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Résumé
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Résumé For most of the last century Mtoro Bakari was mainly remembered for his marriage to a German woman. In Bagamoyo a few elderly people had vague recollections of his unsuccessful attempt to return to German East Africa until the 1980s. In Germany his story seemed to be largely forgotten following his dismissal from the HCI in 1913. With the transfer of the German colonies to other European powers after the First World War, his presence in Berlin ultimately lost its political significance. Both the public interest in the former colonies and the recruitment of African tutors sharply decreased. Mtoro Bakari was about 30 years of age when he came to Germany. Being employed as an assistant on a regular basis, he did not aspire the kind of academic career enjoyed by his German colleagues and was, apparently, not very aware of the difference in salary. He had to accept the fact that formal recognition would be conferred on others, such as Carl Velten who, besides his academic titles (doctor, professor) earned several medals, including the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar awarded him by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1908.1 Nevertheless, Mtoro Bakari enjoyed professional recognition and always insisted on being respected for his intellectual competence and teaching proficiency. However, when his status as an independent lecturer was challenged, he avoided any direct confrontation, a fact which probably relates to his precarious position as a colonial subject. Instead, he preferred defensive strategies, seen in his reactions both to the vilifications of his students in Berlin and later to a young German scholar’s reckless display of presumed superiority. Humiliated, he felt himself forced to react. In the end, these conflicts revealed the ultimate reason for his dismissals, namely, the colonial self-centred thinking of his superiors, whose partial support for him constantly decreased. One possible motive for his original openness to the German colonizers, with whom he was never on an equal footing, was his mixed experience of the war of 1888/89 that marked the beginning of the colonial period. He witnessed both the brutality of the colonizers and the destruction of the 1 The third class type of this medal (cf. GStA PK, I.HA Rep.208A, Nr.117, 27). Carl Velten sent copies of his early publications to Sultan Hamoud bin Muhammad (1851-1902) whom he had met on the occasion of his accession to the throne in 1896. K. Bromber, ‘Verdienste von Lehrern und Lektoren’, 47; Wilhelm Langheld, Zwanzig Jahre in deutschen Kolonien, Berlin, 1909, 237. Many Europeans were similarly decorated by the Sultan before, cf. the illustration of the Brilliant Star (2nd class, 3rd rank) in Karl Wilhelm Schmidt, Sansibar: Ein ostafrikanisches Culturbild, Leipzig, 1888, 114-115. R É S U M É 104 homes of relatives and friends by African forces. The following years were characterized by the largely unchallenged foreign domination of the East African coast and the economic exigencies of the prolonged drought that began in 1898. While in many respects Mtoro Bakari viewed the colonial regime as positive, he left the difficult economic conditions of the 1890s behind, and his income at the SOL in Berlin enabled him to lead a decent life in Germany. Working as a teacher and writer he had the chance of developing his intellectual abilities. Having enjoyed an Islamic education imbued with Swahili notions of civilization, he then acknowledged European attitudes and achievements. In 1900 Mtoro Bakari was the last Swahili lecturer apparently chosen for being the kind of young local intellectual who had extensively studied the Quran and Arabic. This quality distinguished him from his successors who had studied or worked in government schools. On the other hand, he was the first Swahili lecturer who was actually a German colonial subject, and like his successors, he had previously worked for the colonial administration. These facts certainly influenced his political opinions. While still living in Bagamoyo, he absorbed the modernization discourses and practices, even defending colonial taxation despite negative experiences as a tax collector. We may infer that he viewed his work in Germany as a contribution to a political regime which, if widely accepted by the colonized, could be expected to offer significant advantages to its subjects. In part, Mtoro Bakari’s ideas corresponded to the colonial policies in East Africa, e.g. regarding the abolition of slavery. While he did not belong to the economic or political elite of Bagamoyo, nevertheless the reputation of his family and his position as an educated Muslim apparently made...