Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Terminology
- Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Map of Tanganyika in 1912
- 1 The argument
- 2 The Maji Maji rebellion
- 3 The political context
- 4 Rechenberg and reconstruction
- 5 The European challenge
- 6 White man's country
- 7 The collapse of the local compromise
- 8 The age of improvement
- 9 The new dilemma
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Maji Maji rebellion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Terminology
- Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Map of Tanganyika in 1912
- 1 The argument
- 2 The Maji Maji rebellion
- 3 The political context
- 4 Rechenberg and reconstruction
- 5 The European challenge
- 6 White man's country
- 7 The collapse of the local compromise
- 8 The age of improvement
- 9 The new dilemma
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When the Maji Maji rebellion began in July 1905, some four million people lived in Tanganyika. Perhaps two-thirds formed dispersed communities in woodland savannah country between 500 and 4,500 feet above sea level, of which most of the colony consisted. Another one-quarter inhabited scattered areas of high or especially well-watered land. The remaining one-twelfth lived in a narrow strip below 500 feet on the eastern coast and extending inland along the three major river systems, the Pangani in the north, the Rufiji in the centre, and the Ruvuma in the south. The great majority were cultivators, to whom cattle-keeping was a respected but secondary pursuit. With rare exceptions, they spoke Bantu languages, whose origins are believed to lie in West Africa, with a subsequent dispersal centre in the region of Katanga and Zambia. Bantu-speaking cultivators probably colonised Tanganyika from the south and west during the Christian era. They infiltrated, mixed with, and finally absorbed peoples of different linguistic groups already resident in the area. Of these earlier peoples, two groups remained. One, the Kindiga and Sandawe, spoke languages related to the Khoisan languages of southern Africa. The second group comprised the Iraqw, Gorowa, and Burungi, whose Cushitic languages were akin to those of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. All these lived in the highland area south-east of Lake Victoria and west of the Rift Valley.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Tanganyika Under German Rule 1905–1912 , pp. 9 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1969