Sultanate of Witu

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Sultanate of Witu (Kenya)
Witu
Witu
Location of Witu in what is now Kenya
Witu on the East African coast, map around 1890

Witu (also Wituland or Witu area ) was an African sultanate on the northern coast of today's Kenya . From 1885 to 1890 a so-called " German protected area " was set up in Witu , which was also called Swahili country . It extended north of the Tana River from the place Kipini on the Osi River to the place Mkonumbe on the Lamu Bay opposite the island of Lamu over a length of about 40 km. In 1890 the protectorate passed to Great Britain , which subsequently administered Witu as part of British East Africa . As a result, the small sultanate lost its independence.

prehistory

In 1858, Sultan Ahmad ibn Fumo Bakari, from the old ruling family of the Nabahani, founded Witu as the seat of government on the mainland from the city of Pate on the island of the same name in the Lamu archipelago in order to avoid the expansion of Zanzibar's power . In view of the attempts of Zanzibar to get the area of ​​Witu under control, the sultan turned to the German Africa traveler Richard Brenner in 1867 with the request to broker a protection treaty with Prussia. In 1878/79 the Sultan met the German brothers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt , who were exploring the area on the Tana River. This then operated the establishment of a Tana company in Germany , which after three years of efforts in November 1882 initially led to the formation of a provisional committee. Clemens Denhardt was able to win over the mayor of Berlin, Max von Forckenbeck , to chair the committee . In December 1884 the Denhardts returned to East Africa.

Witu and German colonial aspirations (1885–1890)

The area claimed by the Witu-Gesellschaft (here called Deutsch-Witu-Land ) according to a map by Rochus Schmidt from 1888.

On April 8, 1885, the Denhardt brothers acquired an area of ​​25 × 25 miles (1,600 km²) from Sultan Ahmad for their Tana Committee and applied for a letter of protection from the German Empire . This protection was granted on May 27, 1885. The Denhardts then sold 1,400 km² to what would later become the Deutsche Witu-Gesellschaft , which from 1887 had sovereignty as a colonial company under German law on behalf of the empire.

The area of ​​the Sultan was counted as a protected area on the German side since 1885. In April 1885 the Sultan conveyed to the German Consulate General in Zanzibar his wish to enter into a friendly relationship with the German Kaiser and under his protection, which was immediately answered in the affirmative from Berlin. However, this was not linked to an agreement on the relinquishment of sovereign rights.

Sultan Barghasch ibn Said of Zanzibar was in the meantime extremely worried, as the German letter of protection for Carl Peters' claims on the mainland against Zanzibar ( Tanganyika ) had only been issued a few weeks earlier in February 1885 . The Sultan protested by telegram in Berlin in April 1885 and sent soldiers on the march against Witu. The appearance of the East African cruiser squadron off Zanzibar, however, forced him to give in and to accept the German claims. Shortly afterwards, a delegation from the corvette Gneisenau paid the first official visit to the new “protected area”. In 1886 Great Britain recognized the German protectorate in the Dar es Salaam / Pangani area as a rival colonial power in the region . This also applied indirectly to the coast and the hinterland of Witus. In return, Germany again respected a provisional sphere of influence from England north of the Tanga - Lake Victoria line . The geopolitical situation of Witus therefore initially remained in limbo.

The German officer Rochus Schmidt was in the new protected area in 1886 and 1887 as a representative of the Witu Society. He set up stations, traveled to neighboring countries and helped repel attacks. Some German settlers started plantation economy and trade. But there was not enough capital for investments. The German government held back financially and limited itself to a small military contingent and the establishment of an imperial post office on Lamu . The British East Africa steamers docked so seldom in Lamu that the mail and freight traffic mostly had to be time-consuming and expensive via the larger ports in Malindi or Mombasa .

In 1890 the Witu-Gesellschaft was financially at an end and was opened by a contract dated May 10, 1890 with the German-East African Society . In the meantime, the German consul general in Zanzibar had concluded a protection treaty with the new sultan of Witu, Fumo Bakari, over the area of ​​the sultanate's rule.

British occupation (1890–1895)

The news of the German-British agreement of July 1, 1890 came as a surprise to everyone involved : Germany withdrew its patronage over Witu in favor of Great Britain. Great Britain undertook to recognize the sovereignty of the Sultan of Witu over the area, which extends from Kipini to the point established as a border in 1887 opposite the island of Kweihu (today: Kiwaiyu, northernmost island of the Lamu archipelago). Germany also waives its previously unrealized claims on the coast bordering Witu to the north as far as Kismayu and on the islands of Pate and Manda. The sultan was angry and saw himself betrayed by the Germans. The anger also spread among the population.

An incident then led to the violent end of the German presence (according to a British report): The Bavarian farmer Andreas Küntzel set up a sawmill near Mkonumbi on the Sultan's territory and began to cut wood. He had no permission from the Sultan to do so. On September 15th, the sultan's armed men showed up at his sawmill. Küntzel went to Witu with 8 companions and asked to speak to the Sultan. He was supposed to wait in front of the city gate, but forced his way into the palisade fortifications. Küntzel and four of his companions were shot. A young German who remained at the sawmill was shot the following day, another German was attacked and killed two days later.

The German government sent a protest note to Great Britain demanding punishment and damages. The British asked Sultan Fumo Bakari to face a lawsuit on Lamu. Since he did not obey, the British landed a force of almost 800 sailors and marines, 150 Indian policemen from the British East African Society, 200 Zanzibari soldiers and 250 local auxiliaries, and declared martial law over Witu. Several villages were burned down and Witu stormed and burned down as well. The Sultan and his forces withdrew into the bush in front of the British guns. The British forces withdrew to Zanzibar again.

Britain declared Witu a protectorate on November 15, but has not yet taken any steps to enforce it. Bakari died in early 1891. His brother Shehe wanted to start peace negotiations but was deposed and imprisoned. His brother Fumo Omari took over the government.

In March 1891 an agreement was then concluded between the British government, the British East African Society and the representatives of Witus. Management was transferred to the company, slavery was declared abolished and 250 Indian police officers were posted to the company under the command of a British officer.

Sultan Fumo Omari did not adhere very much to the suzerainty of British society, and so the fighting broke out again from March 1893 and continued throughout the year. The British East African Society returned Witu to the British government. Control of the area could only be maintained with two new invasions by British naval forces. The British placed the area under the Sultan of Zanzibar , so that the red flag of Zanzibar was raised over Witu.

Only when Fumo Omari died did the situation finally calm down. In 1895 the British position was strong enough to be able to appoint a new sultan in Omari bin Mohammed. Similar to the Sultan of Zanzibar, he was assigned a British resident who ensured the enforcement of British interests while maintaining a certain degree of self-administration.

Further development until today

In 1905 British responsibility for Witu changed from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office. Since then, Witu has only been administered as part of the Tana Province of the Kenyan coastal protectorate. Later there was no talk of the contractually guaranteed sovereignty. With the death of Omar bin Hamed in 1923, the chapter was finally closed.

Gustav Denhardt apparently continued to try to maintain activities in Witu. He was arrested there by the British at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 and interned in India.

Today Witu belongs to Kenya and is part of the district of Lamu .

philately

After Witus passed to Great Britain, stamps with the designation "Postage Malakote" appeared in pesas and rupees in trade and later in Denhardt's estate . The name refers to the settlement area of ​​the Malakote people group, who settle on the middle Tana River outside the Witu area. It is uncertain by whom these stamps were issued and whether they refer to a post office that has actually been set up. According to a publication from 1921, they were intended for use in the hinterland by the Denhardt brothers, but not in use. On the other hand, official and postage stamps are known of the post within the sultanate, which were canceled by stamps with a W or Wito lettering at the time of the German protectorate .

literature

  • Jutta Bückendorf: “Black-white-red over East Africa!” German colonial plans and African reality. LIT-Verlag, Münster u. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8258-2755-0 ( Europa-Übersee 5), (also: Bamberg, Univ., Diss., 1995).
  • Rainer Lahme: German Foreign Policy 1890–1894. From Bismarck's policy of equilibrium to Caprivi's alliance strategy. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-525-35940-3 ( series of publications by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 39), (also: Münster (Westphalia), Univ., Diss., 1988).
  • Herbert Schrey: The first German postal facilities on the east coast of Africa and the sultanate post in Wituland and Malakote. Self-published, Kassel 1961.
  • Marguerite Ylvisaker: The Origins and Development of the Witu Sultanate . In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies , Vol. 11, No. 4 (1978), pp. 669-688, JSTOR 217198 .
  • Clélia Coret: The last Swahili State, the Foundation of the Witu Sultanate in the Nineteenth Century . In: Mambo , 10, n ° 1 (January 2012), pp. 1–5.
  • Witu area . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 16, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 705.
  • British occupation of the Witu area . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 18, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 1006.
  • Witu . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 28 : Vetch - Zymotic Diseases . London 1911, p. 765 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Swahili Sultanate  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Witu. In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920.
  • Wituland . Archive Guide German Colonial History, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam - Department of Information Sciences (Ed.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto von Bismarck : Memorandum on the German Protected Areas of December 2, 1885 . In: Documents on the negotiations of the Reichstag 1885/86. No. 44, p. 137. ( reichstagsprotlog.de )
  2. ^ Horst founder: History of the German colonies. 5th edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, p. 88.
  3. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : Bismarck and Imperialism. 4th edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-423-04187-0 , p. 368.
  4. ↑ See Reichstag protocols, 1885 / 86.4
  5. ↑ Otto von Bismarck : Memorandum on the German Protected Areas of December 2, 1885 . In: Documents on the negotiations of the Reichstag 1885/86. No. 44, p. 137. ( reichstagsprotlog.de )
  6. ↑ David K. Fieldhouse: The colonial empires since the 18th century. Fischer Weltgeschichte, Volume 29, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 185.
  7. ^ Schmidt, Rochus . In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon. Volume III, Leipzig 1920, p. 301.
  8. ^ Map of the Wituland with the "possession of the D. Ostafrik. Society ” , picture collection of the German Colonial Society in the University Library Frankfurt am Main.
  9. ↑ English-language report on the British campaigns in Witu in 1890 and 1893 based on the final report by Admiral Freemantle on a page of the Friends of the "Kenya Regiment"
  10. ↑ the spellings vary, e.g. B. Omar-Bin-Hamed; for the chosen cf. Romero: Lamu. 1977, p. 63 (photo) in the Google book search
  11. ^ Albert Friedemann (Ed.): The postage stamps and cancellations of the German post offices in the protected areas and abroad. Edited and edited as a manual with the participation of important collectors by Albert Friedemann, 2nd exp. Ed., Leipzig 1921, p. 206 ff. ( Online at archive.org ).