Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EUROPEAN CONTROL
Historical Hotspots
»Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge Museum
»Kondoa Rock-Art Sites
»Natural History Museum, Arusha
»National Museum, Dar es Salaam
»Arusha Declaration Museum, Arusha
»Nyerere Museum, Butiama
The romantic reports of early-19th-century European travellers to East Africa such as
Richard Burton, John Speke, David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley caught the at-
tention of a young German adventurer in the late 19th century. In 1885, without obtaining
his government's endorsement, Carl Peters set up a Company for German Colonization.
From Zanzibar, he travelled into the interior on the mainland, shooting his way across the
plains and collecting the signatures of African chiefs on a stack of blank treaty forms he had
brought with him. In Berlin, Chancellor Bismarck approved the acquisition of African ter-
ritory after the fact, much to the consternation of the British. They had established informal
rule over Zanzibar through control of the Sultan of Zanzibar and had their eye on the rich,
fertile lands around Kilimanjaro and the Great Lakes.
In late 1886, East Africa was sliced into 'spheres of influence' by agreement between the
British and the Germans, formalised in 1890. The frontier ran west from the coast to Lake
Victoria along the modern Kenya-Tanzania border. Needless to say, the Africans weren't
consulted on the agreement. Nor was the Sultan of Zanzibar. The Germans parked a gunboat
in Zanzibar harbour until he signed over his claim to the mainland.
The Colonial Era
The word 'Swahili' ('of the coast', from the Arabic word
sahil
) refers
both to the Swahili language, and to the Islamic culture of the peoples in-
habiting the East African coast from Mogadishu (Somalia) down to
Mozambique. Both language and culture are a mixture of Bantu, Arabic,
Persian and Asian influences.
The colonial economy was constructed to draw wealth out of the region and into the coffers
of the colonial occupiers. Little investment was made in improving the quality of life or
opportunities for local people. Peasants were compelled to grow cash crops for export and
many were forcibly moved onto plantations. The Maji Maji Rebellion (
Click here
)
against
