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MAJI MAJI UPRISING 1905 - 1907
The Maji Maji Rebellion, was a violent AFRICAN RESISTANCE by several African indigenous communities against the German rule.
The uprising in Tanganyika was the most significant African challenge to German colonial rule during the brief period when Germany had African colonies. In response to a German policy designed to force African peoples to grow cotton for export, the war lasted two years and involved people over 10,000 square miles.
During the "scramble for Africa" that began with the Treaty of Berlin in 1885, European powers dominated much of Africa, carving out vast territories as their own and establishing often brutal regimes to enforce their rule. Four major regions had been colonized by Germany, including Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania), Togo, Cameroon, and Namibia. Tanzania had been acquired largely through the efforts of the German Colonization Society, founded by Dr. Karl Peters.
When Germany established its control over Tanganyika by 1898, it imposed a particularly violent regime in order to control the population, including a policy of killing kings who resisted German occupation. This earned Peters, who was now the Tanganyika colonial governor, the name "Milkono wa Damu," meaning "Man with Blood on His Hands." Throughout this period of German occupation the African population was also subjected to high taxation and a system of forced labor, whereby they were required to grow cotton and build roads for their European occupiers.
The oppressive regime bred discontent among the Africans, and resentment reached a fever pitch in 1905 when drought hit the region. A prophet, Kinjikitile Ngwale emerged, who claimed to know the secret to a sacred liquid which could repel German bullets called "Maji Maji," which means "sacred water."
Thus, armed with arrows, spears, and doused with Maji Maji water, the first warriors of the rebellion began to move against the Germans, attacking at first only small German outposts, such as at Samanga, and destroying cotton crops. The rebellion spread throughout the colony, eventually involving 20 different ethnic groups all of whom wished to dispel of the German colonizers. As such it was the first significant example of interethnic cooperation in the battle against colonial control.
The apex of the rebellion came at Mahenge in August 1905 where several thousand Maji Maji warriors attacked but failed to overrun a German stronghold. On October 21, 1905 the Germans retaliated with an attack on the camp of the unsuspecting Ngoni people who had recently joined the rebellion. The Germans killed hundreds of men, women, and children.
This attack marked the beginning of a brutal counter offensive that left an estimated 75,000 Maji Maji warriors dead by 1907. The Germans also adopted famine as a weapon, purposely destroying the crops of suspected Maji Maji supporters. During the outbreak of the fighting, Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen, governor of East Africa, had requested reinforcements from the German government. Kaiser Wilhelm immediately ordered two cruisers with their Marine complements to the troubled colony. Von Götzen said he needed to flush out the remaining rebels and famine was the chosen weapon.
In 1905 one of the leaders of German troops in the colony, Captain Wangenheim, wrote to von Götzen, "Only hunger and want can bring about a final submission. Military actions alone will remain more or less a drop in the ocean." Lions in the area developed a taste for human flesh in the wake of the slaughter and the Songea region is still plagued by man-eaters. Not until August, 1907, were the last embers of rebellion extinguished.
The Wahehe Rebellion of 1891-1898 is viewed by historians as a precursor of the Maji Maji uprising. The suppression of the Maji Maji people changed the history of southern Tanzania. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people died or were displaced from their homes. The rebellion became a focal point in the history of the region. Later Tanzanian nationalists used it as an example of the first stirrings of Tanzanian nationalism, a unifying experience that brought together all the different peoples of Tanzania under one leader in an attempt to establish a nation free from foreign domination.
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