Transregional caravan trade in East Africa

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The transregional caravan trade in East Africa describes the trade boom in East Africa in the 19th century, which was based on the rapidly growing demand for ivory on the world market . Over a period of around 70 years, the caravan trade in ivory and the struggles for its enormous profits shaped the entire area that today includes Kenya , Uganda , Tanzania , Rwanda and Burundi , Malawi , the eastern Congo and the northern part of Mozambique .

The strong growth in demand for ivory came from Europe and America; the island of Zanzibar became a hub for the exchange of goods. Traders from the Swahili coast and from inland organized caravans of several thousand people to buy the ivory and transport it to the coast. Since no other means of transport were available, the goods were only carried by human carriers. While various regional trade networks had previously been intertwined, a trade network has now been established that stretched from the coast to the Congo, the inter- sea ​​region and Buganda .

People from all regions participated in the trade, benefited from the profits or suffered from the effects. The steadily increasing importation of firearms as barter goods for ivory led to fundamental changes in social conditions in some regions, and armed conflicts over the influence on caravan traffic now affected many areas of East Africa.

Together with the trade, a special caravan culture developed based on the long trade traditions of the Africans inland. With the lively caravan traffic, an extensive cultural transfer and exchange took place, which promoted the spread of Islam , written culture and other cultural elements in the coastal regions, for example inland .

The transregional caravan trade is understood as the entry of East Africa into capitalist world trade and as a formative factor for the colonization of Tanganyika that began at the end of the 19th century . Even if the caravan traffic based on the ivory trade broke off abruptly at the end of the century, essential structures of the trading system continued and determined future developments.

Caravan carrier with ivory teeth, probably around 1890
East Africa with the colonial borders, map from 1893

Society, caravan culture and trade in East Africa until 1800

The East African coastal strip with the offshore islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia on a map from the first years of the 20th century

While the coast of East Africa had been known as Azania for centuries and was part of the Indian Ocean's trade network, few written sources provide information about the societies in interior East Africa before the 19th century. It becomes clear from this that it was largely a question of small, flexible social structures in which political power was organized on a decentralized basis, divided between councils of elders, ritual heads and warriors. Slavery and personal dependency were widespread, but it was a form of slavery that allowed slaves to achieve relative economic independence and rise to higher social ranks. In addition to political and family relationships, trade and trade trips over long distances formed a network that promoted contact between the different societies and largely determined their knowledge of one another. Ethnic identities hardly played a role in trade relations, since societies were not structured according to ethnic boundaries, but were multiethnic due to slavery and a high degree of political flexibility.

It is unclear how far the domestic trading networks reached and how they interlocked. The coastal cities have long had close trade relations with the areas in the immediate hinterland of the coastal strip. These relationships were dominated by intra-African traders and elephant hunters who tried different strategies to prevent coastal traders from traveling inland. Through raids on travelers from the coast or rumors of cannibals and monsters, they managed to maintain their position as middlemen for the exchange of goods between the inland and the coast and to set prices until the beginning of the 19th century. Until the beginning of the 19th century, goods from inland came to the coast exclusively through these middlemen. Coastal traders did not go there themselves.

In the more distant inland, in central Tanganyika, trade networks also emerged that maintained connections with traders in the coastal hinterland and established relationships as far as the Congo , Bunyoro and Buganda . Several traders formed a caravan company for a trade trip. The goods were only transported by people. Was treated with sodium carbonate , iron , copper , cattle , skins , cereal and pottery .

Ivory was a subordinate commodity that reached the coast through middlemen. The main customers were Indian dealers. In India, ivory was mainly used for bridal jewelry, which women received as a sign of their marital status when they married. Since the jewelry was also "buried" when the woman died, there was a constant, almost unchanged need for East African ivory.

Another export product from East Africa were slaves, which were shipped from the East African coast to many countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Towards the end of the 18th century, the demand for labor on the French sugar cane plantations of Mauritius and Réunion increased : trade intensified accordingly. Around this time the southern Swahili coast was exporting several hundred to several thousand slaves annually.

The increase in trade meant that the various trading networks expanded significantly towards the end of the 18th century, and traders were looking for new sales and profit opportunities. Around 1800 two elephant hunters from Central Tanzania reached the East African coast off Zanzibar in search of new trading partners. The trade networks on the coast and inland had thus found connections.

East Africa and Oman as political and economic power

The Indian Ocean on a map from the 17th century. The cities of Mombasa and Kilwa and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia are marked on the East African coast.

For centuries, the cities on the East African coast maintained contacts not only with societies in Inner Africa, but also with the areas bordering the Indian Ocean , with India , Iran , Mozambique and Ethiopia . Particularly close ties existed with the Arab empires of the Middle East . Influential Omani dynasties had played an important role on the East African coast since the 17th century. The center of their power here had been the city of Mombasa .

Since the beginning of the 19th century, Omani plantation owners have successfully grown cloves and sugar on Zanzibar, and the resulting need for labor has given the slave trade a further boost. After the export of ivory, which mainly went to India, was taxed via the Mozambican ports, the ivory trade was increasingly carried out via the more northern parts of the East African coast, i.e. the regions with the islands of Mafia , Zanzibar and Pemba in front of them. The concentration of trade on the coastal region between Mombasa and Kilwa coincided with the linking of trade networks far into the interior of East Africa.

Eventually these events coincided with a growing demand for ivory. In addition, world market prices rose for oils that were produced in East Africa in the form of coconuts and sesame , as well as for copal , which was used for the production of paints. Cloves and sugar, oils, copal and ivory promised high profits , but until the first decades of the 19th century these products were still brought to the coast by inner-African traders and the trade was controlled by them.

Zanzibar as the seat of the Omani Sultan

Waterfront of Zanzibar City in 2007, left the sultan's palace, built after the relocation of the Sultan to Zanzibar, right the 1883, power plant: Beit al-Ajaib , popularly House of Wonder called

A decisive political and, as a result, economic change took place between 1830 and 1850. Zanzibar, the center of an impending economic boom, increasingly aroused the interest of Asian and European powers. Great Britain and France also saw the island as a strategically important base in order to maintain their influence in the western Ind . Well-funded trading houses from Bombay , which had long had relationships with the Omani royal family and were involved in the East African ivory trade, opened branches , and numerous risk-taking Indian traders moved to the city. In the 1830s and 1840s and trading companies from Europe and America branches, including about the established Hamburg company Hansing & Co and O'Swald & Co .

In 1832 the Omani ruling house took this development into account: the leading Omani Busaid dynasty relocated its seat from Muscat to Zanzibar, replacing the dynasties based in Mombasa, which had previously represented Omani influence on the East African coast. Zanzibar became the political, economic and cultural center of East Africa under the authority of the Imam of Muscat, Sultan Sayyid Said .

With the regent's move, numerous other wealthy and influential families from regions bordering the Indian Ocean followed both on the islands and on the coastal strip of the mainland and settled as plantation owners. Sultan Sayyid Said himself owned extensive clove plantations on Zanzibar and Pemba , the maintenance of which depended on slave labor, and he supported the development of additional clove fields on the islands. In addition to cloves, extensive sugar cane plantations also emerged. The need for plantation workers and thus for slaves increased enormously. Spices, slaves, sugar and ivory promised high profits. By 1850 around 200,000 of the residents of Zanzibar were slaves, probably more than half of the population.

The power of the Omani Sultan was not limited to the island areas, which included Zanzibar, Mafia and Pemba. In the coastal strip between Tanga and Kilwa , the Omani ruler expanded his influence, and a tax collection administration was established that allowed the Sultan to profit from the trades of the merchants in his sphere of influence. The limits of his influence, however, were not clearly defined, the loyalty of the coastal cities was always the subject of negotiations. The sultan did not have any military means to expand his influence inland.

The Arab old town of Zanzibar City, which was built in the second half of the 19th century. Photo from 1928.
One of the typical carved doors in the historic old town of Zanzibar City

Zanzibar as the cosmopolitan center of East Africa

The population of Zanzibar reflected the different influences on the island and the diverse relationships between its residents. Arabs from Oman and the Hadramaut , Indians, Comorians and Africans from various parts of the interior lived here mainly from the caravan trade, plus the slaves from the interior, who also had a significant influence on developments on the coast.

With the immigrants came their religions and cultural customs. The Indian merchants were mostly Hindus . Islam experienced a renewal that went back to the immigrants from the Hadramaut and the Comoros. Among them were many Muslim scholars who made Zanzibar a center of Islamic learning. While Islam on the East African coast was previously determined by orality , status and religious purity, the new Islam was based on writing, networking with the modernizing global Islamic world and a far more egalitarian model of society.

A rapidly emerging urban center made of multi-storey stone houses pushed the Swahili houses that had been typical until then to the outskirts of Zanzibar City. Zanzibar became a cosmopolitan melting pot that exerted great attraction and played a key role in determining the region's cultural and religious trends.

Impetus for the ivory trade

Piano keys were one of the numerous uses for East African ivory.

The demand in the world market

The decisive impetus for the ivory trade was provided by the rapidly climbing price for ivory on the world market. The growing prosperity of middle-class households in Europe and America increased the demand for ivory, from which musical instruments and billiard balls , dentures , chess pieces , cane knobs , devotional objects , jewelry and other luxury items were made. A Frasila (about 36 pounds) of ivory cost 21 rupees , about $ 23 in 1825 , but had tripled in price by the 1870s. At the same time, due to industrialization, the prices for cotton fabrics , brass wire and muskets that were imported from Europe to East Africa remained stable, and in many cases even fell. The profits from ivory exports increased steadily and made ivory the most valuable export product of East Africa from around 1825, which it remained until the end of the century.

The trade policy of the Zanzibari state

The profit that the ivory and slave trade promised profoundly changed traditional trade structures. The traders on the coast sought to monopolize and control profits. The best way to do this was by bypassing the intra-African middlemen and traveling inland yourself to bring the precious ivory and slaves to the coast.

The Zanzibari sultans made a decisive contribution to this development, they endeavored to support the establishment of an infrastructure for trade as much as possible. Said Seyyid saw trade as a driving force in society and said of himself that he was "nothing more than a trader". Besides the plantation economy, trade was the most important source of income for the Zanzibari state, so the sultans pursued an active tax policy and created incentives for the further immigration of Arab traders.

With the appointment of Indian merchants as tax tenants , they tied Indian capital directly to the Zanzibari state. This made financially strong lenders available to the dealers.

However, the sultan did not have the military means to secure caravan routes in the interior for the coastal traders. Instead, he provided them with letters of recommendation on their way home. The reactions to it were very different; they ranged from granting the requested support to complete ignorance.

The connection of the traders from Zanzibar to the trading networks of the Indian Ocean, America and Europe was particularly important. Zanzibar became the center of an East African trade network and the logistical hub for the caravan trade: imports from Arabia and India were in Zanzibar handled before anliefen other East African ports and export of ivory and slaves was passed over Zanzibar, from where the resale of India, Arabia, the ivory markets of London and Antwerp and the islands in the Indian Ocean.

The establishment of the interregional caravan trade

Even if the Zanzibari state was interested in promoting trade, it was ultimately the initiative of private individuals on whose interests and efforts the emerging trade network was based. Zanzibar and other coastal cities with their caravanserais became the logistic centers. Here the caravans were financed and equipped, porters recruited, barter goods for the inland were offered and the goods that flowed inland were bought up.

Business structures of the caravan trade

Trading houses

With their global networks and respective branches in Zanzibar, European and Indian trading companies ensured that the local exchange of goods was linked to world trade. They organized the import of barter goods and the export of ivory.

Lender

An Indian merchant family in East Africa in a photo from the early 20th century

The costly ventures of a caravan were financed almost entirely by Indian creditors. Indian merchant dynasties operated with far-reaching relationships in the trade network of the Indian Ocean and made use of the close ties they had with the Omani ruling family, which had been established at times since the 18th century. Well-funded connections to the influential trading houses of Bombay put them in a position to financially carry risky ventures such as a caravan inland. With the Indian merchants, the Indian rupee spread , which had been the common currency alongside the Maria Theresa thaler on the East African coast since around 1860 and was also the common currency along the caravan routes. In some cases immense sums of money flowed in the form of loans, for example a loan of 50,000 Maria Theresa Thalers was granted for a caravan owned by the Tippu-Tip dealer .

After bases were established along the caravan routes, at which the Indian merchants settled with branches and second homes, a bank-like system developed that allowed financial transactions between the mainland and the coast on the basis of checks and letters of credit .

The Swahili caravan trader Hamed bin Juma bin Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el-Murjebi, known as the Tippu Tip

Caravan dealer

Most of the borrowers and caravan traders came from the coast and Arabia. Often their origin cannot be precisely determined, the composition of their families and their résumés were as complex and multicultural as Swahili society in general.

Probably the first traders to travel from the coast to Unyamwesi were two Indian merchants . Musa Mzuri and his older brother supposedly founded Tabora and other stations in the interior, which were intended as trading posts; they linked Buganda and Karagwe to the previously known trade network and opened up trade routes to the eastern Congo for coastal traders.

The dangers and financial risks of a caravan trade trip were great. The traders often got into high debt and had to go into hiding inland if the profit they hoped for did not materialize. Given such uncertainties, profit must have been a promising motivation for traders. The well-known caravan trader Tippu-Tip described yet another motive for taking up the daring ventures: his father began trading trips inland in the hope of being able to lead the life of a sultan in Unyamwesi. The traders often traveled with a large following, which could include up to a thousand armed men, and were therefore in many places able to assert their interests. This also included the opening of commercial branches and the establishment of second homes along the trade routes.

However, the ivory trade was not solely in the hands of coastal traders. Inland Africans, who had once come to the coast as slaves or independent traders, also equipped their own caravans. In addition, the business of intra-African traders who assembled caravans inland and transported slaves and ivory to the coast continued to flourish.

Caravan routes

On their travels, the coastal traders used the existing caravan routes of established local trading systems. What was new about their ventures was that they crossed the paths of various trading networks and thus linked them with one another.

Since the first half of the 19th century, four large caravan routes have been established, each leading from coastal cities into the interior. From Kilwa and Lindi in the southern part of the coast there was a route to Lake Malawi , a route that caravans needed a month to complete. From Bagamoyo across from Zanzibar a route led through Ugogo to Tabora in Unyamwesi in central Tanganyika and on to Ujiji to Lake Tanganyika. Caravans needed around 90 days for this approx. 1300 km long route. From here further roads led to the eastern Congo. Another caravan route led from Pangani and Tanga to the Kilimandjaro area, where it was divided into routes to Lake Victoria , the Inter- Lakes area and Mount Kenya . Finally, a stretch led from Mombasa to Mount Kenya and from there to Lake Turkana .

Caravan routes in East Africa in the 19th century

Since the influence of the Sultan in the country hardly played a role at the beginning of the trading activities, later only in larger places along the route, the traders had to explore and expand the trading structures on their own initiative. The knowledge of experienced traders from the interior of the country was of inestimable value. The caravans started in the caravanserais of the coastal towns and essentially stuck to the routes that were already known and used. Along the caravan routes, a number of bases for the Swahili traders emerged, which were necessary for long-term trade. Caravans of 5000 people or more had to be supplied with food and drinking water and protected from raids during the journey. Bases helped to make the caravan routes more accessible. They could not be erected over the head of the local population. Long negotiations with local leaders often preceded them. Once a station was established, it served the caravans as a resting place and place where they could start trading.

While at the beginning of the trade, ivory could be bought in large quantities in regions that were relatively close to the coast and could be reached within four weeks, the travel times lengthened more and more, as the elephant population decreased due to the intensive hunting. Ever new and more remote regions were opened up by traders looking for ivory.

Ethnicization of the inland residents

In the endeavor of the coastal traders to organize the unknown inland into predictable categories, a large number of terms for regions and population groups emerged. The inland population was extremely heterogeneous; In addition, the area of ​​what is now Tanzania was affected by several waves of immigration in the 19th century due to the events in southern Africa . The domestic societies were therefore neither ethnically nor linguistically homogeneous. Rather, there were many smaller, flexible political units that invoked local identities or a common patriarch. They tried to counteract this heterogeneity, which was confusing for the coastal traders, by dividing the inhabitants of the inland according to their own knowledge.

This is how the term Nyamwezi came about, which summarized the different Bantu-speaking groups in central Tanzania. The merchants understood Nyamwesi (translated: "the people from the moon") to be reliable porters from distant inland. Increasingly, people from this region began to refer to themselves as Nyamwesi, as there could be some advantages within the caravan trade: the prospect of employment, better pay and treatment. In fact, one could not speak of Nyamwesi as an ethnic group , if only because of the numerous slaves who came from other regions.

In a similar way, summarizing terms were also created for groups of people from other regions.

Establishing trade contacts

For the traders from the coast, establishing trade contacts in the interior was a lengthy, complicated and at times extremely dangerous affair. In the worldview of the Muslim traders who saw themselves as part of a cultivated world religion, the people living in the interior of East Africa were unbelieving and dangerous savages with crude customs and primitive cultures. This was expressed in the Swahili expression Washenzi , savage, for the people of the interior . The centuries-old tradition of buying and enslaving people from within - albeit on a small scale - was also based on this worldview.

At the same time, the coastal traders were dependent on these people when they went on a journey inland. They had to negotiate with the locals in order to travel through their territories with the huge caravans, they had to rely on the fact that they were sold food, given access to water points and offered accommodation and that the caravans were not ambushed. Good relationships with local chiefs made it much easier to buy goods. Constant negotiations were necessary for all of this, and distrust and conflicts repeatedly made relationships difficult on both sides.

Cultural "translators"

Mediators were necessary in these negotiations - people who knew their way around the country, spoke the respective languages, could explain customs and traditions and knew about local political and economic conditions. Central questions for the traders were who ruled the territory, who was in control of the ivory trade, and what the prices were like. On the other hand, it was important to know what supplies of drinking water and food were available and to what extent the political situation was considered stable.

The chiefs at home were also assisted by people who came from the world of the caravan trade as advisers and cultural translators, such as former traders or slaves from inland who had come to the coast and were therefore in the coastal society as well as in the society of origin knew.

Blood brotherhood

In view of the uncertainties in the country, it was an important diplomatic strategy of the coastal traders to establish reliable contacts with the chiefs of the companies in the country through blood brotherhoods . Blood brotherhood was a common way of creating some form of kinship that would establish safe and predictable relationships throughout East Africa. However, blood brotherhoods had different meanings in different regions; they did not guarantee kinship-like relationships everywhere; in particular, they lost their meaning where they were too often entered into.

relationship

Marriages also established family relationships, although the coastal traders viewed the connection through marriage only as possible among equals and therefore in principle ruled out such a bond with the chiefs inside. Nevertheless, in many places Swahili traders marriages with the daughters of local chiefs. The polygynous marriage institution, which was shared by all societies in East Africa, enabled merchants to establish business establishments in various regions through marriage, which was cemented by ties of kinship.

The domestic political leaders were also interested in such connections. They made both parties involved responsible: traders could count on the support of their in-laws, conversely, slave hunts or the exercise of military force to enforce trade interests in the regions of such relatives only took place with their consent.

Were

While ivory was the all-important commodity to be brought to the coast and sold there, the coastal traders were also interested in other goods from inland. On the one hand, slaves were a profitable commodity because they were in great demand as workers on the coast. In addition, towards the end of the 19th century, rubber , which was found in large quantities especially in the Congo, was selling well on the East African coast.

The coastal traders carried a wide range of goods with them as barter goods when they traveled inland. Firearms and sugar produced on the East African coast were particularly popular in the interior of the country . In addition, cotton fabrics, glass beads, brass and copper wire were carried along in large quantities, goods whose production became steadily cheaper in the course of the 19th century due to industrialization in Europe and America and therefore increased profits. Pearls, brass and wire were elaborately worked into jewelry by local goldsmiths. Cotton fabrics were sought-after clothing which, by imitating coastal clothing, contributed to its high reputation. Fabrics, metals and pearls also served as the bride price and increasingly became a form of currency at home . The goods that flowed into the country were therefore primarily prestige goods, which could be converted into reputation, prestige and rank on the one hand, and wives and cattle on the other, thus contributing to prosperity. In addition, glass beads were an important symbol of the status of the wearer. They came from India as early as 200 AD, from 600 to 1200 also from the south, from Mupungubwe in South Africa. Gemstone pearls also met with a much higher demand than in Europe, from where the demand was increasingly being met.

After all, European luxury goods of all kinds, such as umbrellas, clocks, clothing, telescopes, even pieces of furniture, the value of which increased immeasurably due to their rarity in the interior, were in great demand.

Caravan and caravan culture

The caravans in their social composition and hierarchy were melting pots for identities and cultures. Thousands of people - from the coast and from all regions of East Africa - met in them, spent weeks and months together under sometimes extreme conditions, had to assert themselves externally and not infrequently defend themselves, but also share their knowledge and negotiate their positions. The caravans thus became an integrative moment. By working in the caravan, people from the coast were able to gain certain positions inland that were closed to them on the coast; conversely, the caravan offered people from within the opportunity to become members of the respected Swahili society.

Caravan work and participation in the caravan trade therefore meant not only a profitable livelihood for many, but also an occupation that raised and strengthened their personal reputation. This was especially true for slaves who were able to gain wealth through caravan work and in some cases were able to break out of the relationship of dependency entirely. The boundaries between the coastal traders, who see themselves as culturally progressive, and the inner-African societies they described as savages - Washenzi - were therefore constantly changing.

Although the impulse to expand the trading network inward came from the traders on the coast, it was the long-standing caravan culture of the groups from Central East Africa that decisively influenced the form of trade. The coastal traders were actively supported by African businessmen and domestic entrepreneurs. During the expansion phase, the coastal traders were crucially dependent on their knowledge and experience , which led to the fact that the culture of the interregional caravan trade, which was dominated by the coast, was based on traditional trade structures in the interior. The social structure and order of the caravan was essentially shaped by the shape of the Nyamwezi caravans, which provided a large part of the porters in the Swahili caravans.

The social structure of the caravan

Illustration of a caravan crossing a river in East Africa

The caravans were not just large economic enterprises, they were also wandering social communities with a strict hierarchical order. This order was reflected in the marching line-up. At the head was the kirongozi , a leader elected by the porters, who formed the vanguard with a small retinue , chose the routes and negotiated road tariffs for transit. This was followed by the "aristocracy" of the caravan. This included the nyampara , the head and spiritual leader of the caravan, in conspicuous, punctiform clothing and without load, as well as the traders with entourage and servants who carried umbrellas and weapons. Then the porters marched, for their part divided into the order of the goods they were carrying and each time accompanied by arms carriers: porters of tusks preceded them, they were followed by porters of barter goods with fabrics, pearls and copper wire, and finally those who were the material ones Equipment of the caravan transported. The end of the procession formed independent small traders, bound slaves, women and children, the sick, onlookers and carriers of light goods such as rhinoceros horns , tools, salt and tobacco , bags, sleeping mats, tents , water containers and pots. For certain activities, such as guiding through unknown areas, there were experienced specialists, as well as cooks , healers, interpreters and soldiers.

A caravan did not consist solely of the entrepreneurs and the porters they recruited. Often they were joined by independent traders from inland who acted on their own initiative in ivory or other goods such as cattle and grain. Many women and children traveled with them as family members of the servants, arms bearers or porters.

Caravan leader

The leaders of the caravans had great authority and disciplinary power within their caravan. They were ritual and social leaders. On the one hand, their task was to provide practical guidance, which is why they had to have excellent geographical knowledge. In addition, knowledge of the cultural and political structures of the internal societies was necessary. The guides were often multilingual and, in addition to Swahili and Arabic, spoke the most important lingua franca on their route. On the other hand, their task consisted of spiritual and ritual guidance. They performed the rituals necessary for the great journey , which were supposed to prevent disaster and bring business success. Often they also had medical knowledge. The caravan drivers usually came from within the country. They were highly respected personalities both within the caravan and in their home society because of their experience and status.

carrier

Caravan carrier with ivory teeth. The porters wear cotton fabrics that have become popular clothing for porters. The men in the back row emphasize their social position as Muslims and members of the coastal culture through their clothing.

The porters came from different social backgrounds. There were professionals among them, especially on the central route to Lake Tanganyika, who could be recruited for the entire route between the inland and the coast, practically traveling back and forth with seasonal breaks. They were young men who came from the inland or from the coast; they could be free, but also slaves. Slaves were partly rented out by their owners and thus gained a certain freedom, or they acted on their own and transferred part of their earnings to their owner.

As a rule, professional porters were hired through agencies in the important caravan towns and committed to the entire route. The wage conditions were also negotiated. Their work was strictly regulated. They transported loads of 60 to 70 pounds for the caravan, as well as personal equipment, such as a sleeping mat, cookware, rations for food, tools and weapons and in some cases merchandise that the porter sold on his own. A total load of around 90 pounds could come together.

Professional porters were excellently organized. Similar to their communities of origin as hunters or craftsmen, they formed groups within the caravans who jointly took care of accommodation and supplies during the rest and represented the interests of the porters towards the caravan elite. Not infrequently there were disputes on the route about wages, adequate food, rest times and protection during the march. The porters had a strong position; if they deserted, the caravan traders lost a lot of money and time. Therefore, in the second half of the 19th century, the porters were able to achieve better and better wages. In 1871, for example, a porter received a monthly wage of 2.50 Maria Theresa Thalers (MTT), a few years later 5 or even 8 MTT, paid out either in the form of money, fabrics or brass or iron wire. In addition, there was a ration of food, either in groceries or in barter goods, so that the porters had to trade in the groceries they needed themselves on the route and could benefit from price speculation.

Professional porters worked in the caravan business for a few years and then often returned to their homeland. Their merits, but also their work and travel experience made them respected men. Working as porters and traveling to the coast in general gained a central role in many domestic societies. In the early 1890s, historian Juhani Koponen estimates, there were around 100,000 porters on the caravan routes in East Africa every year. Since porter work contributed to prosperity and raised social standing considerably, young men were encouraged to hire a caravan as porters or even to travel to the coast as independent caravan operators. With the Nyamwezi, the journey developed into a manhood test, which was a prerequisite for marriage. Often men who came to the coast in a caravan for the first time changed their names in order to express the changed social status.

Mercenaries and armed escorts

The armed followers of the traders who were traveling with them were also important for the hierarchy in the caravan. It represented a private troop of traders in the interior of the country. On the one hand, it served to protect the caravan members and had to ensure that the valuable goods were not stolen. On the other hand, it was also used to discipline the porters if they deserted or mutinied. In fact, there were more clashes within the caravans when porters demanded better remuneration, better care or a reduction in their burdens.

Caravan workers on the coast, 1892

The armed men were mercenaries from all parts of the country who had often already gained experience as caravan carriers or fellow travelers on caravans. They were equipped with modern weapons by the traders and received military training. Most of them were very young men, not infrequently children, such as the military followers of the Tippoo-Tips, who joined him between the ages of 10 and 18 and on whose unconditional loyalty the trader could count on. Over time, these mercenaries became more and more professional and became known as Rugaruga . Armed with weapons and clothing that set them apart as respected men, they were highly mobile and on their own initiative joined chiefs or dealers who offered them the most advantages. Others formed military units and built their own empires on the basis of their military might, such as under the leadership of Mirambos , who rose from the son of a minor ntemi in Unyamwesi to one of the most powerful men in the country.

Women

Women always traveled with the caravans. Many of them were relatives, wives, slaves or concubines of the porters or other members of the caravan, in each case they were a support worker. They helped with the loads by transporting the personally necessary things of the porters or the military, and provided food during the rest. Apparently there were also women who traveled on their own initiative. Women who lived on the margins of society in their societies of origin, who were not married or who remained childless, found a social shelter in the caravan communities during the period of intensive slave trade, which posed a particular danger to them as outsiders. The caravan offered unhappily married women the opportunity to escape from their marriage; Runaway slaves found independence here. Some of the women let themselves be hired as porters, others lived from individual retail or brewing beer, worked as cooks or offered sexual services.

The Effects of Caravan Trade in Inland Africa

Political changes

The accelerated expansion of the caravan trade in the second half of the 19th century resulted in serious changes in the societies in the interior of East Africa. The competition for profits from the steadily increasing caravan trade led in many areas to greater social insecurity, war, political instability and the rise of warlords.

Centralization of political power

Mirambo, who formed a large area of ​​influence in Unyamwesi, and who European observers referred to as the Napoleon of East Africa.

Politics and trade were closely linked. In many domestic societies that were traditionally politically decentralized, individuals managed to centralize and expand political influence. The Nyamwesi were ntemi , who had previously shared power with councils of elders as ritual heads. Traditionally they were entitled to a share of all the hunted prey, in the case of elephants they received the tusks (or at least one tusk of each elephant killed), which had a purely symbolic value. The ivory was stored, built into the entrance gates of the courtyards of the Kamba, and buried in other regions as a protective totem . In contact with the coastal traders, this custom proved to be a material advantage. The ntemi were the first to sell their ivory stocks to the coastal traders. By selling ivory, they obtained a previously unknown amount of prestige goods, including firearms, which were subsequently of great use to them in building their power.

The coastal traders were interested in the centralization of powers and provided them with military support if they cooperated with them. With a clear division of political power, access to ivory was made easier for them, as it was clear with whom they had to trade and negotiate. Through alliances with these political forces, the coastal traders in the interior were able to increase their trading profits. The influence of the coastal traders with their military and economic potential increasingly became an important factor for the political conditions in the societies in the interior. They supported rulers who were pleasant trading partners for them, and interfered in local politics in many places to weaken or overthrow rulers who did not cooperate with them.

Handelschiefs

But personalities also came to power who had previously had little political influence and who now built it up on the basis of their experience in the caravan trade. Most of them were people who had worked in the caravan trade and got money and weapons in the process. The annually increasing number of firearms that got into the interior through trade was a particularly decisive factor. In the 1880s, around 100,000 weapons were being exported domestically.

These men, named in Handelschief's research, including Mirambo , adapted the practice of the caravan traders to gather young warriors around themselves, often men who had also worked as porters, caravan drivers, prisoners of war or slaves in the caravan trade. From the proceeds of their labor they either already had weapons themselves or were equipped with them. An armed following gathered around a ruler who established his sphere of influence in regions along the caravan routes.

Because of their military equipment and their knowledge of trade and its structures, which went well beyond local standards, they succeeded in building new empires on the basis of new political structures. Unlike in traditional societies, political power rested almost exclusively in the hands of young men; they often ruled with hitherto unknown violence. Slave hunts, the booty of which was sold to the coastal traders, and raids against societies where ivory was collected, which was also traded, formed the economic basis of these societies.

Slave trade

In domestic societies, the enslavement of prisoners of war was a common practice as people and their labor and reproductive power promised profit. Such enslaved people were added to the household in the next generation at the latest and thus contributed to its prosperity. With the establishment of trade relations with the coast, this practice changed. Many slaves were now sold to traders from the coast, where they were needed as labor, and thus represented the source of quick profits inland. This led to the fact that raids were increasingly undertaken with the aim of capturing and delivering as many slaves as possible to sell.

Economic Effects of Trade

The high profits that the ivory trade brought in and the millions of people involved in the rapidly developing trading system meant that many other areas of the economy also oriented themselves more and more towards this trade. Inland agricultural production was increasingly geared towards supplying the caravans. Cattle herders drove herds of cattle over 1,000 kilometers to the coast to benefit from the high prices for food there. The new mobility that the busy caravan traffic represented meant movement in many ways. Labor tied up by trade was no longer available in the local economies. Increasingly, women had to take over previous work from men, slaves, on the other hand, were able to enter new areas of responsibility and thus advance socially.

Professionalization of the agency work

While animal husbandry and agriculture formed the most important economic bases in domestic societies well into the 19th century, ivory trade became the dominant economic component by the middle of the 19th century at the latest. This was evident in the direct involvement of many people in trading. On the one hand, they aligned caravans to the coast themselves; on the other hand, they worked as porters. Trade was previously an associated activity carried out by a small part of society, but now numerous men and women were involved, around a third of the male population of Unyamwesi by 1890. In this context, the Zanzibari historian Abdul Sheriff also spoke of a proletarianization of the porters. At the same time, the income of the owners contributed to the accumulation of wealth in the home societies. The earnings of the porters were largely converted into cattle and other wives who contributed to the prosperity of the domestic household.

Professionalization of elephant hunting

In addition, trade also had an indirect impact on the local economy. The hunt for elephants became a growing industry. The coastal traders did not hunt themselves, rather they bought available ivory or equipped groups of hunters inland to undertake the hunting expeditions.

In other areas further away from the caravan routes, the companies had no direct contact with the coastal traders. The increased demand for ivory came to them through intermediaries. In these regions, too, ivory prices rose rapidly and led to the formation of professional elephant hunter groups.

Demographic development

All these factors led to an increasing imbalance in economic development, towards an economy that was less and less oriented towards sustainability. The wealth that could be accumulated through trade was concentrated in a declining population. Food supplies melted and were no longer safe in the event of impending droughts.

The diseases represented a dangerous obstacle to the demographic development. Not only mobility, but also the wars and the resulting population concentrations in large settlements with defensive systems led to a faster spread of infectious diseases. Caravan members were often infected with smallpox , presumably virulent Asian and European variants of the disease to which there was little immunity . The cholera and venereal diseases were widely disseminated. The concentration of people in larger settlements resulted in large areas being overgrown and favored the spread of the tsetse fly and thus of sleeping sickness . The gonorrhea , which has little acute symptoms, led many women to infertility and was probably the main cause of low birth rates from the 1870s.

Decreasing elephant populations

The result of the booming trade was ultimately a dramatic decline in elephant populations across East Africa. In the 1880s, three quarters of world market demand was met by East African ivory, for which 40,000 to 60,000 animals were hunted annually. The "elephant frontier" was shifting further and further into the continent, profits were more competitive, caravan traders had to make longer and longer journeys in order to meet the steadily increasing demand.

Culture transfer

Transregional trade, which involved large parts of the East African population, also brought about a number of important cultural changes. The inland people saw the Islamic coastal culture as an attractive way of life and began to imitate and appropriate it in many ways. Due to the high mobility along the caravan routes, a lively exchange of cultural elements of very different kinds developed among the inner-African societies. Dance and music traditions, agricultural techniques and crops, clothing styles, religious practices and children's games changed under the influence of the encounters.

City foundations

Henry Morton Stanley (left) meets David Livingstone (right) in Ujiji . Behind Livingstone are dignitaries dressed in Muslims, behind Stanley are his personal companion Kalulu , porters and military companions. Also a flag bearer with the British flag. (Drawing from Stanley's book How I Found Dr. Livingstone ).

Just as the caravans themselves represented places for the exchange of goods and ideas, this also applied to the bases along the caravan routes. They were erected in places that the local caravan drivers were already familiar with. Often these were existing villages, sometimes the seat of a friendly local authority. Over time, the coastal traders established strong branches here with military reinforcements, usually in alliance with local chiefs. They were not infrequently asked for support by them.

These places quickly developed into lively contact points for trade and attracted further immigration. Indian and coastal traders built second homes and married into distinguished local families. They also settled here when they could not return to the coast because they were in debt. Mosques, exchange offices, shops, stone houses in Swahili style and caravanserais sprang up. Tabora and Ujiji are examples of this expansion of coastal culture into which the Zanzibari sultan tried to expand his power by appointing envoys here as well. Such cities were very attractive to the surrounding local societies; they were therefore not copies of the urban Swahili culture, but merged with the respective regional cultures. In Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, for example, when the missionary Edward Hore was there in 1876, there were around 30 to 40 coastal traders, while the population of several thousand people came almost exclusively from the surrounding area. Nevertheless, these cities, like the caravans themselves during their journey, exerted a great attraction with their flair of cosmopolitanism and connections to an international trading network. They were centers of cultural transfer and the appropriation of cultural elements of the coast.

Islamization

Islamization played a central role in this process of cultural transfer. Many people involved in the caravan trade found that converting to Islam made it easier for them to trade with merchants from the coast. In addition, it was possible to reduce the social difference to the coastal traders, who felt superior to the "pagan" peoples inland. The spread of Islam took place in the caravans and along the caravan routes. Traders often helped their followers convert to Islam. The Sufi brotherhoods , especially the Qadiriyya , which were spreading in East Africa , played a central role. They combined elements of local religions with Islam and were particularly popular through public religious dance ceremonies and rituals. Qadiriyya also differed from the Islam practiced on the East African coast in its integrative character. It welcomed people regardless of their social status, origin and education.

Everyday and consumer culture

Adapting to the coastal culture did not just mean adopting a new religious belief. It was connected with the acquisition of a new physical culture, with the adoption of clothing styles, dietary rules, purity laws and Islamic circumcision habits; young men no longer grew their braids, but shaved their heads along the lines of the coast; the custom of carrying verses of the Koran as amulets also spread.

In the course of time and through their contact with the coastal traders, the inland traders showed great interest in all kinds of imported goods. So within a short time umbrellas became coveted prestige goods, other coveted goods were hunting rifles, money in coins and medicine. Clothing made from cotton fabrics, which came inland through trade, became a symbol of prestige and power. Chiefs, such as Semboja in Mazinde, dressed in fine Arabic fabrics and furnished their homes with luxury goods from all over the world.

The insignia of caravan culture, rifles and bullets, flags and coins, found their way into everyday culture, were integrated into the furnishings of local warrior groups, made into jewelry and reflected in children's games. Children made toy guns everywhere. The historian John Iliffe reports on a Yao game in which merchants and slaves faced each other: the loser died on the way.

Slaves and the slave trade from 1870

From 1870 the influence of Great Britain on the Zanzibari Sultan grew massively. After Said ibn Sultan died in 1856, disputes over the throne arose among his sons. The empire was divided up, Majid bin Said ascended the throne in Zanzibar , and his older brother Thuwaini became Sultan of Oman. The follow-up dispute and a coup attempt by his brother Barghasch ibn Said put Majid under such pressure that he welcomed British efforts to mediate and support him.

Britain's influence as a strong partner became increasingly evident in Zanzibari politics after Bargash ascended the throne in 1866 as Majid's successor. Bargash considerably increased the sultan's control of the coast. He was supported in this by the British Consul General John Kirk in Zanzibar and the military commander Lloyd Mathews , both known and feared in the interior of the country. In return, the British demanded that the Sultan enforce the slave trade ban, which had been the subject of negotiations between Great Britain and the Sultans in Zanzibar since the 1850s. Slavery continued to be a profitable factor in the Zanzibari economy, both as an export product in the Indian Ocean and as a manpower reservoir for the plantation economy on the coast. Great Britain, meanwhile, became an increasingly strong sea power in the Indian Ocean - especially after the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 - and was able to put Zanzibar under considerable pressure with its power over the trade route to India.

Plantation economy and slavery on the coast

Although Bargash bowed to British demands for a ban on the overseas slave trade, the slave trade continued. However, since they could no longer be shipped, they flooded the mainland of the East African market. The need for labor was great anyway and increased steadily due to the trade boom. In addition to the production of cloves for export, the plantation economy on the East African coast served on the one hand for subsistence farming to supply the cities. On the other hand, it also worked for interregional trade by producing sugar, which became a coveted barter product domestically.

Plastic in Zanzibar City commemorating the slave trade

Indeed, the slave trade ban led to a dramatic deterioration in living conditions for slaves. The ban on slave exports made slaves a cheap commodity that sank profits. Slaves were no longer a property that one cared about for one's own good. Indeed, it became cheaper for plantation owners to ruthlessly exploit the slaves' labor and buy it when they died than to make provision for their adequate provision.

The result was a considerable loss of value and increasingly ruthless slave hunts to offset the loss of profit. The preferred area of ​​the slave hunters was the southern Tanganyika around Lake Nyassa and Zambezi , which had served as a supplier for slaves for more than two hundred years and where the Yao had long established trading structures as slave traders. Whole areas of land were depopulated here, and the exodus of mostly strong, young men and women led to the decline of economic, cultural and political structures. Many victims died during the hunt: the strenuous march to the coast with poor care and no medical care claimed the lives of 50 to 70 percent of those who had set out on the trail.

Colonization and the end of the caravan trade

The rapid economic growth and the associated ruthless looting of human and ecological resources was followed by a no less abrupt economic break at the end of the century. It was not only the result of the colonization by the German Empire that began around 1888 , even if this changed the political structures to the detriment of the traders and the conquerors tried to bring trade under their control. At the end of the 19th century, East Africa experienced a decade of hunger and rampant diseases that - due to the globalizing economy - conquered the region. The ivory had to be brought to the coast from more and more distant regions, the journeys became longer and more dangerous due to the militarization of the inland. New raw materials, especially rubber , conquered the market.

European expedition and administrative travelers

The beginning of the colonization of Tanganyika at the end of the 19th century did not mean the end of the caravan trade. Rather, many European travelers, such as David Livingstone , Henry Morton Stanley , Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, as well as the first generation of colonial officials, such as Hermann von Wissmann and Carl Peters , traveled with experienced caravan traders and benefited from their geographical knowledge and their knowledge of the inhabitants inland. Indeed, as early as the 1870s, an infrastructure had developed in Zanzibar for European travelers who set out from here to “discover” the continent. Sewa Hadji, an Indian businessman on the coast, was the first address for the equipment of the expeditions of glorious European travelers, he also arranged porters and connections to trade caravans.

The German colonial rulers also used methods that were based on those of the caravan traders. They set up their stations along the existing caravan routes, assembled their troops largely from guides, interpreters and mercenaries who had acquired their knowledge working in the caravan trade, and were keen to get the trade and its profits under their control.

Colonial control over trade

This was done with reference to the diseases spread by the caravans, but above all under the pretext of combating the slave trade, which was banned in the 1890s, and of abolishing "Arab domination" on the mainland. From 1895, German companies increasingly dominated the copal and rubber trade, and German steamers represented strong competition to the previous means of transport at sea, the dhows .

Through the so-called Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty , Zanzibar was administratively separated from the mainland, which was under German rule, and incorporated into the British Empire. The Indian trading elite, which had held a key position in the ivory trade and which the British and Germans saw as subjects of the British Empire, were increasingly eliminated as competition by German trading houses.

Finally, the colonial government ordered market halls in the coastal towns. By building market halls in which the value of all products from the interior of the country was to be determined by public auction, trade could be better controlled and the colonial administration benefited considerably from trade due to the additional fees. Domestic product prices rose rapidly, and importers and dealers made much smaller profits.

Prohibition of ivory trade

Africans with hunting trophies and ivory from two elephants in German East Africa (between 1906 and 1918)

The elephant populations, which had been decimated in many places and which European observers had expressed concern about at the end of the 19th century, were attempted to be protected with an export and hunting ban. Since 1908, a hunting ban for elephants has been in effect in German East Africa, which only allowed exceptions for holders of hunting licenses for high fees and allowed a total of two animals per owner to be killed.

Railway construction

With the construction of the railway lines, the Usambara Railway from Tanga from 1891 , the Uganda Railway from 1896 in British East Africa and the Tanganyika Railway from 1904 , the caravan trade finally came to an end due to competition from the railway. The number of porters traveling inland from Bagamoyo fell from 43,880 to 193 between 1900 and 1912. In other areas, people continued to rely on human power to transport goods for a long time. Nevertheless, new centers developed with the railroad and those of the caravan trading system fell into disrepair. Ujiji and Bagamoyo, for example, lost their importance completely with the railway, while the cities of Dar es Salaam and Kigoma , the start and end points of the Tanganyika Railway, flourished.

Continuity of trade structures in the 19th century

The social, geographical and cultural structures that had developed through trade in the 19th century, however, largely determined the further development of the region. The newly emerging colonial railways, such as the Tanganyika Railway, the railway line to Kilimanjaro and the Uganda Railway , were built with minor deviations along the previous caravan routes and were intended to serve the same purpose as the caravan routes: the transport of raw materials to the coast.

The colonial seizure of power came from the centers of the caravan trade, from the coast and from the inland towns that arose in the 19th century. The inner-African societies reacted to the new invaders with the previously established strategies: They came to terms with each other and tried to profit from them for their part. Migrant workers on the plantations of the new colonial rulers as well as on the construction sites of the railway line came from areas from which porters for caravans had come decades earlier. They organized themselves according to the same structures as the carriers of the caravan trade, worked under the same conditions and used similar strategies to enforce their demands for wages, reasonable working hours and food.

Culturally, there was a dichotomy between the Islamic coast with its settlements along the caravan routes and the non-Islamic inland. Although Islam continued to spread domestically, it mainly happened along the newly established railway lines. Kiswahili as the lingua franca of the caravan trade was adopted by the British and German colonial administrations as the language of rule. After the independence of the East African states, East Africa was the only region south of the Sahara that could use an African language as the common lingua franca.

A decisive consequence of the lively cultural exchange that took place in the 19th century was the organization of broad, cross- ethnic resistance against German colonial rule during the Maji-Maji War of 1905–1907. The uprising expressed not only a renewed form of religion, which went back to intensive contact with elements of other religions, but also the awareness of a cross-ethnic cohesion among the inner-African inhabitants.

Research history

The influence of the coast in establishing the interregional caravan trade in East Africa has long been described primarily as the tyranny of the Arab traders over the African hinterland. European travelers, particularly missionaries touring East Africa during the 19th century, repeatedly and emphatically portrayed the unscrupulous Muslim slave traders. The image of Islamic tyrants remained unquestioned for a long time, Christian missions discredited the competition of the spreading Islam in their field of activity, and German colonial agents found it a welcome pretext to put the country under their "protection".

For a long time, this perspective remained predominant in research. The trade in East Africa was primarily addressed as a slave trade system within which the coastal traders acted while the intra-African groups represented passive victims. The intensive economic-historical work of the historians of the so-called Dar-es-Salaamer School in the 1960s, who felt particularly committed to writing African national history, shifted this focus. They showed that the caravan trade was oriented towards the world market, based primarily on the profit of ivory and that the slave trade developed rather as a by-product. Nevertheless, they too thematized the history of the caravan trade primarily as a history of an underdevelopment of native Africa.

In the 1980s, with a general expansion of historical perspectives on African history, a reassessment of the East African trade boom began. It was no longer valued as exploitation of the inland by coastal traders, but rather trade was understood as a complex system in which winners and losers could not be assigned ethnically or geographically. The participation of individual regions and special actors in trade, such as the porters or women, also gained space in the presentations. Inner African traders as actors who traded in slaves themselves, or domestic slaves who rose in coastal society, adopting Islam as a strategy to become part of Swahili society, are examples that show that people from all regions of East Africa actively helped to shape the changes.

Building on the judgment of the British historian John Iliffe, the complex trade network that so severely determined the societies of East Africa in the 19th century was increasingly judged to have shaped the subsequent colonization and the current shape of the individual nation states in the area. According to current research, many changes that took place during the colonial and post-colonial periods were shaped by reactions and strategies that had their roots in the experiences of the 19th century.

literature

  • Edward A. Alpers: Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa. Changing Pattern of International Trade in East Central Africa in the later Nineteenth Century . London 1975.
  • Jonathan Glassman: Feasts and Riot. Revelry, rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast, 1856–1888 . Portsmouth 1995.
  • Iris Hahner-Herzog: Tippu Tip and the ivory trade in East and Central Africa in the 19th century . Munich 1990.
  • John Iliffe : A Modern History of Tanganyika . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1979 ISBN 0-521-29611-0
  • John Iliffe: History of Africa . Beck, Munich 1997 ISBN 3-406-46309-6
  • Juhani Koponen: People and Production in Late Precolonial Tanzania. History and Structures . Uppsala 1988.
  • Michael Pesek : Colonial rule in German East Africa. Expeditions, military and administration since 1880 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37868-X .
  • Stephen J. Rockel: Carriers of Culture. Labor on the Road in Nineteenth-Century East Africa . Porthsmouth 2006.
  • Abdul MH Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory in Zanzibar. Integration of an East African Commercial Empire into the World Economy, 1770–1873 . London 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Iliffe: A Modern History of Tanganyika , Cambridge 1969, p. 40.
  2. ^ GH Maddox: Networks and Frontiers in Colonial Tanzania . In: Environmental History 98 (1998) 3, pp. 436-459, p. 440.
  3. ↑ Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu, 1500-1900 , Nairobi 1974; Michael Pesek: Colonial rule in German East Africa. Expeditions, military and administration since 1880 , Frankfurt / M. 2005, p. 56.
  4. ^ Edward A. Alpers: Ivory and Slaves. Changing Patterns of International Trade in East Central Africa to the Late Nineteenth Century , Berkeley & Los Angeles 1975.
  5. ↑ Andrew Roberts: Nyamwezi Trade . In: R. Gray, R. Birmingham (Eds.): Precolonial African Trade . London 1970, pp. 45-46.
  6. ^ Abdul HM Sheriff: Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar. Integration of an East African Commercial Empire into the World Economy . London 1987, p. 417.
  7. ^ Juhani Koponen: People and Production in Late Precolonial Tanzania. History and Structures , Helsinki 1988, p. 57.
  8. ↑ Oscar Baumann: Through Maasailand to the source of the Nile. Travel and research of the Maasai expedition of the German Anti-Slavery Committee in the years 1891–1893 , Berlin 1894, p. 234; Iliffe: Modern History , 1979, p. 41.
  9. ↑ Jonathan Glassman: Feasts and riot. Revelry, Rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast, 1865–1888 , Portsmouth 1995, p. 29.
  10. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 44, 49.
  11. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 44f.
  12. ↑ Roger van Zwanenberg, A. King: An Economic History of Kenya and Uganda, 1800-1970 , Atlantic Highlands 1975, pp. 165-67.
  13. ↑ Zwanenberg: Economic History , 1975, p. 167; Koponen: People and Production , 1988, pp. 59-67.
  14. ↑ Sheriff: Slaves, Spices and Ivory , 1987, pp. 156-159; Edward E. Alpers: The East African Slave Trade , Nairobi 1967, pp. 10-11.
  15. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 45–51.
  16. ^ Van Zwanenberg: Economic History , 1975, p. 165, Glassman: Feasts and riot , 1995, p. 29
  17. ^ Van Zwanenberg: Economic History , 1975, p. 167.
  18. ^ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 54; Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1986, pp. 2, 101ff.
  19. ^ Reginald Coupland: East Africa and its Invaders. From the Earliest time to the Death of Seyyid Said in 1856 , Oxford 1938, p. 299.
  20. ↑ Pesek: Colonial rule. 2005, p. 48.
  21. ^ Van Zwanenberg: Economic History , 1975, p. 165.
  22. ^ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 62.
  23. ^ Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1987, p. 195; Glassman: Feasts and riot , 1995, p. 48.
  24. ^ Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1987, p. 108.
  25. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, p. 50.
  26. ↑ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 75.See also Richard F. Burton: The Lake Regions of Central Africa , 2 vols., New York 1961.
  27. ^ Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1987, p. 192.
  28. ↑ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 75; Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1987, p. 195; Pesek: Colonial Rule , p. 47.
  29. ^ Glassman: Feasts and Riots , 1995, p. 59; Sheriff: Slaves, Spices and Ivory , 1987, p. 186.
  30. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 57–58.
  31. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 77–81; Norman R. Bennett: Arab versus European. Diplomacy and War in Nineteenth Century East Central Africa , New York, 1986, p. 6.
  32. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 83–84.
  33. ^ Luise White: Blood Brotherhood Revisited: Kinship, Relationship, and the Body in East and Central Africa . In: Africa 64 (1994) 3, pp. 359-372.
  34. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 85–86.
  35. ↑ Steven Feierman: The Shambaa Kingdom. A History , Madison 1974, pp. 148, 196.
  36. ↑ Lois Sherr Dubin: The History of Beads from 30,000 BC to the Present , London: Thames and Hudson, 2006, pp. 125f.
  37. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, p. 64.
  38. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 58-77.
  39. ^ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 75.
  40. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 58-59, 64. Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 112. Stephen Rockel: A Nation of Porters. The Nyamwezi and the Labor Market in Nineteenth-Century Tanzania , in Journal of African History 41 (2000) 3, pp. 173-195, pp. 184-185.
  41. ^ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, p. 114.
  42. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 65–66.
  43. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 61–64.
  44. ↑ Stephen Rockel: Wage Labor and the Culture of Porterage in Nineteenth Century Tanzania: The Central Caravan Routes . In: South Asia Bulletin 15 (1995) 2, pp. 18-19.
  45. ^ Glassman: Feats and riot , 1995, p. 76.
  46. ^ Rockel: Wage Labor , 1995, p. 20.
  47. ↑ Koponen 1988, People and Production, p. 112.
  48. ↑ Rockel: A Nation of Porters? , 2000, pp. 173-195. Jutta Bückendorf: “Black-white-red over East Africa!” German colonial plans and African reality , Münster 1997, p. 35.
  49. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 59–60.
  50. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, p. 73.
  51. ↑ John Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , Munich 1997, p. 245.
  52. ↑ Stephen Rockel: Enterprising Partners. Caravan Woman in Nineteenth Century Tanzania . In: Canadian Journal of African Studies 34 (2000) 3, pp. 748-778.
  53. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 87-92.
  54. ^ Raymond W. Beachey: The Arms Trade in East Africa in the Late Nineteenth Century . In: Journal of African History 3 (1962) 3, pp. 451-467, p. 453.
  55. ↑ Koponen: War, Famine, and Pestilence in Late Precolonial Tanzania . In: International Journal of African Historical Studies 21 (1988) 2, pp. 637-676, p. 648; Iliffe: Modern History , 1979, pp. 76-82.
  56. ^ Glassman: Feasts and riot , 1995, p. 23; Sheriff: Slaves, Spices, and Ivory , 1987, p. 48.
  57. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 249.
  58. ^ Sheriff: Slaves, Spices and Ivory , 1987, p. 182.
  59. ↑ stooping village: "Black-white-red over East Africa," 1997, p 35. Pesek: Colonial domination , 2005 S. 71st
  60. ^ Bennett: Arab versus European , 1986, p. 35.
  61. ↑ Koponen: People and Production , 1988, pp. 130, 161. Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, pp. 249–250, 281–282.
  62. ^ RW Beachey: The East African Ivory Trade in the Nineteenth Century . In: Journal of African History 8 (1967), pp. 281-317, p. 273.
  63. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 248.
  64. ↑ Bückendorf: “Black-white-red over East Africa!” , 1997, pp. 90–95.
  65. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 74-77.
  66. ^ Glassmann: Feast and riot , 1995, pp. 133-142.
  67. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, p. 93.
  68. ^ Iliffe: Modern History , 1979, p. 78.
  69. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 248, Richard Reid: War in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa , Oxford 2007, pp. 201-204.
  70. ↑ Glassmann, p. 52.
  71. ^ Glassman: Feast and Riots , 1995, pp. 30-33.
  72. ↑ van Zwanenberg: Economic History , 1975, pp. 169–177.
  73. ↑ stooping village: "Black-white-red over East Africa" , 1997, pp 370-372.
  74. ↑ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, pp. 109–124.
  75. ^ Pesek: Koloniale Herrschaft , 2005, p. 43.
  76. ^ Patrick Krajewski: Steamers and Dhows . In: Felicitas Becker, Jigal Beez: Der Maji-Maji-Krieg in Deutsch-Ostafrika, 1905–1907 , Berlin 2005, p. 49–58, p. 52.
  77. ↑ Krajewski: Dampfer and Dhaus , 2005, pp. 52–54.
  78. ^ Krajewski: Dampfer and Dhaus , 2005, p. 55.
  79. ^ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 274.
  80. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 278.
  81. ↑ Christiane Reichart-Burikukiye: Gari la moshi - modernity and mobility. Life with the railroad in German East Africa , Münster 2005, pp. 102-105.
  82. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 1997, p. 263.
  83. ↑ See Andrew Roberts (ed.): Tanzania before 1900 , Nairobi 1968.
  84. ↑ Iliffe: Geschichte Afrikas , 2005, p. 249.
  85. ^ Iliffe: Modern History , 1979, p. 40. Pesek, 2005.
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