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Mikocheni ( Kata ya Mikocheni , in Swahili ) is an administrative ward in Kinondoni District of the Dar es Salaam Region in Tanzania . The Kawe and Msasani form the north and east boundaries of the ward, respectively. The ward is bordered to the south by the Kinondoni and Mwananyamala . And last but not least, Makongo to west of the ward. Many government organizations, notably the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority , have their headquarters in the ward. According to the 2012 census, the ward has a population of 32,947.

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78-468: The postal code for Mikocheni ward is 14112. The ward is divided into the following neighborhoods ( Mitaa ): The ward, like every other ward in the country, has local government offices based on the population served. The Mikocheni Ward administration building houses a court as per the Ward Tribunal Act of 1988, including other vital departments for the administration the ward. The ward has

156-923: A Bantu ethnic group native to the central eastern coast of Tanzania , particularly Dar es Salaam Region and Pwani Region . They are the largest ethnic group in and around Dar es Salaam , the former capital of Tanzania and the 7th largest city in Africa. Estimated to be about 0.7 million people, over 98% of them are Muslims , more specifically the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam. Zaramo people are considered influential in Tanzania popular culture, with musical genres like Sengeli originating from their community in Kinondoni District. Their culture and history have been shaped by their dwelling in both urban and rural landscapes. The original Zaramo language, sometimes called Kizaramo ,

234-464: A liwali . The British first established a Township Authority made up of selected Europeans and Asians before experimenting with a number of "native administrations." The town was made into a separate district and divided into six wards, one under each elder. Finally, in 1941, the Township Authority received a native affairs sub-committee and its first African members. These measures included making

312-411: A Zaramo headman the chief of the entire township, establishing a council of six elders, each of whom represented a grouping of tribes from one direction, and making the town a separate district. Population increase altered Dar es Salaam's entire character. Many Zaramo settlements, particularly Buguruni, were subsumed by the shanty cities the immigrants established. Magomeni had a population density that

390-762: A belief that the people of East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. German anthropologists recorded that he gave his followers war medicine that would turn German bullets into water. This "war medicine" was in fact water ( maji in Kiswahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds. Empowered with this new liquid, Bokero's followers began what would become known as the Maji Maji Rebellion. The followers of Bokero's movement were poorly armed with spears and arrows , sometimes poisoned. However, they were numerous and believed that they could not be harmed because

468-484: A cash crop for export. Each village was charged with producing a quota of cotton, despite the fact that the high water requirements of cotton made it impossible to grow in most of the country. The headmen of the village were put in charge of overseeing the production, which set them against the rest of the population. The German government also introduced laws to protect forests and wildlife. While these measures may have been desirable in theory, they led to great hardship for

546-458: A girl's female power and her fertility. A girl has a reproductive cycle within society-one that starts with her first menses, continues to her initiation, marriage, birth of her children, and finally ends with the puberty of her grandchildren, at which point her reproductive cycle is over. The girl novice, also called mwali, is secluded in her mother's house for anywhere between two weeks and one year. Earlier documentation states that this process in

624-928: A higher importance being placed upon sufficient grave marking. Traditional Zaramo grave figures have a variety of names: mwana hiti (no longer in contemporary use,) nguzo za makaburi (translated to "grave posts,") mashahidi wa makaburi (translated to "grave witness.") These figures are considered witnesses or representation of the deceased. Mwana hiti grave figures are separate from mwana hiti initiation figures, and were mainly used for headmen or chief graves. Sometimes grave markers are created as marionette-like, wooden puppets called motto wa bandia to become mnemonic honorary devices. Staffs, aside from their use as walking supports, are used as ritual aids, titular symbols, and representations of power. Specific staffs are usual signifiers of chiefs, diviners, and linguists. Literally translated to "small stick," kifimbo staffs are small staffs used mainly for military authority. It

702-475: A large number of homes. However, it is noteworthy that neither Shomvi nor Zaramo had much real estate because Dar es Salaam's explosive growth from humble beginnings had engulfed both native groups. Nobody took Shomvi and Zaramo seriously when they both occasionally asserted that they "owned" the town. Shomvi were primarily fishermen, while Zaramo, who came from a less developed educational region, were "very submerged"—a characteristic that set Dar es Salaam apart from

780-520: A relatively weak hold on German East Africa. However, they maintained a system of forts throughout the interior of the territory and were able to exert some control over it. Since their hold on the colony was weak, they resorted to using violently repressive tactics to control the population. Germany levied head taxes in 1898 and relied heavily on forced labour to build roads and accomplish various other tasks. In 1902, governor of German East Africa, Gustav Adolf von Götzen ordered villages to grow cotton as

858-641: A result of Zaramo's disregard. Resources for resistance were offered by indigenous religious organizations like the Kubandwa Cult and the Uwuxala Society. Long-established populations were not always opposed to Christianity, though. Only eleven of the 150–200 waalimu in Uzaramo were reported to be able to interpret the Koran rather than merely recite it in 1912, when it was claimed that students at Koran schools learned

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936-503: A second column of 1,200 men advanced from the east. Some of these attackers were able to get within three paces of the firing line before they were killed. While this was the apex of the uprising, the Ngoni people decided to join in the revolt with a force of 5,000. The Gwangara Ngoni were relatively recent arrivals in the region, descendants of a remnant of the Ndwandwe confederation defeated by

1014-434: A unified movement but rather a series of revolts conducted for a wide range of reasons, including religion. The Ngoni chiefs were offered Christian baptism before execution. Many people in the area itself saw the revolt as one part of a longer series of wars continuing since long before the arrival of Germans in the region. They cite the alliance of some groups with the Germans to further their own agendas. The role of Islam in

1092-535: Is Bantu , belonging to the Niger-Congo family of languages. However, in contemporary Tanzania, only a few speak it, and most speak Swahili language as their first language, as it is the trading language of the East African coast and the national language of Tanzania. Kizaramo is still used in many Zaramo rituals, such as the mwali rites, though they often appear alongside Swahili translations. By oral tradition,

1170-441: Is a physically strenuous task, which is the main reason a woman may retire from the practice. Good clay is the most essential part of Zaramo pottery, with many potters choosing to mix several types of clay to achieve maximum durability through the firing process. A pottery wheel is not used; instead, "pinch pot" techniques (generally for smaller vessels) and coiling methods (generally for larger vessels) are used. After being formed,

1248-434: Is continued into death, in which the spirits of the dead, mizimu , only bring misfortune upon the living. Illness, death, infertility, and poor agriculture can all be attributed to the spitefulness of mizimu. Tambiko are funeral rites where the family clean the grave and offer food and drink to each other and the deceased. Sometimes a temporary hut is built around the grave to act as a shrine. After Tanzanian independence in

1326-663: Is directly correlated to that of chiefs in Tanzania. By the early-mid-20th century, much of Zaramo pottery consisted of internal creations and imports from Europe, Japan, and India. Most of Zaramo pottery consists of ceramic water jars and earthenware cooking pots and dishes. Pottery is generally made for kitchen-use, thus resulting in two main types/uses: vessels for liquid (narrow-rimmed) and vessels for cooking and serving food (open and curved rims.) Cooking dishes may range from 5-12 inches in diameter and 2-3 inches in height, usually topped with an open, flared rim. General cooking pots are called chungu, while dishes made specifically for

1404-444: Is either held in the hand or tucked between the upper arm and the torso. Kifimbo hold no functional use, and are considered purely symbolic. Traditional kome staffs are tall staffs made from blackwood ( mpingo ) and are carved to possess animal and human (women) decoration. Mwana hiti were common top decorations before Tanzanian independence. Kome staffs are typically associated with chief power, and so their decreased presence

1482-469: Is home to the following health institutions: This Dar es Salaam Region location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Zaramo people Dar es Salaam Region ( Temeke District , Ilala District , Ubungo District , Kinondoni District , Kigamboni District ) Pwani Region The Zaramo people , also referred to as Dzalamo or Saramo ( Wazaramo , in Swahili ), are

1560-488: Is important to Zaramo agriculture because it can grow with very little rain. For Zaramo people who live on the coast, fishing is also popular for both personal consumption and trade. Some Zaramo may also choose to brew beer, make charcoal, or dig for copal for a living. Those with specialized professions, mafundi , or as healers and diviners, mganga , rarely work those positions full time, often working agriculturally to supplement. The independence of Tanganyika in 1961 and

1638-475: Is one of a consortium of five museums collectively known as the National Museum of Tanzania . The museum is also associated with a cultural center (Makumbusho Cultural Centre), which organizes performances of traditional dances and traditional food tastings Tanzania. Local artists operate in the museum, and artisans display and sell their creations. The ward is home to these educational institutions: The ward

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1716-456: Is present) or white beads as jewelry. Mwali hiti are meant to spark a "nurturing consciousness" within the mwali to instill a desire to have children. They also act as the main socializing for the mwali during her seclusion, measuring her skills as a future mother and teaching her the responsibilities of womanhood (i.e. taking care of oneself and children.) Mwali must treat the mwana hiti as her child, bathing it, oiling it, dressing

1794-425: Is seen as a job that complements the agricultural and domestic responsibilities assigned to women. Apart from most of Africa, Zaramo women do not sell their pottery in markets, instead operating on an order/commission system. While any women may choose to practice pottery, many women are taught by older relatives when they are mwali , a time when girls are secluded in the home and normally learn domestic skills. Pottery

1872-470: Is simpler to map out Islam's political stance by the 1950s. Not only was it growing almost as quickly as Christianity, but Muslims also appeared to be adhering to their religion more rigidly than before. However, a lot of cultural resistance endured. Few Zaramo Muslims frequented mosques, and their female rituals remained largely non-Islamic. Urban Islam was occasionally quite superficial, notably in Dar es Salaam. Even

1950-440: Is termed as nhulu or "growth." The initiation process takes place during the dry season and about once every three years. Each novice, mwali, have a designated instructor, mhunga, who guides the youth through the circumcision process, teaches Zaramo sex lore and practice. Once the mwali are circumcised, they are brought to an initiation hut, kumbi, where they are taught, and then are not permitted to bathe for two weeks. Once

2028-402: Is then carried to a mkole tree where is circumcised as well by an operator, or mnhunga. She is then returned to her family and she is celebrated with an mbwelo dance. Mwana Hiti figures may also be referred to as mwana nya kiti, mwana nya nhiti, or mwana mkongo. These names stem from mwana, meaning "child," and nya kiti and nya nhiti meaning "wood" and "chair." Mkongo refers to

2106-587: The Belgian Congo branch and the son of slave parents, was one of the committee members. He also had a significant home. Two notable leaders were from the Zaramo: Ramadhani Ali, the first vice-president and a trader, and Ali Saidi, a building inspector who served as the association's treasurer during the 1930s. Both later served as leaders of the Wazaramo Union, with Ramadhani Ali serving as King of

2184-463: The mwali are allowed to bathe again, their mothers in the village hold a village dance, mbiga. After eight more days the mwali return to the village and their instructors burn the kumbi and anything else related to the initiation. The mwali are now men of society and celebrate with mlao, a dance of emergence. Female initiation begins with a girl's first menses. The rituals associated with female initiation are performed to protect and enrich

2262-570: The mwana hiti can also double as a tambiko , or "sacrifice," as a means to create stronger ties with the spiritual world. Men are the carvers of mwana hiti , many creating reputations for their highly sought after figures. Mwana hiti are only commissioned, and there cannot be more than one figure commissioned by a family at a time. Carvers also cannot create mwali hiti if a family already possesses one. The carver creates mwana hiti out of one piece of wood (or gourd) that he picks out, though any decorations for hair or jewelry must be provided by

2340-453: The mwana hiti vary, the average being around 10 centimeters. They can be projections of a child, a woman with a child, or an mwali. Mwana hiti are cylindrical figures with depictions of a head and torso of relatively equal size and usually no arms, legs or genitalia. Breasts and a navel are often present as well as hair. Facial features are simple and abstract, occasionally not being present. These figures may be decorated with metal (if hair

2418-594: The 1960s, an increasing number of Zaramo people have requested to be buried in their home villages on private land or on church grounds. The influence of Islam and the increase of urbanization and literacy have been marked as responsible for the decline in traditional Zaramo figure grave posts. The majority of contemporary grave markers are slab markers with written sentiments and notifiers. Decreasing land availability in Dar Es Salaam has led to an increase in unmarked grave sites holding multiple bodies, which has resulted in

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2496-492: The 19th century. Conversion to Islam among the coastal Zaramo people began in the 19th century. These historic events, states Stockreiter, have influenced the politics and inter-ethnic relations in 20th-century Tanzania. Initiation rituals are required for the youth of the Zaramo people to become full-fledged members of adult society. Theses rituals generally happen around puberty and the female's first menses. The male ceremony

2574-486: The African population, not least because of an increase in wild pigs, which did enormous damage to food crops. The German policies were very unpopular, as they had serious effects on the lives of local peoples. The social fabric of society was rapidly changing: as the roles of men and women were being changed, they had to adapt for the communities. Since men were forced away from their homes to work, women had to take on some of

2652-452: The German cantonment, which was defended by Lieutenant Theodor von Hassel with sixty native soldiers, a few hundred loyal tribesmen, and two machine guns . The two attacking tribes disagreed on when to attack and were unable to co-ordinate. The first attack was met with gunfire from 1000 meters; the tribesmen stood firm for about fifteen minutes, then broke and retreated. After the first attack,

2730-484: The German government. Kaiser Wilhelm immediately ordered two cruisers with their Marine complements to the troubled colony. Reinforcements also arrived from as far away as New Guinea. When 1,000 regular soldiers from Germany arrived in October, Götzen felt he could go on the offensive and restore order in the south. Three columns moved into the rebellious South. They destroyed villages, crops, and other food sources used by

2808-405: The Germans' bullets would turn to water. They marched from their villages wearing millet stalks around their foreheads. Initially, they attacked small outposts and damaged cotton plants. On 31 July 1905, Matumbi tribesmen marched on Samanga and destroyed the cotton crop as well as a trading post. Kinjikitile was arrested and hanged for treason. Before his execution, he declared that he had spread

2886-807: The Great Hunger ( ukame ), caused in large part by the scorched-earth policies used by governor von Götzen to suppress the rebellion. These tactics have been described by scholars as genocidal . The name may have been the origin of the term for the 'Mau Mau rebellion' in Kenya five decades later. After the Scramble for Africa among the major European powers in the 1880s, Germany reinforced its hold on several formal African colonies. These were German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and part of Mozambique), German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), Cameroon, and Togoland (today split between Ghana and Togo). The Germans had

2964-546: The Kaguru, Kwere, Kutu, Kami, Sagara, Luguru, Ngulu and Vidunda peoples. The majority of the peoples of Tanganyika were patrilineal , but there are signs that many of them were once matrilineal . Some of these matrilineal peoples, like the Zaramo, Luguru, Mwera, and Makonde , were able to survive in the south-east where tsetse may have prevented men from acquiring cattle to pass on to their sons. The Zaramo society has been historically victimized by slave raids and slave trading by

3042-565: The Koran in Arabic without grasping its meaning. Magic and literacy frequently intertwined. It was customary to read the entire Koran aloud to honor ancestors or to purify a community. A passage from the Koran served as a standard amulet, and ink diluted in water served as a standard medication. A Zaramo Muslim immigrant worker named Abdulrahman Saidi Mboga is credited with introducing superior rice varieties and irrigation methods to South Pare . It

3120-452: The Marini and one of the most prominent Africans in Dar es Salaam. These men had completely different interests and unifying principles than Watts or Matola did. The organisation was split throughout the 1930s between proponents of a territorial alliance of educated men and supporters of harmony between the various social classes in the city. Africans in the town were governed by the Germans via

3198-605: The Shomvi could not meet his demands, they offered for him and his family to live with them on the coast, where they would receive an annual tribute instead. The war and its results were said to be the founding of the Zaramo. Undoubtedly after the Maji Maji rebellion, it was a period of significant Islamic expansion. Before 1914, the Ngindo , Zaramo, and Zigua peoples in the coastal hinterland had been heavily influenced by Islam. Since then,

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3276-493: The Swahili-Arab traders of Zanzibar . To resist this persecution, they developed stockade-fortified villages. Many ran away from the coast, and would return during the daytime to farm and fish. Zanzibar Arabs, state William Worger, Nancy Clark and Edward Alpers, however pursued their slave raiding into the mainland, where they would seize pagan Zaramo adults and children, gag them so they would not cry out, and then sell them to

3354-667: The Zanzibar Archipelago in 1963 and their subsequent formation of the United Republic of Tanzania led to a significant shift in Tanzanian culture, as well as the Zaramo culture. In 1963, 132 chiefs and headmen were removed from their political positions as government executives. The decreased status of chiefs and headmen has led to the dwindling of their numbers and traditions associated with them. Zaramo people hold their dead with high respect and reverence. They believe that life

3432-483: The Zaramo are said to be descendants of the Shomvi people under the lead of the warrior-hero, Pazi in the early 19th century. The Shomvi, a mercantile clan living in what is present-day Dar Es Salaam were attacked by an offshoot group of Kamba people from Kenya . The Shomvi sought help from the warrior, Pazi, who lived in the hinterlands. When Pazi defeated the Kamba, he asked for salt, cloth, and other luxuries in return. When

3510-600: The Zulus in 1818 (other Ngoni states were formed in Malawi, Zambia, and north-central Tanzania). German troops, armed with machine guns, departed from Mahenge to the Ngoni camp, which they attacked on 21 October. The Ngoni soldiers retreated, throwing away their bottles of war medicine and crying, "The maji is a lie!" Upon the outbreak of the fighting, Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen , governor of German East Africa, had requested reinforcements from

3588-480: The act of frying are called kaango or kikaango (depending on size), with smaller bowls being referred to as bakuli. Chetezo or Kitezo are shallow dishes made to be placed on shrine pedestals to hold incense offerings. Mtungi are large pots, sometimes reaching 2 feet high, that are made particularly to hold water for bathing and drinking; a household generally has two of these vessels, one for each use. Sometimes mtungi are replaced with buckets or oil drums,

3666-419: The causes of the rebellion. Sunseri has summarised the results of the inquiry as follows: Ultimately members of the commission disagreed on the nature of the uprising, dividing between those who saw it as an irrational movement spawned by sorcerers and headmen making use of maji water medicine, disgruntled because they had been steadily losing influence since the advent of colonial rule, and those who dismissed

3744-550: The coastal area's major religion. By 1913, Muslims were up half of the Zaramo population. Both from the coast and up north from the Rufiji, where Zaramo tracked the boys' jando initiation ceremony that contributed significantly to the spread of Islam, proselytizing had taken place. Zaramo started performing Islamic circumcision. Islam in the coastal region and its hinterland typically made it difficult for missions to be effective. The Benedictines relocated their operations inland as

3822-427: The colony. The attack on Ifakara, on 16 August, destroyed the small German garrison and opened the way to the key fortification at Mahenge . Though the southern garrison was quite small (there were but 458 European and 588 native soldiers in the entire area), their fortifications and modern weapons gave them an advantage. At Mahenge, several thousand Maji Maji warriors (led by another spirit medium; not Bokero) marched on

3900-437: The cotton scheme which the author had initiated," and he calls it "an account of atavistic conspiracy." The insurgents turned to magic to drive out the German colonizers and used it as a unifying force in the rebellion. A spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale , who practiced folk Islam that incorporated animist beliefs , claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit called Hongo. Ngwale began calling himself Bokero and developed

3978-548: The district at one time. As the city progressed, the ward transformed into an international neighborhood. There are 32,947 people living in the ward. Mikocheni houses the Makumbusho Village Museum (or simply Village Museum; in Swahili "Kijiji cha Makumbusho"), an outdoor museum exhibiting 16 traditional houses of the main ethnic groups of Tanzania , and the typical crops of each of these ethnic groups. Founded in 1996, it

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4056-623: The encounter between the African people, Arab-Swahili trader intermediaries and the European powers, but it broadly coopted the older slave-driven, social stratification model. According to Elke Stockreiter – a professor of History specializing on Africa, the slaves seized from Zaramo people and other ethnic groups such as Yao, Makonde and Nyamwezi peoples from the mainland and brought to the coastal Tanzania region and Zanzibar sought social inclusion and attempted to reduce their treatment as inferiors by their slave owners by adopting and adapting to Islam in

4134-563: The family. The Zaramo people have borrowed from the general Swahili and the once-occupying Arab culture in terms of dress such as wearing a skull cap, Islamic festivals and Muslim observances, but they continue some of their pre-Islam traditions such as matrilineal kinship, while a few pursue the Kolelo fertility cult and the worship of their ancient deity Mulungu . The traditional practice of Mganga or medicine man, along with Muslim clerics offering services as divine healers, remains popular among

4212-414: The following administration offices: In the local government system of Tanzania, the ward is the smallest democratic unit. Each ward is composed of a committee of eight elected council members which include a chairperson, one salaried officer (with no voting rights), and an executive officer. One-third of seats are reserved for women councillors. The Zaramo people lived in the ward and a major portion of

4290-412: The government, urging instead a paramount chief to guide the Zaramo toward progress. Urban ethnicity was not just a means of survival, but also a productive effort to forge groups that could work well together in colonial society. The term, "Zaramo," in scholarly studies also reflects a macro-ethnic group. The larger Zaramo group consists of Zaramo proper, but includes a number of related peoples such as

4368-411: The hair (of which the mwali wears the same style,) and feeding it. If she fails to complete these motherly tasks she may be denied fertility in the future. Fertility is prized in Zaramo culture as children are seen as economic and cultural goals for prosperity and legacy. If a woman encounters fertility after her initiation is over, she may choose to repeat seclusion and mwana hiti rites. This means

4446-469: The impoverished Zaramo communities. The Zaramo people are settled farmers who also keep livestock and fish. They also are migrant workers to Tanzania's capital city and tourist sites, considering business, or biashara, their job. They live in pangone or shanty clusters of villages. They produce staple foods such as rice, millet, maize, sorghum, and cassava, as well as cash crops such as coconuts, legumes, cashews, pineapples, oranges, and bananas. Cassava

4524-463: The leaders of German troops in the colony, Captain Wangenheim, wrote to von Götzen, "Only hunger and want can bring about a final submission. Military actions alone will remain more or less a drop in the ocean." Germany's tactics have been described as genocidal by scholars such as A. Dirk Moses and Klaus Bachmann . Not until August 1907 were the last embers of rebellion extinguished. In its wake,

4602-540: The manufactured alternatives being more durable, though they keep the water less cool. Mtungi tend to have more fragile necks prone to cracking and chipping. There is not much distinction between pottery for everyday use and pottery for rituals, such as ceremonial mwali bathing, healing rituals, and grave offerings. Everyday pottery may be used, though many ceremonies require the vessel to be new. The majority of potters in Zaramo culture are women, who are called fundi wa kufinyanga or "masters of making pottery." Pottery

4680-609: The medicine of the rebellion throughout the region. On 14 August 1905, Ngindo tribesmen attacked a small party of missionaries on a safari; all five, including Bishop Spiss (the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dar es Salaam ) were speared to death. Soon the Yao tribes started participating and throughout August the rebels moved from the Matumbi Hills in the southern part of what is now Tanzania and attacked German garrisons throughout

4758-560: The mkongo tree, of which many mwana hiti are carved from. All of these names refer to the mwana hiti as a "child of wood." Mwana hiti may be represented in other forms besides figures such as walking sticks, staff, stool, musical instruments, and grave posts among others. Mwana hiti don't belong to individuals, but to families, and they are passed down generations, sometimes up to 40 or 50 years. Mwana hiti are usually made of wood, however some Zaramo traditions say they should be made of gourds as gourds are symbols of fertility. Sizes of

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4836-671: The ostensibly Muslim Ngindo rarely performed Islamic marriage. During the British period, the founding members of the African Association included representatives from the three most influential African communities in Dar es Salaam in the 1920s: the Manyema , and Zaramo. Effendi Plantan, the former head of the ex-askari community, had raised its secretary, Kleist Sykes. Mzee Sudi, the Manyema leader for

4914-445: The other capitals of East Africa. The trible associations of the 1950s were heavily focused on rural improvement in addition to urban welfare. The Wazaramo Union was the best illustration. The Zaramo did not require an association to bury or care for them because he lived so near to the town. However, the Wazaramo Union was home to about 3,500 of the 6,500 tribal union members who were enrolled in Dar es Salaam in 1955. Its main priority

4992-481: The past could have taken up to five years. The mwali's paternal aunt is usually assigned as her shangazi , or the one who takes over the mwali's teachings and ceremonies. The initiate is taught domestic responsibilities such as housekeeping, childcare, sexual and moral behavior, and mature interaction in society. During seclusion, the mwali is not allowed to speak, work, or go outside, to symbolize her death and put emphasis on her re-emergence as symbolic birth. She

5070-548: The pottery are left to dry out for two to seven days before being fired, not in a kiln, but a wood fire. The vessels are placed on top of a fire, and more wood and plant material are placed on top of the vessels. Firing lasts two to three hours. If the pottery is to be colored, they are colored directly after firing. Maji Maji Rebellion [REDACTED] Germany Qadiriyya Brotherhood Matumbi Ngindo , Ngoni , Yao tribes The Maji Maji Rebellion ( German : Maji-Maji-Aufstand , Swahili : Vita vya Maji Maji ),

5148-573: The rebellion had left 15 Germans, 73 askaris, 316 ruga ruga , and tens or even hundreds of thousands of insurgents and local civilians dead. The Abushiri revolt of 1888–1889 and the Wahehe Rebellion of 1891–1898 are viewed by historians as precursors of the Maji Maji uprising. The suppression of the Maji Maji people changed the history of southern Tanzania . Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people died or were displaced from their homes. In

5226-570: The rebellion is a matter for debate. In a recent review of the evidence, Jörg Haustein concludes that the contention that Islam was a factor "is not warranted by historical sources and established scholarship about the Maji Maji War." John Iliffe interprets the rebellion as a "mass movement [which] originated in peasant grievances, was then sanctified and extended by prophetic religion, and finally crumbled as crisis compelled reliance on fundamental loyalties to kin and tribe". Patrick Redmond describes

5304-848: The rebels. They made effective use of their firepower to break up rebel attacks. A successful ambush of a German column crossing the Rufiji River by the Bena kept the rebellion alive in the southwest, but the Germans were not denied for long. By April 1906, the southwest had been pacified. However, elsewhere the fighting was bitter. A column under Lieutenant Gustav von Blumenthal (1879–1913, buried at Lindi ) consisting of himself, one other European and 46 Askaris fell under continuous attack as it marched in early May 1906, from Songea to Mahenge. The Germans decided to concentrate at Kitanda, where Major Kurt Johannes , Lieutenants von Blumenthal and Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau eventually gathered. Von Blumenthal

5382-412: The region has never been successfully rebuilt." Later Tanzanian nationalists used it as an example of the first stirrings of Tanzanian nationalism, a unifying experience that brought together all the different peoples of Tanzania under one leader, in an attempt to establish a nation free from foreign domination. Later historians have challenged that view and claimed that the rebellion cannot be seen as

5460-602: The region has primarily become Islamic, with the exception of Maasai, some of Bonde (whom had a long history of missions), and to a lesser extent, Matumbi . The last barrier to the Islamization of the Digo in the north was eliminated by the destruction of Lutheran artifacts. When missionary work began in the south after many Mwera and Makua stopped practicing Christianity, polygynous marriages and other barriers made it difficult for many converts to return, which led to Islam becoming

5538-410: The role of spirit mediums and emphasized the burdens created by German administration. The governor's circle cultivated the image of an atavistic, superstitious movement rooted in traditional beliefs so as to insulate their policies from close scrutiny. In 1909 Götzen published a history of the rebellion. John Iliffe has said of this work that it is "remarkable for containing no reference whatever to

5616-502: The traders. Sometimes during famines, such as in the 19th-century rule of Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar , desperate Zaramo people pawned and sold each other to survive. The Zaramo society's history has long been influenced by the coastal encounter between the Arab-Persian and African populations typical of East Africa, since the 8th century. During the colonial era, the influence came from

5694-485: The traditional male roles. Also, the men's absence strained the resources of the village, and the people's ability to deal with their environment and remain self-sufficient. In 1905, a drought threatened the region. All that, as well as opposition to the government's agricultural and labour policies, led to open rebellion against the Germans in July. In the aftermath of the rebellion, Governor von Götzen initiated an inquiry into

5772-463: The wake of the war, the imperial government instituted administrative reforms under the governorship of Albrecht von Rechenberg . The rebellion became a focal point in the history of the region. Journalist John Gunther noted in 1953 that "even today the Southern Province of Tanganyika , the 'Cinderella Province,' has not fully recovered from the German terror half a century ago. The economy of

5850-459: Was an armed rebellion of Africans against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania ). The war was triggered by German colonial policies designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export. The war lasted from 1905 to 1907, during which 75,000 to 300,000 died, overwhelmingly from famine. The end of the war was followed by a period of famine , known as

5928-454: Was more than double that of Nyamwezi, although many Zaramo lived in Buguruni in the far west, which blended into the surrounding landscape. According to a survey conducted in 1956, the majority of homes were constructed using small business owners' or artists' money. It also revealed that several ethnic groups, like the Manyema, Yao, and Makonde who were among the town's first settlers, possessed

6006-500: Was then sent along the Luwegu River, partly by boat. The southeast campaign degenerated into a guerrilla war that brought with it a devastating famine. The German scorched earth policy deliberately caused famine among the population. Von Götzen was willing to pardon the common soldiers who gave up their weapons, leaders and traditional healers. However, he also needed to flush out the remaining rebels and so chose famine. In 1905, one of

6084-549: Was to promote rural Uzaramo. The objective of the Zaaramo Union according to its secretary, was to construct the "UNITY, BESTIR LIFT UP", of the Wazaramo and their country in the essential matters. To this end, it purchased and operated two lorries to transport people and agricultural produce between towns and rural areas, established nine branches in the tribal area, and campaigned against "the old out-of-date Wakilis" recognized by

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