks were produced to achieve just that.4 Of course, African remembrances of German colonialism, as shown in this study, started in colonial times when, for example, the Ngoni venerated the Maji Maji war spirits secretly or when nationalist leaders like Nyerere invoked memories of resistance to colonialism to support the struggle for independence in Tanganyika.5 However, in Uchagga, some attempts were made to preserve the German colonial sites existing there.

Although the British managed to suppress memories of German imperialism in Tanganyika, at the same time they manipulated some of them for their political benefit. This was explained in chapters two and three, respectively, concerning the use of German colonial records and of the Maji Maji War. Chapter six also explained how the British and later the Tanzanian government benefited from the buildings erected by the Germans in the city of Dar es Salaam, which had hitherto served as the capital city (Hauptstadt) of German East Africa. The British set out to obliterate the political legacy of the Germans in Tanganyika, but, for some reason, they could not completely destroy their buildings, which after independence the Africans inherited as their cultural heritage.

To find out how the Germans are remembered locally, this study interviewed several people from different places in Tanzania, whose memory narratives have, in addition to the documentary sources used, revealed various ways in which the German colonial period is remembered today in Tanzania. The findings have shown that the collective memories of German colonialism have promoted anticolonial heroism and the commemoration of war heroes and heroines in areas where Africans rebelled against German colonization. These anti-colonial heroic memories, as explained in chapters three and five, are multidimensional. They are embedded in the monuments erected to honour war heroes and are also represented by the streets and public institutions named after African chiefs who fought

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 7.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 10. Change of political regimes also affect change of educational programmes.

Visiting a cemetery in memory of those buried there or for veneration of dead spirits is an act of remembering. See for example, Danziger, Making the Mind, p. 1.

against German colonial penetration and exploitation. Sites such as these prompt communities in present-day Tanzania to remember the past and the experience of German colonialism. It should be known that naming buildings after African chiefs who fought against the Germans is widespread in Tanzania. In most government boarding schools, for instance, the dormitories commemorate African chiefs who resisted German colonial rule.6

The study also revealed that memories of the Germans reside in the social memory as communicative narratives of anti-colonial heroism because German colonialism was violent. In Tanzania, as in other African countries where traumatic memories of the colonial past exist, the memory narratives are used to 'justify' and 'legitimize' the claims for reparation and restitution.7 For example, the study has shown the extent to which commemorative initiatives, which were scaled up after independence in places like Songea and Moshi, led to collective claims for reparation and restitution by local people and individual government leaders like members of parliament and ministers. It is not difficult to account for this, but Karl Hack reminds us that "the collective memory of suffering and loss can stir powerful emotions, ranging from private grief to patriotic fervour." <sup>8</sup> Assmann and Shortt add that collective memories of past violence "can contribute to reconciliation and new forms of co-existence," and may involve, in my view, resolving issues relating to claims for reparation and restitution.9 Memories of the Germans, as shown in this study, are also connected with the preservation of African war graves, which are often used as sites for ancestor worship by their owners and as places of national commemoration, as in the case of the Maji Maji War graves in Songea.

This study also explained that memories of the Germans in Tanzania are also reflected in the museums and archives acting as repositories of artifacts, such as files, documents, photos and ethnological objects relating to the German colonial past, which are part of the country's shared past.10 German colonial records are important sources of information for the reconstruction of Tanzania's history, which have certainly benefited both local and foreign researchers and, as shown in chapter three, these materials are symbolic for the nation's identity. The study

This information is based on the researcher's personal observations.

Evidence of how memory narratives can be used in this way is provided by Straub, "Telling Stories", p. 65.

Karl Hack, "Contentious Heritage", in Tim Benton (ed), Understanding Heritage and Memory (UK: Manchester University Press, 2010), p. 89.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 4.

Donald E. Polkinghorne, "Narrative Psychology and Historical Consciousness", in Jϋrgen Straub (ed), Narration Identity and Historical Consciousness (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), p. 9.

also indicated another way in which the German colonial past shapes national identity. For example, rebellions against colonialism by African chiefs are widely covered in primary school history textbooks and are always mentioned in official government speeches as events symbolizing African heroism, patriotism, and solidarity. The study has shown that communicative and cultural memories of the resistance to colonialism promote what Tim Benton and Penelope Curtis call "a sense of shared identity," <sup>11</sup> which usually transforms the "nation's self-image as an imagined community" or "imagined idinties." <sup>12</sup> Historians like Koponen have gone further by arguing that Tanzania as "a geographical region bounded by arbitrary imperialist borders" could not have been formed without the Germans.<sup>13</sup> He further argues elsewhere:

colonial development laid the foundation for today's Tanzania as a political, economic and social entity [. . .] It is now widely agreed that the processes which were set in motion by the colonial intervention transformed the political, social and economic relations in the area, forging it into a social whole which, eventually, was taken over by the African nationalist government.14

Does this argument find expression in Tanzanians' collective memories discussed in this study? It has shown that the Germans are remembered somewhat nostalgically in present-day Tanzania and examples have been cited from different parts of the country to show how nostalgia for the German legacy features in both communicative and cultural memories.15 There is no doubt that nostalgia for German colonialism, besides the numerous tangible German cultural memorials preserved as national monuments, supports Koponen's argument above. It is equally true that German colonialism laid the foundations for the post-colonial remembrance of anti-colonial heroism exemplified in commemorations and monuments which, as already known, owe their origins to German colonial acts of violence.

The study has shown that German colonial knowledge and heritage have roused traumatic memories while at the same time awakening nostalgic memories

For this concept see Tim Benton and Penelope Curtis, "The Heritage of Public Commemoration", in Tim Benton (ed), Understanding Heritage and Memory (UK: Manchester University Press, 2010), p. 44.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 8. See also, Allan Magil, "From History, Memory, Identity", in J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy, The Collective Memory Reader (Madison: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 195.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 559.

Koponen, Development for Exploitation, p. 663.

Documentary evidence of nostalgia for German colonialism can also be seen in Schilling, Postcolonial Germany, p. 119; Theobald A. Mvungi, Mashairi ya Chekacheka (Dar es Salaam: Educational Publishers Ltd, 1995), p. 23.

of the German colonial past. This point has been thoroughly explained in this study. For example, in Moshi and Dar es Salaam, collective nostalgic memories coexist with traumatic memories, whereas in Songea only the traumatic memories exist, as a result of the Maji Maji War. Traumatic memories, wherever they exist, have heightened the feelings of the need to provide reparation or compensation to the victims of German colonial violence and have prompted similar demands to those raised by the Namibians for the return of human objects (skulls) that were appropriated from African communities. Although similar politics of 'negotiating the past' have featured in Tanzanian memory culture, they are not as pronounced as in the former German colony of Namibia. Two reasons would seem to account for this. First, Maji Maji war did not end up in killing as many people as those killed in the Namibian genocide, where a massive number of Nama and Herero resistance figures were slaughtered in the early 20th century.16 Second, until recently there has not been much public awareness of the German colonial past, nor has there been much discussion on memories of the German colonial period in historical scholarship. Danziger wrote:

Ways of remembering are affected by changing mnemonic values: culturally grounded assumptions about what is most worth remembering, what ought not to be or need to be remembered, how the shards of memory should fit together, what kinds of tasks memory should be expected to serve. Such mnemonic values always imply certain conceptions of the nature of memory and sometimes these conceptions are made explicit in texts that address the topic.17

However, the current campaigns for reparation and restitution stem from two major developments. In the first place, the country has experienced a commemoration boom in recent years and in the second place the campaigns for reparation and restitution in other African countries, such as Namibia and Kenya, have encouraged similar campaigns in Tanzania. These belated movements can also be explained by "a general notion that a certain interval of time has to pass before a society is ready to address issues of its violent past." <sup>18</sup> They can also result from changing social attitudes, which is an outcome of generational change.19

Three major reasons account for the existence of the nature of collective memories of German colonialism analyzed so far. First, German colonialism was imposed with such violence that it seared into the minds of Tanganyikans who attempted

Between 50 percent and 80 percent of Nama and Herero were exterminated respectively. Seen in Jan-Bart Gewald, "Herero Genocide in the Twentieth Century: Politics and Memory", Abbink, Jde Bruijn, M and van Walraven, K, Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African Memory, (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 281–282.

Danziger, Making the Mind, p. 8.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change", p. 6.

Assmann and Shortt, "Memory and Political Change" p. 7.

to oppose it, but to no effect.20 The Maji Maji War in particular left them with traumatic memories, which live on in the minds of Tanzanians to this day. The Germans generally responded to African resistance and wars by using excessive military force and by hanging those chiefs who refused to co-operate in the aftermath, with the result that these events engendered collective trauma and agony, which lingered in the minds of those who were either witnesses or victims. Stories of these events have survived in the social memory and have been passed down to the present generation as trans-generational collective trauma and are manifested in different forms of remembrance that started in different parts of Tanzania after independence.

Second, German colonialism introduced western cultural values such as Christianity, education, and architecture, which have survived down through the generations and have served to preserve and promote the remembrance of German colonialism. For example, it has been explained that the Germans constructed buildings, which were used for various activities, and their architectural value and qualities appealed to those who inherited them. These buildings existing in the form of bomas, churches and schools are still used for their original purpose and, above all, stir up memories. They are currently protected as shared German cultural heritage, thus triggering collective recollections of the German colonial past.<sup>21</sup> As one study has shown: "People tend to imprint memories on places, and buildings [. . .] which bear witness to the passage of time. . ." <sup>22</sup> Third, most German sites of memory possess the value which qualifies them to be part of the national heritage, because, as the law demands in Tanzania, they are old enough to be declared monuments. As most of them are over a hundred years old, they automatically become national monuments, unlike those constructed in the post-German colonial period.

However, conservation of German sites in Tanzania, as discussed in this study, cannot be justified based on their intrinsic value alone. As a matter of fact, their value goes beyond that, as they have what Tim Benton and Clementine Cecil classify as evidential, commemorative, symbolic, historical, aesthetic and communal

A.J. Temu, "Tanzanian Socities and Colonial Invasion 1875–1907", in Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule (London: Longman Group Limited, 1980), p. 93.

A paper by Wazi Apoh has eloquently analysed the influence of German colonal heritage sites on the colonized societies. See Wazi Apoh, "Ruins, Relics and Research: Lasting Evidence and Parceptible Consequences of the Prussian and German Colonial Past in Ghana"in Deutsches Historisches Museum, German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present (Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2017), pp. 92–99.

Benton and Cecil, "Heritage and Public Memory", p. 40.

value.23 The historical and aesthetic value of a cultural heritage is determined by professional historians or archaeologists, but communal and social value is usually determined by the public.24 Monuments and places connected with German colonial violence, like those in Songea and Moshi, have therefore been preserved for their commemorative, symbolic and evidential value. Such cultural sites have given birth to a particular memory culture characteristic of the concepts of 'narrativisation' and 'cognitivisation', which are explained by Benton and Cecil. The former refers to the tendency to turn memories into 'interesting stories', whereas the latter involves contested actions of "fixing meanings over time by attaching them to physical monuments or places, and by repetition and restructuring in rituals of remembrance." <sup>25</sup> The study has also indicated that German cultural sites, like those found in Dar es Salaam, are preserved as national monuments basically because of their communal, historical, and aesthetic value.

This study has revealed cases in which memory contradicts official rendering of the First World War and has provided some information that is not easy to find in current history books. Whereas studies have shown that the Askaris were loyal to German soldiers and willing to fight on their side during the First World War, oral memory in Moshi describes or seems to suggest that the Africans who joined the war were actually forced to do so.<sup>26</sup> Chapter five showed how German soldiers invaded Kilema church and forcefully conscripted the men inside into the Schutztruppe. The chapter also revealed how the Askaris fought on the front line using their poor M/71 guns, which exposed them to the high risk of death. Such collective memories suggest that military operations during the First World War in Moshi were carried out along racial lines, because, unlike the German soldiers who were equipped with better weapons and who employed defensive warfare, the African soldiers were subject to inferior war strategies and tactics using sub-standard guns, which meant that they were certainly likely to die.

To conclude, the nature of German colonial events or activities outlined in different chapters of this study shaped the nature of the memories of colonialism, which have survived down through generations of Tanzanians. In Moshi, where missionary activities were widespread, narrative memories of evangelization and of individual German missionaries dominate other memories. Likewise, in Dar es Salaam, where the legacy of German culture is concentrated, the shared cultural

Benton and Cecil, "Heritage and Public Memory", pp. 7–10.

Benton and Cecil, "Heritage and Public Memory", p. 8.

Benton and Cecil, "Heritage and Public Memory", pp. 18–19.

The point of African soldiers being loyal to the German soldiers is elaborated by Eberlie, "The German Achievement", pp. 210–211.

memories of the Germans have appeared in the form of increased public awareness of the conservation of German buildings in the face of mounting pressure to demolish them. In Songea, which is described in this study as an epitome of colonial violence, traumatic memories are manifested in commemorations, ancestor worship, the erection of war monuments and the construction of war museums.

### Archival Sources

#### A. Tanzania National Archives (Dar es Salaam-Tanzania)


#### B. The National Record Center (Dodoma-Tanzania)


#### C. National Archives (London)


#### 220 Archival Sources


#### D. The Southern Zonal Archives (Mbeya-Tanzania)


### Other Archival Materials

### A. Maji Maji Memorial Museum Office


### B. Kibosho Parish Office

1. Father Peter S. Materu's report: "Kibosho Parish Short History", 2018.

#### C. Missionakademie an der Universitӓt Hamburg


#### D. News Papers

The following newspapers were collected from East Africana section of the university of Dares es Salaam old library. A number of other newspapers (not mentioned here) were obtained from Tanzania National Archives and The National Archives of London. The online newspapers cited in this study are mentined separately.


#### E. Online Newspapers


#### F. Other Internet Materials


#### G. Speeches by Tanzanian Government Officials


### H. Hansards, Gazettes, Policy documents and Government Reports


### Oral Sources

The list below shows the names of informants, the place where the interviews were done and the dates. As a sign of appreciation, the list includes all informants who were intervied in the field, though not all are cited in this study. It has been necessary to address some of these informants (those from Moshi) as Mzee (Swahili) and Meku (Chagga), both referring to 'old man' and Mkyeku (chagga) meaning 'old woman', to differentiate them from the rest of informants who are not old enough to be addressed that way. It should be noted that some informats in Dar es Salaam were interviewed by the researcher in 2006 when doing field work for his MA (History) Degree programme. The oral accounts which were transcribed and kept by the researcher contain important information about street names in Dar es Salaam city centre.

#### List of Informants

#### Songea


#### Moshi


#### Dar es Salaam


### Bibliography

This bibliography combines books, chapters in books, journal articles, dissertations, pamphlets as well as unpublished papers.


Chami, Felix A. The Unity of African Ancient History 3000 BC to AD 500. Dar es Salaam: E&D Limited, 2006.


De Blij, Harm. J. A Study in Urban Geography: Dar es Salaam. USA: Northwestern University Press, 1963.

Davian-Smith, Kate and Hamilton, Paula. "Introduction", in Memory and History in Twentieth-century Australia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Denton, Kirk. A. Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postcolonial China (USA: University of Hawaii Press, 2014.

Dibwe dia Mwembu, Donatien. "History and Memory", in John Edward Philips', Writing African History, USA: University of Rochester Press, 2005.

Dundas, Charles. Kilimanjaro and its People: A History of the Chagga, Their Laws, Customs and Legends, together with Some Accounts of the Highest Mountain in Africa. London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1968.

Dundas, Charles. Asili na Habari za Wachaga (The Origin and History of the Chaga Tribe of Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika Territory – Swahili), translated by R.K. Watts and P. Mzaba. London: The Sheldon Press, 1932.

Danziger, Kurtz. Making the Mind: A History of Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.


Egero, Bertil. "Colonization and Migration: A Summary of Border-crossing Movements in Tanzania before 1967", The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report No. 52, 1979.

Ebrahim, G.J. "Development of Medical Services in Dar es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 173.


Ebner, Elzear. The History of the Wangoni. Peramiho: Benedictine Publications Ndanda-Peramiho, 1987. Eberlie, R.F. "The German Achievement in East Africa", TNR, No. 55, (1960), pp. 181–2014.


Furley O.W, Thomas Watson. A History of Education in East Africa. USA: NOK Publishers Ltd, 1978.


Hughes, Anthony John. East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. Great Britain: C. Nicholls & Company Ltd.


Hutchinson, J.A. "Note by H.N. Chittick", TNR, No. 61, 1963.

Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory, edited, translated and with an introduction by Lewis A. Coser. University of Chicago, Chicago: Press, 1992.

Hutton, P. "Recent Scholarship on Memory History", The History Teacher, Vol. 33, No. 4, (2000), p. 38. Henderson, W.O. Studies in German Colonial History. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 1962.


Iliffe, John. "Introduction", in Id., Modern Tanzanians: A Volume of Biographies. Dar es Salaam: East African Publishing House, 1973, pp. i–v.


Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 2005, pp. 262–270.


Kaarsholm, Preben. Violence, Political Culture and Development in Africa. Oxford: James Currey, 2006.


Listowel, Judith. The Making of Tanganyika. London: Chatto and Windus Ltd, 1965.


Mulokozi, M.M and Kitogo, S.A. "Depiction and Impact of the Maji Maji War on Oral and Written Literature", Tanzania Zamani: A Journal of Historical Research and Writing, Vol. VI, No. 2 (2009), pp. 1–25.

Mhina, J.E.F. "Education In and Around Dar es Salaam", TNR, No. 71, 1970.


Mazrui, A.A. On Heroes and Uhuru Worship: Essays on Independent Africa. London: Longmans, 1967.

Monson, M. "Relocating Maji Maji: The Politics of Alliance and Authority in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania 1870–1918", The Journal of African History, Vol. 39, No. 1, (1998), pp. 95–120.


Ndosi, N.K. Tujifunze Historia Darasa la 5. Dar es Salaam: Educational Books Publishers Ltd, 2008.


Odhiambo, E.S.E. "The Landscapes of Memory in Twentieth-Century Africa", in Gregory H. Maddox and James Giblin", In Search of Nation: Histories of Authorities and Dissidence in Tanzania. Oxford: James Currey Ltd, 2005, pp. 114–125.


Perraudin, M and Zimmerer, J (eds). German Colonialism and National Identity. London: Routlidge, 2011. Polkinghorne, D.E, "Narrative Psychology and Historical Consciousness", in Jürgen Straub (ed),


Rubesamen, H.E. Kilimandscharo: Der Berg und Landschaft. Munchen: Bertelsmann Verlage, 1985.

Rushohora, N and Kurmann, E. "Look at Majimaji! A Plea for Historical Photographs in Tanzania", African Studies, Vol. 77, No. 1, (2018), pp. 87–108.

Rothberg, M. Multidirectional Memory. California: Stanford University Press, 2009.


Romano, R.C and Raiford, L (eds). Rosa Parks Highway: The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory. Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2006.


Rodney, W. "The Political Economy of Colonial Tanganyika 1890–1930" in in Kaniki (ed), Tanzania under Colonial Rule. London: Longman Group Limited, 1980, pp. 128–163.

Read, M. "The Moral Code of the Ngoni and their Former Military State", Africa: Journal of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Vol. XI, No. 1, (1938), pp. 1–24.

Roberts, A.D. The Colonial Moment in Africa: Essays on the Movement of Minds and Materials 1900–1940. Great Britain: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1990.


Sundkler, B and Steed, C. A History of the Church in Africa. London: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Stengers, J. "British and German Imperial Rivalry: A Conclusion", in Prosser Gifford and WM. Roger Louis (eds), with the assistance of Alison Smith), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967, pp. 337–350.

Smith, William Edgett. Nyerere of Tanzania.UK: Random House, 1973.

Schneider, L. "Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Authoritarianism in Tanzania: Connects and Disconnects", Africa Studies Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, (2006), pp. 93–113.

Schmokel, W.W. Dream of Empire: German Colonialism, 1919–1945. New Haven, 1964.

Schmidt, H. "Deadly Silence Predominates in this District: The Maji Maji War and Its Aftermath in Ungoni", in James Giblin and Jamie Monson (eds) Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War. Laiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 183–220.

Sutton, J.E.G. "Dar es Salaam: A Sketch of a Hundred Years", TNR, No. 71, (1970), p. 65.

Smith, A.D. "Elites, Masses and the Re-enactment of the National Past", in Rachel Tsang and Eric Taylor Woods (eds), The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building. New York: Routledge, 2014, pp. 21–24.


Stolten, H.E, History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa. Stockholm: Nordic African Institute, 2007.


### Index

Africanist historians 11 Akidas and Jumbes 94 Aleida Assmann 9 Alexander Stevenson 30 Ali Songea Mbano 123 Ancestor worship 106, 117, 213, 218 Anniversary – of Maji Maji War 91 – of forty years of independence 96 Antiquities Act 173, 181, 203 Architectural heritage 18, 206 Arusha 19, 33–34, 158, 201 Ashira Parish 150, 152, 154 Building of, 163 Asien-Afrika Institut 19 Askari Monument 28, 30–32, 60, 199, 201, 203, 207 Askaris 24, 30, 40–41, 45–47, 48–49, 77–78, 159–161, 178, 217 Bagamoyo 33, 35, 58, 189, 190, 193, 201, 207 Bahnhof Strasse 36, 207 Bavaria 106 Benedictine missionaries 106, 194 Benjamin William Mkapa 96 Berlin Mission Building 202 Berlin 42, 68–69, 74–75, 77, 137, 150, 189–190, 202 Berliner Missionsgesellschaft 202 Betsimisaraka theory 15 Biharamulo 205

Bismarck 4–5, 30, 35–36, 189 Bremen 55–56 Bund Deutscher Frauen 38 Burundi See Rwanda

Campaign – for re-acquisition of former German colonies 42–43, 45 – for the return of Mkwawa's skull 49 – of the First World War 78 – for independence 94, 132 – against demolition of historic buildings 206 Celebration 39, 97, 128, 182 Chagga elders 166

Chagga Trust 175 Chief Meli 157, 168, 169, 170–171 Cognitivisation See Narrativisation Collective memories of Apartheid 12 See also Truth and Reconciliation Commission Colonial guilt lie 44 Colonial heroism 45, 178, 213–214 Colonial history 1, 16, 49, 98, 135, 158, 198, 201, 209–210 Colonial monuments 18, 25, 28, 30 Colonial revisionism 21, 40, 42 Colonial violence 2, 12–13, 18, 22, 129, 169, 201, 215, 217–218 Commemoration 6, 16–18, 19–21, 23, 30, 37, 40, 49–60, 85, 87–88, 102, 116–117, 123–124, 126–129, 131–132, 212–213, 215 Commonwealth War Graves 60, 57 Complaints 32, 57 Corporal punishment 152, 159, 165, 166–168, 224 Cultural heritage 3, 60, 62, 205, 212, 216–217 Cultural memories 7, 22, 108, 132, 135, 173, 178–179, 182, 205, 209, 214 Dar es Salaam War Cemetery 58–59 Daudi Mbano See Ali Songea Mbano Debate – by the mandate government over wearing of political uniforms 39

– over compensation of Maji Maji victims 130–131 Dennis Laumann 14

Department of Antiquity 204

Der Spiegel 53

Deutchostafrika Rundschau See Usambara Post

Deutsch Welle 130 Deutscher Bund 37–38

Deutscher Kolonialverein 4

Deutsches Hilfsprogramm 84

Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung 73 See also Usambara Post

Dodoma 19, 37–38, 56, 196

Dr. Eckhart see Peter Geißler

Dr. Hans Mayor See Kaiser Wilhelm

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111055619-012

Dr. Karl Juhlke See Karl Peters Duke Adolf Friedrich 42 Emil von Zeleweski 51 European Zone 191, 197 Execution 110–111, 113, 168, 170–171, 190 Exhumation 32, 58 Exteriorization of memory 64 Father Auguste Gommenginger 138 Father Chengula 123, 199 Fisherstadt 141 Flogging colony 166 Friedrich, Wilhelm 2 Functional memories 7 G. Franz see Peter Geißler George Fritze 148 German books 72 German Bridge 175 German Coffee Planters 165 German Colonial Association 4–5 German colonial sites 3, 111, 187, 188, 201, 212 German Commission of Payment 48–49 German Consul 41–42 German cultural heritage 216 German delegates 47, 68, 74–76 German house 199 German hymns 154 German imperialism 177, 211–212 German Iron Cross Medal 33 German language 152, 154 German legacies 16, 34, 209 German mission station 141, 155 German missionaries 134–135, 142, 148–149, 151, 153–154, 162, 178, 217 German monuments 175 German names 140 German nationals – returning to Tanganyika 26 – and their political activities in Tanganyika 36 – who received their evangelical training in Switzerland 136 – belonging to the Holy Ghost Fathers 139–140 German plantations 26 German Record Room 73, 83

German School Association 38 German Schule 202 German settlers 27, 37, 158, 165 German sites of memory 3, 216 German War Grants Commission 59 German War Memorials 32–33 Gesellschaft fϋr deutsche Kolonisation 156 Gordon 48–49, 67–69, 70–71, 74–76, 78 Gutmann 149–150, 152–154 Gwassa 89–91, 94, 132, 158 Hamburg Avenue 207 Hamburg 19, 28, 30, 42, 83, 207 Hamsa Ishirini 165, 166 Handeni See Bagamoyo Hanging site 102, 104, 108, 127 Hans Dominik's Monument 28 See also Justus Strandes Hans Eckart Rubesamen 2 Heritage Day Forum 206 Heroes Day 59, 126 Heroism 21–22, 24, 40, 45, 60, 99, 118, 135, 169, 177–178, 212–213, 214 Hippopotamus hide 165–166 History syllabus 90, 98–99 Holocaust 6 Horombo 174–175 Human remains 119 Imagined identities 214 Imperial Charter 5 Imperial German Postal Service 45 Imperial legacy 21 Imperial War Graves Commission 30 Imperialism 12, 177, 210, 212 Independence Day 96, 176, 183 Indian Zone 197 Iringa 33, 53, 55–56, 60

Isaria N. Kimambo 11 Itigi 76 Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete 97, 123

John Krapf 136 Juhan Koponen 1, 73, 92, 152, 192, 214 Justus Strandes 28

Kagera 126 Kaiser Wilhelm 30, 53 Kalenga 51, 56 Kariakoo 191, 197, 208 Karl Peters 5, 156 Keeper of German Records 68, 70–71 Kenya 12, 25, 43, 53–54, 65,81, 86, 95, 130, 136, 159, 169, 215 Kibasila 208 Kibo Hotel 165 Kibosho church 149 Kidete 193 Kigoma 33, 75–76, 79 Kigonsera 106 Kilema church 143, 217 Kilimanjaro 135, 139, 140, 151, 156–157, 161–162, 175, 177 Kilwa 33, 76, 83, 97–98, 187, 205 Kisimayu 168–169, 171 Kisutu 191 See also Kariakoo Kiswahili 153–154 Klaus S. Schreiner 7 Kulturmission 4 Kunduchi 185

Lawrence Gama 199 Leipzig missionaries 152, 154, 162, 193 Lettow Vorbeck 78–79, 159 Liemba 33, 37 Linda Short See Aleida Assmann Lindi 33, 76, 98 Liwale 67, 89, 103 Ludumila Isurin 6 Ludwig Schoen See W. Brandes Lushoto 34, 67, 74–76, 83, 183 Lutz Niethammer 17 See also Michael Rothberg

Machame 135–137, 162, 175–176 Madibira Mission 77 Magomeni 180 Mahenge 76, 87, 97 Maji Maji Hall See Maji Maji Primary School Maji Maji Heroes 117, 124, 129 Maji Maji Primary School 121 Maji Maji Sites 91, 132 Maji Maji Stadium 120–122

Maji Maji Street See Maji Maji Primary School Maji Maji Village See Maji Maji Primary School Maji medicine 90, 94, 103, 105–107, 112 Mamba 148, 153, 175 Maposeni 106 Marburg Archivschule 84 Marialle 158 Masasi 76, 43, 45 Matumbi 45, 94, 103 Mau Mau 12, 53–54, 85, 95, 130 Maurice Halbwachs 8, 109 Mbeya 19, 34 Mbinga 126 Meli's skull 169 Memory historians 64 Michael Rothberg 17 Mikindani See Bagamoyo Minister of Defence 130 Mkomanile Primary School 121 Mkomanile 105–106, 121 Mkwawa 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 Mkwawa's skull 52, 55, 169 Mnazi Mmoja 126, 181–182 Monument Preservation Ordinance 175, 202 Morogoro 33, 66–67, 75–76, 193, 207 Moshi war graves 175 Mozambique 67 Mputa Gama 106, 115–116, 120 Mr. Jumbe Darajani 119 Mr. Martin Haule 118–119 Mrekereke 171–172 Multi-directional approach see Relativazation of memory. Mwanza 76, 96, 166

Nama and Herero 12, 85, 129, 215 Namibia 12, 84, 129, 130, 215 Namtumbo 121, 126 Narrativisation 217 National Archives Act 82 National identity 60–62, 64, 93, 214 National Museum 123, 132–133, 202, 206 Ngoni community 87, 91, 118, 124 Ngoni elders 21, 87, 118, 123, 125, 129–130, 132 Njombe 47, 78 Nkwarungo 136–137

Nostalgia 2, 14–15, 18, 22, 134–135, 166–167, 214 Nostalgic memories 214–215 Nyerere 82, 94–96, 102, 120–121, 132, 181, 199, 207, 212 Old Moshi 33, 136, 165, 170 Omari Kinjala 103 Opposition – against erection of the Askari monument 32 – against the activities of the Keeper of German Records 70 – by Makerere College of Uganda 81 – against evangelization 138, 144 – against conservation of colonial buildings 203 – against colonial street names 206 Oriental Seminary 69 Pangani valley 156, 168 Pangani See Bagamoyo Patriotism 99, 214 Peramiho 106–107, 118 Peter Geißler 84 Pierre Nora 10 Plasticity of memory 9 Poem 93, 97–98 Prisoners of war 46, 85, 111 Pugu 189 Rebmann 135–136 Reconciliation 12–13, 213 Referendum 44, 167 Registration of Documents Ordinance 72 Relativazation of memory 16–17 Reparation 13, 41, 46, 87, 102, 105, 127, 131, 133, 213, 215 Restitution 13, 87, 102, 129, 131, 133, 169, 170, 213, 215 Richard Werbner 13 Rindi 156, 157, 138 Rombo 141–142, 175 Rongoma 174–175 See also Horombo Ruanda-Urundi 79 Rwanda 5

S.S. Goetzen 33 S.S.Adolph Woermann 39 Schutztruppe – confronting the British and Belgium forces 24 – commandos of the 67 – Africans who served the 159 – guns used by the Askaris serving the 161 – forceful conscription into the 217 Sewa Haji 203, 209 Sina 144–147, 157, 169, 172–173, 176–177 Singida 76 Songea Regional Office 102 Statue of Karl Peters See Kaiser Wilhelm Stephen Ellis 3 Street names 33, 36, 207–209 Stӓdteordnung 191 Tabora 35–36, 54, 66–68, 74–76, 79, 80, 144, 166, 193 Tanga 33–34, 36, 38–39, 59, 67, 72–75, 76, 80, 83, 141, 166, 193 TANU 94, 96, 208 Tanzania National Archives 19, 61–62, 68, 80–81, 84 The battle of Kahe 159 The Holy Ghost Fathers 138–139, 141, 145–146, 159 The League of Nations 21, 26, 206 The Manchester Guardian 44 The Military Claims Commissioner 47 The Statue of Carl Peters 30 The Treaty of Versailles 24, 51–53, 57 The University of Dar es Salaam 20, 73, 88, 90 The University of Hamburg 30 Tim Woods 12 Togo 166 Topographical memories 7, 22, 63 Tote Zone 197 Traditional ceremonies 123 Transgeneratonal war memory 87 Trauma 2, 13, 21, 87, 133, 135, 216 Traumatic memories 18, 43, 129, 131–132, 178, 213–215, 216, 218 Truth and Reconciliation Commission 12 Tukuyu 34 Tunduru 43, 121, 126

Unyamwezi 50, 136, 144 Upanga 35, 58, 197

Uru 175 Usambara Post 73 Usambara 34, 73, 165, 202 W. Brandes 68 War heroes 21, 32–33, 87–88, 102, 108, 116, 118, 120–121, 123–124, 126–128, 129, 132, 181, 212 West German Embassy 58 Wilhelmian era 2 William Cecil Bottomley 25 Wissmann monument 28, 31–32, 199, 201

Wissmann Strasse 35, 201 Wissmanntruppe 189 Zanzibar 4–5, 39, 81–82, 156, 179, 185–186–187, 190–191 Zaramo 185 Zentral Buero 66 Zentralarchiv 68 Zentralbahn 67, 182