Thursday, March 4, 2010

Daily Life under Imperial Rule

Colonization by the Germans and British of the area now known as Tanzania disrupted the colonized Africans’ traditional ways of life, especially on the mainland.1 For example, when the Germans first took control of the mainland, they created large plantations in the northeast highlands and forced southern and central Tanzanian farmers to move from their traditional tribal areas to work on state plantations growing cotton.2 When the British replaced the Germans, they maintained the same goals of maximizing land and labor, channeling African labor into three roles: small peasant farmer, plantation worker or mine worker.3 Kinship and family ties were disrupted when young men were either forced or chose to take jobs in distant locations, often to pay new taxes or buy new goods made available by the Europeans. Traditional women’s roles were also disrupted. Women left behind in the villages when the men went away to work experienced an enormous increase in the number of hours they had to work in order to provide for their families.4

The colonized Africans also experienced changes in their traditional governing structures. When the mainland was under German rule, there were three different major colonial regime and policy changes in a period of less than 20 years. The poor governance and harsh policies of the first two German regimes resulted in serious rebellions by coalitions of African tribes, who rebelled against new, high taxes imposed upon them and their brutal treatment by the German authorities. The Germans’ “scorched-earth” response to the biggest rebellion, known as the Maji-Maji War, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 250,000 Africans mainly from starvation and disease.5 The British disrupted traditional political structures by trying to bend them to their own uses as part of a policy of “indirect rule.” They relied on local chiefs to administer British policies at a local level, in the process changing the chiefs’ traditional roles. In areas that had traditionally operated as “stateless” societies, the British created chiefs that had not existed before causing resentment and confusion among the tribes people.6

In some ways, life in Tanzania changed less or changed more slowly as a result of colonization than in other parts of Africa because fewer Europeans settled in the region. During the period of German rule, relatively few Germans moved to Tanzania, mainly because colonization was not popular in Germany and Germans doubted the value of colonizing Africa.7 When the British took control after World War I, British settlers were not very attracted to the area because they mistrusted the trusteeship status of the region and chose to go to areas, such as Kenya, which were under clear British authority. In the 1930s, with the re-emergence of Germany as a power, the British also became concerned that Tanzania might have to be returned to the Germans.8 However, even though the pace was slower than in some other parts of Africa, eventually tribal life was changed in Tanzania by the colonists’ changes in the control and use of lands, enforcement of new legal systems, and emphasis on a money economy.9

Throughout the period of European colonization of Tanzania, the relatively few European settlers and administrators fared much better than the indigenous African population. For example, a study of crime in Dar es Salaam, the colonial capital of Tanzania, points out that “[m]ost Europeans and many Indians enjoyed lavish lifestyles in comparison to the impoverished African population.”10 Most Africans subsisted on very small wages and many in the urban areas could only get work from time to time rather than on a regular basis.11 In Zanzibar, British rule did not change the social stratification that had existed for more than a century. The Arab elite (although sometimes in debt to recent immigrants from India) continued at the top of the social and economic pyramid, followed by the Shirazis (descendants of Persian and African intermarriages), and finally the “mainlanders” (consisting of descendants of former slaves and workers from the mainland).12 The weak position of indigenous Africans in comparison to the ruling colonists was also shown in the conflicts that occurred between the colonists and colonized. With their better weapons and better strategic positions, the Europeans invariably won and suffered fewer casualties. Between 1888 and 1902, the Germans who were then in control of the Tanzanian mainland, conducted 84 major military campaigns against the Africans.28 In the Maji-Maji War, only a few Germans died in comparison to the 250,000 Africans who lost their lives.13


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1. “Colonial Policies and Practice: German Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

2. “Tanzania.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

3. “Africa in the Nineteenth Century, 1780-1914.” DISCovering World History. Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

4. “Colonial Policies and Practice: German Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

5. “Law: Anglophone Eastern Africa.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

6. “Colonial Policies and Practice: German Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

7. “Colonial Policies and Practice: British Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History

8. “Africa in the Nineteenth Century, 1780-1914.” DISCovering World History. Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

9. Burton, Andrew. "The Growh of Crime in a Colonial African Urban Centre: Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, 1919-1961." Crime, History, & Socities 4.2 (2004): 85-115. Librairie Droz. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. http://chs.revues.org/index465.html

10. Burton. “The Growth of Crime in a Colonial African Urban Centre: Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, 1919-1961.”

11. “Colonial Policies and Practice: British Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History

12. Wesseling, H L. Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914. Trans. Arnold J Pomerans. Westport: H.L. Wesseling, 1996. Print. 169.

13. “Colonial Policies and Practice: German Policies.” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

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