Maji maji war in Tanganyika

The book written by Gilbert element Kamana Gwassa Entitled “The outbreak and development of majimaji war 1905/1907 was a result of field reason in done in southern part of Tanzania and cultival work between 1966 and 1969.

Maji maji war has been defined into two perspectives which are coloial point of view who see majimaji as a political and blind repudiation of the civilized agent while African point of view see it as a war of liberation from colonial exploitation and suffering. One president Nyerere argued that at U.N.O 4^th committee. The majimaji was caused by “The spirit ringing in the heart of all men to rebel against foreign domination. The war was fought by different twenty Ethimic groups some were Ngoni, Pangwa, Matumbi, Mwera and Ngindo. And the groups spreaded over approximately 100,000 square miles and their population was about one million. The war was called majimaji after medicine  ‘maji” that played a principle role I mobilizing the people together. The great Mganga Kinjekitile Ngwale was very important figure in the war with his dawa “maji”.

Majimaji was fought in Southern Tanzania in which up to 1905 the region was dominated by the bantu speaking people who migrated there from Katanga zone. The developed a variety political and social system, most societies such as matumbi and Ngindo were patrilineal, Yao, Makuwa and mwera were matrilineal. Ngoni, mbunga and bena were centralized political authority but Ngindo and Kichi had a clan system. Despite of differences in political system they share some cultural issue like  believing in withcraft and supernatural  powers to shape their societies. Even before the outbreak of majimaji war they tend to belief in the war Waganga. For example the Matumbi once believed that they have been defeated by the Ngoni because they Broke the instruction of one Great  Mganga called Kimbumbulukutu.

“And there was one great Mganga  whose name was Kimbumbulutu

 and there were other war waganga. Then he smeared them (warriors)

 with dawa and gave then instructions and taboos. Then as they

neared the caups some broke the taboo and Entered the huts

 Then the white cock stood on the chuma’s hut and cried out 

Lulu! Lulu iyo! (Beware, danger approaches).

Then behold there the matumbi perished very body.

It is significant that the people of southern part of Tanzania seem here to have a tradition of war medicine and the use of war waganga, atactor tah was very important in the story of majimaji.

The main argument, point of the book based on the origin or causes and effects  of majimaji. Gwassa explained the origin of majimaji as he combination of  general and specific grievances of Africans toward the imposition of German colonial rule. Different historians pointed out that majimaji war was because of African fanatism which being a psychological condition was cleverly manipulated by the wise few in order to satisfy the later political ambition. (schnee(1926), sayer (1930) Eric Reid(1934) all support the above view. Other historians believed that the caution of the war was reaction to specific colonial abuse. They argue that oppression was the cause of the  and the maji was the bond amongs  the people. Later  moffet agreeing with  him pointed out that “The main cause were the misdeeds and acts of oppression of certain officials and of many more of their Arabs, Judanese and Swahili subordinates.

But the more convincing argument is that cotton scheme introduced in Southern part of Tanzania in 1902 was the main factor which explain specifically the outbreak of war both in time and space.

German rule used very cruel method; Beating up people, loading them with heavy loads without any estimation, digging roads without payment. People were made to work like slaves. And if you were late to report to work you receive hamsa ishirini. Also there was the order for all people to work on cotton plantation, Jumbes had huge shambas in which African were forced to work there without payment. People were tortured much and if it happened  that the  mzungu was travelling through the country the people had to carry him and his wife on the machela(hummock). All these cruel actions which were done to Africans icreased grievances and Anger of Africans toward the German hence the  war.

A further widespread grievance which some historian have given as the main reason for outbreak of war is high taxation and forced arbitrary unpaid labour. Taxation had began in 1898 range from  three to four rupees in rural areas and six to twelve in large towns.

Hut tax had been instituted and fixed at three rupees in rural areas in 1905. According to the tradition of southern people like Ngindo and Matumbi the visitors were the one who needed to produce an offering to the hoot unlike to what Germans did to them when German imposed tax people rose to fight them by  saying.

     If you as a stranger want to stay in this country, then

     you will have to ask use (one of the clan) then we will

     ask you of an offering and  we will give you land

     to stay in. but it is not for us as host to give you

      the offering. That is quite impossible”.

Also Gwassa explained the effect of the war, the most important effect of the war was a devastatingly widespread faurine sweeping across the majimaji districts for two to three years. Most historians have seen famine and starvation as the afformath of majimaji because it killed more people that the bullet. This was verified by one informant who said that,

“Since my birth I have never seen such scarcity. I have seen farmine but not one causing people to die. But in tis farmine many are dying, some are unable to do any work at all, they have no strength, their food comist of inects from the woods which they dig up and cook and eat.

Many have died through eating things from the woods and wild fruits”

Depopulation due to deaths. Many people died during the war and its aftermath, the official figure was 75,000 Africans lost later Harry Jonston estimated that the total lost ws 120,000 Africans.

The later figure is usually preferred by most Tanzanian historians. Those people were died of hunder, bullets and other were hanged  IP 216-17.

Destruction of properties such as houses and farms, Hence majimaji survivors had tosleep in the open sometimes under the  trees and thickets because their houses had been destroyed by German  scorched earth. Because they had already been weaked by war and  fermine they could not build new houses even if they had tool to clear land.

In data collection, Gwassa followed the methods used by other oral historians. He didn’t ignore other sources of historical iformaiton concerned the majimaji apart from that of oral source. He passed through different written materials concerned the war and this can be evidenced through the use of footnots in his work. For example the book written by Basil Davidson;

Also he used arduives as source in the reconstruction of majimaji was where he used those document in German colonial era on resistances.

The following were the research methodologies used to collect oral information about majimaji war.

Interview, method, in this method Gwassa used both informal and formal questions. In formal there was questionare  to guide the researcher while informal questionare which sometimes were not on majimaji as such helped to  clarify points about a given society, its organization, social values and standards.

Also in order to get extratetual  information, he used both individual and group interview. If the interview was tape recorded the text could be played back to the information who build sometime back to the informants who  build sometime add what had left out.

Always he prefer the single informant interview method reasons was to avoid informant to challenge each other over right point.

Field observation

During the construction of history of majimaji Gwassa visited different areas such as mtumba kwa-kitambi where Hopfer was killed;  kandawale (Tipo) where the zelewsky had clashed with African other aeas he observed were Kindumba, Njinjo the former seat of jumbe kapilima.. so this help him to get information.

Mnemonic devices

In this method the informants used soups to remember the past events about majimaji war. Forexample. A man of Mkina upunda clan which was heavily involved in majimaji described what happened.

“Then after the war there emerged 

an Ngoma of delight and happness

because war and famine had 

ended. The Ngoma was kinganje

and it song ran as follows;

Bucho, bucho bwa kinjikitile, Ako

ngite bandu ku-Ngarambe mkwanyemasi”

Anthropological method.

In this method. The oral sources used in this study were collected over an accumulative period of about one year, field research was taken under the period of April 7-July 1966, July to November 1967, January and September-November 1968 something which helped to locate the informants as well as to learn their language. So as to be able to follow conversation and interview much incore easily and sensibly. This may sound old since most in the area of study speak Swahili. But in most cases local dialects are used as if they were Swahili well in Swahili.