Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History

E.Y. Mbogoni

Description

Aspects of Colonial Tanzanian History is a collection of essays that examines the lives and experiences of both colonizers and the colonized during colonial rule in what is today known as Tanzania. Dr. Mbogoni examines a range of topics hitherto unexplored by scholars of Tanzania history, namely: excessive alcohol consumption (the sundowners); adultery and violence among the colonial officials; attitudes to inter-racial sexual liaisons especially between Europeans and Africans; game-poaching; European settler vigilantism; radio broadcasting; film production and the nature of Arab slavery in Zanzibar. A particularly noteworthy case related to European vigilantism is examined: the trial of Oldus Elishira, a Maasai, for the murder of a European settler farmer in 1955. The victim, Harold M. Stuchbery, was speared to death when he attempted to �arrest� a group of Maasai young men who were passing through his farm. The event highlighted the differences in the concepts of justice held by Maasai and the imported justice systems from the colonizers. It also raised vexing questions about the colonial judge�s acquittal of Oldus Elishira, while the Maasai who should have been satisfied with that decision decided to take it upon themselves to mete out an appropriate punishment to Elshira instead of total acquittal, and to compensate Mrs. Stuchbery for the death of her husband by giving her a number of heads of cattle.

Sujets

• History

Informations

• Publié par: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers
• Date de parution: 20 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9789987082445
• Langue: English

Extrait

Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History
Lawrence E. Y. Mbogoni
P UBLISHED BY Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd P. O. Box 4246 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania www.mkukinanyota.com
Lawrence E. Y. Mbogoni, 2013
ISBN 978-9987-08-300-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd.
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Contents
P ART O NE : Economy and Politics in Tanganyika
On Colonialism as a Civiling Mission
The Lupa Gold Rush of the 1930s
George Gilman Rushby: From Ivory Poacher to Game Ranger
Chief Makongoro of Ikizu: Beneficiary and Victim of Indirect Rule
The Trial of Oldus Elishira (1955): Murder, Politics and Justice in Late Colonial Tanganyika
P ART T WO : Film Production and Radio Broadcasting
Colonial Tanganyika on Film, 1935-1961
Radio Broadcasting in Colonial Tanganyika, ca. 1951-1961
P ART T HREE : Affairs of the Heart in Colonial Zanzibar
Dr. Pitchford s love affair with Ms Gool Talati
Seyyida Salme s love affair with Heinrich Ruete
P ART F OUR : Slavery and Politics in Colonial Zanzibar
The Slave Trade and Slavery in Zanzibar: Opposing Views
The Pitfalls of a Nascent Democracy: Political agitation, violence and murder after the June 1961 election in Zanzibar
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Research for this collection of essays spanned a number of years and involved numerous visits to research libraries and archives in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Tanzania. In due course I have accumulated a mountain of scholarly debt to many people that I cannot all mention by name. To begin with, I would like to thank Judy Matthew, Jeneen Artis and Urooj Khan from the Interlibrary Loan Section of the Cheng Library at William Paterson University for their diligent assistance. During the 1990s while at Luther College, Iowa, I received financial support which enabled me to travel to Caversham, England, where I worked on the BBC archives for the essay on radio broadcasting in Tanganyika as well as to make several trips to the Public Record Office, London, for research on the essays on the trial of Oldus Elishira and the case of Chief Makongoro. Last but not least, many thanks to my family without whose moral support it would have been near impossible to accomplish this book project.
P ART O NE Economy and Politics in Tanganyika
1 Colonialism as a Civilizing Mission
I have tried in this collection of essays to examine the impact of colonialism and colonial rule upon the lives and experiences of the colonizers and the colonized in what is today known as Tanzania. Modern day Tanzania comprises of the mainland, which was from 1919 until 1963 known as Tanganyika, and the Islands of Unguja and Pemba which historically have been known under the name Zanzibar. Before 1919 Tanganyika was a German colony and was known as German East Africa. The British took over its administration after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Until 1890 when Zanzibar became a British protectorate it was a sovereign state under the rule of Oman Arabs. Tanganyika received its independence in December 1961 whereas Zanzibar became independent in December 1963. Tanganyika and Zanzibar united in April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
It is commonly understood that nineteenth century British imperialism was driven by the needs and demands of industrialization such as (a) the need to secure new sources of raw materials, (b) to open new markets for manufactured goods, and (c) to create global outlets for capital investments. However, it was the presumption of British racial, cultural and moral superiority that bolstered Britain s justification for colonial rule. Like other Europeans, nineteenth century Britons believed they had a mission to civilize their African colonial subjects.
The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) defines the verb to civilize as follows: to make civil; to bring out of a state of barbarism; to instruct in the arts of life; to enlighten; to refine and polish. The OED also defines civilization as the action or process of civilizing or of being civilized; a developed or advanced state of human society. These definitions seem to refer to the behavioral and material aspects of human cultures as well as to different stages of advancement. Used in either sense, the British labeled themselves civilized to set themselves apart from the Africans whom they considered barbarians, savages, and primitive people.
The standard bearers of the British mission to civilize were, first and foremost, the officers of the Colonial Service. They were expected to live exemplary lives according to British mores. More importantly, they were not supposed to behave in ways that brought disrepute to the Colonial Service. Besides the officers of the Colonial Service any white person was also expected to live and behave in ways that did not undermine European racial superiority in the eyes of the colonized. These expectations reveal the anxieties of the British ruling class which deeply undercut its pride in the British sense of self-worth. One of the anxieties was whether or not Britons abroad would go native and be tempted to behave in un-British ways. This concern was not without merit.
Many junior officers of the Colonial Service not only lived in isolated stations but also led lonely lives. One of the terms of their employment was that for a number of years they were not expected to marry. For some the effects of isolation and loneliness were devastating. Col. R. Meinertzhagen, a district officer in neighboring Kenya from 1902 to 1906, published his Kenya Diary in 1957 in which he recounts the effects of his isolation and loneliness. The entry dated September 15, 1905 is worth quoting at length and goes as follows:
The feeling of slowly becoming a prey to one s own mind has taken possession of me, and I have been experiencing much difficulty in constantly finding some distracting work. In daylight I can usually find sufficient to occupy my mind, but in the evenings time hangs heavily on my hands, and except when I write or endeavour to use my paint box, needs must I brood and worry over things which will not leave my mind. I think it is a family inherited from the Potters. But climatic influences have a good deal to do with mental depression and tend to accentuate any feelings of morbid dissatisfaction with life in general. I have tried to analyse my mind and find that what worries me most is disappointment and bitterness that my own family seems to regard me as a black sheep.
Local conditions in Nandi only accentuate these feelings. Living isolated in a savage country, rarely speaking my own language, and surrounded by a population whose civilization is on a much lower plane than my own are conditions to which I have indeed grown accustomed, but which do not improve on acquaintance unless one lowers one s own plane to that of the savage, when perhaps one might be contented.
Normally I am healthy-minded, but the worries and conditions of the past few months have been too much for me. All men are not affected in the same way. Others with greater strength of character than myself might suffer little from moral and intellectual starvation. To others, natural history or some object of unceasing pursuit is an effective barrier against complete isolation. But my experience shows me that it is but a small percentage of white men whose characters do not in one way or another undergo a subtle process of deterioration when they are compelled to live for any length of time among savage races and under such conditions as exist in tropical climates. It is hard to resist the savagery of Africa when one falls under its spell. One soon reverts to one s ancestral character, both mind and temperament becoming brutalised. I have so much of it out here and I have myself felt the magnetic power of the African climate drawing me lower and lower to the level of the savage. This is a condition that is accentuated by worry or mental depression, and which has to be combated with all the force in one s power. My love of home and family, the dread of being eventually overcome by savage Africa, the horror of losing one s veneer of western civilization and cutting adrift from all one holds good - these are the forces which help me to fight the temptation to drift down to the temporary luxury of the civilisation of the savage. 1
The overriding fear about Britons abroad going native was that they would engage in sexual intercourse with native women. This fear was also not without merit. For instance, Judd has shown that the British Empire offered opportunities to engage in forms of sexual behavior that would have been difficult, if not downright impossible, at home. 2 As Chapter 2 will make clear, after 1909 the British Colonial Office deemed it necessary to issue a Circular that condemned interracial concubinage as an injurious and dangerous evil. 3 Chapter 2 examines the claims by J. R. Cresswell-George that some Europeans in Tanganyika lacked self-respect, molested African women and engaged in excessive consumption of alcohol. He complained to the Colonial Office that such behavior lowered the dignity and prestige of the British which was essential if they were to succeed in thei