Askaris (local soldiers) during shooting practice in German East Africa - now Tanzania
More
than one million people died in East Africa during World War One. Some
soldiers were forced to fight members of their own families on the
battlefield because of the way borders were drawn up by European
colonial powers, writes Oswald Masebo.
I was born and raised in a
simple home in the rural district of Ileje about 1,000km from Dar es
Salaam, in south-west Tanzania. The district is at the border with
Malawi where the hilly plateaus of Ileje and Rungwe districts rise above
the plains of Lake Nyasa and Kyela district.
My family has made a
living from the land of Ileje for generations. During World War One,
Ileje and the surrounding environments became a battle ground between
German forces and British allied forces from Malawi.
Although the
war began in 1914, it was the battles fought in 1915 and 1916 which
were most intense and which had grave consequences to the generation of
my great-grandparents.
Ten years ago, I asked my own grandfather
Jotam Masebo what he knew about World War One. His recollections remind
us of grinding hardship. I quote:
"Our parents narrated to us a
lot about this war. The timing of the war was bad. It broke at the time
when our parents were about to begin planting maize, beans, cassava,
groundnut, and potatoes... The fighting created fear and insecurity that
disrupted the agricultural production of our parents and led to the
most acute famine that killed many people. The fighting killed innocent
men, women, and children."
The fighting at the river Songwe
border was particularly notorious because some of the soldiers and
carrier corps involved in it were related to enemy soldiers.
People
living on both sides of the border lived together as a single community
until the notorious Berlin Conference created a boundary to separate
the German colony of Tanzania and the British colony of Malawi. The
boundaries passed through the middle of these people and divided them.
They would come to fight during World War One, representing the
interests of their respective colonial masters.
The Berlin Conference
- The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was convened by Otto von Bismarck to discuss the future of Africa
- The Berlin Act of 1885, signed by the 13 European powers in attendance, included a resolution to "help in suppressing slavery"
- The colonial powers were more interested in protecting old markets and exploiting new ones though, and they began carving up Africa leaving people from the same tribe on different sides of European-imposed borders
On a recent visit back home and I asked the elders what they know of World War One.
An
old man known as Ngubhombeleghe Swilla advised me to go to Ngana and
hills to witness look-out posts and machine-gun mounts that still exist
today.
I set out to see them - a day's journey. The leader of
Kasumulu village walked with me to a high vantage point on the outskirts
of the village where metal structures, now rust into the hillside. I
was astonished to find these remnants of World War One heritage in my
region.
It was from here in 1916 that German forces fled to Mozambique.
Although
Tanzania was a battleground for World War One, very little is known
about the role, position and social identities of Tanzanians who
directly participated in the war.
Existing scholarly narratives
focus on German and British military personnel. Yet, oral sources I have
collected claim that African men and women played a key role in
sustaining the war-related operations in south-west Tanzania. Kaswashi
Pwele of Kapelekesi and Labani Kibona of Isoko - who I interviewed in
2008 - recounted that Africans were a majority in the German colonial
army. They emphasised that the German colonial army was essentially an
African army. But they could not tell the exact number of Africans in
the army.
John Iliffe's archival research suggests that
Germany had about 15,000 soldiers in south-west Tanzania in 1916 out of
whom about 3,000 were Germans and the remaining 12,000 were Tanzanians
whose names are not recorded.
The Tanzanian carrier corps also played a central role in sustaining the war. Their story should be recovered.
It
is estimated that during the peak of military operations in 1916 the
German colonial state conscripted some 45,000 African members of carrier
corps.
And let's not forget the general public of ordinary men
and women who grew food such as maize, beans, and cassava. They also
raised cattle, goat, sheep, pigs, and chicken. The colonial armies
relied on this food to feed soldiers and carrier corps. Oral
recollections tell us Tanzanians did not give out this food willingly.
Armies acquired it by force, by looting Tanzanian rural homes and
communities. In 1996, Kileke Mwakibinga recalled:
"At the time of
the war, of 1914, I was still a young boy. But I was watching the entire
goings on when the soldiers were passing… elders were persecuted and
persecuted. Others were captured here and there. I was watching all
this… They came and looked for things… they would enter a house, if they
found milk they would just take it. If they saw chicken, they just took
them. That is when the Germans were fleeing."
Find out more
Oswald Masebo is Professor of History at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Dar
es Salaam - Ubhuche, Invisible Histories of the First World War
broadcasts on BBC Radio 3's The Essay: World War One Round the World on
Friday 3 July at 22:45. It is part of a global year-long partnership
between the British Council, BBC World Service and BBC Radio 3 called The War That Changed the World. You can catch up via iPlayer.
Both the German military forces in Tanzania and the
invading British forces from Nyasaland and Rhodesia engaged in these
barbaric acts of looting food reserves of the generation of my
great-grandparents, creating a food shortage which my grandfather spoke
about.
But perhaps the most surprising element in this elusive
story is a silence of the names and identities of African soldiers and
carriers in the oral history itself.
I find this to be surprising
and unique because Tanzanian soldiers and leaders who participated in
other military engagements are known and remembered.
For example,
some of the names and identities of Tanzanians who fought in the Maji
Maji wars of resistance in Southern Tanzania from 1905 to 1907 are known
and remembered.
Maji Maji wars were local protests against
German colonial exploitation, oppression, and forced cultivation of
cotton. The resistance was sparked by a charismatic spiritual leader
Kinjekitile Ngwale who claimed to possess medicine which would protect
warriors against German bullets, turning them to "maji". Maji is the
Kiswahili word for water. Many people died as bullets never changed into
water.
Maji Maji remains a heroic story in Tanzania, which is
taught to every young Tanzanian in primary and secondary school.
Kinjekitile Ngwale is celebrated and romanticised for his readiness to
die in order to preserve the independence, autonomy, and respect of
Africans. The Maji Maji museum in Songea was built to celebrate the
heroic lives of soldiers and leaders of the war - it contains
narratives, sculptures, and even pictures of these heroes. Each year
there is a month-long commemoration of the annual Maji Maji war in that
district.
So why is the story so different for World War One?
Why are the names and identities of thousands of Tanzanians who served
as soldiers and carrier corps unknown?
Perhaps this is because they were not appreciated by Germany.
In
some oral accounts Germany even held them responsible for Germany not
winning the war. Kaswashi Pwele claimed that "German military officials
blamed Africans for not winning the war. They accused some Africans for
lacking loyalty to Germany and for leaking security information to
Britain."
But isn't the key reason for the invisibility of the
names and identities of Tanzanian soldiers and carrier corps to be found
in the attitude of the British colonial state which took over from the
Germans?
Elders told me the British were very suspicious of
Africans who had worked for the Germans. Soldiers and carrier corps who
served in the German army were the least trusted.
According to
the elders, some of these soldiers and carrier corps were deported to
Nyasaland. Some were detained for some years.
It was risky to be labelled a pro-German royalist. It was dangerous.
As
a coping strategy, many men who had participated in the war on the
German side made "creative adaptations" by concealing their identities
and war experience.
"Creative adaptations" - it's another way to
say "hiding the truth", perhaps a polite expression for lying. I have
translated creative adaptations from the word ubhuche, in the Ndali language, my mother tongue and the language used by elders I spoke to.
Ubhuche
helped people to avoid the dangers of a new colonial regime. This
helped them to live peacefully and to prosper under British colonialism.
They also learned to speak negatively about German colonialism, even
those who had individually benefited from it.
The silences on
the names and identities we see today are probably the result of this
creative adaptation of African soldiers and carrier corps to the British
colonial regime after the war.
It might be too late to interview
the eye witnesses but listening closely, creatively, and critically to
our elders, we can still hear echoes of the voices of African soldiers,
carrier corps, and the larger public during World War One.
Let me conclude by reflecting on that visit I made
to the south west. I'm going to make Ubhuche - a Creative Adaptation
of my own - I'm going to adapt what I've learnt from research to imagine
the invisible stories of World War One.
Standing in the World War
One battlefields at Kasumulu, I could see the River Songwe that the
British and German colonisers used to divide our great-grandparents as
different people: as either Tanzanians or Malawians.
I also saw a
glimpse of a soldier from a century past, standing with his rifle. Next
to him, a carrier with supplies for the colonial army on his head and
back. I imagine them as proud men of values. They accepted the war,
probably reluctantly, and went to fight against British Malawian
soldiers, perhaps their cousins who lived on the other side of the River
Songwe.
They have no military uniform. They fought in
traditional dress. I know some killed enemies, and some of them died.
And when I think of them, I don't think only of the conflict they fought
in, but also the inner conflict that they combated at the end of the
war.
It's important for me to remember the public too, the impact
on my great-grandmother and her children during the war. I imagine the
ordinary men, women, and children in those hills, plains, and along the
river.
They were full of fear and insecurity, they suffered from
acute food shortage, had their houses burned by combatants, they were
exhausted by war traumas.
Women and children were probably at the highest risk from this global crisis that unfolded in their villages.
But
I know that just as my people suffered in this war, many also survived
and overcame the challenges. Their creative adaptations, the Ubhuche,
helped them to endure and prosper.
They may be invisible in the mainstream history.
Let us not forget them.
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This Essay will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on
Friday 3 July at 22:45 BST. It was recorded as part of a global
year-long partnership between the British Council, BBC World Service and
BBC Radio 3 called The War That Changed the World.
After the broadcast, you can listen again on the BBC iPlayer.
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