Tanganyika Between the Wars
The British had established a rudimentary administrative structure in 1917. Sir Horace Byatt, who had been administrator of the territory while it was occupied by British troops, became its first governor. British administration was formally established by the Tanganyika Order in Council, which empowered the governor to make ordinances but directed him to respect "native law and custom." The Executive Council, consisting of the governor and his four highest officials, was formed and the High Court instituted.
On July 22, 1922, the Council of the League of Nations formally gave Tanganyika the status of a mandated territory, making Great Britain responsible for the "peace, order and good government of the territory" and for promoting "to the utmost the material and moral wellbeing and the social progress of its inhabitants." Although the Permanent Mandates Commission of the league superintended the mandatory powers neither it nor the council of the league had effective authority.
The power of the commission was minimal. Such influence as it had depended on the willingness of the European state holding the mandate to respond to its appeals. In the case of Tanganyika, the commission's comments on some matters, particularly labor conditions, had some effect. In the long run the fact that Tanganyika had been a mandated territory was significant in that it became a candidate for trusteeship under the United Nations (UN) after World War II, a status that had greater consequence than that of a mandate under the League of Nations.
After the British takeover all Germans, including missionaries, were expelled. During the war estates had fallen into decay, overseas trade had stopped, and African production was neglected. Many Africans had been away serving as soldiers or porters, and disease and famine had taken a toll. It has been estimated that thousands of African porters died during the war and that 30,000 Africans had perished because of famine. Others died in battle.
Given this difficult situation and his lack of personnel and money, Hyatt moved slowly in his brief period as governor, He retained the German administrative districts and permitted the more experienced nulakida to remain in power. Local administrative officers were permitted to make their own arrangements for local government.
In 1924 Donald Cameron, appointed as governor of Tanganyika, introduced the system known as indirect rule, the basis of which was the use of traditional sociopolitical systems as an integral part of colonial administration. These systems were to he gradually adapted to new needs and methods. It was felt that not only would Africans gain experience in managing their own affairs without the dislocation resulting from the institution of an entirely new system, but that it would be easier to implement new social and economic policies if the traditional rulers became the agents of such change.
In addition to the political and philosophical considerations influencing the decision to introduce the system there were others: at that point in the history of British colonialism, there were comparatively few persons ready to become colonial administrators at local levels, and Great Britain either did not have or would not allocate the money to pay them.
The notion of indirect rule had been developed in Northern Nigeria, an area characterized by large-scale, hierarchically organized states, which, if somewhat different from those of Western Europe in the early twentieth century, seemed to the British to warrant the kind of system they introduced. Typically when they came to a territory like Tanganyika in which such states were rare if not nonexistent, they looked for chiefs that would fit into the system of indirect rule and either misinterpreted what they found or tried to convert what they found into what it should have been.
In any case the process of adaptation was often not so gradual. Beyond that, the colonial authority's insistence that the chiefs, whether traditional or newly made, act as agents of change eventually led to situations in which many chiefs, whatever the basis of their traditional legitimacy, were seen by their people largely as agents of the colonial regime.
In general the colonial authorities tended to assume that traditional authorities had more power than in fact they did, and they also tended to overlook the traditional sanctions and checks that a chief's people had been able to apply if they were unhappy with his rule.
Under Cameron's governorship the districts were grouped into eleven provinces, and a secretary for native affairs was appointed. The Africans in positions of authority worked under the direction of the provincial and district commissioners. A series of ordinances formally gave local African authorities executive, judicial, and financial duties. These authorities were to maintain law and order. and later they were required and empowered to undertake certain social services. Their financial duties involved the collection of taxes, part of which was reserved for local use.
Soon after his arrival Governor Cameron also created the Legislative Council consisting of fourteen official and up to ten unofficial members nominated by the Governor. In the second category there were, in practice, five (later seven) Europeans (always British subjects) and two (later three) Asians (then called Indians). There were no Arab or African representatives. This composition of the council was maintained throughout the term of the mandate.
Article 6 of the mandate stipulated that the laws, customs, rights, and interests of the African population should be considered in matters of land allocation and that there should be no transfers of land except between Africans without official consent. Until 1923 former German estates were leased by Europeans and Asians on a yearly basis. The Land Ordinance of that year made all land public land but recognized existing rights and titles. It forbade new grants of freehold, granted leases of up to ninety-nine years, and stated that no more than 5,000 acres could be leased to a non-African unless approved by the colonial secretary. Later that year and again in 1930 certain heavily populated areas were closed to further encroachments by non-Africans.
In 1925 Germans were allowed to return to Tanganyika, and over the years a variety of other settlers arrived. In the long run the two largest European groups were Germans and Greeks. In the 1930s the depression, more favorable conditions in Kenya, and perhaps a fear that Hitler might succeed in his demand for a return of the territory slowed the arrival of new settlers.
The Asian population of roughly 10,000 in 1921 had grown to 25,000 by 1931. All had their origin in the Indian subcontinent, but by the beginning of World War II a fair number had been born in East Africa. Asians did not constitute a homogeneous community. Many came from Gujerat (and Gujerati was the single most important Indian language in East Africa), but many had originated elsewhere, and there were significant religious differences among them. In addition to Hindus there were several different groups of Muslims, Sikhs, and even a few Parsis.
A number of Asians had benefited economically from the German defeat, having acquired nearly all of the real estate in Dar es Salaam and many of the German sisal estates. George Delf reports in Asians in East Africa that in 1939 "the Indian economic interest in Tanganyika was estimated at 13 million [pounds sterling), including 17 percent of non-African agricultural land, 90 percent of town property, 80 percent of the cotton industry, 80 percent of sisal production, 50 and 60 percent of import and export trade and 80 percent of transport services."
By no means all Asians were rich, or even well-off. If the 80,000 acre sisal estate of the Karimjee Javanjee family suggests the wealth at one end of the spectrum. the hundreds of small general stores (maduka; sing,, duka) run by Asians, most of them in rural areas, indicates the other end.
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