(Re)Negotiating Marginality: The Maji Maji War and Its Aftermath in Southwestern Tanzania, ca. 1905–1916

One hundred years ago, various societies in German East Africa fought the Maji Maji war, mostly in the southern regions of the colony. Maji is the Kiswahili word for water and refers to the war medicine as well as the messianic message carried by messengers of the Bokero cult who spread the word of the need for resistance. The war, which commenced in July 1905 and in most areas ended as a military conflict in the following year, was chiefly directed against the German colonial presence, collaborators with the colonial state, and individuals perceived to be foreigners, such as coastal traders in the interior. The colonial authorities were particularly concerned about the southwest region of the territory, known as Ungoni or Songea District. Here the military effort was tremendous.1 By spring 1906 Major Kurt Johannes, in charge of the expedition corps in Ungoni, had summarily executed about 100 Ngoni male elders in an effort to wipe out the entire political and military elite. At the same time, the scorched earth tactics he had implemented since early December 1905 were beginning to show results. The German counter insurgency campaign intensified the suffering of the majority of African men, women, and children living in Ungoni from the spring of 1906 onward. Colonial troops continued to systematically enslave women and children as war captives; humiliation at the hands of soldiers, auxiliaries, and their allies persisted; and now starvation, the pawning of children into areas where food was available, and displacement began to disrupt society more profoundly. It was only in 1910, when the famine was finally overcome and many of the displaced returned, that Ungoni began its recovery process. The counter insurgency campaign was so horrific that today many remember this time not as the vita vya maji maji, the Maji Maji war, but as the vita vya Mjerumani, the German war, or as the time of njaa, the great hunger.2 This article presents a three-fold argument First, despite the severe hardships experienced by the majority of the population, the Maji Maji war and its aftermath also provided opportunities for some to renegotiate their position of marginality as power relations became more fluid. Slaves,3 male youths, and some women experienced at least a moment, and at times life-changing chances, of empowerment. The status of male elders was significantly, though temporarily, undermined. The parallels with modern guerrilla warfare and warlordism are not coincidental. Consequently, this study suggests eliminating the dichotomy between African wars of resistance during the conquest and early colonial period on the one hand, and liberation wars and more recent conflict on the other. Second, the key to understanding the Maji Maji war and its aftermath in Ungoni lies in the Wangoni's imagined ethnicity, to paraphrase Benedict Anderson.4 Ngoni identity was constituted through the affirmation of masculinity, preferably in battle, with women almost entirely marginalized in the discourse over political identity.5 Hence, Ungoni provides a case study that contributes to the newer Maji Maji historiography that challenges the older assumptions of a unified struggle. Mobilization for the war and political settlement in its aftermath in this area of Tanzania must be explained through the lens of Ngoni identity: its assertion, opposition, and attainment. Third, the historiography of Ungoni assumes a dichotomy between Ngoni as a slave raiding, slave trading, and slave owning society vis-a-vis sutu, denoting the Ngoni's "other."6 This dichotomous worldview is problematic, not least because sutu men could become Ngoni, for which the Maji Maji war provided an opportunity. This ethnic ideology permeated the German colonial sources and was at times used as a tool in local politics as well. Thus, Ngoni ethnicity presents a prime example of the arbitrary creation of tribes and, more importantly, for the malleability of political and social identities, during the early colonial period. …