Matumbi

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The Matumbi are an ethnic group in what is now Tanzania , in whose area the Maji Maji uprising broke out in 1905 .

Due to their seclusion from the outside world and the impassable mountains, they were spared the slave hunts in pre-colonial times. Therefore they cultivated their own rule and religion, which even the new colonial rulers of German East Africa could not do much to. Within their clan there was a very strong cohesion among the Matumbi, which created protection against slave hunters and other external enemies. This was shown in a drum warning system that was also used in the Maji Maji uprising .

According to Karl-Martin Seeberg, the Matumbi were getting more and more impatient: “We have the medicine and are brave people. Why should we wait? ”So the Matumbi were predestined for the first strike against the colonial rulers, and that's how it happened.

The stem of the name is 'Matumbi' which could be extended by the morphological prefixes 'Wa' ( ethnicity ), 'Ki' ( language ), 'U' (country) and 'M' (the individual member).

Example: A Mmatumbi comes from Umatumbi, speaks Kimatumbi and belongs to the Wamatumbi.

literature

  • Karl-Martin Seeberg: The Maji-Maji War against German colonial rule . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-496-00481-9