DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit “Development Concepts of Peasants, Poets and Dancers in German East Africa ca. 1870 – 1918” Verfasser Eric Burton angestrebter akademischer Grad Magister (Mag.) Wien, 2013 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 057 390 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Internationale Entwicklung Betreuer: Mag. Dr. Gerald Faschingeder Kwa Atu Für meine Familie Table of contents Index of tables and maps ______________________________________________________________ 8 Acknowledgements ___________________________________________________________________ 9 On terminology _____________________________________________________________________ 11 1. INTRODUCTION: APPROACHING DEVELOPMENT CONEPTS IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA _________________________________________________________________________ 15 1.1 Histories of German East Africa: Methodological problems _______________________________ 17 1.1.1 Statist historiography ____________________________________________________________________ 17 1.1.2 Metropolist accounts ____________________________________________________________________ 19 1.1.3 Localist historiography ___________________________________________________________________ 20 1.1.4 A multitude of voices ____________________________________________________________________ 23 1.2 Sources: Colonial archives, oral history and poems ______________________________________ 24 1.2.1 Colonial records and missionary records _____________________________________________________ 25 1.2.2 Oral information ________________________________________________________________________ 27 1.2.3 Poems as historical sources _______________________________________________________________ 32 1.2.4 Where to find development concepts? ______________________________________________________ 34 1.3 Development concepts and indigenous systems of thought _______________________________ 35 1.3.1 Development concepts ___________________________________________________________________ 35 1.3.2 Development concepts as present in ethnic thought, poems and social practices ____________________ 41 1.3.3 Development concepts in their historical context – Colonial presence and violence __________________ 42 1.3.4 A critique of traditional thought and practices ________________________________________________ 43 1.3.5 Development and African concepts of time __________________________________________________ 45 1.3.6 Actors and innovators of systems of thought – Peasants, poets and dancers ________________________ 47 1.4 The debate and the argument – indigenous development concepts in German East Africa ______ 48 2. SHAMBAA CONCEPTS OF HEALING AND HARMING THE LAND ____________ 53 2.1 Sources _________________________________________________________________________ 54 2.2 The sociocultural and historical context: Shambaa identity and history _____________________ 54 2.3 Descriptive development concepts: Healing and harming the land _________________________ 55 2.3.1 Power struggle and social well-being ________________________________________________________ 56 2.3.2 Shambaa history in the framework of “healing the land” and “harming the land” ____________________ 58 2.4 Normative concepts of development: Differences between social groups ____________________ 65 2.4.1 Mountain-dwellers and inhabitants of the plains ______________________________________________ 65 2.4.2 Royal Kilindi, Shambaa commoners and the quest for wealth ____________________________________ 68 2.4.3 Gender and age : Assigned roles in the political framework ______________________________________ 71 2.5 Prescriptive concepts of development: Strategies to achieve a state of land healed ____________ 73 2.5.1 Calling upon the chief's responsibility _______________________________________________________ 73 2.5.2 Alternative ways to heal the land___________________________________________________________ 74 2.5.3 Healing the land in contrast to later development terminology ___________________________________ 76 2.6 Conclusion : The inadequacies and transformations of Shambaa concepts of development _____ 76 3. CIVILIZED URBAN LIFE: DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS OF SWAHILI POETS 79 3.1 The development of historiographical poetry on the Swahili coast: tenzi and mashairi _________ 80 3.2 The poets _______________________________________________________________________ 81 3.3 Towns, benevolent rule and justice: Descriptive development concepts of Swahili poets ______ 83 3.3.1 The ruler's towns _______________________________________________________________________ 84 3.3.2 Benevolent and harmful rule ______________________________________________________________ 91 3.3.3 Justice and discipline in German colonial times _______________________________________________ 94 3.4 Coastal superiority and subjection __________________________________________________ 101 3.4.1 Mshenzi: The infidel Other from the inland__________________________________________________ 102 3.4.2 “No more respect for the coastal people”: The re-negotiation of Swahili cultural superiority __________ 105 3.5 Prescriptions: Calling for divine intervention, calming the towns and avoiding trouble ________ 113 3.6 Hemedi bin Abdallah's A History of Africa: Twenty-six developments in German East Africa ____ 115 3.7 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________ 121 4. DANCING MODERNITY: THE BENI NGOMA DANCE ASSOCIATIONS ______ 123 4.1 Dance on record _________________________________________________________________ 124 4.2 The sociocultural roots of beni ngoma: The chama _____________________________________ 125 4.3 Beni ngoma: An African modernity _________________________________________________ 127 4.3.1 The reflection and creation of modernity ___________________________________________________ 128 4.3.2 Beni in contrast to “tribal” dances _________________________________________________________ 129 4.3.3 The embracement of literacy and bureaucracy _______________________________________________ 131 4.3.4 Movements, music and costumes : Uniformity and discipline ___________________________________ 133 4.3.5 Social functions and transformations: Spending, prestige and mutual aid _________________________ 135 4.4 Modern identity and factionalism as obstacle to development ___________________________ 138 4.5 Organisation, expansion and reconciliation of social fissures _____________________________ 142 4.6 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________ 145 5. MIGRATING PEASANTS FROM UBENA: THE MORAL IMPERATIVES FOR WEALTH _____________________________________________________________________________ 147 5.1 The historical context: Group interactions and colonial taxation __________________________ 148 5.2 Sources ________________________________________________________________________ 149 5.3 Perspectives on history and the forging of alliances in Ubena ____________________________ 149 5.3.1 An era of war _________________________________________________________________________ 150 5.3.2 Patterns of conflict and migration in oral sources _____________________________________________ 151 5.3.3 Alliance-building and expectations of military reciprocity ______________________________________ 152 5.4 The push-factors and local appropriation of labour migration ____________________________ 153 Local conceptions of migrant labour: Travelling and bringing home wealth _____________________________ 154 5.5 Developmental differences and moral imperatives in gaining wealth ______________________ 156 5.5.1 Accomplishment, failure and moral imperatives in praise-names ________________________________ 157 5.5.2 Missionaries and other Europeans: Intruders without Knees ____________________________________ 160 5.6 Prescriptions ___________________________________________________________________ 161 5.7 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________ 163 6. CONCLUSION: THE DECOLONISATION OF DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS __ 165 6.1 Descriptive concepts of development: Social change in individual and folk thought ___________ 167 6.2 Normative concepts of development: Differences between societies, groups and individuals ___ 169 6.3 Prescriptive concepts of development: Towards a better society __________________________ 170 6.4 Time, teleology and universality in development concepts in German East Africa ____________ 173 6.5 Open questions and points of entry for further research ________________________________ 174 Annex ________________________________________________________________________________ 177 Glossary __________________________________________________________________________ 179 Sources cited ______________________________________________________________________ 181 Abstract (English) ___________________________________________________________________ 195 Abstract (German) __________________________________________________________________ 196 Curriculum Vitae ___________________________________________________________________ 199 Index of tables and maps Figure 1. Map “German East Africa in 1912”. .................................................................................. 12 Figure 2. The relationship between the Shambaa and Mbegha ......................................................... 66 Figure 3. Comparison of Mbegha's character traits in Zigua and Shambaai ..................................... 67 Figure 4. Abstract ideals of a town as represented in two poems ...................................................... 86 Acknowledgements