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Contents:

Selections from the Atlas German Colonies, with Yearbook, edited by the German Colonial Society, 1907, Retrospect on the Development in 1906 of the Protectorate Deutsch-Ostafrika, with added comments

Contents:

Maji Maji Labour shortage Beeswax East African cedar Sisal hemp cultivation Dar es salaam/Tanga Schools Baron Albrecht von Rechenberg

German East African Coins.

As permission was denied to reproduce any future material from the Berlin Staatsbibliothek Archives by the translators of the material, it is with regret that the author is not able to reproduce the full text.: Atlas German Colonies, with Yearbook, edited by the German Colonial Society, 1907, Retrospect on the Development in 1906 of the Protectorate Deutsch-Ostafrika, as was done last year.

However, one notes among its contents that:

• 1. Maji Maji

  The Maji Maji rebellion of July 1905, termed the rebellion in the Matumbi mountains near Kilwa, has not increased thanks to reinforcements, to the skill employed to counter the spread of it to the ' warlike Wahehe, Unyamwesi, and Usukuma ', to the tact used by chiefs, constantly avowing to the natives the futility of any attempts to assist in the rebellion, and to the seizing of three ringleaders who were suitably 'punished'. Nevertheless, it is noted that some changes have occurred as a result of it, and in particular, the fact that many Indians and Arabs have moved out of the troubled areas, and that the loss of harvest might entail a famine.

  Comment :
  Maji Maji Rebellion

  I hope to be able to devote a fuller section to this series of rebellions, but must content myself here with the statement that that the Imperial Law Gazette records show that in January, 1908, an official decree issued by the Reichs-Chancellery declared the rebellions of the year 1905, 1906, and 1907 as having ended in Feb. 1907, the edict presumably having followed a period of one year's determination afterwards. The decree is as follows in the original, and a short summary in English is reproduced also immediately afterwards.

  Reichs-Gesetzblatt, 1908, 13(Nr. 3406.) Allerhöchster Erlaß, betreffend die Anrechung der Jahre 1905, 1906 und 1907als Kriegsjahre aus Anlaß des Aufstandes in Deutsch-Ostafrika.
  Vom 14. Januar 1908.
  Ich bestimme im Anschluß an meine Ordre vom 30. Januar 1907*):
  

  • 1. Der Anfang August 1905 ausgebrochene Aufstand in Deutsch-Ost- afrika ist mit dem 18. Februar 1907 als beendet anzusehen.
  • 2. Als Kriegsteilnehmer sind diejenigen Deutschen anzusehen, welche während der Dauer des Aufstandes
    a) an einem der Gefechte teilgenommen haben,
    b) in den Aufstandsgebieten Daressalam, Mohoro, Kilwa, Lindi, Ssongea, Neu-Langenburg, Mahenge, Iringa, Mpapua, Moro- goro, Moschi und Muansa mindestens einen Monat in fort- laufender Zeit militärische Verwendung gefunden haben.
    
  • 3.Jedes der Jahre 1905, 1906 und 1907 ist als Kriegsjahr anzu- rechnen, sofern die Voraussetzungen unter 2a und 2b in jedem dieser Jahre zutreffen. Hat die Beteiligung in den Jahren 1905 und 1906 beziehungsweise 1906 und 1907 zusammen mindestens einen Monat in fortlaufender Zeit betragen, so ist dasjenige Jahr, in welches die längere Beteiligung fällt, als ein Kriegsjahr anzurechnen, sofern keines der beiden Jahre bereits sonst als Kriegsjahr zu erhöhtem Ansatze kommt.
    Berlin, den 14. Januar 1908.
    Wilhelm.
    Fürst von Bülow.
    

    An den Reichskanzler (Reichs-Kolonialamt).

    *) Reichs-Gesetzbl. Von 1907 Seite 39.
    Reichs-Gesetzbl. 1908.
    Ausgegeben zu Berlin den 29. Januar 1908.

  Note :The decree contains the declaration of the official ending of the Maji Maji uprising on 18 February 1907. It also includes an acknowledgement of the state of emergency in the years 1905, 1906, and 1907.

  The same decree was also published at:
  Title: Allerhöchste Ordre, betr. Anrechnung von Kriegsdienstjahren. Vom 14. Januar 1908: Deutsches Kolonialblatt, Bd. XIX, Nr. 8, 15.02.1908, 13
  The acknowledgement of the war years 1905 and 1906 was also published at:
  Title: Allerhöchste Order, betreffend Anrechnung des Jahres 1905 als Kriegsjahr aus Anlaß des Aufstandes in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Vom 30. Januar 1907 : Reichs-Gesetzblatt, 1907, 39
  Title: Allerhöchster Erlaß, betreffend die Anrechnung der Jahre 1905 und 1906 als Kriegsjahre aus Anlaß von Gefechten und Kriegszügen in Deutsch-Ostafrika und Kamerun. Vom 17. November 1906.: Reichs-Gesetzblatt, 1907, 742/743

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• 2. Labour shortage.

  A relative scarcity of labour in plantations, and for European enterprise, added to by the fact that the sturdiest of them have found more gainful employment in the trading between Lake Victoria and the Congo Free State, rather than the coast, and have had to be 'replaced by less useful elements'. Railway workers were still available for the Morogoro line, but for the worst affected European northern plantations, recruitment of labour was under way in the Usambara.

  Comment :
  Labour shortage.
  The problem of recruitment of labour was by no means confined to German East Africa. It affected all the subjugated countries of Africa. Broadly speaking, while the abolition of slavery might have become a historical necessity, its sudden annulment led to a radical change in transport and trade all across Africa. Also, as Roger Casement in the Casement Report of 1904 noted, in his documentation of the darker side of the new economic adventurism of Africa;

  "The open selling of slaves and the canoe convoys, which navigated the Upper Congo (River), have everywhere disappeared. . . . (but) much that was not reprehensible in native life has disappeared along with it. The trade in ivory has today entirely passed from the hands of the natives of the Upper Congo . ."

  "the building of the new railway line connecting Stanley Pool to the ocean ports,. . which formerly offered to the weary traveller on foot many obstacles to be overcome and many days of great bodily fatigue is . . the home, or birthplace of the sleeping sickness--a terrible disease, which is, all too rapidly, eating its way into the heart of Africa "

  "Communities I had formerly known as large and flourishing centers of population are to-day entirely gone..." adds Roger Casement in his Congo Report.It is unlikely that German East Africa in the interior was much different in terms of the loss of all previous measures of distance, added to by the decimation of populations from a lack of indigenous trade, disease, and rebellion.

  To quote from the Casement report again, "....on the 25th of July (1903) we reached Lukolela, where I spent two days. This district had, when I visited it in 1887, numbered fully 5,000 people; today the population is given, after a careful enumeration, at less than 600. The reasons given me for their decline in numbers were similar to those furnished elsewhere, namely, sleeping-sickness, general ill-health, insufficiency of food, and the methods employed to obtain labor from them by local officials and the exactions levied on them."

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• 3. Beeswax It is noted that the Bantu negro only tills the ground to satisfy his own needs, although the Wasukuma and the Wanyamwesi have more 'mercantile spirit'. Moreover, it is remarked that the negro is accessible to instructions, as evidenced by the increase in beeswax production where, previously, in obtaining the wax, bees were killed off but, of late, primitive hives for swarming bees allow greater yields.

  Comment :
  

  Beeswax is the glandular secretion of worker bees, and is used by honey bees to make the cells of the honeycomb. In these cells the young bees are reared, and pollen stored. It is the cleanest burning wax around, and is often used for candles.

  David Livingstone noted the trade in beeswax in Southern Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, that it was unknown by the Makololo, and formed "no article of trade" in the eastern region. "In Londa it may be said to be fully cared for, as you find hives placed upon trees in the most lonesome forests. We often met strings of carriers laden with large blocks of this substance, each 80 or 100 lbs. in weight, and pieces were offered to us for sale at every village; but here we never saw a single artificial hive. The bees were always found in the natural cavities of mopane-trees. It is probable that the good market for wax afforded to Angola by the churches of Brazil led to the gradual development of that branch of commerce there. I saw even on the banks of the Quango as much as sixpence paid for a pound."

  Livingstone also indicated that ".. since the repression of the slave-trade in Angola the value of the exports in lawful commerce has steadily augmented ", and specified the amount of trade in this commodity as part of "Return of the Quantities and Value of the Staple Articles, the Produce of the Province of ANGOLA, exported from ST. PAUL DE LOANDA between July 1, 1848, and June 30, 1849". Beeswax. Portuguese Ships : cwt 1109 | £ s d - 6,654 0 0 | Ships of other Nations : cwt 544 | £ s d - 3,264 0 0 | Total Exports : cwt 1653 | £ s d - 9,918 0 0 | Source: The Project Gutenberg E Book of "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa", by David Livingstone [1813-1873] , prepared by Alan. R. Light and released February 11, 2006 [EBook #1039]

  Beeswax composition: 70 % esters of long chain wax alcohols (C24-C44) with carbon acids (C16/C18) 13-18 % hydrocarbons (C25-C35) 10-15 % free wax acids (C24-C32) 1 % free wax alcohols (C34-C36)

• 4. East African cedar

  Consideration is given to the natural, uninhabited landscape of German East Africa which takes the form of treeless plains, sporadic bush, or open pastures, so that the foot of the mountains ('piedmonts') is often bare, but the slopes are thickly forested as, for example, in the Usambara mountains. This Schume forest is predominantly forested by cedars and the government has taken over their administration and is looking into their potential for exploitation.

  Comment :
  

  According to current estimates by the FAO, Tanzania now has 38.8 million hectares of forest, some 41% of the total land area. Deforestation from human activity amounts to about 91,000 hectares per annum. Usambara mountain forests now form part of the unattractively named Eastern Arc mountains.The East African cedar(genus; Juniperus, species; Juniperus procera) is an evergreen tree, 40m. in height, with fragrant wood and relatively termite resistant wood. Products from this tree include oil of Juniperus procera, or East African cedarwood oil, much of which is exported, and wood, suitable for making pencils, and fencing posts.

• 5. Sisal hemp cultivation

  Comment :
  

  Sisal hemp.
  The advantages of growing sisal, which originated from Mexico, were many. It was cultivated especially in the districts of Tanga, Pangani, Wilhelmstal, Lindi and Kilwa. Its fibre, used for manufacturing rope and cable, was in great demand before the advent of tough, synthetic polymers.

  In its natural habitat a steppe plant, its resistance to long, dry periods made it especially suitable for growing in these areas. The planting usually took place at the start of the rainy season, in well-planned rows, spaced 2 ½ m. wide, and the same distance separated the sprouts. The first cuts were made after 2 ½ - 3 years, and continued for another 3 years since the plant usually died in 6 years. Its fleshy leaf blades, when mature, were 1 ½ m. long and 2cm.thick. One plant yielded some 40-50 blades a year, 10 per quarter. Usually younger plants grown alongside older ones allowed constant replacement of the older stock. The leaves, made into bundles, were turned into fibre by machines, newer models of which, for example, the Corona made by Krup, could deal with approximately 150,000 blades daily, an output of 2 tons of hemp fibre. After being washed, dried and bleached, it was cleaned and smoothed again in a machine, the fibre waste being mixed with flax to make simple hemp cords. Then, pressed into a compact bale, each about 5cwt., it was inserted into jute cloth and tied with steel bands.

  Sisal fibre plantations have grown apace, Mauritius hemp having been largely displaced by sisal hemp. The following figures of hemp exports are quoted to show the rate of increase ; 1903 - 400,000 Marks worth ; 1904-700,000 Marks ; 1905-1.1 million Marks .

  Mauritius Hemp

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• 6. Once again, mention is made of the high grade Egyptian cotton production , hindered only by the 'proportionate working of the soil' and irrigation.
• 7. Dar es salaam/Tanga
  A temporary delay caused by rain and labour shortage has only permitted 32km of the Daressalam-Morogoro railway line to traffic. However, Dar es salaam's northern shore, by the old custom's house, is seeing progress in the development of a quay to cater for ship freight, and a new shipyard is being constructed at Kurasini. Native rebellion has prevented any notable building work in the interior or along the coast. On Ras-Kasone peninsula however, near Tanga, 'a garden city has developed', and the people of Tanga, Pangani and Morogoro have been building roads.

  Comment :
  

  Dar es salaam port:

  The origin of the name 'Dar es salaam' will doubtless continue to remain a fertile subject for scholarly speculation for many years to come. It appears that there are at least three possible contending sources, but perhaps not as mutually exclusive as has been previously maintained, given the diasporic nature and transmutations of the languages that were part of the Islamic civilisation of the Indian Ocean, all relatively insulated until the same areas had to engage with the emerging naval powers of Imperial Christian Europe. Dar es salaam in present day Tanzania, however, has a much more modern history. One notion, widely held, is that it derives from the Farsi 'Bandar us salaam', meaning 'Harbour' or 'Haven of Peace'. Then, the word 'bandar' would have had to undergo a reduction into 'dar' . A second possibility is the more straight forward one which, according to one historical source, has it as the name coined by Sultan Seyyid Majid, founder of the city, and is translated from the Arabic as 'House of Peace'. The story behind this adoption, according to an Ethiopian school master working at the Berlin Mission in 1887, Gobau Desta, was that the Sultan, originally named it Bender-es-salaam, but upon seeing "all he was building well executed, he commanded that henceforth the place be called Dar-es Salaam (thus Paradise is named)" A third, reported by Allen, first, offers it as a translation of Mzizima, the old Swahili settlement that existed before, and which in turn may have come from mji mzima, or 'whole town', the southern end of which was called Mjimwema, or 'good town'. Whatever conclusions might be drawn from this unnaturally sharp distinction between the languages of Swahili, Arabic, and Farsi, we will perhaps never come to the correct one. "Nor is the matter worth pursuing further" as Sutton wisely concludes(1). One thing I would like to suggest, nevertheless, is that the word 'bandar', since ancient times, was often used for a customs-house in the Indian Ocean islands, a building equally frequently called, simply, 'dar', both signifying the same edifice inside which all trading occurred. Leaving these etymological niceties aside, it is clear that by 1860, the town was already being referred to as Dar es Salaam in contemporary records, and from the very beginning, it had been envisaged as a harbour, initially, perhaps, as an alternative to Bagamoyo.

  As far as the remarkable growth of the modern port is concerned, it owes something of its impetus to the global age of steamship navigation, and to the plans that the Germans entertained for this town. The harbour developments mentioned were crucially important with the increasing importance of trade, and the rapid development of the hinterland.

  " Before 1900, cargo was laboriously manhandled from lighters and boats and then rolled up the beach. A series of masonry stairways and chutes linked the beach-head with the warehouse on the terrace above. With the commencement of the Central Railway in 1905....improvements were speeded up. To facilitate the unloading of materials needed for the railway, a wooden jetty and a crane capable of lifting two tons were completed in 1905. Work then began on a quay about 150 metres in length and built on piles. It was completed two years later. A large customs warehouse was soon erected followed by a twelve ton handcrane, and a railway siding led to the port..."(2)

  Kurasini Creek is the name given to the northern part of the harbour, and the stretch leading out into the entrance channel. Much of the early city was built on a ledge over this creek, but its marshy terrain, though not so suitable for further urban expansion, proved useful for development of the port.

  Map of Dar es Salaam; harbour and inner channel

  
  

  1. For a fuller discussion of this matter, see : J.E.G. Sutton, "Dar es salaam. A sketch of a hundred years" ;Tanzania Notes and Records,71(1970); J.W.T.Allen,"The name Dar es Salaam";Tanzania Notes and Records,19(1945); 2. Mascarhenas, Adolfo C., " The port of Dar es Salaam" Tanzania Notes and Records,71(1970);

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  Ras-Kasone

  Nowadays called Ras Kazone, this elegant garden suburb in Tanga is situated on a promontory with a commanding ocean view. It retains many of its old features, despite a great deal of more recent development. A broad, flamboyant-lined avenue leads past the old German hospital where Koch spent some time, past the old botanic park, now the site of the Mkonge Hotel, and onwards to skirt the long rocky terrace which overlooks the sea. Although the 'Ras' denotes a headland, the 'Kazone' part of it is to me a mystery, unless related to the Kiswahili, 'kusini' or 'kisiwani'. Anybody have any other ideas?

• 8. Schools
  Government schools are commended. One, in Dar es salaam, incorporates the teaching of crafts; 'instruction is given in carpentry, bookbinding, smithery, wood turning, and 59 natives are distributed almost evenly over the occupations'. A similar craftsman's school runs itself in Tanga. Carpenters produce locally-resourced furniture, while the printing workshop has published school textbooks and 'an addendum to the colony's law code'. It is envisaged that as all these concerns, including the book-binding and wood turnery projects, thrive and their future is guaranteed, the institution will be 'civilizatoric in the best sense of the word' (sic).

• 9. Finally, reference is made to the figures of poulation statistics and trade which establish the vigorous and rapid develoment of the German East African protectorate.

  ---

• Not mentioned in the yearbook were the changes made in the administration :

Governor Freiherr von Rechenberg (1906-1912) took over from Governor Graf von Götzen (1901-1906) : Major von Schleinitz, appointed as Commander of the troops.(1906-1914)

Anglo-Zanzibar War : The Sultans Palace (Harem) after bombardment

Baron Albrecht von Rechenberg was born in 1859 and joined the foreign service in 1889. His first appointment was as judge and administrator in Tanga and Dar es salaam. Having gained experience in these areas, this period ended as vice-consul and consul in 1896 in Zanzibar in a resounding climax when the Anglo-Zanzibar War broke out between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it remains the shortest war in recorded history, the immediate cause of which was the death of Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini, who had co-operated with the British colonial administration, on 25 August 1896. Baron Rechenberg antagonised the British, who supported the succession of Hamud bin Muhammad, by granting asylum in the German consulate to Said Khalid, eldest son of Sultan Said Barghash. Having seized power, Said Khalid saw his armoured yacht HMS Glasgow face three modern British cruisers and two gunboats. Baron von Rechenberg, in the middle of all this, recruited the German cruiser "Seeadler"as a measure of security into the area, and earned high praise for this. He was transferred as Consul to Moscow in 1901. Then, after four years service there, he took over the German consulate in Warsaw which his father had administered before him for a long period, and where his skill earned him the praise of Prince Bismarck.
In April, 1906 he was appointed as Governor of the German East African Colony during which, according to calendar notes released in 1909, his main task was the pacification of the territorial possession after the rebellions of 1905 and 1906. This, according to the notes, had thus far met with great success.

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Preview of some events in 1907:

• 12. May 1907 Duke Adolf Friedrich Albrecht Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (10 October 1873 – 5 August 1969), German explorer in Africa and colonial politician, came to German East Africa in order to begin a research expedition across Africa from east to west. His first journey to the country had been in 1905. This time, his companions were Captain Weiß and First Lieutenant von Wiese, and Kaiserswaldau, in addition a number of expert scholars. The expedition successfully ended 1908. In 1908 he was awarded the Eduard Vogel (named after a German explorer murdered near Lake Chad, in Ouaddai) Medal of the Association of Geography of Leipzig.He was the first president of the National Olympic Committee of Germany (1949–1951).
• 19. August 1907 Opening of the Reichstelegrafenstation in Moshi.
• Margarete Trappe, Africa’s greatest huntress , "Jeyo", or ' Mother of the Masai' , arrived in German East Africa, and made a home at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, hunting lion, elephant and rhino. She stayed on after the First World War and went on to build the Momella Lodge at Mount Meru, the location for the John Wayne film 'Hatari!'. Her life story was published in book form in German as "Die weiße Jägerin" , by Rolf Ackermann, in 2005.

Roger Casement (1 September 1864 - 3 August 1916) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was in the Congo Free State as early as 1883, when 19 years old, and worked for King Léopold II of Belgium's 'Association Internationale Africaine'. While there, he met Henry Morton Stanley, the famous explorer who also worked for the Belgian King, and got to know Joseph Conrad who was to sever his relationship with him later, when he was hanged for treason against the British Government during the First World War, despite appeals for clemency from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw. Before he resigned from colonial service, he held consular appointments in Nigeria, Lourenco Marques, and Rio de Janeiro. He saw himself, as did many others, as a poet, patriot, revolutionary, and reformer. To read relevant passages from the 'Casement Report' report in other languages follow links for translations into Kiswahili and French or, for a fuller biography in English and links to other sites about him visit Roger Casement

Sultan Seyyid Majid: Sayyid Majid bin Said Al-Busaid (1834/1835 - ھ ٠٥٢١ / ١ - October 7, 1870 - ھ ٨٨٢١ / ٧ )(Arabic: ماجد بن سعيد البوسعيد) was the first Sultan of Zanzibar. He ruled Zanzibar from (October 19, 1856 - ھ ٤٧٢١/ ٣ to October 7, 1870 - ھ ٨٨٢١ / ٧).

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