GERMAN RULE IN NORTH-EAST TANZANIA, 1885 - 1914 A th esis presented by Gabriel Ogunniyi Ekemode for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Faculty of Arts of the University of London September 1973 School of O riental and African Studies University of London London, W.C.l. ProQuest Number: 11015630 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11015630 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract: German Rule in North-East Tanzania, 1885-1914 This is a study of German conquest, occupation and administration in the Fangani valley region of mainland Tanzania, which was the most important area of German settlement and economic enterprise in the former German East African protectorate. Its emphasis is mainly on the local evolution of German administrative and economic policies and methods. It examines the close connexion between the pre-colonial social and political situation in this region and the immediate reactions of its African peoples to the German intervention. It also studies 'how these reactions have shaped German policies. It has been established, for example, that the decisive factor in the assumption of direct responsibility by the Imperial Government for the administration of German East Africa in January 1891 was the in a b ility of the German East A frican Company to govern on account of the opposition of the African peoples to the German intervention. Similarly, it was the shock of German m ilita ry d efeat a t the hands of Moshi w arrio rs in June 1892 th a t compelled the German authorities in Berlin and in Dar es Salaam to abandon their experiment in civil administration in Kilimanjaro in favour of vigorous military rule throughout the north-east. The abolition of m ilitary rule in Usambara and Southern Pare in 1895 and its continuation in Uchagga and north-Pare section of the Moshi district till 1906, and in its Arusha sub-district until 1912, were also dictated primarily by local political conditions. In like manner, the virtual transformation of the north-east into a region of white settlement by 1912, even in spite of the pro-African policies 3 of Dernburg and Rechenberg between 1907 and 1912, was as a r e s u lt of the growth of German economic enterprise in this region and the consequent increase in the population and power of its European settler communities. 4 CONTENTS Page Preface 6 The Pre-Colonial Background 9 The Scramble for the Pangani Valley Region, 1885-1890. 24 The German Occupation of the Pangani Valley Region 1885-1891. 58 The P o litic s of S urvival: The Evolution of German Administrative Policy, 1891-1901. 107 Economic and Social Development during the period of Pacification, 1891-1901. 183 White Settlement and the Native Question, 239 1901-1906. Reform and Reaction, 1906-1914. 277 Bibliography. 3 3 1 Maps. 341 PREFACE This is an attempt at foraging in the rich but largely untouched field of German local administration in Tanzania. For, with the possible exception of Ralph Austen's rather limited treatment of German local administration in north-west Tanzania in his North-western Tanzania under German and B ritish Rule, New Haven and London, 1968, no serious study of the subject has yet been under­ taken either at the regional or the territorial level. Since the publication of F.F. Mtiller's pioneer study of the German acquisition of a protectorate in East Africa in Deutschland - Zanzibar - Ostafrika, Berlin, 1959, scholars interested in the history of the German period in Tanzania have understandably concentrated on the problems of European settlement and economic exploitation. This is what John Iliffe has done in Tanganyika under German Rule, 1907-1912, Detlef Bald in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1900 - 1914, Mlinchen 1970, and Rainer Tetzlaff in Koloniale Entwicklung und Ausbeutung; Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte Deutsch-Ostafrikas 1885 - 1914, Berlin 1970. Although quite a lot is now known about the pre-colonial history of the peoples of north-east Tanzania from the researches of Kathleen Stahl in her History of the Chagga Peoples of Kilimanjaro, London, 1964, of Isaria N. Kimambo in his Political History of the Pare of Tanzania, Nairobi 1969, and of Steven Feierman in 'The Shambala Kingdom: a history' Ph.D. thesis, North-Western University, 1970, very little is yet known about the early colonial period. This study is, therefore, aimed not only at emphasizing the link between 6 the pre-colonial and early colonial periods, but also at breaking the hitherto unhelpful tendency towards the compartmentalization of researches into the two periods* By concentrating on the develop­ ment of the German administration and the growth of German economic enterprise in the European settler-controlled highland districts of north-east Tanzania, this study hopes to stimulate similar re­ researches in other regions of the country, so that a general picture of German local administration on the territorial level can be ob­ tained* I would like to seize this opportunity to express my gratitude to all those, in Europe and Africa, who have assisted me in the different stages of my research* I am particularly grateful to the authorities of the following institutions for permission to work in their archives: the Public Records Office, London; the Church Missionary Society, London; the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London; the Congregation du Saint-Esprit, Paris; the Deutsches Zentralarchiv; Potsdam; and the Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam* My special thanks go to Dr* Enders of Potsdam and to my former teach er, P rofessor Dr* W alter Markotf of Karl Marx U n iv ersity , Leipzig, for their assistance in providing me with microfilms of German Reichskolonialamt documents relevant to my research* I must thank the University of Ife, Nigeria and particularly its Vice-Chancellor, Professor H* A* Oluwasanmi, for the generous research and travel grants made available to me during the period of my study* I am also grateful to the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and its Department of History, for the opportunity given me to work in the Tanzanian National Archives as a Research Associate of the University* 7 My thanks also go to Dr. John Iliffe, formerly of Dar es Salaam, but now of St. John's College, Cambridge for suggesting to me the need to undertake a general study of German dealings with the African peoples of Tanzania during the early colonial period. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Professor Roland Oliver, for the interest he has shown in my work and for his guidance and helpful criticisms. Although I have benefited quite considerably from his many valuable suggestions, I wish to emphasize that the views expressed in this thesis are wholly mine. 8 Chapter I The Pre-C olonial Background To understand the rationale for the diverse forms of African response to the imposition of German rule in the north-east of what is now mainland Tanzania towards the end of the 19th century, an investigation of the social, economic and political situation among its various ethnic communities on the eve of the German intervention is imperative* For the second half of the 19th century was a period of revolutionary social change and of political conflicts in this region, as in most of the interior of East Africa* This revolutionary situation was the result of the influence of the commercial revolution which had occurred in East Africa during the two decades a f te r 18A0, when Seyyid Said, the Omani A rab^transferred his court from Muscat to Zanzibar*^ This commercial revolution had attracted European merchants and consuls to Zanzibar, which in turn had stimulated European interest in the exploitation of the commerce of the East African interior* 2 It is undoubtedly significant that German soldiers and settlers were to travel along the caravan route up the Pangani valley, which had been opened up by the Arab/Swahili subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who had for several decades 3 controlled the long-distance trade of this region* 1* Alpers, E., The Coast and the development of Caravan Trade in Kimambo, I*N*, and Temu, A .J,, (ed), A History of Tanzania, N airobi, 1969, p*46« 2* Galbraith, J.S., Mackinnon and East Africa, 1878-1895, Cambridge, 1972, p*20* 3* Alpers, E*, loc cit*, p.52. 9 The peoples of north-east Tanzania, for whom the Pangani formed a connecting link, are made up of two main cultural types - the Bantu cultivators and the Nilo-Hamitic pastoralists - each of whom had absorbed an earlier Cushitic population, the largest surviving group of which are the Iraqu or the Wambulu.^ The Bantu peoples are settled in two big clusters - the Zigua cluster and the Pare-Chagga cluster^ - in the mountain ranges of Usambara/Upare and Kilimanjaro/Meru, where relief induces a higher rainfall than on the surrounding dry steppe inhabited by the pastoral, Nilo-Hamitic M asaiC ulturally and linguistically, the people of Usambara - the Shambaa - belong to the Zigua c lu s te r , which a lso includes th e Bondei of the hinterland of Tanga, the Nguu and the Zigua of Handeni, as well as the Luvu the riverain Zigua people of Korogwe, According to a Zigua tradition,^ the Zigua had experienced an increase of population from about the sixteenth century onwards, trtiich had forced streams of emigrants from Uzigua to seek new homes in the neighbouring hills and mountains.