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1 When Two Bulls Fight, the Grass Suffers When two bulls fight, the grass suffers: The impact of World War 1 in East Africa Dar-es-Salaam, 23 July 2014 Dr Anne Samson Good evening, goeie aand, goeden abend and habari za jioni. It's an honour to be talking to you about the First World War in East Africa, in a country I regard as my third home, South Africa and Britain being one and two. Before we get down to business, I would like to thank the following for organising this evening: Antony Shaw for linking people together, Tammy Clayton and her team for co-ordinating all the arrangements, Her Excellency the Acting High Commissioner for Britain, Penny Smith, His Excellency, the Ambassador for Germany, Egon Kochanke and for Belgium, Koenraad Adam. I cannot tell you what it means to me, personally, that this event is co-hosted by Britain and Germany and is taking place in East Africa. Africa is quietly leading the way. It is also fitting that there are so many ambassadors here as they are a group of unsung heroes in my opinion. The role they played during the First World War is yet to be acknowledged. So, as my Tanzanian colleagues in Moshi know me to say: Asante sana kubisa! Thank you. Fuhali wa kipigano ziumiazo ni nyasi - when two bulls fight, the grass suffers. The fact that you are here, suggests you have heard of the campaign and might have some knowledge of aspects of it. In giving my overview of the First World War here in East Africa, I hope that everyone will discover at least one aspect of the conflict they did not know before. I know I've made some discoveries in putting this talk together. I'll give a basic overview of the conflict - from the European or white perspective and then move to what this meant for East Africans. I set myself this challenge as the war is generally regarded as a colonial or white man's war and that local or black participation tends to be regarded as 'puppet'- like - both points I dispute. However, the recorded history of the war is that of the white man or woman if I include myself and a few others I know working on the theatre. There are a few sources available which give the local voice and I've drawn on these as appropriate. Otherwise, it has been through a slightly different reading of the existing Euro- centric material. It is also appropriate at this stage to deal with terminology. When I refer to African, I mean all those who were present in Africa at the time who saw themselves as African or who were born or resident in Africa. This includes black, white, Indian and Arab, people whose vested interests and attachments to the war differed, sometimes considerably to those who came in from Europe, Asia and elsewhere to participate in the struggle between the great European powers. Where possible, I prefer to refer to specific groups, acknowledging that the national identities we know today did not exist 100 years ago. Excluding the various East and Central African tribes, there were at least 23 different ethnic groups involved in the East African theatre, some living in the area and others who enlisted. I will also use the word 'native' - this is in no way done in a derogatory fashion but to keep true to the recorded documents of the day. War between the British and German empires broke out on 4 August 1914. Before British forces had even arrived in Europe, the war in Africa had begun with action in Togoland on the 6th. The war in East Africa began, here in Dar es Salaam, on 8 August when the British ship Astrea bombed the port to put the wireless station out of action. Soon after, on 15 August German troops prompted by General Paul von Lettow Vorbeck ventured into British East Africa at Taita/Taveta and were to occupy the only British territory of the First World War for 20 1 months. There is some debate over who fired the first shot. According to James Willson, author of Guerrillas of Tsavo, the Kenya Police have recorded the death of Private Mwiti Murimi on 15 August as the only soldier killed that day and fittingly attribute the first shot of the war to him. The District Commissioner of the time, Hugh La Fontein maintains the first shot was fired by a corporal of the Mtembe tribe. Whichever of the two men it was, it is certain that he fired his shot when the base at Taveta was approached by 200-300 German East Africans at 3am led by Captain Tom von Prince, otherwise known as Bwana Sakkarani (the Wild One). German officer Broeker was fatally wounded, dying the next day. After this, with the Germans occupying Taveta, things calmed down apart from the odd raid further into British East Africa to derail trains on the Uganda Railway. On 16 August, the captain of the British ship Guendolen, on Lake Nyasa, located its German counterpart, Hermann von Wissmann and called on its captain to surrender. The Governor of Nyasaland had determined on the outbreak of war that Nyasaland needed to react quickly to obtain control of Lake Nyasa from the Germans as whoever controlled the lake had the communication advantage and as Mel Page points out could take the war in any direction given the location of the Malawi. The head of the Malawi Historical Association, Janie Hampton claims this action was a turning point in the war enabling the British to achieve what they did. Personally, I don't think this was the case. The capture or destruction of the Hermann von Wissmann by the Guendolen is the story of how duty and national interests overrode friendship when the British admiral arrested his German counterpart who thought they were meeting for a whisky - he had not been notified of the state of war - quite probably because Britain controlled the communication channels. Threats of further invasions by the Germans led the British in Northern Rhodesia to ask the Belgians for support, which the latter did by sending a battalion but only to serve on the Congolese side of the border. On 17 August, 300 troops and 1,000 levies invaded German East Africa from Uganda at Buddu.1 On 22 August, the Germans raided across Lake Tanganyika into Congo at the harbour port of Albertville (Kalemie) and put the Belgian Alexandre del Commune out of action. This was followed by a German raid into Portuguese East Africa on 24 August where they attacked Maziua on the Rovuma River. Here, the Portuguese commanding officer and 12 askari were killed. Both Congo and Portuguese East Africa were ostensibly neutral at this time. Various other minor incursions and raids continued to take place on the British East African border, which I won't go into but you can read about them in Ed Paice's Tip and Run. On the ocean, too, East Africa was a feature with the SMS Konigsberg having made an early getaway from Dar es Salaam. She caused concern about her whereabouts, having given the British the slip on 30 July 1914 before heading to the Gulf of Aden where she sank the British merchant ship, the City of Winchester on 11 August - the first of the war - carrying the first crop of the year's tea harvest.2 Instead of the tea heading to Britain, it found its way to German East Africa. However, the need for coal was soon pressing and on 3 September the Konigsberg moved into the Rufiji Delta in search of a place to repair and re-coal. She was in a position to raid on 20 September when she heard that HMS Pegasus was in Zanzibar harbour. Within hours, Pegasus was sunk and Konigsberg back in the delta where she remained until she herself was sunk in October 1915, making this the longest naval battle recorded. This was also one of the first battles where the use of aeroplanes was used strategically by the British to spot the 1Ed Paice, p19fn 2http://www.divernetxtra.com/wrecks/winchester499.htm; http://www.sto-p.com/dive/Winchester.htm 2 ship and to direct fire. The Germans had done so in South West Africa. On 9 September, the Germans attacked Karonga and Kasoa in Nyasaland. This followed an enquiry from the local German administrator to his counterpart in Nyasaland about whether a state of war existed as he was aware of forces being mobilised on both sides, but his colleagues at Mbeya were not responding to his requests for information. On hearing that a state of war existed, he wrote to the British administrator advising him to remove women and children from the town as he could not safeguard them when the town was attacked. Peter Charlton covers the events in Nyasaland in his Cinderella's Soldiers: the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve whilst Mel Page gives a wider overview particularly from the black perspective in The Chiwaya war. On 10 September 1914, the British Government received a request from Germany via the American Ambassador to declare the area neutral. Following some discussion with its Belgian ally, it was decided, two months later, to decline the request given all the actions which had already taken place. During the first weeks of war, discussions in London determined that an Indian Expeditionary Force would be sent to British East Africa to help defend the protectorate whilst another would invade German East Africa from Tanga. The former, Indian Expeditionary Force 'C' landed at Mombasa on 1 September whilst Indian Expeditionary Force 'B' arrived at Tanga on 3 November to disembark straight into battle, after the Germans had been given 24 hours' notice ending the unratified truce which was in place.
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