German colonial policy aimed at securing Germany's
status as a great power, securing economic profit for German companies
and German settlers and reducing the cost of colonial administration.
For the African populace that meant forced labour, taxes and arbitrary
use of power by the local authorities. On the other hand the colonial
rule also meant the end of the peoples' constant warring against each
other and of the slave hunts. But this was a benefit only for the
Wangoni's neighbours, not for the Wangoni themselves, because Wangoni
economy before colonization had partly relied on booty taken from their
weaker neighbours. The medicine man Kinjikitile brought a new message:
Africans should unite to fight the colonialists, his charmed medicine,
water (in Swahili "maji") mixed with certain ingredients, would protect
them from the German bullets. "Maji-Maji" was the battle cry of many
African peoples starting the war against the Germans in July, August and
September 1905. 7 out of only 15 German victims were Missionary
Benedictine monks and sisters.
Murder and Destruction
Fr. Cassian had been appointed the first bishop of
the Benedictines' mission area in 1902. In August 1905 he was travelling
from the port of Kilwa to Peramiho, where he intended to meet Abbot
Norbert Weber of St.Ottilien who was performing the canonical visitation
there. Before setting out from Kilwa he received a warning, but later
information was reassuring. In the wilderness near Liwale, at a place
called Mikukuyumbu, the founder of Peramiho, two brothers, two sisters
and a young Anglican African were murdered on August 14th, 1905. The
other Africans accompanying them were able to escape or had already fled
on the day before. Through them the message of the missionaries' fate
came to Peramiho on 26th. On September 3rd Nkosi Mputa Gama had his war
drums sounded, the missionaries decided to flee to the neighbouring
mission at Kigonsera. But the parish priest, Fr. Franziskus Leuthner,
refused to leave his flock. On September 9th the Wangoni destroyed
Peramiho, Fr.Franziskus was killed. So Mputa had had his revenge,
because two years earlier Fr.Franzikus hat forced him in front of his
followers to destroy a hut where offerings for the spirits had been
made. That had been a bad humiliation for the lord paramount.
War Crimes
African spears were no match for the European
machine guns. So the Africans switched to guerilla warfare, but the
Germans started to confiscate, to burn, to kill the stocks, the fields
and the cattle. This warfare against the civilian population was a war
crime also by the standards of the time. The Benedictines, especially
Fr. Johannes Häfliger, protested sharply, also the democratic parties in
the Reichstag (parliament) in Berlin uttered their criticism. But in
those times of monarchy the government was not a parliamentary one.
About 100,000 Africans fell victims to the machine guns and the hunger.
The lords of the were taken prisoners, if they could not escape like the
legendary Chabruma. Fr. Johannes was allowed to see them before their
execution on February 27th, 1906. 31 out of 48 captives accepted the
baptism he offered them, among them the Nkosi, Mputa Gama, who had
ordered the execution of Fr. Franziskus. On that occasion the photograph
of the chained lords was taken.
A New Start
After suffering defeat the Wangoni had to accept
colonial rule. The missionaries did their best to help the people during
the famine after the war. Some of them, like Fr. Johannes Häflinger,
went very far in defending them against the arbitrariness of the
colonial authorities. So it was no wonder that the zeitgeist was in
favour of Christianity. Bishop Thomas Spreiter, who became successor of
the murdered Cassian Spiß in 1906, especially stressed the establishment
of schools. Many catechists were being trained and invested as teachers
in the so-called "bush schools". Zeitgeist and schools didn't convert
the people automatically. Nobody was baptized without applying out of
his own free will. Students were not baptized without parental consent.
Indeed most students were baptized some day, but not all of them.
Second Disaster: First World War
In 1913 the area of the Benedictines was divided
into two parts, because the number of missionaries and of Christians had
grown considerably. The southern part, including Peramiho, became the
new Prefecture Apostolic of Lindi under Fr. Willibrord Lay. Also for
Peramiho and its three neighbouring missions (Kigonsera established in
1899, Lituhi est. 1912, Litembo est. 1914) all communication with Europe
was through the port of Lindi. When in July and August 1914 the
Europeans started to kill each other, the Germans in the colonies were
cut off. Now the local Christians, especially the catechists had their
great hour. The catechist volunteered to continue on a very low pay,
because no European money was available. At the end of 1916 the British
conquered the area surrounding Peramiho. Luckily the German troops
withdrew without much resistance, so that the populace was spared the
sufferings of the people in the eastern part of our mission area, where
the German commander continued futile fighting until 1918. The British
honoured the German resistance by calling it a "gallant fight", thus
showing that they were as ignorant of the African suffering as the
Germans
The Catechists' Hour
Although the area of Peramiho had been largely
spared the horrors of warfare, church and people were badly affected by
the deportation of all missionaries, even of the nationals of neutal
Switzerland, even of the sisters, of whom many were committed to nursing
the sick. Now the African Catechists were the ones to lead the
congregations without the help of a single priest. The merits of Cassian
Homahoma Gama at Lituhi, Petri Ndunguru at Litembo and Constantin
Akitanda at Matiri, an outstation of Kigonsera should not be forgotten.
The British army established a military hospital at Peramiho. Fr.
Ambroise Fauconnier PA, a Frenchman of the order of the White Fathers,
who had been a missionary in Malawi before becoming an army chaplain,
was among the patients there. After recovering in January 1918 he
started pastoral care for the congregation of Peramiho, leaving the army
for that purpose. Other members of his order arrived and assumed
responsibility for the Christians in the area of Peramiho. The
statistics for 1916 counted 7,000 Christians, in 1922 there were 13,000.>>click here
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