Relocating Maji Maji: The politics of alliance and authority in the southern highlands of Tanzania, 1870-1918

Journal of African History

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 95-120

  Monson, Jamie ^a  

^a CARLETON COLLEGE   (United States)

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EID: 0040082767     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853797007123     Document Type: Review

References (187)

1. I would like to thank Steven Davis, James Giblin, Sheryl McCurdy, Gregory Maddox, Thaddeus Sunseri and Thomas Spear for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.
2. Conversation with Anton Michael, Morogoro town, July 1995.
3. Interviews with Daudi Kalimbwana Mkotte, Taweta, 5 and 7 Nov. 1989; Tupulike Kyelula, Tanganyika Masagati, 6 Nov. 1989; Anton Kimamule, Tanganyika Masagati, 6 Nov. 1989. James Giblin found similar responses during interviews he conducted in Njombe in 1992 and 1994, which connected Maji Maji to population dispersals. James Giblin, personal communication.
4. John Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika (Cambridge, 1979), 168.
5. The peasant grievances are detailed in the papers of the Maji Maji Research Project (hereafter MMRP) carried out under the direction of John Iliffe and Gilbert Gwassa, and synthesized in the pamphlet The Records of the Maji Maji, Part One, (Nairobi, 1968).
6. An interpretation that emphasizes class consciousness is found in A. Temu and B. Swai, Historians and Africanist History (London, 1981), 31-32;
7. the millenarian approach has been examined in a comparative volume by Michael Adas, Prophets of Rebellion (Cambridge, 1987).
8. Steven Knapp, 'Collective memory and the actual past', Representations, XXVI (1989), 123-49.
9. The main sources are John Iliffe, 'The organization of the Maji Maji rebellion', Journal of African History, VIII (1967), 495-512;
10. and ch. 6 in Iliffe, A Modern History, 168-202.
11. Gilbert Gwassa's most important published contributions are 'The German intervention and African resistance in Tanzania', in I. Kimambo and A. Temu (eds.), A History of Tanzania (Nairobi, 1969), 85-122;
12. 'Kinjikitile and the ideology of Maji Maji', in T. O. Ranger and I. Kimambo (eds.), The Historical Study of African Religion (London, 1971), 202-18;
13. and 'African methods of warfare during the Maji Maji war, 1905-1907', in B. A. Ogot (ed.), War and Society in Africa (London, 1972), 123-48.
14. The unpublished records are mimeographed and bound as Maji Maji Research Project, 1968: Collected Papers (Dar es Salaam, 1969).
15. The two published pamphlets from the MMRP interviews are Gwassa and Iliffe, Records,
16. and O. B. Mapunda and G. P. Mpangara, The Maji Maji War in Ungoni (Nairobi, 1969).
17. This view was connected to the African initiative approach of the University of Dar es Salaam in the 1960s, and consistent with nationalist historiography throughout the continent in the post-independence period. For a discussion of the Dar es Salaam school, see T. O. Ranger, 'The recovery of African initiative in Tanzanian history', Inaugural Lecture Series no. 2 (Dar es Salaam, 1969).
18. A critique by Donald Denoon and Adam Kuper followed, 'The new historiography in Dar es Salaam', Afr. Affairs, LXIX (1970), 329-49;
19. with a response from Ranger, 'The new historiography in Dar es Salaam: an answer', Afr. Affairs LXX (1971), 50-61.
20. Arnold Temu and Bonaventure Swai questioned the teleology of this approach to Maji Maji in Historians, 31: 'The destination of African history - in the view of postcolonial African historiography - has been reduced to the establishment of the postcolonial state'.
21. Gwassa, 'The German intervention', 121.
22. Marcia Wright, 'Maji Maji: prophecy and historiography', in D. Anderson and D. Johnson (eds.), Revealing Prophets (London, 1995), 124-42;
23. Otto Stollowsky, 'Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte des Aufstandes in Deutsch-Ostafrika im Jahre 1905/06', Die Deutschen Kolonien, XI (1912).
24. A translation of this article was published by John East, 'On the background to the rebellion in German East Africa in 1905-1906', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXI (1988), 677-96.
25. Wright also refers to Lorne Larson's thesis, 'A history of the Mahenge (Ulanga) district, c. 1860-1957', (Ph.D. thesis, University of Dar es Salaam, 1976).
26. Thaddeus Sunseri, 'Famine and wild pigs: gender struggles and the outbreak of the Maji Maji War in Uzaramo (Tanzania)', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVIII (1997), 235-59.
27. Patrick Redmond, 'Maji Maji in Ungoni: a reappraisal of existing historiography', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, VIII (1975), 407-24.
28. Seth Nyagava, 'A history of the Bena to 1908', (Ph.D. thesis, University of Dar es Salaam, 1988);
29. James Giblin, pers. comm., referring to narratives that will form the basis of a forthcoming book on the history of Njombe district.
30. Iliffe, 'The organization', 496.
31. Ibid.
32. Larson concurs with this view, writing, 'A major weakness of Tanzanian resistance historiography is that it takes the German invasion as a base point, without perceiving that the European conquest was often only the last of a series of disrupting military incursions'. Larson, 'A history', 36.
33. Edgar Winans, 'The political context of economic adaptation in the Southern Highlands of Tanganyika', American Anthropologist, LXVII (1965), 434-38. Interviews with Munyigumba Kalimang'asi, Utengule, 4 Sept. 1989; Anton Kimamule, Taweta, 6 Nov. 1989; Daudi Kalimbwana Mkotte, Taweta, 5 and 7 Nov. 1989; Tupulike Kyelula, Tanganyika Masagati, 6 Nov. 1989.
34. Interview with John Mdemu, Lugoda, Apr. 1989; Marcia Wright, German Missions in Tanganyika, 1891-1941 (Oxford, 1971), 49.
35. Mndzagila (sg.) and vandzagila (pl.) are terms from the Bena-Hehe-Sangu complex and are used here generally to refer to the political administrators of outlying provinces. Terminology for Ungoni was different and will be noted.
36. Nyagava, 'A history', 246-49;
37. MMRP 4/68/1/1, J. M. Makwetta, 'Maji Maji in Ubena';
38. MMRP 3/68/1/1, M. S. Ndikwege, 'Chief Merere and the Maji Maji uprising'.
39. E. Spies, 'Observations on utani customs among the Ngoni of Songea district', Tanganyika Notes and Records, XVI (1943), 49-53.
40. Charles Ambler describes late nineteenth century alliances between coastal traders and local brokers in central Kenya. These alliances were cemented with blood brotherhood rituals. Charles Ambler, Kenyan Communities in the Age of Imperialism (New Haven, 1988), 102.
41. James Giblin also details alliances between traders and chiefs in Uzigua in The Politics of Environmental Control in Northeastern Tanzania, 1840-1940 (Pennsylvania, 1992), 57-9.
42. Alison Redmayne, 'The Hehe', in Andrew Roberts (ed.), Tanzania Before 1900 (Nairobi, 1968), 41-4;
43. Ernst Nigmann, 'Tribal history and legends, Hehe tribe', undated ms, inserted in Iringa District Books by L. P. R. Leslie-Cooke in 1929, 1-14;
44. Freiherr von Schele, 'Uhehe', Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten II, (1896), 71.
45. Interview with Mteleleka Mtengela, Ngalimila, 3 Oct. 1989.
46. Mahenge Diocese Archive (hereafter MD) 2/1, Kiberege-Ifakara Mission. Oral materials were collected by P. Xavier Luchsinger, 8 Dec. 1945. There are no specific dates in this document but these events correlate with the period of Bena expansion in the Kilombero valley around the 1870s.
47. Edgar Winans writes that she was blinded by Merere in retribution for a defeat by Mkwawa's forces, 'Trade and warfare in Uhehe in the period 1850-1900', unpublished ms., Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Nairobi, n.d., 197;
48. Fülleborn recounts a different narrative in which a daughter of Munyigumba was given to Merere as a wife in about 1870. She was blinded by smallpox and returned to Uhehe 'with derision' five or six years later, prompting Munyigumba to attack Merere. Friedrich Fülleborn, Das Deutsche Njassa und Ruvuma Gebiet, Land und Leute (Berlin, 1906), 207.
49. See also Redmayne, 'The Hehe', 43.
50. Nyagava, 'A history', 114-16;
51. Iliffe, A Modern History, 109-13.
52. James Giblin, pers. comm.
53. Wilhelm Arning, 'Die Wahehe', Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten IX (1897), 233.
54. Joseph Thomson, To the Central African Lakes and Back, Vol. 1 (London, 1881), 243-4.
55. See also Redmayne, 'The Hehe', 46.
56. J. F. Elton and H. B. Cotterill, Travels and Researches among the Lakes and Mountains of Eastern and Central Africa (London, 1879), 345.
57. These alliances are described in F. D. Lugard, The Rise of our East African Empire (London, 1893), 49-57.
58. See also Wright, German Missions, 38-9, for the broader context.
59. Some of Pfeil's porters were so worried about Hehe attacks that they returned to the coast, where they attempted to conceal their desertion by telling the story that Pfeil had been killed in a Hehe attack. Joachim Graf von Pfeil, Zur Erwerbung von Deutsch-Ostafrika (Berlin, 1907), 170.
60. Graf von Pfeil was very concerned about the reputed aggression of the Hehe, and his writings about this region contributed to Germany's obsession with Mkwawa: Alison Redmayne, 'Mkwawa and the Hehe wars', J. Afri. Hist., IX (1968), 409-36.
61. Graf von Pfeil, Zur Erwerbung, 170.
62. Graf von Pfeil, Zur Erwerbung, Ibid. 174.
63. The wearing of an ivory bracelet by Sangu chiefs was described by Richard Burton in 1857: 'Mui'Gumbi wore a profusion of beads, many of them antiquated in form and colour, and now unknown in the market of Zanzibar: above his left elbow he had a lumpy bracelet of ivory, a decoration appropriated to chieftains'. Richard Burton, The Lake Regions of Central Africa (New York, 1860), 271.
64. Graf von Pfeil, Zur Erwerbung, 175.
65. Graf von Pfeil, Zur Erwerbung, Ibid. 174.
66. Joachim Graf von Pfeil, 'Die Erforschung des Ulanga-Gebietes', Petermann's geographische Mitteilungen, XXXII (1886), 353-63.
67. A. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit am Nyassa, Deutsch-Ostafrika (Berlin, 1894), 168-70.
68. Nyagava, 'A history', 194.
69. Ibid.
70. Wright, German Missions, 70.
71. Paul Gröschel, Zehn Jahre christlicher Kulturarbeit in Deutsch-Ostafrika (Berlin, 1911), 22-3;
72. Wright, German Missions, 71.
73. Gröschel, Zehn Jahre, 23-4.
74. Bunk had already intervened several times on behalf of the German administration, assisting the Iringa military station in rounding up and disarming allies of Mkwawa in the late 1890s, including both Hehe and Bena vandzagila. Nyagava, 'A history', 194;
75. Berlin Mission Archives (hereafter BMA), Synode Hehe, Berichte, III und IV Quartal, 'Tagebuch von Br. Christoph Bunk', July-Dec., 1898, 15-16.
76. Gröschel, Zehn Jahre, 25;
77. Per Hassing, 'German missionaries and the Maji Maji rising', African Historical Studies, III (1970), 376.
78. Nyagava, 'A history', 245.
79. Nyagava, 'A history', Ibid. 246;
80. Gröschel attributes Mbeyela's decision to rebel to his alliance with the Ngoni, but he allows that there were many old grievances that he did not fully understand. Gröschel, Zehn Jahre, 141-8.
81. Hassing, 'German missionaries', 375.
82. F. Büttner, Der Aufstand in Deutsch-Ostafrika und seine Folgen (Berlin, 1911),
83. cited in Karl Axenfeld, Küste und Inland (Berlin, 1912), 14.
84. Hassing, 'German missionaries', 375, 387.
85. Lorne Larson also develops this argument: Larson, 'A history', 67.
86. Heinrich Fonck, Deutsch-Ost-Afrika (Berlin, 1910), 227-9.
87. Kunibert Lussy describes a martial procession that was undertaken in the early 1890s, during which chiefs of Upala, Matanga and Mlolere were presented with flags of German protection. Kunibert Lussy, 'Die Wapogoro', unpublished ms in possession of Father Anastas Brantschen, Jangwani Friary, Ifakara.
88. A shortened version was later published in Anthropos, XLVI (1951), 431-41.
89. Larson, 'A history', 67.
90. Ibid.
91. MMRP 9/68/1/3/13, John Mlolere, 'Asili ya Akina Mlolere'.
92. Larson, 'A history', 91.
93. In this section I deal narrowly with the politics of paternalism in the region of the Wangemannshöh mission station in Rungwe. There are many more examples of the complexity of missionary intervention in the politics of this region in Wright, German Missions, ch. 3. I follow Wright's use of the regional term Rungwe for the areas north of Lake Nyasa that Merensky termed 'Kondeland'.
94. Wright, German Missions, 54.
95. See also Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, 212, 221.
96. Wright, German Missions, 47: 'Merensky counted on his patriarchal appearance to engender respect ... Merensky was quite prepared to exploit superstition about his powers and to become the court of appeal to the whole area'.
97. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, 203.
98. Ibid.
99. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, Ibid. 199. Merensky reprimanded Mwakatungile for taking advantage of a neighbor's weakness and stealing his cattle in 1893. Mwakatungile later returned the cattle.
100. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, Ibid. 216.
101. Wright, German Missions, 53-4.
102. See also Simon Charsley, The Princes of Nyakyusa (Nairobi, 1969), 5-16.
103. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, 248.
104. And also on the terms of the German government. Merensky had requested forty flags and treaty forms from the German authorities so that he could implement German administration during the settlement of the mission stations in the region north and east of Lake Nyasa. Wright, German Missions, 56, citing Tanzania National Archives (hereafter TNA) 9/A/6, Merensky to von Soden. See also Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, 210, 255.
105. Merensky, Deutsche Arbeit, 168-70;
106. Wright, German Missions, 49-50.
107. Lussy, 'Die Wapogoro', 14.
108. Lussy's account was based on interviews he conducted in Mahenge district. Lorne Larson confirmed this version of the case using German maps from contemporary expeditions. Larson, 'A history', 62.
109. This concept has been well developed in the literature by now and is certainly not new; indeed Marcia Wright wrote in the 1960s that the fluidity and diminishing importance of ethnic frontiers in the late 1800s called into question the prevailing view of Maji Maji politics. Wright, German Missions, 33;
110. see also Richard Waller and Thomas Spear (eds.), Being Maasai (London, 1993);
111. Leroy Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, 1989).
112. P. H. Gulliver, Neighbors and Networks (Berkeley, 1971), 28.
113. A. T. and G. M. Culwick, Ubena of the Rivers (London, 1935), 184;
114. Jamie Monson, 'Agricultural transformation in the inner Kilombero valley of Tanzania, 1840-1940' (Ph.D. thesis, University of California-Los Angeles, 1991), 293-300;
115. Giblin has shown how shifting ethnicity in Uzigua also affected matambiko practices: Giblin, The Politics, 117-20.
116. Marcia Wright, drawing here again on the work of Lorne Larson, writes that peripheries and borderlands were most likely to be the location where 'friction and rebelliousness came together during Maji Maji'. Wright, 'Maji Maji', 134.
117. The instability of Mbeyela's hold on a cohesive following may be one reason why he was so keen on seeking war medicines during this period; see Makwetta, 'Maji Maji in Ubena'.
118. Culwick, Ubena of the Rivers, 139.
119. In Giblin's work on the politics of patronage in Uzigua, he makes similar arguments about the tensions between patrons and clients, and the way clients were able to make demands on patrons: Giblin, The Politics, ch. 5.
120. Nyagava, 'A history', 145.
121. TNA G/1, 'Bericht über die Bezirksbereisung vom 17 November bis 18 Dezember, 1903', Gideon von Grawert, Mahenge, 18 Apr. 1904, 202-9.
122. Larson, 'A history', 37.
123. Larson, 'A history', Ibid. 127
124. Iliffe, A Modern History, 178.
125. Redmond, The Politics of Power in Songea Ngoni Society, 1860-1962 (Chicago, 1985), 102-5;
126. see also Cassian Spiss, 'Kingoni and Kisutu', Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, 1904.
127. Mapunda and Mpangara, 'The Maji Maji war', 10;
128. Redmond, Politics of Power, ch. 4.
129. German sources that are used to support these arguments by Redmond must be used with caution. This is because the Germans wanted to portray themselves as righting the wrongs of oppressive tribal despots by championing the rights of the conquered groups/underclasses. The point here is to demonstrate diversity of experience, not to justify German actions.
130. Nduna Songea Mbano, who was recognized by the Germans as the paramount of Ungoni, was himself the sutu son of war captives who had been assimilated into Ngoni society. Mapunda and Mpangara, 'The Maji Maji war', 10.
131. Redmond quotes one informant as saying, 'We the Wahamba [Wandendeuli] somehow appreciated a number of the German rules because they directly opposed the Ngoni rules, especially of using us as unpaid servants'. Redmond, 'Maji Maji', 416.
132. Both Marcia Wright and Lorne Larson have noted the significance of German intervention in the rubber trade for understanding the grievances of the Maji Maji period. Wright, 'Maji Maji';
133. Wright, 'Towards an appraisal of the place of rubber in Tanzanian history: the German period', (unpublished Ms, n.d.);
134. Larson, 'A history'.
135. See also Jamie Monson, 'From commerce to colonization: a history of the rubber trade in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania, 1890-1914', African Economic History, XXI (1993), 113-30.
136. Redmond, 'Maji Maji', 418-9.
137. Redmond, 'Maji Maji', Ibid. 407-8.
138. Redmond, 'Maji Maji', Ibid. 421.
139. MMRP 4/68/3/1, S. N. M. Kilimanga, 'The Maji Maji rising at Ilembula'.
140. MMRP 4/68/4/1, J. M. Nyarusi, 'The Maji Maji rising in Kidugala'.
141. Nyagava, 'A history', 139-40.
142. Nyagava, 'A history', Ibid. 136-37.
143. TNA Njombe District Books, 'Laws, manners and customs: Wabena tribe', translation of German pamphlet, c. 1905, p. 21.
144. There is a growing body of research on women's experience of clientship, pawnage and slavery in nineteenth-century Tanzania. Marcia Wright's extensive work on southwestern Tanzania and the corridor region includes her most recent book, Strategies of Slaves and Women (New York, 1993) which brings together life histories and commentary.
145. Sunseri, 'Famine and wild pigs'.
146. MD 1/2, Chronik of Kwiro, July/Aug. 1909, report of Father Prior from a visit to Sofi. Also Culwick, Ubena of the Rivers, 139-40.
147. This is a primary reason cited for resistance among women in Uzaramo discussed in Sunseri's treatment of Maji Maji. Sunseri, 'Famine and wild pigs'.
148. Monson, 'From commerce to colonization', 116-7.
149. Giblin, Ecology Control;
150. Sunseri, 'Famine and wild pigs';
151. Gregory Maddox, 'Gender and famine in central Tanzania: 1916-1961', African Studies Review, XXXIX (1996), 83-101.
152. Monson, 'Agricultural transformation', 70-2.
153. Kompagniefuhrer von Elpons, 'Uhehe', Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, IX (1898), 75-80.
154. Interviews with Daudi Kalimbwana Mkotte, Taweta, 7 Nov. 1989; Timothy Bilali, Mafinga, 21 June 1989.
155. Ebner, The history, 176.
156. Ebner, The history, Ibid. 125
157. G. Lieder, 'Beobachtungen auf der Ubena-Nyasa Expedition', Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, VII (1894), 271-7.
158. Iliffe, A Modern History, 117.
159. See Aylward Shorter, Nyungu-ya-Mawe (Nairobi, 1969), 13-14.
160. Giblin, The Politics, 113.
161. Wright, German Missions, 57.
162. Quotation from the Kwiro Chronicle cited from Lorne Larson, 'A history', 101.
163. Nyagava, 'A history', 230, citing Gröschel diaries.
164. MMRP 3/68/1/1, Pascal T. V. N. Mhongole, 'The Hehe and the Maji Maji rebellion';
165. Von Götzen, Deutsch Ostafrika, 106-7;
166. Nyagava, 'A history', 252.
167. Nyagava, 'A history', 268.
168. Nyagava, 'A history', Ibid. 238.
169. Nyagava believes that the post-Maji Maji distribution of women and livestock led to an increase in class divisions in Sangu society. Nyagava, 'A history', Ibid. 280.
170. MMRP 3/68/1/3/9, Interview with Kwadalamu Mwachula, conducted by Carlo Ngalalekumtwa, Dar es Salaam, 1968.
171. MMRP 3/28/21, Carlo Ngalalekumtwa, 'Maji Maji in Uzungwa', Dar es Salaam, 1968.
172. Mkeli Mbosa, 'Colonial production and underdevelopment in Ulanga district, 1894-1950', (M.A. thesis, University of Dar es Salaam, 1988), 89-90.
173. Interview with Salyuti Wapalila, conducted by Helen Lihawa and Oistack Mwalongo, Igombola, 12 May 1989.
174. Interview with Mzee Ngelangela, Mpanga, 10 Nov. 1989.
175. Von Götzen, Deutsch Ostafrika, 149.
176. Von Götzen, Deutsch Ostafrika, Ibid. 149.
177. Von Götzen, Deutsch Ostafrika, Ibid. 175.
178. Interviews with Daudi Kalimbwana Mkotte, Taweta, 7 Nov. 1989; and Mzee Ngelangela, Mpanga, 10 Nov. 1989.
179. BMA Synode Hehe, Abteilung IV, Fach I, No. 9, Band IV, 1902-6. Letter to Superintendent Schumann at Lupembe from Rheinhold Schneider, 12 Jan. 1907.
180. TNA G7/100, Schiffbarkeit des Rufiji, Heinrich Fonck, 'Bericht über den allgemeinen Verlauf meiner Expedition in die Ulangaebene', 131.
181. MD 4/4, Sangi Mission, 'Brief des P. Theodosius Schall aus Nandlstadt, Missionar in Kwiro', 9 Mar. 1910.
182. Per Hassing, 'German missionaries', 380.
183. Redmond, 'Maji Maji', 424.
184. James Giblin, pers. comm. Interviews were with elders of Igominyi (9 July 1994), Mdzengwa (26 June 1992) and others.
185. BMA, Synode Hehe, Abt. 4, Fach 1. Report by Otto Maass, 20 Mar. 1914, p. 36.
186. James Giblin, pers. comm.
187. See also James Graham, 'Changing patterns of wage labor in Tanzania: a history of the relations between African labor and European capitalism in Njombe district, 1931-1961' (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1968).