Show
Schausch was a name for African NCOs in the Imperial Protection Force for German East Africa . The origin of the word lies in the Egyptian pronunciation of the Turkish non-commissioned officer rank "Çavuş" in the Ottoman army. The original meaning is "leader".
The rank designation was common among the mostly Sudanese mercenaries recruited by Hermann von Wissmann in Egypt to fight the uprising of 1889 on the coast of East Africa and was brought into the Wissmann's troops, which later became part of the Schutztruppe.
Due to the racist structure of the colonial forces, African NCOs were always considered to be younger than German NCOs. This also applied to the higher ranks for non-Europeans such as the Betschausch or Effendi .