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Mkwawa and the Hehe Wars*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Alison Redmayne
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Extract

The Hehe now live mainly in the Iringa and Mufundi districts of Tanzania. Little is known of their early history before the mid-nineteenth century, when chief Munyigumba of Ng'uluhe extended his rule over the other chiefdoms of the Usungwa highlands and central plateau of Uhehe. By his death in ca. 1878 he had also won important victories against the chiefs of Utemikwila, Usangu and Ungoni.

After Munyigumba/s death the Hehe suffered a temporary set-back when Mwambambe, who had been a subordinate ruler under Munyigumba, tried to usurp the chiefship, killed Munyigumba's younger brother and caused one of his sons, Mkwawa, to flee to Ugogo. However, eventually Mwambambe was killed in battle against Mkwawa, and his surviving followers, whom he had recruited from Kiwele, fled. By 1883, when Giraud visited Uhehe, Mkwawa was the unchallenged ruler of his father/s lands, and under him the Hehe, who had only recently acquired political unity, had extraordinary military success. Their most important raids were on the caravan route which ran from Bagamoyo on the coast to Lake Tanganyika. By 1890 these raids were a threat to German authority and a major obstacle in the way of colonization and the development of trade. In spite of the Germans' effort to make peace with them, the Hehe persisted in attacking caravans and the people who had submitted to the Germans so, in 1891, a German expedition was sent to Uhehe. This was ambushed and defeated by the Hehe, who then continued their raids, causing the Germans to return in 1894 with a larger expedition and destroy the Hehe fort. Chief Mkwawa may have attempted suicide in the fort, but he was persuaded to flee and then maintained his resistance to the Germans until 1898 when he shot himself to avoid capture. The Hehe then submitted to the Germans. Mkwawa's own determination not to surrender was a very important factor in the long struggle. During this war the Germans acquired a respect for the Hehe which has affected the way that the Hehe have been regarded and treated ever since.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 1968 , pp. 409 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 This name is an abbreviation of Mkwavinyika, and the way it is pronounced is more accurately represented Mkwava. In the early literature there are many different spellings of this name, incluing Kwawa, Kuawa, Qwawa, Mkwaba, Mkuanika, Mukwawi Nyika, Kwawinjika and Mkuu wa Nyika. Mkwawa is now the accepted spelling of the name used by his descendants and is the commonest version, and so I have accepted it to avoid confusion.

2 Liebert, E., Neunzig Tage im Zelt (Berlin, 1898), 24. My translation.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. 238–23. For more information about Mwinyi Mtwana see Norman, R. Bennett, Studies in East African History (Boston, 1963), ch. 4, ‘Mwinyi Mtwana and the Sultan of Zanzibar’, 76–80.Google Scholar

42 Merensky, , Deutsche Arbeit, 250–1.Google Scholar

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44 Nigmann incorrectly stated that it was the country of Sultaness, Mtsavira, Wahehe, 18.Google Scholar She had died before 1893. See also Fritz, Spellig, ‘Die Wanjamwezi, em Beitrag zur Völkerkunde Ostafrikas’, Z. f. E. (1927), Heft 3/6, vol. LIX, 204. Spellig thought that Mugalula was a man, but Aylward Shorter/s Kimbu informants and my Hehe ones all stated that Mugalula was a woman.Google Scholar

45 Tom, von Prince, Gegen Araber, 298–303.Google Scholar See also ‘Einnahme der Hauptstadt Uhehe’, D.K.B. (1894), 621,Google Scholar and ‘Öber den bisherigen Verlauf des Feldzuges gegen die Wahehe’, D.K.B. (1895), 39–44.Google Scholar

46 Nigmann, , Wahehe, 18–19.Google Scholar Arning claimed that he raided Lupembe, and chief, Mbeyela, ‘Die Wahehe’ (1897), 56.Google Scholar Alfons Adams stated that it was chief Kivanga/s complaints about Mkwawa/s raids which brought the Germans back in 1896, Im Dienste des Kreuzes (Augsburg, 1899), 48.Google Scholar

47 In the early sources the site of the Hehe fort is usually called Alt Iringa, or Ilinga, i.e. Old Iringa, and the German garrison and the present town Neu Iringa, i.e. New Iringa. Now Iringa is always used to refer to the town and Kalenga to the place of the Hehe fort. When Hehe use Ilinga to refer to Kalenga they are usually speaking about the fort before it had been destroyed.

48 Magdalene, von Prince, Eine Deutsche Frau im Innern Deutsch-Ostafrikas (Berlin, 1908, 3rd ed.). This account of the years 1896–8 is mainly drawn from her book.Google Scholar

49 Mpangile/s brief reign is well documented. As well as the official reports there are accounts by two of his admirers: von Prince, M., Eine Deutsche Frau, ch. III, ‘Mpangires Sultanat’, 63–77,Google Scholar and Alfons, Adams, Im Dienste, ch. v, ‘Sultan Mpangire’, 53–62.Google Scholar

50 von Prince, M., Eine Deutsche Frau, 75.Google Scholar Adams stated that just before his execution Mpangile complained that he was a victim of his enemies’ tricks, Im Dienste, 59. Many Hehe tell stories which explain how Mkwawa tricked the Germans into believing that Mpangile was disloyal to them.Google Scholar

51 I have discovered two published German versions of Merkl/s account of tracking Mkwawa and finding his corpse; ‘Bericht über den Tod des Sultans Qwawa’, D.K.B. (1898), 645–6,Google Scholar a report written by Feldwebel Merkl at Iringa dated 22.vii.1898, of which an abbreviated English paraphrase is given in Gerald, F. Sayers, The Handbook of Tangonyika (London, 1930), 70–1;Google Scholar another version of Merkl/s report is given in Magdalene/s diary for 21.vii.98, Eine Deutsche Frau, 180–1,Google Scholar an English translation of which is given in Culwick, Ubena, 420–1.Google Scholar

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75 These are taken from the praise songs and speeches I recorded in 1965–1966.

76 Dempwolff was aware that the Hehe war-cries contained Kísangu phrases, ‘Beiträge’, 113.

77 Translation from a recording of Pancras, son of Mkwawa, made on 4 April 1966.

78 Arning, , ‘Die Wahehe’ (1897), 54;Google ScholarAdams, , Im Dienste, 47. Because of the enormous amount of labour involved, I consider it more likely that the rebuilding was started before 1891.Google Scholar

79 In a story recorded on 7 August 1963, Bonifas, son of Mkwawa, stated that Mkwawa sent Mtaki to the coast to learn about the buildings there. He could have meant either the buildings of the Germans on the coast, or those of the Arabs at Mukondoa, or even the German forts at Mpwapwa and Kilosa. Adams stated that the Arab, Rumaliza, fled to Uhehe, made blood-brotherhood with Mkwawa and persuaded him to erect the Stone wall (Ibid. 47). It is possible that Mkwawa and Rumaliza, having a common enemy, the Germans, made blood-brotherhood even though Mkwawa generally despised Arabs, but Adams is often unreliable in his accounts of events which took place before he reached Uhehe. Andrew Roberts considers that other accounts of Rumaliza/s movements make it unlikely that he went to Kalenga until 1894. It is also uncertain whether he was in the fort at the time when the Germans stormed it. Rumaliza/s other name was Muhammed bin Khalfan. He traded from the coast through central Tanganyika to the Congo and was mentioned in various German and Belgian reports and also a number of times by Tippu Tip in Maisha ya Hamed.

80 Rochus, Schmidt, Geschichte des Jiraber Aufstandes, 254.Google Scholar

81 Translation of a Kihehe text by Daima mwaLugenge, 1962.

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84 My English translation of this passage, from an essay by Norbert Chelula, a Bena who had been brought up in Uhehe. Dempwolff, , ‘Beiträge’, 121.Google Scholar

85 Nigmann, , Wahehe, 20. This is well corroborated by oral evidence.Google Scholar

86 Possibly mwaKasinda.

87 From Kayala mwaMbuta on 27 Nov. 1965. He was a generally reliable informant who was a herd boy at Kalenga and saw the destruction of the fort.

88 From Absalom mwaDuma on 30 April 1966. He was the eldest surviving son of Mihomakale who, as a boy, had been with Mkwawa until about two days before his death.

89 Kathleen, M. Stahl, History of the Chagga People of Kilimanjaro (The Hague, 1964) 185–92.Google Scholar

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93 Ibid. 162.

94 Adams, , Im Dienste, 51.Google Scholar

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96 Originally the name may have referred to his supposedly impregnable position within the stone fort, but in retrospect the Hehe interpret it as a reference to the Germans’ inability to get him out of his hiding place.

97 This attitude has been expressed by a number of Hehe who fought with the Germans against the Maji Maji rebels.

98 Adams, , Im Dienste, 47, 50, 51–2.Google Scholar When Giraud visited Kalenga in 1883, Mkwawa refused to see him, Les Lacs de l/Afrique, 142.Google Scholar

99 The appearance of his head has been described in von Prince, M., Eine Deutsche Frau, 183. She states that Merkl estimated from his corpse that he was 1.8 m. tall, which is above the average height of Hehe men. However, those Hehe who knew him insist that he was not particularly tall.Google Scholar

100 Adams, , Im Dienste, 34.Google Scholar

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102 From Gaudensio mwaMalangalila on April 1962.

103 From a Kihehe essay about his relations by Edward mwaMtono, which he gave to me in August 1963.

104 Adams, , Im Dienste, 52–3.Google Scholar

105 von Prince, M., Eine Deutsche Frau, 83.Google Scholar

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112 Stierling, , ‘Königsgräber’, 257–62.Google Scholar (Translation T.N.R. XLVI, 01 1957, 25–8.)Google Scholar

113 Meyer, , Kolonialreith, 1, 187.Google Scholar

114 These are Swahili titles for different types of headmen.

115 Methner, W., Unter Drei Gouverneuren (Breslau, 1938), 303, and information from John Iliffe.Google Scholar

116 Iringa District Book