German East Africa - Administration
As its name implies, German East Africa was German. That is to say, it contained a score or two of large and small bomas — all flying the German flag; some hundreds of plantations — all flying the German flag; some hundreds of schools, the scholars of which paraded with a German flag and sang the German National Anthem on highdays and holidays. Every caravan had its German flag, which flew over the tent of almost every European on safari.
The Swahili text-books for natives contained pictures of the German flag, Kaiser Bill, Little Willie, and dates of the birthdays of all the Prussian princes — data which may to the uninitiated Britisher appear of no earthly use to the untutored native, but the Germans thought differently. So the locals were blessed with true and abundant official information regarding the family of the All-Highest. The news was amplified and kept up to date in the local vernacular newspapers.
But the protectorate was German in other respects. It boasted hundreds of coffee, rubber and sisal plantations, the owners of most of which were making little or no money just prior to the outbreak of war. During the rubber boom, many made money. During the same period, Customs returns showed an unprecedented increase in the imports of champagne and caviare.
Practically each plantation had at least one good stone bungalow, not built primarily for the comfort of, or out of the fulness of the pocket of, the owner, but in order to impress the neighbours with his importance and his evident desire to do things in correct style. For the same reason every second plantation assistant in receipt of a monthly stipend of Rs. 150 — or thereabouts — had visiting cards printed.
Bitterness was widespread, but only in one area did significant rebellion occur after the beginning of the twentieth century. The Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905 to 1907 spread through the entire coastal hinterland from Morogoro south of the Ruvuma River and inland to areas now covered by Morogoro and Ruvuma regions. Maji Maji (literally, water, water) refers to the medicine, consisting of water and grain (maize and sorghum seed), which was believed to create an immunity to bullets.
The Maji Maji Rebellion (and the Herero uprising in German Southwest Africa at the same time) shook the German public and government. The result was substantial reform in policy and procedures beginning with the creation of the Colonial Department under Bernhard Dernberg and the installation of Freiherr von Rechenburg as the first civilian governor of German East Africa.
For the first time, too, government officials were given some training. Under Reehenburg forced labor, except for public works, was ended, African rights to land were protected, and African agricultural production encouraged. Further he ordered a reduc-tion in corporal punishment and forbade the use of the whip by private persons. The institution of these reforms was not always easy: in particular, settlers in need of agricultural and other labor were not happy with the prohibition of forced labor and other labor regulations. Nevertheless there was a considerable improvement in the status of workers.
Perhaps for fear that action would arouse the chiefs and other prominent men, the German administration was slow to take one step that would affect the indigenous social systems of some of the mainland's peoples: the outright abolition of slavery. Nevertheless beginning in 1901 household slaves were permitted to purchase their own freedom, and in 1907 it was decreed that all children born after 1906 were free. Complete abolition did not occur until 1922 after the British had come to power.
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