Mtoro bin Mwinyi Bakari: Swahili lecturer and author in Germany

7. 1913: further discord

7 1913: further discord Never forget what I say: This country belongs to the Europeans who throw away huge numbers of rupees. So, bend down and pick them up! The District Commissioner of Tanga, Hans Zache, before leaving for Germany in 1907 The measures designed to control the working conditions of “black” lecturers went hand in hand with the intention of curbing their intellectual abilities and thus reinforcing the belief in their racial inferiority. The kind of role regarded by many academics as appropriate for a “native” Swahili tutor after 1904 is illustrated by the teaching practice of Hans Zache, a lawyer who had first studied and then taught Swahili at the SOL in Berlin. He began to work for the colonial administration of German East Africa in 1895 when he, together with Carl Velten, collected evidence against Hassan bin Omari (Makunganya) and other opponents of the colonial regime in Kilwa, who were sentenced to death by a court martial.1 In 1899 he led an expedition against Machemba, a Yao leader in Lindi District whose men had already fought against the colonial military in 1890 and 1895. Later on, Hans Zache was remembered for having deported a Yao king to Dar es Salaam, where he was executed, and then taking over the administration of Lindi District. Thus, he was nicknamed kinyonga, “hangman”, according to a song recited by Hamisi bin Farhani and an explanatory text edited by Maria von Tiling around 1926. The unknown Swahili author obviously merged Zache’s participation in the actions against Makunganya and Machinga into one story, pointing out that it happened during the tenure of Herrmann von Wissmann, who governed the colony in 1889-1891 and 1895-1896, but unaware of the fact that Machemba had been able to take refuge in Mozambique. Moreover, it appears that the original meaning of the nickname kinyonga was “chameleon” and that it was invented by Swahili speakers personally acquainted with Hans Zache. Thus, it recalls 1 H. Zache (1869-1930) edited Swahili texts and published a number of articles and books. The poem of Mwalimu Mbaraka bin Shomari mentions Zache’s “official” nickname (Bwana Saha) and praises his qualities as a judge: ‘Shairi ya bana Saha’, in C. Velten, Prosa und Poesie, 293-295; cf. H. Zache (ed.), ‘Das Makunganya-Lied’, MSOS, 1, 1898, 105 (see G. Miehe et al. (eds.), Kala Shairi, 21-22, 278-303, 443-444). 1913: further discord 77 7.1 Title page of a Swahili newspaper published by the government school in Tanga. This includes an article of Hans Zache in which the colonial regime is legitimized by its modernization efforts, as well as an announcement in which he warned the population to report the Maji Maji fighters who had been deported to the Tanga District and had escaped from a detention camp. S E V E N 78 the stern ways in which he treated Africans and the ostensible kindness he showed towards those who readily followed his orders, as highlighted in the text of 1926. This contradiction was a true reflection of the militaristic and authoritarian attitude of many German colonial officers.1 2 Hans Zache finally left the colonial service in 1910. In the summer semester of 1911 he began to offer courses at the HCI, including the obligatory “Swahili exercises on the treatment of natives and the administration of native law”. The idea behind this course was to provide an opportunity for the students not only to practice the language but also to gain experience in dealing with “chiefs, workers, natives of a locality, etc.” and thus to get used to the behaviour that was expected of Europeans in the colony. In particular, they had to play witnesses, plaintiffs and defendents in typical proceedings at “native courts”. Himself acting as a district judge, Hans Zache enlisted his African servant and also asked Mtoro Bakari to take up various roles. These plays “offered many opportunities for lectures on language and customs, native law, economy and geography”, as asserted in the annual report of the HCI.3 Unsurprisingly, Mtoro Bakari did not fit into the assigned position of a colonial subject, neither in the roles he played nor in the position of an “assistant”. According to a report of November 1912 Hans Zache “used his own Swahili boy as a language assistant because, as he said, Mtoro, who is employed by the Colonial Institute as a language assistant...