History

Topic outline

• 

  General

  • Announcements Forum
  • S4: History TG File
  • S4: History SB File
• Unit 1: The reforms of Belgian rule in Rwanda

  Topic area:  History of Rwanda

  
  

  Sub-topic area: History of ancient, colonial and post-colonial Rwanda

  
  

  Key competence

  
  

  Assess the performance of the Belgian rule and the process of independence in Rwanda.

  
  

  Activity 1.1 Group work

  Look for a wide range of sources such as books, journals and audio-visual documentaries on how the Belgian rule brought reforms to Rwanda. In your various groups, assess how these reforms brought about change. Prepare your findings and present them in class.The Belgian rule influenced both negative and positive change in Rwanda. Discuss.

  
  

  Establishment of Belgian rule in Rwanda

  
  

  When World War I ended, Belgium was given the mandate to govern Rwanda by the League of Nations in 1924. The Rwanda territory under Belgium rule was initially known as Ruanda-Urundi. The Germans were the first ones to arrive in Rwanda. They left the territory in 1916. Belgium ruled Rwanda from then up to 1962. During this period, the Belgians undertook a number of reforms which have been analysed in three stages below.

  
  

  Reforms introduced under Belgian Rule (1916 – 1962)

  
  

  Reforms under the military occupation (1916 – 1924)

  
  

  Political reforms

  
  

  With the colonial experience that was gained in Belgian Congo, the Belgians undertook gradual political measures that undermined the monarchical system in Rwanda. To achieve this, the Belgians introduced the following reforms:

  
  

  • Banning of right over life and death (1917). The Royal Commissioner in agreement with the Belgian Government put a ban on the indigenous sovereigns’ unconditional right over the life and death of their subjects. They only remained with an honorary title.

  
  

  • Political measures. From 1923, measures were put in place to prevent the king from appointing and dismissing chiefs without the permission of the Representative of the Belgium Government.

  
  

  Economic reforms

  
  

  • Fiscal measures of 1924. This involved the abolition of Imponoke that consisted of cows given as gifts to a chief who had lost cows in huge numbers. It also abolished Indabukirano, that consisted of cows that were given to a new chief upon assuming his duties as a new leader in a given area.
  

  
  

  Socio- cultural reforms

  
  

  • Religious reforms (1917). The king was obliged to allow freedom of religion and worship. By doing so, he lost his politico-religious power. Rwandans considered the king as their unique religious leader who communicated with ‘god’ through some sort of magical power. He was a source of life and prosperity for the whole kingdom.

  
  

  Reforms under the Belgian Mandate (1924 – 1946)

  
  

  Rwanda was placed under the Mandate regime ‘B’ after the definitions of the League of Nations’ Pact, paragraph 3, article 22 that defines three types of Mandates (A,B,C). On October 20th, 1924, the Belgian Parliament approved Mandate ‘B’ on Rwanda. From then, Rwanda shifted from ‘an occupational territory’ to officially become ‘a territory under Belgian Mandate’. Rwanda was also placed under Mandate ‘B’ because it had reached a certain degree of development. However, the League of Nations member states felt that it was still incapable of ruling itself. Belgium had the mission to politically emancipate the colony by; ensuring public services were functioning through local authorities, favouring the moral and material well-being of indigenous people, opening the mandate territory to open trade and finally reporting annually to the League of Nations’ Permanent Commission of Mandates.It is after this Belgian approval that a number of reforms followed to meet the League’s terms. Belgium administratively annexed this new territory to her own colony – Belgian Congo. It simply applied on it the Congolese colonial law.

  
  

  Political reforms

  
  

  The political reforms undertaken during this time included the famous Administrative Reforms initiated as from 1926.

  
  

  Administrative reforms (1926 – 1931)

  
  

  These administrative reforms brought about the following transformations:

  
  

  • Restructuring of the administrative entities. Rwanda which was originally ruled under 20 districts (Ibiti) and pastoral fiefs (Ibikingi) was now transformed into a system of chiefferies, sub-chiefferies (Chefferie, Sous-chefferie) and territories. By 1931, Rwanda consisted of 10 territories instead of 20 districts, 52 chiefferies that corresponded to historical traditional regions and 544 sub-chiefferies.

  
  

  • New distribution of power. The functions of the land, cattle and military chiefs were abolished. The nomination of leaders in this reform contributed to the creation of disunity among Rwandans because it excluded the Hutu, Twaand Tutsi from modest backgrounds in favour of the Tutsi from rich families. Old chiefs were replaced by their sons who had graduated from the school reserved for the sons of chiefs. They were considered able to rule in a modern way because they were supposed to have acquired basic western leadership, writing and reading skills to serve as loyal colonial auxiliaries.

  
  

  • The deposition of King Yuhi V Musinga (1931). On November 12th, 1931, the vice governor of Ruanda-Urundi, Charles Voisin proclaimed deposition orders from the throne and hence Musinga’s deportation to Kamembe (today in Rusizi District). Later, he was exiled to Moba in Belgian Congo. On the same day, Rudahigwa was proclaimed King by Vice-Governor Voisin. He was enthroned under the title of Mutara III on November 16th, 1931. King Musinga was accused by the Belgians of opposing moral, social and economic work that was being carried out by the colonial administration. At the same time, Christian missionaries accused him of being hostile to their work.

  
  

  • Introduction of identity cards.By 1930, Belgians had come up with identity cards known as Ibuku which detailed the following; clan identity, marital status, names of parents, area of residence and ethnic group that was given after one’s socio-economic class (Tutsi, Hutu or Twa).

  
  

  Economic reforms

  
  

  The economic performance of Belgian rule in Rwanda between 1924 and 1946 was significant in different economic domains that were agriculture, mining and socio-cultural domains. To implement all the required work in these domains with the main one being agriculture, led to the introduction of compulsory crop cultivation known as “Ishiku” which was added to colonial forced labour “Akazi” by the Resident’s decree No. 49 of 31st December, 1925.

  
  

  Agriculture

  
  

  The Belgian’s main focus on agriculture was on areas such as;Food production to fight against famines and large scale production of cash crops such as coffee.

  
  

  Food production

  
  

  Rwanda was a country that suffered from serious famines. In 1924-1925, when the program of regulating and increasing the production of food crops was being elaborated, the Gakwege famine was on. In 1928-1929, the Rwakayihura famine killed a number of Rwandans. To phase out these famines, Belgians took over vacant lands and some pasture lands and planted drought resistant crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, beans and Irish potatoes. Since 1925, the imposition of compulsory food crop cultivation known as Ishiku became the order of the day. One family was required to plant at least 10 acres of food crops. Rwandans had to even go and work in fields that were far away from their homes but were near main communication lines. This was to please any passing high ranking colonial authority. However, this compulsory food crop cultivation program did not fight the famines but served as a tool for increasing the merits for the people in charge of the implementation. By 1932, plantations covered 7,600 hectares of the land and it had become so unbearable that people migrated to Uganda in search of free labour.

  
  

  Large scale production of cash crops

  
  

  Cultivation of cash crops such as coffee, on a large scale, was imposed on peasants. The cultivation of cash crops mobilised more people than the cultivation of food crops. This was so because they were for promoting exports which were only limited to cow hides. By 1931, cash crops – mainly coffee were made compulsory and systematic to the extent that a peasant had to possess a plantation of at least 54 coffee trees, a sub-chief a plantation of 250 coffee trees and a chief a plantation of 1000 coffee trees. Coffee production increased from 40,000 kilograms in 1927 to 2,000 tonnes by 1937. An office in charge of the quality of exports was formed: OCIRU (Office du café Industriel du Ruanda-Urundi). The same Akazi that was used in food crop cultivation, was also used in cash crop cultivation.

  
  

  Animal husbandry

  
  

  The Belgian colonial regime paid attention to livestock rearing, especially cattle. They set up selection farms since 1926 in Songa, Cyeru, Gisenyi and Nyagatare. Animal health services and veterinary centres were established in rural areas to cure periodic livestock epidemics such as Muryamo. Muryamo was a mysterious disease that affected cows in Rwanda at the end of the 19th Century. It killed many cows. The other disease that affected the livestock was trypanosomiasis.

  
  

  Fiscal system

  
  

  The Germans had introduced the use of money as a means of exchange in trading by the time they exited Rwanda in 1916. They used a currency known as rupee. When the Belgians took control, they introduced a new currency to replace the rupee.

  
  

  In 1927, they introduced a currency known as “ Franc Congolais”. They did this so as to facilitate exchange and payment of taxes by the locals. Tax was made compulsory as it was needed to finance public service in the colony.

  
  

  Since 1917, taxes were paid by all Rwandan adults to add on to the colonial funds and chiefferies administrations. However, from 1931, this capitation tax was extended to every taxpayer after carrying out a general census of Rwandans. It became compulsory and was only received in cash.

  
  

  A marketing organisation that was known as OCIRU (Office des Cafés Indigènes du Ruanda-Urundi) or Ruanda-Urundi Coffee Bureau was set up to develop a market for the Africans’ coffee produced in indigenous plantations.

  
  

  Mining

  
  

  Rwandans were introduced to mining and running of small scale industries. The mining activities were mainly carried out by Minetain company (Sociétés des Mines d’Etain) at Gatumba (Ngororero District) from 1935, at Musha (Rwamagana District) from 1937. Other mining companies included SOMUKI and GEORWANDA. SOMUKI (Société Minière de Muhinga et de Kigali) opened sites at Rutongo (Rulindo
  

  District) in 1933 and Nyungwe Forest in 1936 for mining gold. GEORWANDA (Compagnie Géologique et Minière du Ruanda) opened sites at Rwinkwavu (Kayonza District) from 1940.

  
  

  Missionaries as another form of colonial agents established semi-industrial enterprises for cigarettes at Rwaza and Gisenyi, milk processing and candle production plants from 1935.Salaries and professional training were introduced by mining companies, mining and farming colonialists, trading companies, public works and religious missions to their labour force. This was done to promote the exchange system since Rwandans were entering the capitalist system.

  
  

  Transport and communication network

  
  

  The development of transport and communications networks brought about the introduction of bicycles and cars from Europe and Asia as from 1927. Moreover, this network joined trading centres that started forming important urban centres such as Kiramuruzi, Kigali, Nyanza, Astrida, Kamembe, Gisenyi and Ruhengeri.

  
  

  Fishery

  
  

  This activity was known and practised in traditional ways on rivers and lakes. The Belgians improved it by introducing new types of fish in 1935. Tilapia niga species were planted in lakes such as Muhazi, Bulera and Ruhondo while tilapia nilotica were planted in Lake Kivu.

  
  

  Forestry

  
  

  Forestry was also encouraged to protect the environment and to control soil erosion in the highland regions of northern and western Rwanda.

  
  

  Forced labour imposed on people (Akazi)

  
  

  Before colonisation, there was Uburetwa that was kept in the sense of many tasks rendered to local chiefs as citizens’ duties. Under Belgian colonial rule, to Uburetwa was added the forced labour in the form of working on white plantations, carrying heavy loads, road constructions, building of churches, schools, hospitals and digging of anti-erosion ditches to exploit the colony. The Belgian colonial administration named it Akazi to differentiate it from the services provided in Uburetwa. The Akazi was not remunerated or was just slightly remunerated. The more this forced labour (Akazi) became so unbearable, the more Rwandan people fled it into neighbouring Uganda, Tanganyika and Belgian Congo in search of free and paid labour especially from coffee and tea plantations. The Akazi persisted alongside the Uburetwa until its abolition in 1949 by King Mutara III Rudahigwa.

  
  

  Socio-cultural reforms

  
  

  • Abolition ofubwiru and umuganura institutions (1925)

  The abolition of these two pillars of the monarchy paved way for the decline of the Rwanda Kingdom.

  
  

  • The new education system (1925). Belgians substituted the informal education provided in Itorero by formal education. They aimed to promote colonial auxiliaries through subsidised and free education. However, formal education remained the monopoly of the Christian missionaries.

  
  

  • The medical program. By 1931, Belgians had established hospitals (of Kigali and Astrida) and many dispensaries throughout the colony to deal with widespread diseases. Vaccination campaigns were also carried out from 1933. The introduction of school curricula, sections of training on medical assistance and medical auxiliaries in specific schools (Astrida, Kabgayi and Kigali) began in 1937. At the end of the Mandate regime (1945 – 1946), Rwanda had sixteen hospitals – both private and public and thirty-four dispensaries.
  

  
  

  • Religious change. Christianity was introduced in Rwanda under the German rule. However, it was not welcomed as it undermined the king’s moral influence on his subjects.It later benefited from the administrative reform of 1926 by which the king was forced to sign a decree proclaiming freedom of worship. However, King Yuhi V Musinga continued to resist and this led to his deposition in 1931. He was replaced by his son Mutara III Rudahigwa who converted to Christianity and consecrated Rwanda to Christ the King on October 27th, 1946 at Nyanza.

  
  

  Reforms under the Belgian Trusteeship (1946 – 1962)

  
  

  At the end of World War II, the Allied powers that concluded the war convened at San Francisco to draft a new international peace keeping body that is the United Nations Organisation (UNO) to replace the defunct League of Nations. The League of Nations was blamed for failing to stop the occurrence of World War II. The charter of the new organisation imposed mandatory powers to lead the nations which were under the Mandate system to self-rule then to independence. This was possible through the Trusteeship Council which was one of the main six organs of UNO which was in charge of peacefully administrating and supervising territories that were not yet independent up to the time they would be independent on behalf of UNO. As a power that had been administrating Rwanda under the League of Nations’ Mandate system, Belgium and UNO concluded an accord placing Rwanda under the Trusteeship regime on December 13th, 1946. This was approved by the Belgian Parliament on April 25th, 1949. Since then, Belgium had therefore to act with the final objective of granting independence to Rwanda. To achieve this objective, Belgium had a good deal of recommendations to respect. Among others, Belgium had to progressively integrate Rwandans into both territorial administration and a system through which they could gain political representation. To meet UNO’s will, as it had availed the mechanisms to ensure its recommendations implementation (UNO missions and annual reports from the administered territory submitted to UNO), Belgians undertook a number of reforms.

  
  

  Political reforms

  
  

  During the Belgian Trusteeship, the most important political reform in Rwanda was The establishment of Consultative Councils (Decree of July 14th, 1952). This was a response to the critical reports of the two UN Trusteeship missions since 1948.

  
  

  The Council of the State (ConseilSupérieur du Pays): It waspresided over by the king and was made up of presidents of nine territorial councils elected out of the king’s proposed list.

  
  

  The Territorial Council (Conseil du Territoire): It was composed of the chief of territory, other territorial chiefs and their sub-chiefs as well as their respective notables.

  
  

  The Council of Chiefferie (Conseil de Chefferie): It was presided over by the chief himself. Its members were sub-chiefs and the notables elected among an electoral college of three representatives by sous-chiefferie.
  

  
  

  Council of Sous-chiefferie (Conseil Sous-chiefferie): It was presided over by the sub-chief and was made up of 5 to 9 members elected by an electoral college chosen by the sub-chief.

  
  

  This reform allowed Rwandans to participate in the elections organised in 1953 and 1956.

  
  

  On 4th May, 1949, a political reform was introduced concerning Ruanda-Urundi, and not solely Ruanda. It meant the creation of a Government Council for Ruanda-Urundi that was made up of 22 members. The council included the Governor, two Resident Representatives and two Belgian state agents. The remaining 17 members were chosen as representatives of other foreigners living in Ruanda-Urundi. This was a reform made for the sake of the colonial administration.

  
  

  Economic reforms

  
  

  • The Ten-Year Economic and Social Development Plan initiated by the Belgians in Ruanda-Urundi in 1951 as a result of the first UN mission of 1948 recommendations.This was meant to empower Rwanda economically in preparation for self-rule and later independence.

  
  

  • The abolition of Ubuhake (clientelism) system based on cows after the decree of King Mutara III Rudahigwa on April 1st, 1954. This forced the cattle keepers to reduce the number of cows to manageable and profitable sizes and liberation of pastoral clients (Abagaragu) for private initiatives.

  
  

  • Land reforms which touched on land use mainly for both food production and cash crop farming for economic gains.

  
  

  • Operations of Akazi which saw Rwandans engaged in forced labour in activities that were for the economic gain and development of Rwanda, e.g working on plantation farms, construction of buildings and roads, etc.

  
  

  Socio-cultural reforms

  
  

  • King Mutara III Rudahigwa’s decree consecrating Rwanda to Christ the King on October 27th, 1946 at Nyanza by which Christianity through the Catholic Church became the state religion. All other traditional religious practices were prohibited (Kubandwa, Guterekera, etc.)

  
  

  • Construction of schools, hospitals and dispensaries, roads, drainage of marshlands and planting of trees termed in the 1951 Ten -Year Economic and Social Development plan. This was for shifting the Rwandan economy and getting more educated and healthy manpower.

  
  

  The causes and effects of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda

  
  

  Introduction

  
  

  Activity 1.2 Group work

  
  

  Split yourselves into two groups.

  
  

  1. Let one group describe the causes and effects of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda.

  2. The second group should discuss the reasons why King Mutara III Rudahigwa broke relations with the Belgian colonial rule in the 1950s.After your various discussions, have a presentation in class followed by a question and answer session among yourselves.

  
  

  The 1959 crisis in Rwanda was a result of the long term bred tension between King Mutara III Rudahigwa and the Rwandan elite on one side and the Belgian administration and the Catholic Church on the other. The tension first occurred in 1954 when the Rwandan elite headed by the king claimed the creation of lay schools to reduce the monopoly of the Catholic Church in teaching and education. The Rwandan elite had also started blaming Belgians for; being reluctant to allow Rwanda to attain self-rule, poor socio-economic development, unfair participation of Rwandans in administration and in making decisions on their country’s future. The reaction was so harsh that the king was treated as a communist. In that same year, the king abolished the Ubuhake without the consent of colonial administration. On February 22nd, 1957, the High Council of the State (Conseil Superieur du Pays) prepared a memorandum known as “Mise au point” to submit to the 1957 UN mission. It severely criticised the Belgian administration and demanded self-rule as soon as possible. The Belgian administration reacted by instigating the publication of “The Manifeste des Bahutu” in which its authors accused the king and the Tutsi elite of having monopolised power and orchestrated a lot of social injustices and inequalities to the masses.

  
  

  From then up to December 21st, 1958, the Belgian administration intensified hatred against the king and his Tutsi elite by declaring her support to the Hutu masses. Later, King Mutara III Rudahigwa died suddenly in Bujumbura on July 25th, 1959. With his death, the Belgian administration got a chance to block all political initiatives of the king and turned things to their favour.
  

  
  

  On October 10th, 1959 Jean-Paul Harroy, the Governor of Ruanda-Urundi, decreed the relocation of three UNAR influential chiefs – Kayihura, Rwangombwa and Mungarurire as a punishment for having participated in the UNAR meeting held in Kigali. This decision ended up in stopping the relationship between UNAR and the colonial authority. Uprisings against this unfair relocation were contained by the Public Force in Kigali. One person was killed and a few others were injured. Many chiefs and sub-chiefs resigned. Due to this situation, the governor suspended the relocation. However, the situation kept on getting worse.

  
  

  From 1st November 1959, a flare-up of violence that some called “a revolution” instigated by the colonial rule through members of PARMEHUTU and APROSOMA broke out against the Tutsi and members of UNAR. The violence first broke out in Gitarama (Muhanga District), then Ruhengeri (Musanze District), Gisenyi (Rubavu District), Byumba (Gicumbi District), Kibuye (Karongi District), Nyanza, Astrida (Huye District), Kigali and Gikongoro (Nyamagabe District). Only Cyangugu (Rusizi and Nyamasheke Districts) and Kibungo (Ngoma District) were safe. It is in this state of unrest that Colonel Guy Logiest was called upon from Stanleyville (Belgian Congo) by Resident J.P Harroy to manage military operations of armed men stationed in Rwanda.

  
  

  He then proceeded by arresting, imprisoning, exiling, assassinating and dismissing about twenty chiefs and a hundred sub-chiefs. He automatically replaced them with the Hutu. He was finally appointed Special Military Resident of Rwanda on November 10th, 1959 to finish up the Belgian plan of installing their protected Hutu regime.

  
  

  Note: This wave of violence targeted most members of UNAR and the Tutsi. Many of them were killed, their houses burnt down while thousands of them were forced to exile in the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Belgian Congo where they underwent so many sufferings in refugee camps.

  
  

  Causes of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda

  
  

  The causes of the 1959 crisis can be attributed to the following:

  
  

  • The ‘divide and rule’ policy commonly used by colonial powers in their respective territories. The Belgians enforced this policy between 1916 and 1962. As soon as they established their rule, the Belgians undertook a series of reforms aiming at transforming the traditional social classes into ethnic groups to confirm that there was nothing common between the Hutu, the Twa and the Tutsi. In traditional Rwanda, the terms ubuhutu, ubututsi and ubutwameant dynamic social identities based on wealth and political levels, that is, a Hutu who acquired wealth could become a Tutsi and a Tutsi who was impoverished could become a Hutu.

  
  

  • The distribution of administrative responsibilities in the new structure was discriminatory. This was because it excluded members of low social backgrounds, mostly the Hutu, in favour of the Tutsi from influential families.

  
  

  • There was antagonism between King Mutara III Rudahigwa and the Belgian Colonial Administration (1954 – 1959) resulting from the king’s opposition to the church’s monopoly in education. The king pushed for more representationof Rwandans in the political administration of the country. This bred hatred towards the Rwandan Tutsi elite by the Belgians.
  

  
  

  • The sudden death of King Mutara III Rudahigwa on 25th, July, 1959 disoriented the fight for independence. The king was a good symbol of unity among Rwandans.
  

  
  

  • Effects of Cold War. Arising from the competition between superpowers (USA and USSR) the Cold War affected the countries which were colonised in Africa. These superpowers wanted to gain political and economic influence (capitalism and communism) throughout the world. Belgians accused the monarchy of preparing independence in form of the communist system. They conspired against the Tutsi elite to support Hutu leaders.

  
  

  Consequences of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda

  
  

  The 1959 crisis in Rwanda resulted in consequences that not only affected Rwanda but also most of the Great Lakes region.

  
  

  • A lot of people lost their lives. Many Tutsi and members of UNAR were killed.

  
  

  • Property was destroyed. These included houses, livestock, crops and businesses.

  
  

  • People were displaced from their homes. They migrated to hostile areas like Nyamata, which was highly infested with tsetse flies.

  
  

  • People migrated to the neighbouring countries and became refugees.
  

  
  

  • Since this crisis, Rwanda inherited the ethnic-based ideology that later resulted into the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The crisis left behind the leadership based on discrimination and regionalism.

  
  

  • There was perpetuation of the Belgian colonial model of administration. Belgium continued to serve in the new regime as government political advisors, technicians, etc.

  
  

  The process of independence in Rwanda

  
  

  Activity 1.3

  
  

  In groups of five, research by reading various historical materials and browsing the Internet to find out more information about the failures and achievements of the Belgian rule in Rwanda. Analyse the activities that led to attainment of independence in Rwanda. Summarise the findings in your notebooks and later discuss them in class in groups of ten.

  
  

  The United Nations Organisation formed a Trusteeship Council in 1945. The council’s mandate was to oversee the decolonisation of some dependent colonies. Rwanda was one such dependent territory that was put under the UN trusteeship. To monitor the process of decolonisation, the United Nations Trusteeship Council kept sending missions to these colonies.

  
  

  In Rwanda the process was as follows:

  
  

  • From 1948 up to 1960: five missions of the UN visited Rwanda and blamed the Belgians for deliberately delaying the independence of Ruanda-Urundi.

  
  

  • In 1952: the Belgians introduced the statutory order establishing the representative organs held by various councils.

  
  

  • In 1956: the law amendments introduced the universal suffrage at the level of aforementioned organs.

  
  

  • In February 1957: The “Mise au Point” memorandum was prepared by the High Council of the State demanding more representation of Rwandans in political administration of the country. It was addressed to the Belgians and the Trusteeship Council. The Belgians rejected it and instigated a counter memorandum called the Hutu Manifesto (March 23rd, 1957). The memorandum accused the Tutsi of monopolising power and practicing social injustices. It was signed by Gregoire Kayibanda, Joseph Habyarimana alias Gitera, Calliope Murindahabi and Maximillien Niyonzima.

  
  

  • In March 1958: King Mutara III Rudahigwa created a committee that had to analysethe Hutu-Tutsi social problem.

                                             

  
  

  • In June 1958: The reaction of the High Council of the State on the above committee report noted the existence of a socio-political problem on the administration level that was not ethnic in nature. The problem was resolved by the removal of the ethnic mention from the identity cards. However, this attempt failed because some of the political parties that were being formed were ethnic-based e.g PARMEHUTU in 1959.

  
  

  • 1959-1962: A series of events that quickened the declaration of independence took place:

  
  

  > On May 8th, 1959: the statutory order set up political parties, namely UNAR (l’Union Nationale Rwandaise) formed on September 3rd, 1959, APROSOMA (l’Association pour la Promotion Sociale de la Masse) formed on February 15th ,1959, PARMEHUTU (le Parti du Mouvement de l’Emancipation des Bahutu) formed on October 9th, 1959 and RADER (Rassemblement Democratique du Rwanda) formed on September 14th,1959. On July 25th , 1959, King Mutara III Rudahigwa died in mysterious circumstances. He was the great figurehead in the struggle for the independence of Rwanda. He was replaced by his young, inexperienced brother, Kigeli V Ndahindurwa on July 28th, 1959.

  
  

  >From 1st to 7th November, 1959, a spark of violence erupted in Gitarama against the Tutsi and the members of UNAR. The violence was sparked by members of PARMEHUTU and APROSOMA. It spread throughout the country except in Cyangugu and Kibungo.

  
  

  > In June – July 1960, communal elections took place and on 30th July, 1960, PARMEHUTU was declared the winner with 74.4% of the votes. However, UNAR and the king protested against the results.

  
  

  > On October 26th, 1960, a provisionary government was put in place by the Resident Jean-Paul Harroy and Gregoire Kayibanda became the first prime minister.

  
  

    >On January 28th, 1961, The Coup d’état of Gitarama took place. Many decisions were made including the abolition of the monarchy, the proclamation of the republic and nomination of Dominique Mbonyumutwa as the first president while Kayibanda Gregoire remained prime minister.

  
  

                                       

  
  

  > In February 1961, there was the recognition of the new regime by the Belgian Trusteeship.

  
  

  > On September 25th, 1961, legislative elections and a referendum (Kamarampaka) for or against the monarchy regime was conducted. The monarchical system was voted against in favour of the republic regime. On the same day, legislative elections took place and on 2nd October 1961, the legislative assembly that later elected the president of the republic was put in place.

  
  

    >On October 26th , 1961, Kayibanda Gregoire was elected and confirmed as the president of the first Republic of Rwanda.

                                              

  > On July 1st, 1962, independence was given to Rwanda in a mitigating environment.

  
  

  
  

  Role of the Trusteeship Council in Rwanda

  
  

  The UN Trusteeship Council played a great role in Rwanda’s politics from 1945 up to 1962 as follows:

  
  

  • It sent different missions to check on the political, economic and social progress in Rwanda in the following years;1948, 1951, 1954, 1957 and 1960.

  
  

  • It signed a Trusteeship Accord with Belgium proposing reforms for future self-rule, economic and financial systems plans and social assistance programs to be carried out as a result of the 1948 first UN mission to Rwanda.

  
  

  • It blamed the Belgians for anti-democratic attitudes in Rwanda and discrimination in its different recommendations after its visit missions.

  
  

  • It sponsored and supervised a referendum on the monarchy system in Rwanda in 1961.

  
  

  • It urged the Belgians to withdraw their forces led by Colonel Guy Logiest from Rwanda in 1959.

  
  

  • It urged Belgium to respect the terms of the Trusteeship Accord providing total autonomy to Rwanda in December of 1961.

  
  

  However, the UN Trusteeship Council is blamed for not having paid special attention to the 1959 crisis and its aftermath because it left Belgians to recognise the newly instituted regime after the Coup d’etat of Gitarama (28th, January, 1961) in February 1961.

  
  

  
  

  Unit summary

  
  

  This unit deals with the reforms that were introduced by the Belgians to Rwanda.
  

  Belgium was given the mandate to govern Rwanda by the League of Nations in 1924 after World War I. During this time, the Rwanda territory was known as Ruanda-Urundi.

  
  

  Belgian rule in Rwanda was categorised into three periods which are:
  

  
  

  Belgian Military Occupation (1916 – 1925), Belgian Mandate (1924 – 1946) and the Belgian Trusteeship (1946 – 1962).

  
  

  The economic reforms introduced in Rwanda under the Belgian rule focused more on agriculture, mining and forestry.In the period of the Belgian rule in Rwanda, a compulsory order to grow cash crops (ishiku) was imposed.
  

  
  

  In 1927, the Belgians introduced a currency known as “ Franc Congolais”. This was so as to facilitate the exchange of goods and services and the payment of taxes by the locals.
  

  
  

  The Belgians also introduced a type of forced labour which was known as the Akazi.

  
  

  The political reforms introduced under the Belgian Trusteeship period allowed Rwandans to participate in the elections organised in1953 and 1956.The social and cultural reforms introduced by the Belgian rule led to construction of schools, hospitals and dispensaries.

  
  

  The 1959 crisis in Rwanda was majorly caused by the ‘divide and rule’ policy commonly used by the Belgians. They undertook a series of reforms aiming at transforming the traditional social classes into ethnic groups therefore, classifying Rwandans into the Hutu, the Twa and the Tutsi.
  

  
  

  The “Mise au Point” was a memorandum that was prepared by the High Council of the State in February 1957. It demanded more representation of Rwandans in the political administration of the country.
  

  
  

  Rwanda later got her independence from the Belgians on 1st July 1962.

  
  

  Unit assessment

  
  

  At the end of this unit, a learner is able to assess the performance of the Belgian rule and analyse the process of independence in Rwanda.

  
  

  Revision questions

  
  

  1. Explain the circumstances under which the Belgian rule was established in Rwanda.

  
  

  2. What were the different stages of the Belgian rule in Rwanda?

  
  

  3. Identify the political, economic and socio-cultural performance of the Belgians in Rwanda.

  
  

  4. Evaluate the effects of the political reforms undertaken by the Belgians in Rwanda.

  
  

  5. The Belgian rule influenced both negative and positive changes in Rwanda. Discuss.

  
  

  6. Identify the causes of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda.7. Describe the effects of the 1959 crisis in Rwanda.

  
  

  8. Why did King Mutara III Rudahigwa break relations with the colonial rule in the 1950s?

  
  

  9. Describe the different steps that led to achievement of independence in Rwanda.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  File: 1
• Unit 2: Comparison of genocides

  Topic area:  History of Rwanda

  Sub-topic area: History of genocide

  Key unit competence

  Compare different genocides in the 20th Century.
  

  Activity 2.1

  Work in groups of five, using the Internet search for United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and read the whole Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9th, December, 1948.This will help you understand the international legal framework that deals with genocides. Evaluate how this convention has been applied in Rwanda.
  

  Genocide

  The word ‘genocide’ was derived from two words. It originated from a Greek word ‘genos’ meaning origin or species, and a Latin verb ‘caedere’, meaning to kill. It was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-born American lawyer who taught law at the University of Yale in the 1940s. He used the term for the first time in his book, Axis Rule in Europe, published in 1944. He used this term ‘genocide’ uniquely to make it different from other crimes of mass killings.
  

  A universal definition of genocide is found in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It is contained in Resolution 260 A III of December, 1948. It defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national, ethnic or religious group, by:

  • killing members of the group;

  • causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

  • deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

  • imposing measures intended to prevent births on the group;

  • forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

  Different genocides that occurred in the 20th Century

  It is worth noting that the occurrence of genocide is not limited to Rwanda. There have been other cases of genocide in different parts of the world that occurred in different times. Some of the cases of genocide that happened in the 20th Century are as follows:

  Genocide against the Herero in Namibia by the German colonialists (1907)
  

  
  

  The Nama Herero Genocide was not recognised for unknown reasons by the United Nations Organisation. However, many authors and specialists in the study of genocides qualify it as a pure act of genocide committed against the Nama and the Herero in 1907.

  When the Germans arrived in South-West Africa (Namibia) in 1880, they found the area populated by certain groups of people such as the Nama (Namaqua) who were about 20,000 in number by then. Another group of people was the Herero who were about 75,000 in number. Their occupation was cattle herding. These people violently resisted occupation of their land and establishment of the German rule. The German commander who led the conquest, vowed to meet any resistance from the natives with ‘uncompromising brutality’. He vowed to wipe out the natives completely in 15 years time.

  

  The Herero waged war against the Germans in 1904

  – 1908. The Germans took their native land forcefully and planned to build a railway across their territory. The Herero were led by their leader Samuel Maharero. In January 1904, the Herero attacked white-owned farms and murdered 123 German settlers and traders sparing only women, children and missionaries. Later, the commander of German Forces, General Lothar von Trotha organised his ground army and they surrounded the living areas and the livestock pastures of the Herero.

                                                

  They only left a small opening through which the Herero could escape to the Omaheke desert. The Germans attacked and killed 5,000 people and wounded 20,000 others.They captured water sources and forced the survivors to flee to the desert. They followed the survivors to the desert and massacred them. They also poisoned water sources in the desert.

  On 2nd, October of the same year, General Trotha released an extermination order forcing the Herero people to leave the land. The Herero escaped to the desert where the Germans had already poisoned the water wells.

  When the Nama saw what had happened to the Herero, they also fled. Those who remained behind were collected into camps where they were tortured and forced to provide labour. Most of them died of diseases such as small pox and typhoid in the camps. About 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Nama people were wiped out.

  The Holocaust (1939 – 1945)

  
  

  The Holocaust is a genocide that occurred in Germany and its occupied territories. It targeted Jews of whom approximately 6,000,000 were killed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime.

  Apart from the Jews, non-Jews were also killed including millions of Polish Gentiles, Russians, Ukrainians and prisoners of other nationalities. This has been one of the largest genocides in history. About two-thirds of the Jews who lived in Europe were killed in the Holocaust.

  Laws were passed in Germany that excluded Jews from the civil society, more specifically the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Concentration camps were established where Jews were murdered in large numbers. Jews were collected from various parts of Germany occupied territories in 1939 and were transported in cargo trains to the famous concentration or extermination camps. Most of them, however, died along the way. Those who survived the journey by train were killed in gas chambers.

                              

  The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

  Events leading to the planning and execution of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda date back to 1959. The cause of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi was the history of a long process of violence, hatred, injustice and ethnic divisions in the first and second Republics of Rwanda. Massacre against the Tutsi had happened in 1959 as a result of similar reasons to those ones that caused the 1994 Genocide – manipulated ethnic rivalries between the Hutu and the Tutsi.

  There was an ethnic and political violence which was characterised by a period of violence from 1959 – 1961 targeting the Tutsi and Hutu members of UNAR. This violence saw the country transition from a Belgian colony with a Tutsi monopoly to an independent Hutu dominated republic.

  A Hutu elite group was formed to counter the Tutsi policy and transfer power from the Tutsi to the Hutu. From November 1959, a series of riots by the Hutu took place. The riots entailed arson attacks on Tutsi homes. The violence forced about 336,000 Tutsi to exile in the neighbouring countries where they lived as refugees. The Tutsi exiles organised themselves into an armed group to fight their way back into their country.

  Afterwards, there were no active threats posed by the Tutsi refugees to the Hutu-controlled government in Rwanda. It was until the early 1990s when the Tutsi refugees regrouped again into a strong force and formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a movement which they used to force the Rwanda Government into a political negotiation. However the negotiations failed as Hutu extremists were not willing to share the power. Using the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in an airplane crash on April 6th, 1994 as a pretext, they executed their long term plan of killing the Tutsi in the 1994 Genocide at the end of which more than one million Tutsi were massacred.

  The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi did not take a long time to be recognised by UNO. The Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by the Resolution 955 of November 8th, 1994. Based in Arusha, the ICTR was established to deal with the prosecution of the Rwandans responsible for the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

  Different phases of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
  

  
  

  When the airplane that carried President Juvenal Habyarimana and the President of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira crashed on the night of April 6th, 1994, the long planned Genocide against the Tutsi started in Kigali City. It was started on thepolitical officials in the opposition namely; Minister Frederick Nzamurambaho, Faustin Rucogoza, Agathe Uwiringiyimana, Landouald Ndasingwa as well as Joseph Kavaruganda (Supreme Court). Killing the persons who could first oppose it was a strategic method used to freely commit the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The genocidaires went on to kill the Tutsi all over the country within a very short time. Some state officials in the newly formed ‘Government’ (Guverinoma y’Abatabazi) led by Theodore Sindikubwabo, (then a.i President of the Republic), Jean Kambanda (a.i Prime Minister), the Prefects of the Prefectures, Commune Burgomasters up to the cells leaders sensitised people to kill the Tutsi.

  The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was possible through the involvement of different actors. They included the following:

  • The Government of Rwanda that did not use its coercive power to stop killings, prohibit or punish the killers. It even provided funds to make the killings possible;

  • Armed forces starting with the Republican guards (Garde Presidentielle), Gendarmes (Police), Militias Interahamwe (MRND), Impuzamugambi (CDR militias) and military commanders at the local level and the Communal police;

  • Local government officials such as prefects of prefecture (as province today), burgomasters (as mayors today), communal coordinators, Conseillers de Secteur (as executive secretaries of sectors) and cell leaders ; Responsible de cellule (as executive secretaries of cells);

  • Individuals such as traders, local leaders of political parties, opinion leaders (intellectuals), faith-based missionaries, observers or bystanders and accomplices to killers etc.All these actors played a major role in killing the Tutsi within a period of three months.The genocide that lasted three months from April up to July 1994 was then stopped by the RPF when they defeated the genocidal forces.

  Activity 2.2

  Do this in pairs.Watch a documentary on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

  (a)Analyse its causes, its course and its end.

  (b)Write an essay suggesting steps that could have been taken to prevent its occurrence.

  Activity 2.3

  Brainstorm: Having evaluated other genocides that happened in the 20th Century, find out more on how the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was different from the rest.

  Similarities between the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and other genocides

  
  

  The above genocides have the following as common features or similarities:

  • Thorough preparation and execution by the concerned governments. They are always a result of bad leadership.

  • Intention of destroying or completely wiping out the targeted group.

  • Involvement of the government that put in place all necessary measures to destroy the targeted group.

  • Large scale killing of the targeted group.

  • Innocent people are killed because they belong to the targeted group.

  • Cruel methods are used to torture the victims before killing them.

  • Negative effects like trauma and poverty are common among the survivors.

  • There are mechanisms of denying the genocide committed.

  • Most of them are generated by internal divisions.

  • They mostly occur during war times.

  Differences between the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and other genocides

  
  

  • It was executed within a short period of time. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi claimed the life of more than one million people in a period of one hundred days.

  • Many people were involved, killing their fellow citizens, their relatives and their neighbours. Killers and victims shared citizenship and culture.

  • The government agents, church members and security organs were all actively involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

  • The international community did not intervene to stop the genocide in Rwanda. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped by Rwandans themselves. It came to an end when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the genocidal forces in July 1994.

  • Cruel and extreme forms of violence were used in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi e.g. torturing victims before killing them, throwing victims in septic tanks alive, burying them alive in common graves, gathering them in churches and other places and burning them alive using gasoline, raping women before killing them, crushing babies in mortars or smashing them against walls.

  Measures that have been taken to reconstruct the Rwandan society after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

  
  

  Activity 2.4 Group work

  Split yourselves into two groups:

  Discuss the measures that have been taken to reconstruct Rwanda and to instill a sense of love and respect among all people. After your various discussions, have a presentation in class followed by a question and answer session among yourselves.

  The 1994 Genocide against Tutsi came to an end only after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the genocidal forces in July 1994. On July 17th, 1994 the RPF established a Broad Based Government of National Unity (BBGNU) which carried out a number of national reconciliation activities aimed at helping Rwandans to live together in harmony.

  • The Rwandan Government guaranteed security to returning refugees and to all citizens. Security organs were supported in carrying out their activities.

  • It abolished the use of ethnicity (Hutu, Tutsi and Twa) as political identities. The aim was to promote national unity by encouraging people and political groups to forget their past and live together in harmony.

  • It reconstructed government institutions since they had collapsed during the first and second republics.

  • It ensured justice to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. Gacaca Courts provided both justice and reconciliation.

  • It established different commissions to promote national unity and reconciliation e.g the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and the Human Rights Commission.

  • It established the office of the ombudsman to receive complaints against injustices.

  • It promoted activities of civil societies like non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help in rebuilding the communities as well as the economy.

  • The National Constitution was reviewed in 2003. It promotes human rights observance and gives the Judiciary independence i.e. the decisions made are respected.

  • The teaching curricula were updated e.g. Curriculum for Political Education.

  • The Government of Rwanda also promoted participative leadership at all levels through equity, meritocracy and accountability.

  • It set up the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide to organise a permanent framework for the exchange of ideas on genocide, its consequences and strategies for its prevention and eradication.

  • It put in place the policy of solidarity trainings camps in places such as Nkumba and Mutobo where Rwandans of different age groups had to shape their mindset through different physical and psychological teachings on Rwandan issues. Also, through the Girinka, Ubudehe, Umuganda and Kuremera programs, the Government of Rwanda revived the spirit of cohesion. Every Rwandan realised the necessity of living together and of patriotism to all Rwandans.

  Unit summary

  This unit explains the genocide concept in depth and identifies the genocides that happened in the 20th Century as well as the circumstances under which they happened. Apart from the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi that occurred in Rwanda, there are other genocides that happened in different places such as the genocide against the Herero in Namibia and the Holocaust that happened in Germany.The Herero were opposed to the invasion of their land by the Germans and their intention of building a railway line across the land that belonged to the Herero.The Holocaust was genocide against the Jews that occurred in Germany and its occupied territories.

  The cause of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was the history of a long process of violence, hatred, injustice and ethnic divisions among the people of Rwanda. This genocide lasted for three months from April to July 1994. It came to an end when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the genocidal forces.The post genocide Government of Rwanda put measures in place that ensured reconstruction of the Rwandan society. It ensured justice was served to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. This was done through the establishment of the Gacaca Courts which facilitated conflict resolution and reconciliation.

  Unit assessment

  At the end of this unit, a learner is able to compare different genocides in the 20th Century by paying more attention on the specificity of the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.He/She will be able to understand well the root-causes of the genocide and suggest ways to prevent the occurrence of the genocide in his/her country again.

  Revision questions

  1. Define the term genocide.

  2. Identify the genocides that occurred in the 20th Century.3. Describe the common features of genocides.

  4. Describe the differences between the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and other genocides.

  5. Describe the measures that have been taken by the Government of Rwanda to reconstruct the Rwandan society after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

  
  

• Unit 3: Origin, rise, organisation and decline of empires in West and South Africa

  Topic area:  History of Africa
  

  Sub-topic area: History of ancient Africa
  

  Key unit competence

  Describe the origin, rise, organisation and decline of various empires in West and South Africa.
  

  Origin and rise of various empires of West Africa

  
  

  Ancient kingdoms in West Africa

  
  

  The grassland region south of the Sahara and north of the forest zone was known to the Arabs as Bilad as-Sudan or the land of the blacks. It witnessed in medieval times the emergence of four notable empires – Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Kanem – Bornu – in the west and central parts of it.
  

  Ghana Empire

  
  

  Ghana was the first kingdom to emerge as an empire in the Western Sudan. Apart from metropolitan Ghana, the empire included several important provincial territories.
  

               
  

  Chief among these was Awkar, a name by which Ghana was, for some time, better known in the Islamic world. At its height, the territories governed or influenced by Old Ghana covered a considerable area in the source-region of the rivers Niger and Senegal.

  Origins

  The Mande-speaking Soninke people founded Old Ghana. The exact date of its foundation is not known, but was probably between 500 and 700 AD. It grew out of the Trans-Saharan trade. The original name of the kingdom was Wagadu. A sacred king who was the highest authority in the state ruled Ghana. He was known as the ‘Ghana’. Later, the name Ghana also came to refer to the kingdom.

  Old Ghana lay between River Senegal in the west and River Niger in the east. The Sahara Desert formed the northern boundary, while to the south were the forests in which lay the rich mining areas of Wangara.

  Factors that led to the rise and growth of Old Ghana

  
  

  Activity 3.1

  In groups of five , visit the library and research on the factors that led to the rise of the kingdom of old Ghana and those that led to its downfall. Later hold a class discussion to debate your findings.

  These were the reasons for the rise of Old Ghana:

  (i) Control of trade routes: The empire occupied the savannah land between the rich gold-fields of Wangara and the most important of the trans-Sahara trade routes. In this middle-man position, the ruler of Ghana could control and tax both the trading goods taken from North Africa to the Western Sudan (e.g. salt and horses) and those taken from the Western Sudan to North Africa (e.g. gold, ivory, kola). From this trade came wealth and with this wealth the rulers of Ghana were able to establish and maintain a reasonably efficient administration and army.

  (ii) The use of iron: The Soninke were apparently the first group of people in that part of the Western Sudan to discover the use of iron. The ability to make weapons of iron was important and assisted in Ghana’s military strength and growth.

  (iii) Use of horses: Soninke are considered the first people to secure a sufficiently large number of horses from North Africa to build up a powerful cavalry.

  (iv) Effective administration: The Soninke built up a fairly effective large-scale government, which enabled them to rule a large area and to maintain law and order.

  (v) Unity in the empire: The fact that the rulers of Ghana were considered semi-divine must also have helped the rise of the empire by maintaining unity and limiting the incidence of rebellion.

  
  

  Political organisation of the old Ghana

  
  

  (i) At the head of the empire was the king, operating from the headquarters at Kumbi Saleh.

  (ii) The king was assisted by able administrators. These men served also as secretaries.

  (iii) In the capital city there was a governor, besides the emperor. He was in charge of the civic administration of metropolitan Ghana.(iv)In the conquered or vassal states, two types of provincial government seem to have operated: In some provinces the administration was entrusted to governors appointed directly by the emperor. These were places where either hostile subjects were constantly plotting to rebel or there was no centralized native provincial ruler. In other places, the local rulers were allowed a great measure of independence. All that was required of these provincial native rulers was loyalty to metropolitan Ghana, and regular payment of tax to the emperor.

             

  (v) Vassal kings sent up their sons to the emperor’s palace. This practice was maintained for two reasons. Firstly, as long as the sons of the vassal kings were at the emperor’s palace or court, it was not wise for their fathers to rebel against the imperial authority. Secondly, these pages learnt a great deal of the arts of government from the imperial court. The experience thus gained stood them in good stead when later they returned home to assume the reins of government in their own land, in succession to their fathers.

  (vi)The supreme judicial power in the empire was vested in the emperor, assisted by a hierarchy of subordinate officials.

  (vii)The king did not maintain a standing army. Men were recruited or called up when the king needed them for a campaign or to defend the empire from external attack.

  Economic Organisation

  
  

  Old Ghana was a wealthy empire. The following were its sources of economic prosperity:

  (i)The gold mines were a source of revenue. The king held a monopoly of all the gold mines in the empire. This policy helped to maintain the high value of this precious metal. It also accounted for the great wealth which the kings enjoyed.

  (ii)Ghana’s middleman position helped her to benefit immensely from the trans-Saharan trade.

  (iii)Taxation on trade goods gave the emperor good revenue. The import and export taxes yielded much revenue for the king’s treasury.

  (iv)The people of Ghana used their skills in iron-working in good farming and adequate production of food.

  (v)The people were successful fishermen. They fished from the many rivers crisscrossing the empire.(vi) Agriculture was also a major source of economic prosperity

  Social Organisation

  
  

  (i)The king of Ghana made use of Muslims in his government, but his people still followed the traditional religion.

  (ii)The king of Old Ghana was regarded as semi-divine. As the chief priest, the king conducted special ceremonies and rituals, and was the link between the living and the gods.

  (iii)The people believed in life after death. This was seen in the burial rites that were performed when the king died. After his death, the king’s body was placed in a special building on a bed decorated with fine cloths. His clothes, weapons and other personal belongings were placed near him. When all this had been done, some of the closest servants entered the tomb, which was then sealed.

  (iv)The people threw earth over the tomb until a small burial mound had been created.

  (v)The people of Old Ghana lived in thatched houses that were built of wood.

  (vi) The king wore special robes and ornaments during official ceremonies.

  (vii) People approached the king on their knees as a sign of respect.

  Activity 3.2
  

  Draw a sketch map of the Western Sudan, and indicate the position of Ghana and its expansion.

  
  

  Decline of Old Ghana

  By the end of the 11th Century, Old Ghana had begun to decline. A number of reasons caused this:

  (i)Generally speaking, the inherent structural weaknesses common to most Sudanese states caused the decline. In this case it was particularly due to the disruptive activities of the Almoravids, who, either because of a genuine desire to purify and spread Islam, or because of the prospects of booty, descended on and sacked Ghana in AD 1076.

  (ii)The Almoravid attacks had opened the way for internal revolts and incursions from hostile neighbours which Ghana could not control.

  (iii)Ghana’s great wealth, which had been an asset in its heyday, was now a disadvantage as its envious neighbours began to make increasingly menacing attempts to seize it

  (iv)Towards the end of the 12 Century, the Soninke dynasty, established by Kaya Magan about 770 AD, was overthrown by a soldier called Diara Kante who was succeeded in turn by Sumanguru Kante (1200-35). From the small vassal state of Kaniaga, Sumanguru Kante took advantage of his suzerain’s weakness and conquered Ghana in 1203. The resultant confusion and insecurity caused the merchants and scholars in the capital of Old Ghana to move out and settle in Walata. Sundiata, the only surviving son of the ruler of the state of Kangaba who had been sacked by Sumanguru in 1224, captured and killed Sumanguru at the Battle of Kirina in AD 1235.

  (v)The rise of strong neighbouring state of Mali were a threat that caused the collapse of the Ghana empire.

  (vi) Decline of trans-saharan trade in Ghana due to the exhaustion of trade goods weakened the economy of Ghana leading to its downfall.

  (vii) The large size of Ghana kingdom made it difficult for administration, therefore weakening the kingdom until it declined.

  Mali Empire

  
  

  Activity 3.3

  In pairs, discuss the possible factors that led to the rise and decline of the kingdom of Mali, considering the points we have discussed concerning the kingdom of Old Ghana.

  
  

  From the ruins of the Old Ghana Empire, there arose the Mandingo Empire of Mali. Two important personalities dominated the history of this empire, Sundiata (1230-55) and Mansa Musa (1312-37). Under Sundiata, Mali became the dominant trading empire of the Western Sudan. It therefore took the place of Ghana and although there are differences, it imitated the previous empire very closely. One essential difference is that everything that Mali did was on a grander scale; there was more trade, a larger army and a larger empire.

  
  

  Origins

  
  

  Mali was not given the name by which it is known until after Sundiata started to build the empire. Its original name was Kangaba. The people of Kangaba were the Mandinka, or in other words, the southern Mande.

  
  

  Thus, Mali developed from the coming together of a number of Mandinka chieftaincies to form the small state of Kangaba. However, the neighbouring Old Ghana ruler Sumanguru Kante viewed this up-and-coming state with grave concern; and in about 1224 he descended on Kangaba and conquered it, killing, according to some traditions, all but one of its ruler’s twelve sons. Sundiata, the survivor, went into exile.

  
  

  Kangaba was left in a desperate situation, but eventually Sundiata returned from exile and became the king. He was sent help by many of Sumanguru’s enemies, such as the king of Bobo who sent 1,500 archers to help Kangaba. Thus, Sundiata was able to assemble a large army to face his foe at a place called Kirina. His greatest obstacle to victory was the fear that Sumanguru inspired in the Mandinka. They believed incredible stories about Sumanguru; for example, that he possessed eight heads. It was very important for Sundiata to lead the way in battle and to demonstrate that the Susu king was human and indeed mortal, which he did. The Susu were defeated and Sundiata went on to capture the old kingdom of Ghana.

  
  

         

  
  

  Between 1235 and his death in 1255, Sundiata created the empire of Mali. Mali is a name that was given to the empire by Arab travellers and its meaning is the ‘place where the king lives’. The title which the Mali people gave to their king was mansa; so by 1235 the once crippled–Sundiata was Mansa Sundiata of Mali.By 1337, Mali empire controlled an area in West Africa that included most of what are now Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Mali and parts of present-day Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger.

  
  

  The rise and expansion of Mali Kingdom

  
  

  A number of factors led to the rise and expansion of Mali:

  
  

  (i)Strategic geographical position – Mali’s position, away from the southern movement of the Sahara Desert, and near the centre of the savannah lands, gave it a good geographical advantage. Thus, with good farming land, Mali could be sure of adequate food, a large population and a powerful army. There was less danger in Mali that war would cause a collapse of agriculture as it had done in Ghana. Another advantage of Mali’s geographical positioning was that empire was less vulnerable to attacks from desert tribes such as Sanhaja and the Tuaregs.

  
  

  (ii) Unity in Islam – The empire was not a target of the jihads because Mali, unlike Ghana, had long been a Muslim state. Not all the people of Mali, including Sundiata, were strict Muslims, but most kings seem to have been. This fact was beneficial to Mali’s trade and the smooth running of its government.

  
  

  (iii)Expansion of trade – Sundiata extended the empire’s trading activities –resulting in the expansion of the empire – in a number of ways:

  
  

  • In order to attract the trans-Saharan trade to the heart of his empire, he moved the capital from Jeriba to a new town, called Niani, which later became known as Mali. He realised that northern traders had abandoned Awdaghost as the main trading centre, and were now concentrating their activities in the direction of Timbuktu and Gao. By concentrating trade in positions on the Niger, he could be sure of keeping in contact with Gao.

  
  

  • When he extended his empire, he concentrated on areas that would be especially useful to Mali’s trade. He gained control of the gold-producing areas of Wangara. It meant that traders from Gao and Timbuktu would have to trade with Mali for gold and that there would be no need to offset their profits by paying agents for it.
  

  
  

  • Another area of expansion of trade included the copper-producing area of Takedda and Taghaza from where the salt came.

  
  

  (iv)Military conquests and annexations – Sundiata extended the Mali Kingdom through a series of conquests and annexations. Following the defeat of Sumanguru, Sundiata annexed the kingdom of Kaniaga and all her vassal states, including Ghana which he conquered in 1240. After the final defeat of Ghana, Sundiata stayed at his headquarters. He left to his generals the job of further expansion wars. His generals conquered the gold-producing regions of Bambuk and Wangara. The gold in these territories attracted trade, and thus the wealth of the new empire increased. Another important gain was the control of Taghaza, with its rich salt mines

  
  

  (v)Good administration. Sundiata organized an effective administrative system. He united many petty states, including the newly-annexed ones under one centralised system of administration. He himself took control of the metropolitan administration. He established a standing army under able leaders. He appointed several of these war leaders as governors in the provinces. These military governors exercised effective control over potentially rebellious subjects.

  
  

  (vi)The contributions of Mansa Musa. He made contributions in the expansion of Mali in a number of ways:

  
  

  • Devotion to Islam: He was very concerned with spreading the education of Islam and it is under him that Timbuktu started to grow as a great cultural centre. The most famous event of his reign was the great hajj (or pilgrimage) he made to Mecca in 1324. It is clear that he was a cultured man who had great regard for Arab styles of architecture.

  
  

  • Expansion of trade: He was a shrewd king who dispensed his generosity in directions that he considered most profitable. His lavish presents in Cairo were rewarded by a great expansion of trade with the sultan of Egypt.

  
  

  • Expansion of boundaries: Musa made conquests and annexations and greatly expanded the boundaries of Mali. Walata was annexed, and then attention was turned toward the main trading centres of Songhai, Gao, Timbuktu and Djenne (Jenne). These centres had always been the most profitable in the Western Sudan. Musa sent his military leader, Sagaman DSir, to conquer these towns, and it was accomplished by the time Musa returned from Mecca in 1325. The wealth of Mali was therefore substantially increased in the reign of Mansa Musa.

  
  

  Political organisation of the Mali Kingdom

  
  

  Activity 3.4

  In groups of five, go to the library and find out from books of history how the political structure of the kingdom of Mali appeared. Make comparisons between the Mali kingdom and the pre-colonial kingdom of Rwanda.

  
  

  The Mali Empire covered a larger area for a longer period of time than any other West African state ever did. This in part can be explained by its political organisation:

  
  

  (i)Decentralisation of administration: The farther the territory was from Niani, the more decentralized the mansa’s power became. Nevertheless, the mansa managed to keep tax money and nominal control over all the area without agitating his subjects into revolt. The Empire reached the limit of its expansion in the reign of Mansa Musa.
  

  
  

  (ii)Skilful leaders: Sundiata was an able ruler. Mansa Musa even surpassed him. This great ruler of Mali, who possessed considerable administrative skill, did much to organize Mali’s machinery of government. At the close of Mansa Musa’s reign, in 1337, the empire of Mali extended far beyond the frontiers of the empire of Ghana which it had replaced. This vast empire comprised many kingdoms inhabited by many different peoples. To govern a vast empire of this kind, successive rulers established institutions designed to promote effective government.

  
  

                                     

  
  

  (iii)Administration: Mali was divided up into two main administrative units; the metropolitan area which comprised the state of Mali itself and a collection of provincial states annexed through conquest. Assisted by able ministers and counsellors, all renowned Muslims, and by faithful members of the kings’ own extended family, the king exercised personal control over the administration of his own Mandingo people in the metropolitan territory. Sundiata divided the empire into a number of provinces. Mansa Musa re-organised the provinces in the south into fourteen administrative units. The government of these provinces was entrusted to able governors. The machinery of political administration then ran as follows:

  
  

  • In the southern provinces where the subjects were relatively submissive, the local rulers served as governors. They were allowed a great measure of provincial autonomy, as long as they maintained their loyalty and paid tributes to the emperor regularly.

  
  

  • To the north where both the vassal states and the neighbouring Tuareg were troublesome, the practice was to send military governors to be in charge of the provincial and local administration, and to keep the people under control.

  
  

  • Another area which constantly resisted the emperor’s rule was Gao, in the east. To reduce these rebellious people to submission not only were strong military men sent out to govern the province, but also a specially trained battalion was stationed there.

  
  

  • At stated times, the provincial governors reported at Niani, the capital, not only to submit the accounts of taxes collected for the imperial treasury, but also to give a report of their administration in general. Occasionally, too, officers of the imperial court were sent out to the provincial capitals to inspect and report to the emperor on conditions in the provinces.

  
  

  • In general terms, provinces picked their own governors via their own custom (election, inheritance, etc.). Regardless of their title in the province, they were recognized as dyamani-tigui (province master) by the mansa. Dyamani-tiguishad to be approved by the mansa and were subject to his oversight. If the mansa didn’t believe the dyamani-tigui was capable or trustworthy, a farbamight be installed to oversee the province or administer it outright.

  
  

  • At the local level (village, town, city), kun-tiguis elected a dougou-tigui(village-master) from a bloodline descended from that locality’s semi-mythical founder. The county level administrators called kafo-tigui (county-master) were appointed by the governor of the province from within his own circle.

  
  

  (iv)Motivation of officials: To encourage faithful and effective local administration, provincial officials were all well paid, not only in gold, but often in kind with horses and leases of land. In addition, Mansa Musa instituted special honours to reward outstanding leaders.
  

  
  

  (v)Administration of justice: The administration of justice was keenly promoted by the kings of Mali, notably Mansa Musa. The king made sure that no-one received preferential treatment in the law courts, whether the case involved a governor against an ordinary citizen, or a native against an alien. It was recorded, for example, that Mansa Musa once tried and punished severely a provincial governor who had wronged an ordinary peasant. Referring to the administration of justice as it prevailed throughout the empire of Mali in his days.

  
  

  (vi)Loyalty and respect for authority: Loyalty and respect for authority were other characteristics of the people of Mali, which resulted from good administration.

  
  

  Economic organisation

  
  

  • The Mali Empire flourished because of trade. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders. The empire taxed gold or salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the 14th Century, Mali was the source of almost half the Old World’s gold exported from mines in Bambuk, Boure and Galam.

  
  

  • There was no standard currency throughout the realm, but several forms were prominent by region. The Sahelian and Saharan towns of the Mali Empire were organised as both staging posts in the long-distance caravan trade, and trading centers for the various West African products. At Taghaza, for example, salt was exchanged; copper was traded at Takedda. Ibn Battuta observed the employment of slave labour in both towns. During most of his journey, Ibn Battuta travelled with a retinue that included slaves, most of whom carried goods for trade but would also be traded as slaves.

  
  

  • On the return journey from Takedda to Morocco, his caravan transported 600 female slaves, suggesting that slavery was a substantial part of the commercial activity of the empire.

  
  

  Role of minerals

  
  

  The role of minerals in Mali’s economic activity included the following:

  
  

  • Gold:Gold nuggets were the exclusive property of the mansa, and were illegal to trade within his borders. All gold was immediately handed over to the imperial treasury in return for an equal value of gold dust. Gold dust had been weighed and bagged for use at least since the reign of the Ghana Empire. Mali borrowed the practice to stem inflation of the substance, since it was so prominent in the region. The most common measure for gold within the realm was the ambiguous mithqal (4.5 grams of gold). This term was used interchangeably with dinar, though it is unclear if coined currency was used in the empire. Gold dust was used all over the empire, but was not valued equally in all regions.

  
  

  • Salt:The next great unit of exchange in the Mali Empire was salt. Salt was as almost if not equally valuable to gold in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire. While it was as good as gold in the north, it was even better in the south. The people of the south needed salt for their diet, but it was extremely rare. The northern region on the other hand had no shortage of salt. Every year merchants entered Mali via Walata (Oualata) with camel loads of salt to sell in Niani. According to Ibn Battuta who visited Mali in the mid-14th Century, one camel load of salt sold at Walata for 8-10 mithqals of gold, but in Mali proper it realised 20-30 ducats and sometimes even 40. Copper. Copper, traded in bars, was mined from Takedda in the north and traded in the south for gold. Contemporary sources claim 60 copper bars traded for 100 dinars of gold.

  
  

  
  

  Social organisation

  
  

  Social organisation of Mali covered a number of areas:

  
  

  (i)Islamisation of state – Mansa Musa’s major achievement was that he made Mali a much more devoutly Muslim country. In Mali he instituted compulsory readings of the Koran. As a Muslim, he promoted the careers of fellow Muslims. Many mosques were built and Friday prayers were always observed at the king’s court. Yet many of his subjects continued to worship in the traditional way and Musa showed no objection. This was particularly true of people who were not  related to Musa’s Mandinka clan, such as the gold-diggers of Wangara. For in spite of his own piety, he had no wish to divide his domain with religious disputes.

  
  

  (ii)Education– Mansa Musa encouraged the establishment of Islamic schools. These increased the prestige of both Mali and Songhai. He attracted many learned and skilled men, like As-Sahili, from the Muslim world to these centres of learning. He encouraged the practice of sending promising scholars from his empire to Islamic seats of learning abroad to pursue advanced studies. These scholars returned to Mali, to form the nucleus of a group of learned teachers and professors in the schools and colleges in the empire.

  
  

  (iii)Architecture – Returning from the pilgrimage, Mansa Musa brought with him a group of renowned Muslim architects and scholars. Chief among these men was As-Sahili the celebrated architect and poet. As-Sahili is believed to have been the first to introduce in Mali the use of burnt bricks for building houses. Among his great constructional works were the famous burnt brick mosques in Gao and Timbuktu as well as the burnt brick palace at Timbuktu. Through the influence of As-Sahili the knowledge of the use of burnt bricks for building houses spread throughout the empire.
  

  
  

  As-Sahili also introduced to Mali flat-roof architecture. In this and other ways a new age of architecture was born in the Western Sudan. Within Mali, the imperial rulers ordered mosques constructed and palaces converted into mosques. Architects and builders increased the size of the mosques to accommodate a larger Muslim population and underscore the importance of Islam. The cities of Gao, Djenne (Jenne) and Timbuktu boasted large mosques. In Djenne stands a great mosque. Constructed of blocks made from a mixture of rice husks, earth and water that was allowed to ferment. It is an impressive structure, four stories high, with three minarets almost 60 feet high. The spires are topped with ostrich eggs symbolic of good fortune and fertility.

  
  

  (iv)Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca – In the years 1324-5, Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, passing through Muslim centres such as Walata, Tuat and Cairo. The splendor and generosity which attended the pilgrimage won the admiration of the people in every territory through which he passed.
  

  
  

                   

  
  

  The important effects of his pilgrimage to Mecca may be summarised as follows:

  
  

  • Mansa Musa’s own faith and zeal increased remarkably.

  • He set about purifying the religion in his empire and, as noted earlier, insisted on the strictest observance of the faith and practice of Islam.

  • He promoted Islamic learning.

  • Mansa Musa’s example and his devout insistence on the faithful observance of the rules of Islam must have increased his prestige greatly among the Muslims of Western Sudan.

  
  

  The decline of Mali Kingdom

  
  

  Activity 3.5

  Work in pairs Considering the factors that led to the decline of the kingdoms of Old Ghana and the kingdom of Rwanda, brainstorm on the possible reasons for the downfall of the kingdom of Mali. Discuss your points in class.

  
  

  Mali’s greatness and renown continued up to the end of Mansa Sulayman’s reign. It was then that the empire began to decline. By the end of the 15th Century it had lost much of its power to Songhai. The disintegration of the empire of Mali took place because of internal and external reasons:

  
  

  1. Internal causes

  
  

  Internal causes of Mali’s decline included the following:

  
  

  (i)Weak and incompetent leaders: The death of Sulayman began a period of forty years of constant civil war and changes of kingship. There were immediately two men ready to rule over Mali; Sulayman’s son Kamba and the grandson of Mansa Musa, Mari Jata II. The army was split in civil war and the royal clan was divided. Temporary peace was restored when Mari Jata became king (1360-74). A greedy despot, he hardly reflected the greatness of his grandfather. The attempts made by Mansa Musa II (1374-87) to revive the strength of the army, trade and government failed. Constant internal dissension resulted in the assassination of Mansa Maghan II (1387-9), after a short reign.

  
  

  (ii)Rebellion by vassal states: At the height of its glory, the Mali empire was very extensive, comprising many provinces which were inhabited by different ethnic groups. Each of these was waiting for signs that the central authority was weakening; for them to seize an opportunity to become independent of imperial control. Some of these attempts were successful. The first to do this was Gao (Songhai). On his way from pilgrimage, Mansa Musa had stopped at his vassal city of Gao and taken with him to Mali two princes of Gao, Ali Kolen and Sulayman Nar, as hostages to ensure the continued loyalty of the people to his authority. Not long afterwards, the two princes escaped from Mali and went back home to Gao. They organised a successful rebellion, and drove out the military forces stationed there by Mansa Musa. The people of Tekrur in the west followed the example of Gao.

  
  

  2. External causes

  
  

  The empire suffered a number of attacks by her jealous neighbours:

  
  

  (i)Attack from Mossi: In the reign of the great Mansa Musa, in 1333, the Mossi in the south had attacked Timbuktu. They were Later repulsed. About 1400 they made another destructive attack on the empire.

  
  

  (ii)Tuareg attack: Mali’s northern neighbours, the Tuareg, under their able leader Aki lag Malwal, took Walata and Timbuktu in 1433-4.

  
  

  (iii)Songhai attack: In 1468, Sunni Ali of Songhai started raids on Mali. By the end of the 15th Century, Mali had been completely annexed by Songhai.

  
  

  (iv) French colonisation: Mali as an ancient kingdom disappeared from the maps from about 1670 onwards. About a century and a half later, this former great West African territory fell into the hands of the French. Great patriots like Samori Toure made courageous attempts to recover Mali’s lost heritage. But it was not until 1960 that this French colony regained her independence. The founders of this new nation renamed their country Mali, to recall the past glory of the medieval Sudanese empire of that name, to which their ancestors belonged.

  
  

  
  

  Songhai Empire

  
  

  As Mali’s power waned, Songhai asserted its independence and rose to power in the area as the third and perhaps the greatest of the Sudanese states of West Africa. Songhai had been an important trade centre within Mali’s empire, just as Mali had once been ruled by Ghana.

  
  

                           

  
  

  Origin

  
  

  What became the nucleus of Songhai began with the coming together of two mutually unfriendly groups of oborigines: the Sorko, who were mostly fishermen, and made their living on the river Niger; and the Gabibi, who were agriculturalists, and lived in different parts of the countryside. Depending mainly on fishing, the lives of the Sorko were dominated by the river. By the 7th Century, they had organised themselves into a fairly strong kingdom, with Kukia as their capital. With time, the Sorko dominated the Gabibi. The two people’s merged into one kingdom, which the Arabic records refer to as Al-Kawkaw.

  
  

  About the beginning of the 8th Century, the Berber Lemta tribe from the north of Gao, under their leader Za Alieamen, conquered the kingdom. Thus began a long line of Za rulers in Al-Kawkaw. Al-Kawkaw grew into a prosperous and powerful kingdom through fishing, cattle-rearing and trade. The growing prosperity attracted Muslim merchants from the north. In about 1010 the ruler, Za Kossoi, was converted to Islam. We have seen that Sundiata moved the capital of Kaniaga from Jeriba to Niani (Mali) to be nearer the centre of trade. The leaders of Al-Kawkaw transferred their capital from Kukia to Gao for the same reasons. Al-Kawkaw grew in importance alongside both the Ghana and Mali empires. But as the two empires developed, more and more of the Sudanese trade shifted westwards, and Al-Kawkaw declined gradually in importance. Indeed, she lost her independence for a time to Mali.

  
  

  
  

  Factors that led to the growth of Songhai

  
  

  Activity 3.6

  
  

  Work in pairs.Considering the factors that led to the growth of the kingdoms of Mali and the Old Ghana, brainstorm on the factors that boosted the growth of the Songhai kingdom.

  
  

  A number of factors led to the growth of Songhai:

  
  

  (i) Trade
  

  
  

  Songhai’s rich and fertile land and other resources attracted traders. Three principal trade routes converged at the capital, Gao.

  
  

  (ii) Influences of Islam

  
  

  Trans-Saharan trade brought into the kingdom Muslim influences which helped the development of the kingdom. These influences became more pronounced from the beginning of the 11th Century, following the conversion of the king, Za Kossoi, to Islam. Furthermore, as happened elsewhere, the Muslims became advisers in the royal court, and influenced not only the administration, but also the social, economic, and political life of the kingdom.

  
  

  (iii) Gao’s resistance to Mali domination

  
  

  In the 14th Century, the kingdom of Gao came under the control of Mali in the reign of Mansa Musa. In due course, Gao threw off Mali’s domination, in a rebellion initiated by the two Gaoan princes, Ali Kolen and Sulayman Nar, whom Mansa Musa had taken away to Mali as hostages. These princes escaped and Sulayman Nar drove out the army of Mali stationed at Gao. However, some time elapsed before Gao, now developing into an empire, was able to gain its independence from Mali completely.

  
  

  (iv) The work of Sunni Ali (1464-1492)

  
  

  Just as Sundiata was the founder of the Mali Empire, so was Sunni Ali’s role in the history of the Songhai empire.

  
  

  Sunni Ali’s contribution to the growth of the empire

  
  

  A number of factors enabled Sunni Ali to contribute in the growth and expansion of the empire.

  
  

  (a)Weakness of neighbouring countries: Weakness in the neighbouring countries helped Sunni Ali’s work of expanding and consolidating his empire. However, much of his success was due to his own personal courage and ruthlessness.

  
  

  (b)Enough military strength: In order to quell internal opposition and to launch wars of expansion, Sunni Ali established a very well-organised army. He also started a navy and organized a strong fleet, headed by a navy officer, the Hi-koy. With the help of the fleet, he was able to command control of the Niger River. With these formidable armed forces he was able to clear his kingdom of all opponents to his rule. His military might enabled him to conquer neighbouring countries such as: Timbuktu, Jenne, Yetanga and Hausaland.The wealth derived from these newly-annexed vassal states contributed greatly to the prosperity of Songhai empire.

  
  

  (c)Efficient administration: Sunni Ali established a very efficient administration. He had so expanded the frontiers of Songhai that the empire contained many different peoples and territories. To keep this large empire together, Sunni Ali set up very efficient administrative machinery. He divided his empire into provinces. He made able war leaders governors of strategic regions. For example, in the province of Hombori in the south, a mountainous territory which gave him much trouble, he placed a veteran leader, called Tondifari to keep the rebellious people in submission and to maintain an effective check on any incursions from outside the frontiers of the empire. In the relatively peaceful provinces, Sunni Ali allowed the native rulers a good deal of local autonomy, as long as they were answerable to him, and showed their loyalty to the imperial authority through the regular payment of tributes. His policy towards conquered peoples therefore varied according to conditions prevailing in each individual territory. In localities where the Muslims did not oppose him, he treated them fairly.

  
  

  (v) The work of Askia Muhammad (1493-1528)

  
  

  When Sunni Ali died in 1492, he was succeeded by his son, Abu Bakr (also known as Sunni Baru). He reigned for only a little over a year. A succession dispute then arose, which resulted in fierce rivalry between Ali’s son and one of Sunni Ali’s war generals, who had served as Ali’s chief minister. The general’s name was Muhammad Ture, also known as Muhammad Ture Ibn Abi Bakr. Muhammad Ture emerged victorious from a war against Abu Bakr, defeating his rival at a place called Angoo. Entering Gao in triumph, Muhammad Ture was proclaimed king of Songhai. He assumed the title Askia, meaning ‘he can’t be (king)’, an expression with which the sisters of his rival, in utter disgust at learning of the victory of Muhammad Ture, had greeted his triumphant entry into Gao. That started the new ‘Askia’ dynasty which replaced the Sunni line. Askia reigned from 1493 to 1528, when he was deposed by his eldest son, Musa. Askia Muhammad took measures to improve the social and economic life of the empire.

  
  

  
  

  Askia Muhammad’s achievements for his Empire

  
  

  Political organisation

  
  

  Askia Muhammad’s political astuteness and administrative genius helped to make him one of the great rulers of Songhai. Under him the empire reached its greatest extent stretching from Walata in the west to Kano in the east. It included a number of important trading centres in the Sahara.

  
  

  (a)Territorial expansion: Askia followed the example of Sunni Ali and made further territorial gains through conquests and treaties. He renewed Songhai’s attack on the Mossi but, like his predecessor, Sunni Ali, he failed to conquer these strong southern neighbours. After a long campaign, he then conquered what was left of the Mali kingdom. His next move was against the Hausa states of Gobir, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara, all of which he annexed. At the height of Askia’s reign the Songhai empire stretched from the Atlantic to Lake Chad.

  
  

  (b) Administration: Askia set about consolidating the territorial gains made by his predecessor, Sunni Ali, by an elaborate administrative system. He extended this administrative system to the new lands he added to the empire. He re-divided the empire into four regions, and at the head of each he placed a vice-roy or governor. The regions were Kurmina Masina, Bambara; Dendi Bala, to and Bangu

  
  

  Each region was headed by a governor, called fari, farma or koy. Local rulers still had authority but they were responsible to the regional governors. In metropolitan Songhai itself, the king held direct control of the machinery of government. He appointed a council of ministers who assisted him in ruling not only the metropolitan area but the entire empire. Among the most important ministerial officers were:

  
  

  • Katisi-farma, responsible for finance

  • Asari-mundia, responsible for justice

  • Balama, responsible for defence

  • Hi-koy, responsible for the navy

  • Korey-farma, responsible for foreign affairs

  • Sao-farma, the minister in charge of forestry

  • Hari-farma, in charge of rivers, lakes and fisheries

  • Kari-farma, the chief priest of the indigenous religion of Songhai

  • Barey-koy, who was in charge of the imperial court arrangements.

  
  

  (c)Military organisation: Askia Muhammad also organised the army effectively. The soldiers kept Tuareg bandits out of the empire and maintained a peaceful atmosphere in which commerce could flourish.

  
  

  Social organisation

  
  

  In the realm of social development, he encouraged learning, built up Timbuktu as a hub of civilisation, and patronised Islam.

  
  

  (a) Religion – Like Mansa Musa, Askia Muhammad was a devout Muslim. He used Islam as a unifying force and adopted Islamic principles as guidelines for the conduct of his people. Askia appointed judges in each important town of the empire. These judges followed the Koranic law and the Sharia. As a devout Muslim, Askia Muhammad made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1497. Though not as fabulous as Mansa Musa’s, Askia’s pilgrimage had important effects on the development of his empire. He bought a hostel at Cairo for Sudanese pilgrims going to and returning from Mecca. In recognition of his strict adherence to and promotion of Islam, Askia was awarded the title of ‘Caliph of the Blacks’.Like Mansa Musa, Askia returned from the pilgrimage with a number of celebrated Islamic scholars. These served the empire as educators administrators, advisers and judges. As more Muslims were attracted to Songhai, relations with the Muslim world improved. This meant an increase in trade. These Muslim immigrants also had a far-reaching influence on the political, social and cultural life of the empire.Also, inspired by North African Islamic theologians like Al-Maghili, he abolished the practice of sand-divining and the belief in talisman. He also made laws against the ill-use of pregnant slave women; and further, he legislated against nudity among adults.

  
  

  (b) Education – Askia Muhammad encouraged the spread of education. It was recorded, for example, that during Askia’s reign, there were as many as 150 Koranic schools in Timbuktu alone. The standard of learning at centres such as the Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, in Jenne and in Gao reached a very advanced level. Scholars from all over the Islamic world came to these centres for further studies. These institutions of higher learning produced many celebrated scholars. The growth of literacy had a great influence on the social, cultural and political life of the empire; it also helped to promote the trade in books.

  
  

  Economic organisation

  
  

  Askia Muhammad reformed and put the economy of Songhai on a firm basis. He encouraged regional specialisation according to the natural distribution of the Empire’s economic resources. Thus some areas specialised in the cultivation of food crops, some in fishing, others in the production of building materials, in smith work and in the mining of gold, salt and copper.

  
  

  He regularised the system of weights and measures and made salt, in addition to cowries, the imperial currency. His reforms increased the yield of state revenue from slave-worked in royal estates, regular contributions from the provinces, tributes from vassal states and proceeds from state-controlled commerce, particularly the trans-Saharan trade. The prosperity helped, among other things, in the establishment of a standing professional army vital for the strength and stability of Songhai.

  
  

  Following are his contributions to Songhai economy.

  
  

  (a) Weights and measures – Askia established a unified system of weights and measures throughout the empire, allowing, where necessary, a degree of local variation. . He legislated against cheating in trade, and appointed inspectors to control weights and measures and prices.

  
  

  (b) Sources of imperial revenue – The imperial treasury derived its revenue from farming and industry, court fines and from a variety of taxes. The income from these sources and the huge sums of money gained from commerce helped the kings to maintain an effective administration, to build up a strong army and navy, and to develop flourishing cities like Gao, Timbuctu and Jenne.• Farming: Much wealth was derived from farming and fishing. Throughout the empire, the government established vast estates which were worked by slaves. Each estate was under a fanfa, or estate manager. The revenue from these state farms went into the imperial treasury.

  
  

  • Crafts: Teams of slaves were also organised for the production of boats, spears and arrows. Some of these products went to equip the imperial army and navy. Some were sold to replenish the imperial treasury.

  
  

  • Tributes: Other sources of imperial revenue were tributes collected from vassal states.

  
  

  • Taxes: Taxes were collected from farmers by the regional governors and were sent regularly to the capital.

  
  

  • Tolls and duties: In addition, much revenue was collected in form of tolls and customs duties.

  
  

  • Court fines: These were another source of imperial revenue.

  
  

  
  

  Decline of Songhai Empire

  
  

  Activity 3.7

  
  

  In groups of five, visit the library and use resources such as history books and the Internet to find out both the internal and external causes for the decline of the Songhai Kingdom.

  
  

  When Askia Muhammad was 85 years old, and had become blind and infirm with age, one of his sons, Musa, is said to have taken advantage of this to dethroned him. Thereafter, the history of Songhai was one of decline, for, with the exception of Askia Daud who ruled Songhai from 1549 to 1582, the successors of Askia the Great could not cope with the problems which contributed to the decline and final collapse of the empire at the close of the 16th Century. The fall of the empire was brought about by factors which were both internal and external.

  
  

  (a) Internal factors

  
  

  (i) Incompetent rulers: The strength of Songhai was weakened by ineffective and often incompetent rulers. In addition, the empire suffered from a series of dynastic intrigues and short and unsuccessful reigns. For example, when Askia the Great was aged 85, he was deposed by his eldest son, Musa. He was later sent away from the capital by his nephew, Askia Bankuri (also known as Askia Muhammad II or Bengan Korei), to exile in kankaka island in the Niger. The ill treatment of Askia the Great caused dissention and rivalry which weakened the unity of the empire.

  
  

  (ii) Short reigns: Short reigns failed to create stability in the empire. Between 1528 and 1549, a relatively short period of 21 years, as many as four rulers occupied the Songhai throne, each one deposing his predecessor: Askia Musa (1528-33), Askia Bankuri (1533-37), Askia Ismail (1537-39), and Askia Ishak 1(1539-49). These short reigns were in contrast to the long reigns of Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad the Great, and by 1549 when Daud’s long reign began, the stability of the empire had been seriously impaired.
  

  
  

  (iii) Frequent succession disputes:Although Songhai’s prestige was restored somewhat under the next ruler Askia Daud, who had a very long reign from 1549 to 1582, he could not heal all the wounds which had been inflicted on the empire during the previous 21 years. Moreover, after his death, succession disputes hampered much of his work. The three Askias who followed, like those who came before him, were weak rulers and were, in addition, immoral. They had naturally short reigns: Askia Muhammad III (1582-6), Askia Muhammad Bani(1586-8), and Askia Ishak II (1588-91). In Ishak II’s reign Songhai fell under Morocco. These weak kings contributed to the final fall of the empire.

  
  

  (iv) Rebellions in the empire’s border territories: Songhai was united and strong enough to withstand external pressures. Many vassal states had become independent and hostile. They were only ready to help the invading Morocco forces. The Mossi to the south-west, the Hausa to the east, and the Tuareg to the north were a constant threat to the security of the empire. Besides, the heterogeneous nature of the vast empire, meant that the empire could be kept together only by the most able ruler. When the rulers were incompetent, and their claims to the throne were disputed, the empire was liable to disintegrate. This was the internal state of affairs when Moroccan forces marched down on Songhai.

  
  

  (b) External factors Morocco and other northern African countries had for centuries been envious of the wealth of the empire of Songhai. They always wanted to take it. Gold was one reason. Another was that the Moroccans did not want the Sudanese advancing into the desert as they had steadily been doing. Morocco especially resented the control of the Taghaza salt mines by the Songhai and long before the invasion of 1591 the two countries had been fighting over this region.

  
  

  Reasons for the defeat of Songhai

  
  

  The reasons for the defeat of Songhai included the following:

  
  

  (i)A major cause was the internal weakness of Songhai combined with the willing assistance given to Morocco by several vassal states who wanted to assert their freedom from the authority of Songhai.

  
  

  (ii)The Moroccans commanded an army of well-drilled and determined men, intent on gaining the rich possessions of Songhai.

  
  

  (iii)The Moroccans had the advantage of using superior weapons which included arquebuses (obsolete matchlock firearms) and muskets. The Askia’s forces included, somewhat unusually, 1,000 cows, which were placed between the two armies, and it was hoped that they would block the Moroccan bullets. But, like the Songhai soldiers, the cattle were terrified by the sound of the guns and turned to trample to death many of the Songhai soldiers. The weapons of Songhai were primitive, being bows and arrows, spears, swords and clubs.

  
  

  The capture of Gao and Timbuktu did not end the war completely. Having deposed Ishak II, the Songhai installed Askia Kagho as their ruler; he directed his men to resort to guerrilla warfare. They put up a considerable fight until, unfortunately for Songhai, Kagho was treacherously killed by the Moroccans who had invited him for peace talks. Kagho was succeeded by his brother, Askia Nuh, who continued the resistance until 1595, when Songhai was finally it defeated, and became a province of Morocco.

  
  

  Results of the defeat of Songhai

  
  

  The Moroccan conquest of the empire of Songhai had several consequences on the history which included the following:

  
  

  (i) Loss of independence

  
  

  (a) Songhai lost her independence and became a province of Morocco. Songhai as a great empire lost her identity and her well-organised central administration. The results of this situation were as follows:

  
  

  (b) The different states which had been united as members of the great empire of Songhai asserted their independence. But they did not have adequate resources to exist as separate units; instead they started fighting each other.

  
  

  (c) The Sultan of Morocco sent out governors called pashas to take charge of the Sudanese provinces that were under the control of Morocco.

  
  

  (d) The pashas sent out to the Western Sudan were mostly greedy and corrupt and unfit for the task assigned to them. Indeed, the administration of these provincial pashas was characterized by constant intrigues and struggles for power. This explains why, for example, within a short period of five years, from 1616 to 1621, the Western Sudanese administration passed through the hands of as many as twenty-one pashas.

  
  

  (e) While the superstructure of the imperial system collapsed, the diverse groups which made up the Songhai empire regained their independence and survived as small but virile states until the 19th Century – before the jihads and Partition. These groups included Tekrur, Kaarta, Segu, Masina, Dendi, Kebbi, Gobir, Kano Zaria and Katsina.

  
  

  (ii) Economic consequences

  
  

  The trans-Saharan trade and the internal economy decline for the following reasons:

  
  

  (a) By a coincidence, Europeans had started trading on the Guinea coast about a century before the fall of Songhai. This, combined with the disturbed situation in the Western Sudan, meant that the centre of the West African trade shifted from the north to the western and southern coasts of West Africa. The gold and ivory which now ceased to go north went southwards instead to boost the prosperity and importance of some of the forest and coastal states, particularly Asante and Fante, turning Songhai’s economic loss into these states’ gain.

  
  

  (b) The condition of the Western Sudan was made worse by the crippling taxation and levies imposed by the pashas.

  
  

  (c) The Moroccans had been very disappointed by what they had gained from conquering the Songhai empire. Although Al-Mansur obtained a great deal of gold, and earned the title El-Dhahabi, meaning the ‘Golden Ruler’, what Morocco actually gained as a result of the conquest was far less than they had expected.

  
  

  (iii) Loss of glory

  
  

  The capture of the Sudanese cities, accompanied by the destruction of men and property had other consequences:

  
  

  (a) Cities like Gao, Timbuktu and Jenne declined as centres of trade and as seats of learning.

  
  

  (b) With the death and capture of many scholars, the influence of Islam in the Western Sudan declined rapidly. In its place, pagan religions were revived. It was not until the beginning of the 19th Century that Islamic revivalist movements were launched by the Fulani in the Western Sudan

  
  

  (c) On the other hand, the eastward shift of the trans-Saharan trade and the movement of scholars from the Western Sudan in the same direction, as a consequence of the Moroccan invasion, increased the prosperity and renown of some of the Hausa states and that of Kanem-Bornu

  
  

  Kanem-Bornu Empire

  
  

                    

  
  

  The Kanem-Bornu Empire existed in modern Chad and Nigeria. It was known to the Arabian geographers as the Kanem Empire from the 9th Century AD onward. It lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900. To the east of Lake Chad there emerged a kingdom comprising several states. This developed over a period of time, into the great Kanuri Empire. The beginnings of the empire coincided with the rise of Mali and Al-Kawkaw or Songhai, and the period of Ghana’s greatness.

  
  

  For many years, what came to be officially known as the Kanuri Empire was made up of two parts, separated by the lake. Kanem was in the east, and Bornu in the west of the empire. Kanem served as the centre of the empire for many years, but in the 15th Century, the seat of government shifted to Bornu in the west.
  

  
  

  Origins

  
  

  The origins of the Kanuri Empire are very unclear. Much of what we know about it is purely legendary. According to the so-called Kisra legend, Kanem was founded by a prince called Kisra and his followers who migrated to the east of Lake Chad from eastern Africa. It is believed that the westward movement of Kisra and his people took place as a consequence of the destruction of the city of Meroe (in the present-day republic of the Sudan) by the people of Axum (in Ethiopia) in about AD 350. Archaeologists have unearthed several historical remains in Kanem, which seem to point to the influence of Meroe.

  
  

  Some of the early peoples of the Kanem area were the So, who were the original inhabitants of the area; the Zaghawa – a nomadic people who were believed to have immigrated from eastern Africa in early times, and to have settled to the east of the lake in about 8th Century AD; the Kanuri or Kanembi; and the Bulala.

  
  

  The major factor that influenced the later history of the state of Kanem was the early penetration of Islam. North African traders; Berbers and Arabs, brought the new religion. Towards 1068, Hummay, a member of the Sefawa establishment, who was already a Muslim, discarded the last Duguwa King, Selma, from power and thus established the new dynasty of the Sefawa. Islam offered the Sefawa rulers the advantage of new ideas from Arabia and the Mediterranean world, as well as literacy in administration. But many people resisted the new religion favouring traditional beliefs and practices. When Hummay had assumed power on the basis of his strong Islamic following, for example, it is believed that the Kanembu began some kind of internal opposition.

  
  

  When the ruling dynasty changed, the royal establishment abandoned its capital of Manan and settled in the new capital Njimi further south of Kanem. By the 13th Century, Kanem’s rule expanded. At the same time, the Kanembu people drew closer to the new rulers and increased the growing population in the new capital of Njimi. Even though the Kanembu became the main power-base of the Sefawa, Kanem’s rulers continued to travel frequently throughout the kingdom and especially towards Bornu, west of Lake Chad. Herders and farmers alike recognized the government’s power and acknowledged their allegiance by paying tribute.

  
  

  The power and growth of Kanem-Bornu, unlike that of most other Sudanese states, fluctuated over the years, but the state never really completely broke down. One reason for this was the remarkable extent of the Sefawa dynasty whose rulers were able to sustain the state through crises of disintegration. Their profiles below show how this happened:

  
  

  Achievements of some Mai to the expansion of Kanem-Bornu

  
  

  (a) Mai Dugu

  
  

  The first known Mai (or ruler) who ruled these early settlers as a united people was Dugu. He founded the Sefawa dynasty in about AD 774. His capital was Njimi, situated to the north-east of Lake Chad.

  
  

  (b) Mai Umme Jilmi (1085-97)

  
  

  It was in the reign of Mai Jilmi that Islam was introduced to Kanem-Bornu. He is said to have died while on pilgrimage. Between 1085 and 1240 Islam gained ground in Kanem Bornu, especially among the ruling class. Islam tended to make a positive contribution to scholarship and administration.

  
  

  (c) Mai Dunama 1 (1097-1150)

  
  

  Dunama had a long reign. He was powerful and pious. He strengthened the hold of the Kanembu on their subjects and went on pilgrimages several times.

  
  

  (d) Mai Selma (1194-1221)

  
  

  Mai Selma is notable as the first Kanembu king of Kanem-Bornu, his predecessors in office having been the Zagha, who founded the state. He continued to strengthen the state by maintaining a firm control over his more troublesome peoples, particularly the nomadic tribes, and by controlling the trans-Saharan trade as far as Fezzan. Njimi became well-established as the capital of the growing empire in Selma’s time.

  
  

  (e) Mai Dunama Dabalemi ibn Selma (1221-59)

  
  

  He was also known as Dunama II. His reign was full of wars, and with an army 30,000-40,000 strong men, he made extensive conquests. Dunama II maintained good relations with the powerful Hafsid rulers of North Africa. He is said to have exchanged rich presents with them, including a giraffe which he sent to Al-Mustan-sir. The first phase of the empire (ie from its foundation to the time when it moved westwards to Bornu) reached its height under Mai Dunama II.

  
  

  (f) Mai Ali Ghaji (Ghazi)

  
  

  (1472-15-4He came to the throne after a period of civil wars which threatened the continued existence of Kanem-Bornu. On his accession, he began to shift the headquarters from Njimi to Ngazargamu, completing this in 1484. He thus laid the foundation for the second phase of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. He ended the disruptive civil wars, and reformed the administration and the army. But he is best remembered for his remarkable career of conquest which earned him the title ‘El Ghazi’ or the Warrior. Ali Ghaji patronized Islam, and is said to have enforced Islamic practices with the help of his Chief Imam.

  
  

  (g) Mai Idris Katakarmabi and Mohammed (1504-45)

  
  

  This was Ali Ghaji’s son and successor, who completed his father’s conquests. He checked the Bulala threat, and strengthened the link with North Africa by sending an embassy to Tripoli about 1512. Idris Katakarmabi was followed by Mai Mohammed (1526-45). Mohammed more or less ended the continued Bulala menace by a ruthless military action in which the Bornu ‘rebels’ were beaten and their king killed. After Mohammed, succession disputes flared up again and there followed a brief interregnum when the Magira Aicha ruled, preparing the way for the most famous Mai of Kanem-Bornu.

  
  

  Mai Idris Aluma (1571-1603)

  
  

  Kanem-Bornu peaked during the reign of the outstanding statesman Mai Idris Aluma (1571-1603). Idris Aluma’s reign was well-documented by his chief Imam, Ahmed Ibn Fartua Aluma (also spelled Alooma). He is remembered for his military skills, administrative reforms, and Islamic piety. His main adversaries were the Hausa to the west, the Tuareg and Toubou to the north, and the Bulala to the east. Mai Aluma’s reign can be remembered for a number of innovations and achievements:

  
  

  Factors for the rise and growth of Karnem-Bornu

  
  

  (i)Military innovations – His innovations included the employment of fixed military camps (with walls); permanent sieges and ‘scorched earth’ tactics, where soldiers burned everything in their path; armoured horses and riders; and the use of Berber camelry, Kotoko boatmen, and iron-helmeted musketeers trained by Turkish military advisers.
  

  
  

  (ii)Good diplomatic relations– His active diplomacy featured relations with Tripoli, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire, which sent a 200-member ambassadorial party across the desert to Aluma’s court at Ngazargamu. Aluma also signed what was probably the first written treaty or cease-fire in Chadian history.
  

  
  

  (iii)Legal and administrative reforms – Aluma introduced a number of legal and administrative reforms based on his religious beliefs and Islamic law (sharia). (iv)Islamisation – Idris Aluma was a great patron of Islam and used his great power to boost the process of Islamisation within his sphere of influence.

  
  

  Previously only the clerical families and the ruling class had adopted Islam; but in Idris Aluma’s time all the notables, and many others, according to Ibn Fartua, became Muslims. He began the process of substituting the Sharia for customary law in certain spheres. He sponsored the construction of numerous mosques and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he arranged for the establishment of a hostel to be used by pilgrims from his empire.

  
  

  (v)Political alliances – As with other dynamic politicians, Aluma’s reformist goals led him to seek loyal and competent advisers and allies. He frequently relied on slaves who had been educated in noble homes. Aluma regularly sought advice from a council composed of heads of the most important clans. He commanded the loyalty and support of the Kanuri who came to identify themselves with the Bornu empire, and he went a long way towards the political unification of the various groups within it. He used a combination of Islam, dynastic marriages and a careful definition of Bornu’s sphere of influence, to achieve this. He required major political figures to live at the court. He reinforced political alliances through marriages.
  

  
  

  (vi)Economic organisation– Kanem-Bornu under Aluma was strong and wealthy. Government revenue came from tributes, sale of slaves, and duties on participation in trans-Saharan trade. The Chadian region did not have gold. Still, it was central to one of the most convenient trans-Saharan trade routes. Between Lake Chad and Fezzan lay a sequence of well-spaced wells and oases. From Fezzan there were easy connections to North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. Many products were sent north, including natron (sodium carbonate), cotton, kola nuts, ivory, ostrich feathers, perfume, wax and hides. But the most important of all were slaves. Imports included salt, horses, silks, glass, muskets, and copper.

  
  

  Mai Idris Aluma’s contribution to the rise of the second Kanem-Bornu empire is comparable to that of Mansa Musa of Mali and Askia Muhammad Ture for Songhai. He died in 1603 when returning from an expedition. When expanded the empire to its widest extent; Islamised all aspects of life in the empire; he had made his empire widely known and respected throughout the Muslim world in Africa, Asia and Turkey; he left the empire at the peak of its power and prosperity. His reign coincided with the decline of the Songhai empire. His fame did not end with his death, but persisted down to the 19th Century.
  

  
  

  Organisation of the empire

  
  

  The empire lasted for over a thousand years. During this long period, institutions of government underwent changes. However, the following may be regarded as an outline of how the vast empire was organized, when at the peak of its power.

  
  

  Social and political organisation

  
  

  • At the head of the central government was the king (Mai). He was regarded as sacred and was more or less worshipped. For this reason, he did not show himself in public, except on two annual festivals. Otherwise he remained always hidden behind a curtain, even when receiving guests. Next in importance was the queen mother, Magira. Some of these Magira became so powerful that they had great influence over and sometimes vetoed the decisions of the Mai. Another influential person was the first or ‘eldest’ wife of the king Gumsu. The Mai in effect ruled indirectly through a hierarchy of officials, including the Supreme Council of State. Each of the twelve councillors exercised authority over a feudal-like territory, sometimes in addition to other administrative assignments in the capital. The most important Councillors were the Yerima, First War Lord and Warden of the South, the Warden of the North, the Warden of the East and keeper of the Mai’s household and the (Galadima) Warden of the West. In time these titles became honorific, as circumstances changed and their holders settled down to a life of cultured leisure in the capital. They appointed officers called Chimagana to administer their fiefs.
  

  
  

  • The change of dynasty, from Seifawa to Shehu, in the 19th Century also saw the shifting of effective political power from these old dignitaries to a new class of administrators called ‘Kokenawa’.

  
  

  • Other important officials of Kanem-Bornu included the Mainin Kanendi (Chie Judge), who was the second most important citizen after the Mai. He and twelve other judges formed the High Court which dispensed justice; a Registrar (Talba) kept records of its proceedings. There were also courts in the main towns from which appeals could be put before the High Court. Eventually, as Islamic practices took root in Kanem-Bornu, Muslim Qadis and local judges (Malamai) joined the judiciary.

  
  

  • Royal personages like the Queen Mother the Mai’s official elder sister (Magara), and his consort or official wife (Gumsu), enjoyed certain privileges and took part in the administration. In particular, the Queen Mother wielded considerable political influence, if not direct power. For instance, one Mai, Biri Ibn Dunama (1151-74), was said to have been imprisoned by the Magira of his time. Another Queen Mother, Aicha, successfully fought and won the throne for her son, Idris Aluma, who was to become the greatest Mai of Kanem-Bornu.

  
  

  Economic organisation

  
  

  Kanem-Bornu got its revenue from poll tax (binemram) which was levied through each fief-holder and the sadaa, a special harvest tithe. The proceeds went direct to the royal coffers. Tribute was collected from vassal states, and officials of royal origin were generally entrusted with this.

  
  

  Trade was the greatest source of income, despite the absence of large and important commercial centres as in the Western Sudan. Grain from the empire was exchanged for salt at Bilma, and natron or potash from the Lake Chad region was sent to Kano from where it was distributed over wide areas of the Sudan.

  
  

  Kanuri middlemen handled the copper trade between Darfur and Nupe. Kola from the forest belt came through Kano and was exported, along with slaves from the southern part of the empire, to Tunis, Tripoli and Cairo. Cowries and rolls of cloth were the standard currency.

  
  

  Decline of Kanem-Bornu Empire

  
  

  The administrative reforms and military brilliance of Aluma sustained the empire until the mid-1600s, when its power began to fade. By the late 1700s, Bornu rule extended only westward, into the land of the Hausa. Around that time, Fulani people, invading from the west were able to make major inroads into Bornu. By the early 19th Century, Kanem-Bornu was clearly an empire in decline. In 1808, Fulani warriors conquered Ngazargamu.

  
  

  • Usman dan Fodio led the Fulani thrust and proclaimed a jihad (holy war) on the irreligious Muslims of the area. His campaign eventually affected Kanem-Bornu and inspired a trend toward Islamic doctrines. But Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi contested the Fulani advance. Kanem was a Muslim scholar and non-Sefawa warlord who had put together an alliance of Shuwa Arabs, Kanembu, and other semi-nomadic peoples. He eventually built a capital at Kukawa (in present-day Nigeria). Sefawa mais remained titular monarchs until 1846. In that year, the last mai, in league with Wadai (Ouadai) tribesmen, precipitated a civil war. It was at that point that Kanem’s son, Umar, became king, thus ending one of the longest dynastic reigns in the regional history.
  

  
  

  • Although the dynasty ended, the kingdom of Kanem-Bornu survived. Umar, who eschewed the title mai for the simpler designation, shehu, (from the Arabic “shaykh”) could not match his father’s energy. He gradually allowed the kingdom to be ruled by advisers (wazirs). Bornu began to decline, as a result of administrative disorganisation and attacks by the militant Wadai Empire to the east. The decline continued under Umar’s sons. In 1893 Rabih Fadlallah, leading an invading army from eastern Sudan, conquered Bornu. He was defeated by French soldiers in 1900.

  
  

  Activity 3.8

  
  

  Form groups of five each. Trace where the early West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Kanem-Bornu were located on the historical map. Study the modern map of West Africa to see the modern areas where those kingdoms were found. Note the differences between the old and the modern places in terms of economic and political transformation.

  
  

  
  

  Mwenemutapa Kingdom

  
  

  The Mwenemutapa Kingdom, also spelled Monomotapa, was a Shona-speaking kingdom of the Karanga people (1450-1629). The kingdom stretched between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of Southern Africa in the modern states of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

  
  

  • The name Mutapa means ‘the conquered lands’. The mwene (Bantu term for “lord,” specifically a conquering king) was the title giving rise to the state being referred to as Mwene mutapa. This phrase has been preserved in documents as Munhu mu tapa,Manhumutapa, and the Portuguese, Monomotapa.

  
  

                                   

  
  

  Origin

  
  

  The Karanga are a subgroup of the Shona The other subgroups include the Rozwi, Zezuru, Korekore and Manyika. They migrated in AD 1000 and settled in an area north of River Limpopo and south of the Zambezi River. They founded the Great Zimbabwe.

  
  

  Chief Chuka was the founding ruler of the Great Zimbambwe kKngdom. Between 1420 and 1450. it was by Nyatsimba Mutota who expanded the chiefdom. He expanded it to the north to control to the long-distance trade. The kingdom was later abandoned in 1450 because it had exhausted its salt and trade.

  
  

  The Mutapa state is often linked to the impressive stone ruins that dot Zimbabwe. Two ruins are situated at the centre of the present-day Zimbabwe. One group crowns a rocky outcrop, and could be reffered to as a hill-fort. The other, in the valley beneath, consists of a vast elliptical enclosure, massively walled in stone, with other stone walls inside and in particular a solid conical tower. The time of building is uncertain; it was probably as early as the 11th Century or as late as the 14th Century.

  
  

  After abandoning the original kingdom, the Shona then established Mwenemutapa Kingdom, as Mutota conquered other lands in the north. The Mwenemutapa Kingdom got its name from the Barwe and Manyika communities who were describing the king’s action of extreme force to expand his territory. It was located in Mazoe valley.

  
  

  Mwenemutapa became the royal title and eventually the name of the kingdom which was ruled by Mutapa. It was known for its gold. Mwenemutapa kingdom later collapsed in 1480. The Shona then established yet another kingdom called Rozwi in the 18th Century. It was established on the Zambezi plateau. It was established by Dombo and it was also known for its gold. The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo in modern Zimbabwe, were built by Shona-speaking people between the 11th and 14th centuries. The Great Enclosure, shown here, contains a series of walled areas and, seen on the left among the trees, a solid conical structure, the function of which is not known. The main walls of the enclosure are as high as 10m (32 ft) and as thick as 5m (17 ft).

  
  

                               

  
  

  Factors that led to the rise and expansion of Mwenemutapa Kingdom

  
  

  Mutota’s successor, Mwenemutapa Matope, extended this new kingdom into an empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean. The Mwenemutapa became very wealthy by exploiting copper from Chidzurgwe and ivory from the middle Zambezi. This expansion weakened the Torwa kingdom, the southern Shona state from which Mutota and his dynasty originated.

  
  

  Matope’s armies overran the kingdom of the Manyika as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Mozambique, the Mutapa Kingdom was the premier Shona state in the region. He raised a strong army which conquered the Dande area that included Tonga and Tavara. A number of factors led to the expansion of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom:

                               

  
  

  (i) Able rulers – The rulers of the kingdom had good leadership skills and were held in great awe by their subjects. They enjoyed immense powers and prestige in the kingdom. They also exerted firm control over the commercial activities of the kingdom.

  
  

  (ii) Strategic position for commercial activities – The kingdom had a rich hinterland for resources which were in great demand at the East African Coast. It attracted large numbers of Swahili and Arab traders, and was thus a key player in the long-distance trade.

  
  

  (iii) Strong economic base – The kingdom had rich cultivable land, grazing areas and large timber resources. Besides, it had huge deposits of gold, iron ore and copper.

  
  

  (iv) A vibrant craft industry – A good craft industry was developed, which specialized in making items from gold, copper, iron ore, weaving of cloth from local cotton and pottery. Thus it was possible to trade with the kingdom’s neighbours.

  
  

  (v) A common religion – The Shona people were bound by a common religion called the Mwari cult or Mlimo. The religion involved ritual consultation of spirits of royal ancestors. Shrines were maintained within the capital by spirit mediums. The spirits also served as oral historians recording the names and deeds of past kings. The ancestral spirits relayed the people’s requests to God. The Shona religion was a major unifying factor for the society.

  
  

  (vi) Rise in population – The rise in population and the ever-increasing demands of the people, led to the expansion of the kingdom. The rulers decided that a military conquest to create room for expansion was the solution.

  
  

  Political organisation of the Shona

  
  

  The king’s power over his subjects was absolute. He could determine whether they should live or die.

  
  

  (i) The hierarchy – The highest political unit was the kingship as the head of state and government. The high-priestly notion of kingship went with a well-defined and most elaborate arrangement of the court and chiefly hierarchy. At the court there was:

  
  

  • Chancellor of the kingdom

  • Court chamberlain- manager of the king’s house.

  • Head drummer

  • Military commander

  • Keeper of fetishes

  • Head door keeper

  • Chief cook

  • Nine provincial wives of the king.

  • Concubines and waiting-women

  
  

  Outside the court, there were the vassal kings and governors of the provinces, as well as a large noble class. There were expected to send their children to be educated as pages and warriors at the Mwenemutapa’s court.

  
  

  (ii) Council of chiefs – There was a council made up of selected chiefs who advised the ruler. The council brought together the chiefs of Guruuswa, Kiteve, Mbire, Barue and Manyika. The chiefs maintained law and order, collected taxes and supplied warriors to the king. They were also responsible for the fertility of land, were custodians of tribal property, and prisoners of war. They also organised communal labour.

  
  

  (iii) Unity of political and religious life – The political and religious life was inseparable in the Shona society. Kings were semi-divine and were the highest representatives of god on earth. Priests played a vital role in maintaining peace and stability. They travelled widely and kept the monarch informed of what took place in the kingdom.

  
  

  (v) The royal fire – The royal fire was a key institution and burnt so long as the king lived. All the great chiefs and other vassals had fires lit from the royal fire. Once a year, after the great new moon ceremonies in May, these fires had to be rekindled from the central one. Messengers were sent all over the country with brands from the king’s fire. To accept rekindling symbolised a renewal of allegiance to the king.

  
  

  (vi)Sacred animal – The king’s spirit was supposed to take up residence in a lion. For this reason, a lion was regarded as a sacred animal which might not be killed except at a hunt where the king was present. The king was therefore regarded as the lion.

  
  

  (vii) A standing army – The rulers also had a standing army. Its main function was to defend and expand the kingdom. Each provincial ruler was expected to recruit soldiers. High standards of discipline were observed. Before participation in any duties, the recruits went through rigorous training.

  
  

  
  

  Economic organisation of the Shona

  
  

  The main features of the Shona economic system were:

  
  

  (i) Crop farming – The climate in Mashonaland was good. It encouraged cultivation of a variety of crops. Labour was organized along gender lines. Men cleared the land while women planted and took care of the crops. The main crops were millet, sorghum, maize, cassava, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, beans and pumpkins. Granaries were built across the kingdom to store the farm produce.

  
  

  (ii) Livestock keeping – The Shona kept cattle, goats, sheep and poultry. Grazing was intermittently done in the uplands and lowlands.

  
  

  (iii) Trade – Took place at the local, regional and international levels. The Shona participated in the long distance trade with the Swahili and Arabs from the East African Coast. Pockets of Portuguese merchants from the coast also engaged in commercial activities. Thus the Empire engaged in importing goods as well as in exporting them. Imports included such luxury goods as silk, cloth, guns and ammunition, daggers, knives, ceramics and glassware.A cloth known as machira woven from local cotton was draped over the ruler’s throne as a symbol of his kingship. The main exports were slaves, gold and ivory. The mode of exchange was barter. The rulers exerted a lot of influence on commercial activities.
  

  
  

  (iv) Hunting and gathering –The men hunted elephants for ivory and other animals for food to supplement their diet. Women gathered fruits, vegetables and berries.

  
  

  (v) Fishing – The Shona supplemented their food supply with fish. The activity was carried out in rivers and lakes found in the empire.

  
  

  (vi) Craft industry – The industry concentrated on iron working, gold smithing, cloth making from wild cotton and fibres, and carving. They also engaged in leather working and weaving. A variety of items were made from the industry. They also made grinding-stones which they used to pound grain into flour.

  
  

  Social organisation of the Shona

  
  

  The Shona had an elaborate social organisation:

  
  

  (i) Divine kingship – The king was not a monarch in the Western sense. He was a divine king or priest-king. His subjects approached him crawling on their stomachs. At formal audiences, he sat concealed behind a curtain. The common people could only hear the king’s voice but never see him. Among the courtiers, the king’s slightest action was imitated by all. If he had a cough, they all coughed. If he sprained his ankle, they all limped. It was considered necessary for the well-being of the whole state that the king should be fit and without any physical problem.
  

  
  

  At the onset of old age, or if he developed any serious infirmity, he was supposed to take poison and make way for a successor. The religious observance of the Mwenemutapa was a kind of spiritualism, practice especially at new moon. On such occasions, the reigning monarch communed with his ancestors, who were supposed to take possession of the bodies of ecstatic mediums.

  
  

  (ii) Belief in one supreme being – The Shona-speaking peoples believed in one god, Mwari, who was believed to have been the creator of the Earth. Priests generally came from the Rozwi clan, which had the additional practice of ancestor worship. The ancestors were consulted at the appearance of a new moon. The priests led in sacrifices and enjoyed powers to protect people from, diseases, made rain and gave victory in war. The rulers were considered semi-divine hence represented god on earth. The priests claimed that they could only get in touch with Mwari through the spirits of ancestors.
  

  
  

  There were two kinds of spirit: Family spirits, called vadzimu vemisha, and clan spirits, called mhondoro. Both vadzimu and mhondoro expressed themselves through a medium, svikiro, who was a departed member of the family or clan. The mediums were elders who were believed to possess the spirits of the dead emperors and chiefs. Shona elders were therefore treated with respect, so that they would be friendly when they became spirits. The mhondoro had various uses. The royal mhondoro was used to keep the royal house in power, and to decide the rights of inheritance and the ownership of cattle. Mhondoroprotected the clan against bad government by the chief. During the period of Mwenemutapa, there were senior mediums that emerged in different regions. These were Dzivaguru (Eastern), Nehanda (Central) and Chaminuka (Western) Mashonaland. There was also a kind of national spirit called Chaminuka, who settled disputes between clans and protected them against bad government by the king. The senior mediums had an overbearing influence on the society.

  
  

  (iii) System of priesthood – Priests led worship in the shrines dotting Mashonaland. They acted as several organs of the creator. For instance, some acted as the ‘eye’ and welcomed members seeking advice and offerings. Others were the ‘ears’ who delivered the requests of the people to god. Others were the ‘mouth’ who kept and interpreted god’s commands to the people.

  
  

  (iv) Clan organisation – The Shona were organized along clan lines which followed strict totenism. These clans were named after animals such as monkey, leopard, hyena and lion. It was a taboo to eat the meat of an animal by members bearing the name of the particular animal. Each clan had its own traditions and lived in the same area. Several families constituted a clan. A family was headed by the father who often was a polygamist. The homesteads were surrounded by reeds or grass and palisades.

  
  

  (vi) Age-groups and age-sets – Age groups were formed by those born at the same period. The members therefore underwent initiation at the same time. They regarded each other as brothers and were patrilineal.

  
  

  (vii) Specialists – The Shona had specialists in various fields like medicinemen (nganga who were useful in supplying herbal medicines used to cure various ailments. There were also diviners, seers, witch doctors and sorcerers. The last two were feared because they could harm members of the society.(viii) Dwellings – The houses were built of stones.

  
  

  (vi) Division of labour – Social responsibilities were shared along gender lines. Forexample, construction of houses was done by both men and women. Men built the wooden framework, while women thatched the roofs.

  
  

  (ix) Family life – Polygamy was practised and children were highly valued. Bride price was paid in form of cattle.

  
  

  The decline of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom

  
  

  The following factors led to the decline of Mwenemutapa Kingdom:

  
  

  (i) Exhaustion of natural resources– The natural resources like salt and timber that had sustained the kingdom’s economic life got exhausted. There was also over-cultivation of land which reduced its fertility.

  
  

  (ii) Vastness of the empire – A succession of weak rulers contributed to the kingdom’s decline. Matope was succeeded by his son Nyahuma (1480-90) but the empire was already too big for one man to govern properly. There was a big problem of communication. Nyahuma was younger and less experienced than Changa and Togwa, the great chiefs of the south. To make matters worse, he depended on them for revenue, as they controlled the gold-producing areas. The Swahili may have influenced Changa to set up a separate kingdom, in which they would be able to control the long-distance trade.

  
  

  (iii) Secession by southern chiefs – In 1490 Changa and Togwa rebelled. They declared themselves independent, and then attacked Nyahuma. Nyahuma and most of his family were killed. Changa became king, taking the title Changamire. His reign, however was brief. In 1494 he was killed by Nyahuma’s son Chikuyo. Chikuyo ruled from 1494 to 1530, but by now the empire was split in two. Chikuyo controlled a thousand kilometers of the south bank of the Zambezi To the south, however, Changa’s son Changamire II, built a strong empire known as Urozwi.

  
  

  (iv) Portuguese Control –In 1629 the Mwenemutapa attempted to throw out the Portuguese. He failed and was overthrown, leading to the Portuguese installation of Mavura Mhande Felipe on the throne. The kingdom signed treaties making it a Portuguese vassal and ceding gold mines. The kingdom remained independent only by name Portugal increased control over much of southeast Africa with the beginnings of a colonial system.

  
  

  (v) Rebellions by tributaries – The kingdom faced rebellions by the tributaries such as Kiteve, Madanda and Manyika, which ceased paying tribute. At the same time, a new kingdom under a Rozwi dynasty near Barwe was on the rise. All of this was hastened by Portugal retaining a presence on the coast and in the capital. In 1663, the praezeros deposed Mwenemutapa Siti Kazurukamusapa and put their own nominee, Kamharapasu Mukombwe on the throne.

  
  

  (vi) Rise of Butwa Kingdom as a new regional power – The rise of the Butwa Kingdom under a Rozwi dynasty contributed to the decline of Mwenemutapa Kingdom. The origin of the Rozwi is obscure. There is some evidence that they were an offshoot of the Karanga people – perhaps led by a dissident member of the Mwenemutapa family.

  
  

  By the 17th Century, a dynasty of Rozwi pastoralists under the leadership of a Changamire called Dombo began transforming the Butwa kingdom into a new regional power.

  
  

  In 1684 his forces encountered and decisively defeated those of Mwenemutapa Kamharapasu Mukombwe In 1695, Changamire Dombo overran Manyika and took his army east and destroyed the Portuguese fair-town of Masikwesi. This allowed him complete control of all gold-producing territory from Butwa to Manyika, replacing Mwenemutapa as the premier Shona Kingdom in the region.

  
  

  (vii) Rivalry and return of the Rozwi – In 1712, another coveter of the Mwenemutapa throne invited the Rozwi back to put him on the throne and kick out the Portuguese. This they did and the kingdom again came under the control of the Rozwi Empire. The new Mwenemutapa Samatambira Nyamhandu I became a Rozwi vassal, while the outgoing king was forced to retreat to Chidama in what is now Mozambique.
  

  
  

  The Rozwi quickly lost interest in Mwenemutapa, as they sought to consolidate their position in the south. The kingdom regained its independence around 1720. By this time however, the kingdom had lost nearly the entire Zimbabwe plateau to the Rozwi Empire. In 1723, Nyamhandi moved his capital into the valley near Tete, under Mwenemutapa Nyatsusu.
  

  
  

  (viii) Civil war and final collapse – The Mwenemutapa died in 1759, sparking yet another civil war for the throne. This one was more destructive than its predecessors. Mwenemutapa never recovered. The ‘winners’ ended up governing an even more reduced land from Chidima. They used the title Mambo a Chidima and ruled independently of Portugal until 1917 when Mambo Chioko, the last king of the dynasty, was killed in battle against the Portuguese.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  The Zulu Empire

  
  

  The Zulu were originally a major Nguni clan (isibonga in Nguni) in what is today Northern KwaZulu-Natal. In the Nguni language iZulu or iliZulu means heaven or sky. The iZulu clan was founded about 1709 by Zulu kaNtombela. At that time, the area was occupied by many large Nguni communities. Among them were the Mthethwa, under whose chief Dingiswayo the founder of the Zulu state Shaka, began his career.

  
  

  Dingiswayo and the origins

  
  

  The Mthethwa were a Nguni community, located very near the coast in what is now Zululand. On the death of his father Dingiswayo, deposed his brother who had succeeded his father and came to the chieftaincy of the Mthethwa community during the 1790s. Dingiswayo rapidly embarked on the steps towards achieving his ambition of territorial expansion by employing new techniques.

  
  

  Abolishing the traditional initiation ceremonies – the circumcision rituals of the Mthethwa – he enrolled the young men of the community into age-regiments instead of age-grades. The regiments provided Dingiswayo with a standing army. This innovation gave him advantage over his neighbours. His authority expanded over them. The system, encouraged greater community coherence and military efficiency. The standing army was instrumental in enabling easy defeat and subjugation of his neighbours, and recruitment of their men into his army.

  
  

  Shaka’s rise to power

  
  

  Shaka was the son of Senzangakona, chief of the Zulu clan, and Nandi. Nandi’s quarrelsome and violent character caused her to be sent back to live with her people. She took with her the young Shaka, who thus became an illegitimate boy, not recognised by Zulu clan elders. Shaka spent an unhappy childhood as he grew up unwanted and humiliated by his playmates, who teased, mocked and harassed him. This unhappy background was responsible for Shaka developing arrogance and indifference to human suffering. He was determined to be recognised and displayed extraordinary qualities for achieving early recognition – intelligence, courage, physical strength and ruthless ambition. He was conscious of his chiefly descent and set firm targets to assume the leadership of his father’s people at some stage.

  
  

  In about 1809, Shaka joined Dingiswayo’s regiments. Dingiswayo’s army represented Shaka’s only hope of personal success. He threw his mind and body into the new life. Very rapidly, he distinguished himself by courage and tactical skill, and became commander of one of the regiments. In 1816, his father Senzangakona died and was succeeded by his son Sigujana. However, with Dingiswayo’s support, Shaka deposed Sigujana and took over as chief of the Zulu.
  

  
  

  Dingiswayo was killed by Zwide of the Ndwandwe. This event created opportunity for the emergence of Shaka on a wider arena. He quickly incorporated the Mthethwa into the Zulu chiefdom, making it more powerful and a challenge to the Ndwandwe. Soon the Ndwandwe too fell victim to Shaka’s expansionist ambitions and were expelled together with their leader Zwide. Other generals such as Zwangendaba and Soshangane followed suit and fled from Zululand.

  
  

  Shaka’s establishment of the Zulu Empire

  
  

  Shaka’s military genius enabled him to ascend to power. It also came in handy in his creation of a powerful Zulu nation. Once he achieved political power in his community, he began a further revolution in military, political and administrative organisation to build and expand the the Zulu nation as follows:

  
  

  (i) Military organisation and control

  
  

  Shaka improved on the military reforms of Dingiswayo by introducing further changes in the regiment. The standing army was divided into age-regiments in each district. Each age-regiment had to live in special camps under their commanders appointed by Shaka himself, usually from commoner families or clans with no royal ambitions.
  

  
  

  The regiments were now armed with short stabbing spears, which made them immensely dangerous at close quarters, especially against men armed with traditional throwing spear (assegai in Zulu parlance) which could only be used once. Military training became much more rigorous. The traditional heavy wooden sandals were discarded, since they impeded quick movement even though they made travel more comfortable.
  

  
  

  The regiments were trained to use the new enveloping tactics, the cow-hornformation, whereby wings (or horns) of the Zulu army surrounded the enemy while the main body of the army attacked them from the front. The rearguard of ‘the horns of the cow’ formation was a large reserve regiment always ready to come to its aid when the going became too difficult. The regiments also became the units of social life as well as military service. Men lived in the regimental headquarters until when Shaka permitted them to marry and retire from active service.
  

  They were obliged to marry women from the equivalent female regiment. Since military service was drawn out for many years and men retired only in their forties, the regiments were a focus of social and political life in the way the old lineage-groups had been before the military revolution.

  
  

  (ii) Administrative and political organisation and control

  
  

  In 1818, the Mthethwa lost their king Dingiswayo at the hands of Zwide. Just as Dingiswayo had imposed Shaka on the Zulu, Shaka now imposed one of his followers on the Mthethwa, and consolidated his authority throughout Dingiswayo’s sphere of influence. The following year, he led Dingiswayo’s old armies in a successful and devastating war against Zwide, and so extended his power over all the Nguni in what is now Zululand, and his influence over a vast area from Swaziland in the north to the Transkei in the south, and from the Drakensberg Mountains to the sea. Many of the changes Shaka introduced had already been attempted on a small scale in the pure Zulu community. They had a different effect when applied on a large scale in the whole Zulu state. For instance:

  
  

  a) The regiments had been organised before but now they served a nation-building purpose as well as a military one. Recruits from all over the new state were mixed together in each regiment, where they built up a loyalty to the regiment and to Shaka as king and tended to forget their separate individual origins. By living and fighting together, they grew to understand and trust each other. Promotion could only be achieved through the military organisation. Ambitious young men devoted their efforts to serving Shaka as commander-in-chief.

  
  

  b) Shaka adopted more of the military form of government as an absolute ruler. He assumed executive, legislative and judicial powers and functions and therefore made all decisions. He was the commander-in-chief, high priest, and the supreme justice. All appeals from the lower courts were heard by him and his ruling was final. He ignored the old traditional councils of chiefs and leading elders and relied more on his indunas for advice, which he was not obliged to accept.
  

  
  

                               

  
  

  c) Since most of the able-bodied men at any given time were to be found in these regiments, local chiefs were unable to build up any dangerous organisation against the state. The success of the regiments made members to develop pride in the regiment and the state which it served, prior political identity. Mthethwa and Ndwandwe young men took common pride in belonging to the most powerful state. Therefore, a political and social unity replaced the political fragments of the earlier era. The Zulu dialect of Nguni became standard throughout the country The traditions of the Zulu dynasty became the traditions of all the citizens. People thought of themselves as Ama-Zulu instead of the remnants of the earlier political units.

  
  

  d) Chiefs of conquered and incorporated people lost their powers, and their authority was restricted to routine issues. Normally, he replaced them with his own subjects. The conquered people were absorbed into the Zulu nation. They had to adopt the Zulu language as the nation’s official language as well as the Zulu traditions and culture. The Zulu culture was centred on Shaka’s family and this became the basis for unity in the nation.

  
  

  e) Shaka was careful that his local chiefs (some of whom had ruled before the conquest) remained absolutely loyal, by bringing them frequently to his own court. He dismissed and executed potential and real enemies of the new state system. Loyal subjects won prestige and wealth through service to the king; those suspected of disloyalty ran the risk of being executed. Chiefs were further controlled by the fact of having to spend much of their time at the royal court and in any case Shaka’s female relatives were often posted to provincial centres.

  
  

  (iii) Economic organisation and control

  
  

  a) Each barracks of a regiment was also the location of one of the royal herds. Cattle and captives from the raids were distributed by the king himself.

  
  

  b) External trade was strictly controlled by the king.
  

  
  

  c) The problem of feeding so large a standing army made it necessary to establish state control over food production. Though each soldier had a home to go to on retirement, he spent most of his active life entirely dependent economically upon the ability of the state for food supplies. The homesteads were no longer the focus of economic activity and interest.
  

  
  

  d) Religious beliefs were also transformed into instruments of nation-building. Shaka, making himself ritual as well as political and military head of the system, devoted his attention to rooting out sectional religious beliefs and exterminating sectional religious officials. The famous ‘smelling-out of witches’ exercise emphasized the fact that the king was supreme even over the religious institutions. That supremacy was symbolized when the annual first-fruits ceremony became a national event; which also symbolized the new economic centralisation.

  
  

  (iv) Wars of expansion

  
  

  Shaka also established the Zulu nation through wars of expansion. He started by defeating several powerful neighbours. After the Ndwandwe had defeated the Mthethwa and killed Dingiswayo in about 1817, the Zulu remained as the Ndwandwe’s only rivalling power. But Shaka rapidly attacked and defeated the Ndwandwe, forcing the community to scatter and flee to the north.
  

  
  

  Shaka invaded Natal five times, after which he completely destroyed and occupied the area. Shaka expanded his empire to the east near the coast, to the west bordering Basutoland and to the north against the Swazi. This period of expansion was known as the Mfecane. It occurred between 1820 and 1834. It was characterised by prolonged destructive warfare. The Pondo, Xhosa and Thembu were subdued. In 1824, Shaka established friendly relations with the English traders in Durban and Natal. In surrendering part of Natal to a trader called Farewell and receiving guns in return, Shaka was enabled to fight and break up the Ndwandwe in 1826.

  
  

  The fall of Shaka

  
  

  Activity 3.9

  
  

  1. In groups, debate and explain Shaka’s reforms and their contribution to the foundation of the Zulu Empire.

  2. In groups discuss what you understand by the “cow’s horn” military formation.

  
  

  Activity 3.10

  
  

  In groups of five debate about the lessons Rwandan leaders can learn from Shaka’s reforms. Thereafter note down the key points.

  
  

  On 10th October, 1827, Shaka’s mother Nandi died. Shaka wept publicly and his behaviour was taken as a general signal for universal mourning. Chiefs led their people in competitive wailing. Shaka ordered immediate butchering of a number of men and cattle. The massacres then became general throughout the country. Nandi was buried three days later accompanied by ten beautiful girls, their limbs having been broken while they were still alive. A hundred and twenty men were posted as guards over Nandi’s tomb for twelve months.

  
  

  • The conditions for mourning were then laid down by Shaka. There was to be no crop cultivation for one year. No milk was to be drunk; instead it had to be poured out onto the ground. Sexual intercourse was not permitted, and all women found pregnant in that period were to be killed with their husbands. All those communities which had failed to attend Nandi’s funeral were to be destroyed. The killings went on for two months, and then Shaka summoned the Zulu nation to his capital to help him in proper official mourning. Cows-in-milk were slaughtered ‘so that even calves might know what it was to lose a mother’. Shaka had gone insane.

  
  

  • Famine. The year 1828 opened with widespread famine as a result of Shaka’s ban on cultivation. Then Shaka made a fatal decision: that even the remotest communities had to know about his sorrow. He set his army on the longest expedition of his career. His object was to crush the Pondo of the north-eastern Cape. After crossing the Umzimvubu, Shaka had second thoughts about the consequences of this campaign.

  
  

  • Invasion of neighbouring communities. He stopped for a while at HF Fynn’s trading station. Fynn warned Shaka not to invade Pondoland which the British government considered to be under its protection. Shaka agreed, but to convince his men that the expedition was not in vain he divided them into two groups. One group was sent to punish the Bacha, a Nguni community who lived at the foot of the Drakensberg; the other advanced against the Cape Nguni but under strict instructions to avoid any war against the white men or the communities on the white man’s border.

  
  

  • Shameful defeat. Shaka’s army returned to Zululand and was immediately dispatched on yet another long campaign to seek and destroy Soshangane around Delagoa Bay in Mozambique. Shaka did not live to see his army return in shameful defeat. His brothers Dingane and Mhlangana, in conspiracy with his chief induna MBhopa murdered him on 24th September, 1828. Yet their claims were not untrue, their motives not wholly selfish. He had ignored the traditional chiefs; his military campaigns led to depopulation of Zululand and Natal. Lives had been wantonly lost in the insanity he had regarded as mourning. Their own turn in being killed might not be a far-fetched idea; his preoccupation with war led to neglect and decline in agriculture and starvation in Zululand.

  
  

  Dingane’s nation-building, 1828-40

  
  

  The concentration of political, military and economic power round the central monarch instead of the local territorial rulers reduced the possibility of territorial rulers breaking away from the kingdom. It did not remove altogether the danger of disunity. Dissatisfaction could be expressed by the transfer of loyalty from the king to another of the royal family. This happened in 1828, when Shaka was assassinated, partly because the army wanted a rest from constant campaigning and partly the nation was tired of Shaka’s despotism. It happened again in 1839-40 when most of the army deserted Shaka’s successor, his younger brother Dingane, for another brother, Mpande.

  
  

  Dingane won the loyalty and support of the army and the Zulu people by promising them peace. He relaxed the severe military discipline left by Shaka. He freed warriors from regiments and allowed them to marry earlier than had been the case before. He also ended military expeditions which left the army idle without adventure. Many Zulu then escaped to work in Natal farms and some attempted to break away. This prompted Dingane to re-impose severe military discipline and to keep the army busy. He therefore sent regiments to raid the Pondo, Ndebele and Ngwane in which the Zulu regiments captured cattle. But the campaigns were unsuccessful and the army was demoralized. The Qwabe rebelled and escaped to the south and the army could not stop them. Many fled as refugees to Natal.

  
  

  In foreign relations, Dingane tried to establish friendly relations with the whites in Natal. He acquired firearms from traders at Port Natal. However, their welcome of the Zulu refugees made Dingane cautious in the way he related to the Natal whites. In contrast to fairly neutral relations with the British, Dingane’s relation with the Boer trekkers was hostile. Dingane had been tricked into signing a charter surrendering Natal land to the Boers and felt bitter. The Boers under their new leader defeated Dingane’s army at the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1836. An agreement with Boers ended the war, and Dingane agreed to evacuate Natal for Boer occupation.

  
  

  Dingane was generally disliked for his arbitrary rule, his dislike of war, his preference for feasting and dancing and the company of women, and for his failure to cope with the invasion of the Trekboers into Natal. Mpande became king when, at the climax of the first Zulu civil war that pitted him against his brother. He defeated Dingane at the Battle of Magongo on 29 January 1840. Dingane managed to escape from his former subjects, but was killed by the Swazi with whom he sought refuge to.

  
  

  Mpande’s nation-building, 1840-72

  
  

  Mpande ruled the surviving Zulu nation with Boer support from 1840-72. The reign of Mpande showed that the strength of the Zulu nation relied no less on the person and personality of the king than on the nature of the nation’s institutions.Mponde was a peaceful man who hated war. He led a bloodless cattle raid against the Swazi. Mpande gave the Zulu a breathing space from war, and as a result, the population steadily increased. He never supported fighting the whites arguing that it would only result in certain destruction of the Zulu state.

  
  

  In 1843, the British annexed Natal from the Boers, but Mpande’s policy of peaceful co-existence never changed. The young men in the Zulu state were greatly disillusioned by the humiliating policy adopted by their leader. In consequence, they formed two factions around Mpande’s two sons, Mbulazi and Cetchwayo. A war of succession started when the king was alive. Cetchwayo representing the more militant faction annihilated Mbulazi’s army of 7,000 and his followers, 23,000 defenceless women and children, were slain. Cetchwayo became heir apparent.

  
  

  Cetchwayo’s nation-building, 1872-9

  
  

  Cetchwayo re-organised the army of Ndondakusuka effectively. At his accession the Zulu regiments were at a peak of efficiency. They were able to inflict on Britain a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Isandhlwana a few years later.Cetchwayo did not favour war for its own sake. He wanted to carry out the traditional practice ‘washing of the spear’ of the army under a new king on the blood of an enemy. This was not for the sake of tradition but out of practical necessity. Whilst he was heir apparent, the expectations of the regiments had been aroused. These expectations had to be fulfilled. Cetchwayo tried to do this with campaigns against the Swazi and the Thonga. He studiously ignored the movement of Boers into the northern areas of his country in order to avoid a conflict that might bring the destruction of his state. At the same time he prepared for the possibility of war by tightening up conscription into the army, and obtaining firearms through Lourenco Marques.

  
  

  Cetchwayo also tried to maintain peace with the British. He had two coronations: a ‘traditional’ Zulu one followed by an extraordinary British ceremony where he was crowned by the Natal Secretary for Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone. wHe had invited Shepstone for the purpose. Cetchwayo merely wanted to cement Zulu-British friendship, but Shepstone took advantage of the occasion laws. The laws were designed to reduce the number of judicial and political executions in Zululand. Cetchwayo maintained his friendship with the British until 1877, and the British supported him in his boundary disputes with the Transvaal.Britain’s annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 destroyed the basis of Cetchwayo’s foreign policy. It was no longer possible to maintain an anti-Boer alliance with the British as the Boer republic no longer existed. The Boers who had taken so much pain running away from British control and they resented this annexation. Sir Bartle Frere, the British High Commissioner at the Cape was concerned that Boer resentment must not be allowed to spill overboard.

  
  

  The Zulu wanted back the Blood River Territory, which Mpande had allegedly ceded to the Transvaal in 1861. Cetchwayo decided this had not been genuine cession, and now sent his men to settle the disputed territory. By 1877, there had been further loss of Zululand to the Transvaal by the expansion of the Blood River boundaries into Zululand. Theophilus Shepstone supported the Transvaal claim.At first a Zulu-Boer War seemed more likely than an Anglo-Zulu War. Sekhukhune’s successful resistance in the Transvaal encouraged Cetchwayo, the Zulu king, to mobilize his army on the Transvaal border. The custom of ‘washing the spears in the blood of the enemy had not been carried out for Cetchwayo who had become king in 1873. The Zulu wanted war with the Transvaal in order to ‘wash their spears’, resolve the land dispute, obtain revenge for the Zulu defeat at the Battle of Blood River in 1838, and replace the Zulu cattle lost in the drought of 1877. Yet Cetchwayo was not prepared to fight the Boers unless they started the war. He did not want war with Britain with whom he was so keen to maintain peaceful relations.

  
  

                                      

  
  

  However, on 22nd January, 1897, Sir Bartle Frere ordered the invasion of Zululand. At the battle of Isandhlwana the Zulu ‘impis’ under their commander-in-chief Tshingwayo wiped out 905 of 960 British soldiers, and nearly 500 of those assisting the invaders, among them colonists and African recruits. The Zulu completed their humiliation of the British at Isandhlwana by capturing all the stores and ammunition. The Zulu army inflicted the most severe defeat a European army was to suffer in Africa until the Ethiopian victory over the Italians at Adowa in 1896.In spite of, Isandhlwana the Zulu lost the war. The tables were soon turned against them.
  

  
  

  The British hastily sent reinforcements to their battered comrades in the field. Three hundred and fifty Zulu were killed while 17 were lost on the British side at Rorke’s Drift. When the British renewed their invasion with Gatling guns and artillery, they stopped a Zulu frontal attack at Kambula, a battle which left 18 Britons and 2,000 Zulu dead. Finally, at Ulundi on July 4, the British troops destroyed the last Zulu frontal assault, after Cetchwayo soldiers had disobeyed his orders to retreat into the forest and adopt guerrilla warfare. The soldiers retired to their kraals in defeat.

  
  

  Destruction of the Zulu nation

  
  

  The Battle of Ulundi marked the beginning of the end of the Zulu empire. The British were out to destroy the Zulu kingdom. Cetchwayo was deposed, exiled and imprisoned in Cape Town, and was not allowed to return until 1883. Zululand was broken up into thirteen small chiefdoms, each under a British nominee. A British Resident loosely supervised the affairs of the dismembered Zululand. Anarchy and civil war spread through the length and breadth of Zululand. Two factions emerged, one of pro-Cetchwayo royalists, and another of the new petty kings appointed by the British. The British found themselves unable to cope with the mess, and Cetchwayo was restored in 1883 in the hope he would use his old magic over his people and restore order. It was also hoped that he might be used as a bridge by the British administration in Zululand, a hope for some form of indirect rule as it was feared direct involvement might be too expensive.

  
  

  However, the emergence of a strong anti-Cetchwayo faction between 1879 and 1883 made sure the King’s authority was circumscribed within the centre of his old kingdom. The south of the kingdom was reserved for the clans and the chiefs highly opposed to Cetchwayo’s restoration. In the north, the existence of an independent kingdom, Mandhlakazi, was recognized by the confirmation of Sibobu, Cetchwayo’s rival, as its ruler. Supporters of the two went to war against each other, and Cetchwayo’s forces were routed and the ex-king forced to flee to the southern reserve where he died in 1884.

  
  

                                    

  
  

  Dinizulu, 1884-1913

  
  

  Dinizulu was only 15 years old when his father Cetchwayo, went into exile. He became the king of the Zulu nation from 20 May 1884 until his death in 1913. Zululand had been broken up into 13 smaller territories after the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Dinizulu, administered one of them.
  

  
  

  However, they left one of Cetchwayo’s sons, Usibepu (Zibhebhu), alone with his lands intact. On July 22 1883, Usibepu attacked Cetchwayo’s new kraal in Ulundi, wounding the king and causing him to flee. This caused anarchy and civil war to spread throughout Zululand.

  
  

  To contest the succession, Dinizulu first appealed to the British, but had no response. He then offered rewards of land to Boer mercenaries to lure them to join his army. In 1884, a group of Boer farmers from the districts of Utrecht and Vryheid undertook to restore order, in return. Led by General Louis Botha, they formed Dinizulu’s Volunteers and after several clashes with Usibepu. They defeated him at the Battle of Ghost Mountain (also known as the Battle of Tshaneni) on 5 June 1884.
  

  
  

  Usibepu and his forces were killed to the last man.The mercenaries then claimed payment and Dinizulu found himself confronted with demands he could not meet. Eight hundred mercenaries claimed to have fought for him and all claimed large farms. They claimed about half of Zululand, including St Lucia Bay, an outlet to the sea. Britain intervened and the mercenaries were given a grant of land in the northern part of Zululand. Five hundred mercenaries each received a farm of 16 km². Another 300 men who had arrived late received smaller grants, known as ‘half farms’. On 5 August 1884, these mercenaries declared a republic, with the town of Vryheid as its capital, which lasted for only four years.
  

  
  

  After considerable dispute a Natal arbitration court recognised the New Republic, reduced in size, however, and deprived of its claims to St Lucia. The following year it was absorbed into the Transvaal. Six years from these events, in a strange version of belated ‘justice’, Dinizulu was exiled to the island of St. Helena - the same as Napoleon - for seven years for leading a Zulu army against the British from 1883 to 1884.

  
  

  The Bambatha uprising, 1906

  
  

  In 1906, the so-called Bambatha rebellion broke out. It was an uprising by a section of the Zulu of Natal led by their chief called Bambatha of the Zondi people. The uprising occurred for six main reasons:

  
  

  (i) Loss of land – The Zulu were frustrated by the loss of their land to white settlers. After the small Zulu states were annexed to Natal in 1884, they lost more land to the Boers between 1902 and 1904. Two thirds of their land was made open to white settlement. The Zulu were pushed into reserves where they were overcrowded. Furthermore, there was an increase in rent for Zulu tenant farmers on white-owned land. Land available for rent eventually shrank in size.

  
  

  (ii) Colonisation and loss of independence – The Zulu were aggrieved by the loss of their independence since their colonization by the British in 1879 after the Battle of Isandhlwana. The Zulu kingdom had ceased to exist in 1879 and had been broken up into 13 smaller kingdoms, which had also been incorporated into the Cape Colony. In particular, they could no longer bear the harshness and unfairness of British laws as applied in Natal.

  
  

  (ii) Introduction of poll tax – Bambatha and his Zulu followers were against the introduction in 1905 of the very unpopular and unfair poll tax of £1 per head. They did not want to pay taxes meant to sustain an unpopular foreign authority. Besides, all the races had to pay the same amount of tax per head yet the Europeans were earning at least twenty times more than the Africans.

  
  

  (iii) Loss of traditional authority – Traditional Zulu chiefs had lost their authority. They became even more hostile due to growing power of British-appointed district magistrates while the chiefs’ authority diminished. Those who tried to protest were arrested. For instance, the then Zulu king Dinizulu, returned from detention in exile demoted to a headman after his attempted rising had been crushed. Bambatha himself had been dismissed and deported by the British government after he became troublesome to the British.

  
  

  (iv) Overreaction to pre-Bambatha – There were smaller, local risings in 1906 as a protest to poll tax. The whites felt alarmed and insecure, and the Natal government overreacted by declaring martial law and having twelve Zulu leaders of the risings executed. The government also confiscated large numbers of cattle from the Zulu, burnt many Zulu homes and carried out mass flogging of villagers. This worsened African attitudes and increased discontent against white rule.

  
  

  (v) Ethiopian movement – There developed among the Zulu a religious movement called Ethiopianism. It preached the departure of the white man and advocated the slaughter of pigs and chickens as a sign that the white man should leave immediately.

  
  

  (vi) Harsh labour laws – Many young men had to work in urban areas and on white farms on extremely poor pay. They lived a life of poverty, insecurity and fear and developed hatred and defiance for their white employers.

                     
  

  Bambatha, a former Zulu chief whom the British had deposed reappeared and started a rebellion. When the government ordered him to appear with his men and pay poll tax, he defiantly refused to co-operate, and instead mobilized his people across the Tugela River where he clashed with the police. He had a strong appeal to the Zulu national feeling. Some chiefs supported him in a well-coordinated uprising. However, the police eventually trapped and killed him and his followers, together with other Zulu leaders in the Mome Gorge on 10 June 1906

  
  

  After the rebellion had been put down, Dinizulu was accused of giving orders to Bambatha to start the rebellion and was put on trial for treason. Although he steadfastly protested his innocence, he was found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment in March, 1908. Two years later an old friend of his, General Louis Botha, became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

  
  

                                    

  
  

  Botha ordered that Dinizulu be released and transported to the farm Uitkyk in the Transvaal, where he died in 1913. He was succeeded by his son Solomon. But the fact of the matter was that with the defeat of the Bambatha uprising, the Zulu empire had completely collapsed.
  

  
  

  Activity 3.11

  
  

  Form groups of five each to debate about the origin, rise and career of leaders of ancient kingdoms in West and South Africa such as:

  
  

  1. Mansa Musa of Mali

  2. Diara Kante of old Ghana

  4. Suni Ali of Songhai Kingdom5. Shaka Zulu of the Zulu Kingdom

  3. Nyatsimba Mutota of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom

  
  

  Look into the political, social and economic organisations of these kingdoms and explain how these factors have contributed to the strengths of these kingdoms.

  
  

  Unit summary

  This unit deals with the origin, organisation and decline of the empires in West and South Africa.

  
  

  The kingdom of ancient Ghana was founded by the Mande-speaking Soninke people between 500 and 700 AD. The growth of the kingdom of old Ghana was majorly supported by the Trans-Saharan trade. The kingdom was led by a king whose palace was at Kumbi-Saleh. The kingdom had gold mines, which earned it great wealth. This kingdom declined due to many attacks from its neighbours who wanted to take over the gold mines.

  
  

  The original name of the Mali Empire was Kangaba. The kingdom of Mali arose, led by Sundiata, after the collapse of the kingdom of old Ghana. The strategic position of Mali kingdom enabled it to grow strong as it had good farming land and it was less vulnerable to attacks from the desert tribes such as the Sanhaja and the Tuaregs. The Mali Empire flourished more because of trade. It also had minerals such as gold and salt, which supported it economically. Mansa Musa made the Mali Empire a Muslim state. He encouraged the establishment of Islamic schools. The Mali Kingdom collapsed due to internal causes such as rebellion by vassal states and external causes such as attacks by its neighbouring kingdoms.

  
  

  The Songhai Kingdom arose due to factors such as trade, influence of Islam and strong leadership. This kingdom also had able leaders such as Askia Mohammed. The Songhai Empire derived much of its wealth from farming and fishing. When Morocco conquered the kingdom of Songhai, it turned it into one of its provinces therefore, weakening the empire.

  
  

  The ruler in the Kanem-Bornu Empire was known as Mai. He was considered sacred. Kanem-Bornu rose during the reign of Mai Idris Aluma (1571 – 1603). This ruler was known for his military skills, administrative reforms, and devotion to Islam. Trade was the greatest source of income in Kan-Bornu Empire. Goods such as grain, copper, kola and slaves were exchanged for products such as potash, cowries and cloth. The Kanem-Bornu Empire started to decline in the1700s, when the Fulani people invaded it and made major advances inside. The Fulani, led by Usman dan Fodio, proclaimed a jihad (holy war) on the irreligious Muslims of the areas they conquered.

  
  

  The Mwenemutapa Kingdom was able to expand due to able leadership, a strong army and a strong economic base. The Shona people believed in a supreme being called Mwari. The coming of the Portuguese led to the decline of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom.

  
  

  Unit assessment

  
  

  At the end of this unit, a learner is able to describe the origin, rise, organisation and decline of empires in West and South Africa.

  
  

  Revision questions

  
  

  1. List and explain the factors that helped in the growth of the kingdom of Ghana.

  
  

  2. Give an account of the factors that led to the decline of the empire of old Ghana. List at least five factors.

  
  

  3. (a) Why did Mansa Musa generously reward his officers?
  

       (b) How did Mansa Musa contribute to the social and economic development of the Mali Empire?

  
  

  4. (a) Explain the ways in which Askia Mohammed contributed to the growth of Islam in the Kingdom of Songhai.

        (b) What were the results of the conquest of the Songhai Kingdom?

  
  

  5. Discuss the religious and educational developments Songhai Empire under the leadership of Askia the Great.

  
  

  6. Why was the reign of Idriss Aluma important in the history of Kanemi-Bornu?

  
  

  7. Discuss the origin and the rise of Mwenemutapa Kingdom.

  
  

  8. (a) Discuss the factors for the rise of the Zulu Kingdom in the first half of the 19th Century.
  

       (b) What were the effects of political and military changes introduced by Shaka?

       (c) Why did the kingdom decline after the death of Shaka?

  
  

  9. Discuss the social, political and economic organisation of the following:

  
  

  (a) Mali Kingdom
  

  (c) Songhai Kingdom
  

  (b) Mwenemutapa Kingdom

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
• Unit 4: Role of agents of colonial conquest

  Topic area: World history

  
  

  Sub-topic area: European exploration and colonisation of Africa

  
  

  Key unit competence

  Discuss the role of agents of colonial conquest

  
  

  Activity 4.1

  In groups of five, discuss the roles played by missionaries, chartered companies and explorers during the process of colonisation of Africa.

  
  

  
  

  Introduction

  
  

  Who is an agent?

  This is a person who acts on behalf of another. It can also mean a person who obtains and provides information for the government in a certain area in secret.Europeans who acted as agents to their respective governments came to Africa either individually or in groups such as: traders, hunters, explorers an missionaries among others.

  
  

  Europeans annexed African states in the second half of the 19th Century and early part of the 20th Century. Groups of foreigners began arriving in earnest in the 15th Century, and the flow steadily continued thereafter. Some were explorers and adventurers, curious and eager to see new things and places, or to confirm certain geographical phenomena or scientific precepts. Many were looking for trading opportunities. Others sought an opportunity to spread the gospel and do philanthropic work among the long-suffering Africans; these were the missionaries. European intervention dramatically changed the history of Africa.
  

  
  

  The socio-political set up of many states was significantly disrupted and changed. New forms of economic life were introduced. At first imperialism was gradual, sometimes imperceptible, and in the early days not even always in the conscious domain of the early arrivals. From the second half of the 19th Century, colonial intentions were much more clearly articulated and manifested. The roles of agents of colonial conquest can be illustrated through three main themes that link the activities of the earliest arrivals with the ultimate events of the colonial occupation.

  
  

  Colonial agents in Africa

  
  

  Explorers

  
  

  Exploration is the act of searching for the purpose of obtaining information or resources. An explorer is a person who travels various in search of information various things and places. European explorers in Africa were seekers of information on geographical features, trade possibilities and agricultural potentials to mention but a few areas. However, whatever their immediate motivation, the result of their explorations led to European ultimate conquest of Africa.

  
  

  Explorers in West Africa

  
  

  Though by the beginning of the 19th Century the Europeans had a considerable amount of knowledge about the coastal states of West Africa, they were almost entirely ignorant about the interior of the continent. Men were sent off to explore the interior of Africa and bring back information about its peoples, its products and its geography. This was targeted at obtaining information about trading possibilities. This is why the early explorers of West Africa were so concerned with the River Niger, which they believed would be the highway to the riches of the interior.

  
  

  The Europeans thought of themselves as explorers of unknown lands. From the point of view of the Africans these European explorers were tourists in lands which Africans had known for centuries. As a result of trade, particularly by the Dyula and Hausa, there were groups of Africans who knew a great deal about the geography of their neighbours. In 1826, the Caliph Mohammed Bello of Sokoto was able to tell his visitor, Commander Clapperton from England, much about the lands through which he would travel.

  
  

  The European explorers were only making discoveries for other Europeans. They were not telling Africans in the lands they ‘discovered’ anything they did not already know. What is significant about the work of the explorers is that they gave their own governments information about the interior of West Africa, in particular about its trading possibilities. Immediately after Richard and John Lander ‘discovered’ that the Niger emptied into the sea at Brass, the British government backed an expedition up the river by MacGregor Laird, a Liverpool trader. At first the information the explorers brought back served peaceful ends; the promotion of trade and the opening up of the continental to Christian missionaries. But when the European powers undertook the Scramble for Africa, they had already obtained a considerable amount of the geographical information which they needed to conduct their invasion.

  
  

  Mungo Park

  
  

  In 1788, the African Association was formed by a group of leading British scientists, with the aim of finding out the course of the Niger River. Europeans knew very little about the river beyond its delta. The first three travellers failed. In 1799, a Scottish doctor, Mungo Park, set out from the Gambia. He travelled through Medina and Kaarta and eventually reached the Niger at Segu. His only success was to establish that the Niger flowed from the west to the east. No one knew, yet, where the Niger ended. Park was sent on a second trip in 1805, this time accompanied by 45 Europeans. Many of his companions died of sickness.

  
  

                                 

  
  

  Clapperton and Richard Lander

  
  

  In 1822, explorers Qudney, DenhamandClapperton travelled from Tripoli to Lake Chad. Qudney died but Denham travelled in the Bornu area and Clapperton travelled to Sokoto where he learnt that the Niger flowed south. Soon after returning home, Clapperton set out for the Niger again and travelled to Sokoto from Badagry, but he died there in 1827. His young servant, Richard Lander tried to follow the course of the Niger alone, but had to abandon the journey and return home to England. He then persuaded the British government to sponsor him and his brother on one more journey of the Niger exploration.

                                 

  
  

  They travelled from Badagry to Bussa, where they used on canoes and floated down the river, eventually finding their way to the Niger Delta. There these two young men finally resolved the issue of the Niger and established that the so-called Oil Rivers were in fact the gateway to the Niger. Subsequent expedition in the 1830s which otherwise ended disastrously with even Richard Lander himself losing his life, established that the Niger was navigable by steamer.

  
  

  The British Government in 1841 sponsored another ambitious expedition. It aimed to establish an agricultural colony of freed slaves at Lokoja. This, it was hoped, would become a centre old Christianity and legitimate trade comparable with Freetown.

  
  

  In 1854 another Scottish doctor, William Balfour Baikie, led another expedition up the Niger. This expedition opened the door to an era of intensive trade and missionary work in the Niger. The British later conquered this place. As can be seen, these journeys were not motivated by imperialist ambitions. But one later important journey was between 1887 and 1889, where a French Officer, named Binger, travelled from Bamako to Kong Salaga and Mossi, ending his journey at Grand Bassam, in the Ivory Coast. This directly paved the way to French conquests in the Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) hinterland.

  
  

  Heinrich Barth

  
  

  Heinrich Barth was a German traveller in the service of the British Government. Between 1849 and 1855, he journeyed from Tripoli across the Sahara to Western Sudan. His mission was to survey old trade routes and make treaties on behalf of the British government, with a view to exploring the possibility of developing the Sahara trade and to destroy the slave trade. Unfortunately the treaties he made were not followed up, and his mission proved worthless on threat score. But Barth also pursued other interests and copiously recorded in his Travels and Discoveries a great deal of the complicated history and analogy of these regions.

  
  

  Travellers and explorers in East Africa

  
  

  Early European explolers in east Africa came with the aim of establishing the source of River Nile. News that Krapf and Rebmann had seen the snow-capped mountains of mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro and stories of great inland seas revived this quest.

  
  

                                        

  
  

  Speke and Burton

  
  

  In 1856 The Royal Geographical Society picked two army officers, Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, to lead an expedition from Zanzibar to trace the source of the Nile. With the aid of two experienced Yao guides, Sidi Bombay and Mwinyi Mabruk they travelled inland along the trade route to Tabora. Early in 1858, they reached Lake Tanganyika but were unable to continue much further owing to illness. Returning to Tabora, Speke decided to go north to examine stories of a great lake in that direction. Speke alone found the lake and named it after his Queen, Victoria. He was convinced, though without sufficient proof, that it was the source of the Nile.

  
  

  Speke and Grant

  
  

  A second Royal Geographical Society expedition came out in 1860, with Speke in command accompanied by Grant. Travelling north – west round the shores of Lake Victoria they eventually reached Buganda and were welcomed by Kabaka Mutesa. Leaving Grant behind, Speke then travelled east and came across the place where the Nile leaves the Lake, the modern site of Jinja Town. Grant rejoined him and together they travelled north following the river to a place called Gondokoro. To Speke the matter was settled, and he sent a telegram to this effect to London from Khartoum

  
  

  Henry Morton Stanley

  
  

  Henry Morton Stanley made four expeditions to Africa:

                                       

  
  

  First expedition, 1871-2

  
  

  Stanley had his first taste of African travel while in the service of an American newspaper, the New York Herald. He was on a mission to find Dr. David Livingstone whose whereabouts for a long time were unknown. Stanley caught up with Livingstone in Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika in 1871.

  
  

  Second expedition, 1874-7

  
  

  In his second expedition, from 1874 to 1877, he moved across the continent from Zanzibar to the mouth of River Congo. He became the first traveller to use large, well-equipped, well-armed columns and ruthless military action against local populations who showed any hostility and lack of co-operation to his expedition. This made local people mistake Stanley and his party for slave traders. In his brief stay in Buganda in 1875, he impressed the Kabaka that he represented a people who would be useful to him because they possessed superior technological and military power. Stanley believed that the success of European Christian missionaries in Africa would be dependent on European commercial and military power.

  
  

  After his expedition, European Christian missionaries visited Buganda, which in turn was one of the factors leading to British colonial occupation of Uganda and Kenya. It was also during this expedition between 1875 and 1877 that Stanley charted the main stream of the Congo River. He confirmed that the river was navigable. This opened up to Europe the general possibility of exploiting the economic potential of the Congo Basin. The journey further led directly to the actual beginning of Leopold’s imperial activities in the Congo. Stanley later became Leopold’s agents in the Congo between 1880 and 1885. He had made a thorough survey of Lake Victoria, Albert and Tanganyika, completing his journey by travelling down the River Congo to the Atlantic.

  
  

  Third expedition, 1879-84

  
  

  In 1879, Stanley made an agreement with Leopold II. In return for a large sum of money he would acquire the Congo for the Belgian monarch. Between 1879 and 1884, Stanley travelled up the Congo, establishing road and river communications from Kisangani to the coast, and building a solid base in the Congo Basin for Leopold’s future commercial enterprise. Another European by the name Savorgnan de Brazza was in 1882 busy obtaining a treaty from Chief Makoko of the Teke, whose lands were north of the river. In this treaty, Makoko apparently ceded his territory to France. Leopold suddenly became aware that all his efforts in the Congo might come to naught if he did not first assume political control of the area. Stanley was consequently instructed to make treaties with the Viri chiefs south of the river, and this he did.

  
  

  Fourth expedition, 1885

  
  

  Stanley’s last expedition, to rescue Emin Pasha, was an anti-climax after his second journey and imperialist work in the Congo. It was as futile and as unnecessary as his first expedition to find Livingstone. The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition was financed by a grant from the Egyptian government and the donations of English supporters.

                                           

  
  

  Leopold II, with a great interest in the Upper Nile, got Stanley to lead the rescue expedition. The men of Stanley’s relief expedition arrived at Kavalli’s in such a state of poverty and sickness that Emin could be said to have rescued his rescuers. When Stanley and his men were fit again, Stanley insisted that Emin Pasha accompany him to Zanzibar.

  
  

  Joseph Thomson

  
  

  Joseph Thomson travelled between 1883-1884 through Maasailand, across the Rift Valley and into Western Kenya where he saw Mount Elgon. This was essentially a scientific expedition whose purpose was to gather geological and biological information about this part of Africa.

  
  

  Explorers in Central and Southern Africa

  
  

  From the close of the 18th Century, European countries began to take an increasing interest in Central Africa. The issue of the slave trade aroused interest in the continent which was the home of the black slaves. Furthermore, the Industrial Revolution led manufacturers and traders to turn their attention towards Africa as a source of raw materials and a market for the products of their factories. Thirdly, was curiosity and the quest for information on and confirmation of reported geographical and other scientific phenomena in the continent which might prove useful back home. And finally, there was the philanthropic interest, normally associated with Christian missionaries, who sought to put an end to the slave trade and convert Africans to Christianity.

  
  

  Problems faced by explorers

  
  

  • They lacked food & safe drinking water, whether they were explorers on land or sea.

  
  

  • They were affected by disease mostly cholera and dysentery
  

  
  

  • Lack of good maps to guide them in their exploration expeditions.

  
  

  • Lack of effective medicine to cure snake bites bites, and other bites by poisonous animals. people had to be treated on the spot with experimental treatment: If it worked, well and good; if it didn't, they were buried where they lay.

  
  

  Traders and hunters

  
  

  During the latter part of the 19th Century, traders penetrated into Central Africa using two main approaches: from the east coast, either overland from the central settlements in Tanganyika and Mozambique; or up the Zambezi and the Shire and Luangwa rivers, to the land between the four great lakes of Mweru, Bangweulu, Tanganyika and Malawi.

  
  

  Many Arab and Swahili traders used the overland routes while Portuguese traders generally used the Zambezi one. The other main approach was from South Africa to Barotseland and the area south of the Zambezi. European hunters and traders went into this area from the south. They went first to Matabeleland and then extended their interests to Mashonaland and Barotseland. Few penetrated further into Zambia which was very inaccessible before 1890.

  
  

  Most of the visitors travelled along the so-called ‘Missionary Road’ to Matabeleland, which ran between the borders of the Transvaal and the Kalahari Desert. This area offered good facilities for hunting, as elephants and other game animals were plentiful in the savannah. Traders too were attracted as they were able to bring their goods into the area quite easily by wagon from the south.

  
  

  
  

  George Cobb Westbeech

  
  

  The Matabele were the dominant power in the region between the Limpopo and the Zambezi. Hunters and traders who wished to go anywhere north of the Limpopo needed first to gain permission from the Matabele ruler. In the early 1860s, two traders, George Philips and George Cobb Westbeech, reached Matabeleland. They were to have a long association in Matabeleland. In 1867 they formed a trading partnership: while Philips remained in Matabeleland, Westbeech pioneered trade in the Barotse Valley. As a businessman Westbeech was usually more trustworthy than many. This earned him permission to conduct business from a permanent camp at Pandamatenka, a little way south of the Victoria Falls. Between 1871 and 1876 he exported 30,000 lbs of ivory from Bulozi. Lewanika found Westbeech’s weapons superior to any he had handled before Abhorring slaves as a means of transporting his ivory, he used ox-wagons. The Lozi now more interested in contact with the south drafted him as an advisor to the Litunga. A seasoned white hunter and trader, perhaps no one played a greater role in paving the way for missionaries in Barotseland than George Westbeech; he introduced Lewanika to missionaries such as Coillard and Arnot.

  
  

  Frederick Selous

  
  

  He reached Matabeleland in 1872 and after his introduction to the Matabele ruler joined an existing hunting party for elephant hunting. In his first three seasons he killed 78 elephants – a relatively small quantity compared to his predecessors.At first, he hunted in Matabeleland and the region to the north, near the Zambezi and Chobe rivers.Then in 1877 he got permission to travel further east, exploring Mashonaland in the next few years.
  

                                           

  
  

  He constructed a road from Bulawayo to Hartley Hills to facilitate transportation of ivory; it was named the Hunter’s Road. He visited and named many places including the Sinoia Caves, Mt Hampden and Mt Darwin. The increasing shortage of big game in Mashonaland and part of the Zambezi Valley made Selous eager to cross the Zambezi and explore the land to the north.

  
  

  Eventually, he made a trip to the Barotse Valley where he met Lewanika and Coillard.In his wanderings, Selous acquired an unrivalled knowledge of Mashonaland which he bequeathed to others in numerous books. He mapped much of the area and described it in vivid detail. When quantities of ivory began to dwindle, Selous began his great collection of African mammals. Then he found himself collecting specimens for many of the museums of Europe.

  
  

  For over twenty years he was hunting and collecting in what is today Rhodesia, and stirred much enthusiasm for the area among those who followed his career. He also made a contribution to the events that led to the region coming under British control. In 1889 he made a preparatory trip up the Zambezi and obtained for Cecil Rhodes a mineral concession from Mapondera, a chief who claimed independence from Lobengula. He next acted as a guide to the Pioneer Column and then laid out many roads under the new regime before he left for hunting fields outside Africa. He was foremost among the pre-Pioneers in opening up Mashonaland to the knowledge of Europeans.

  
  

  Missionaries and Christianity in Africa

  
  

  Missionaries or the ‘soldiers of Christ’, as they called themselves, provided the first concerted thrust at African institutions and way of life. Although they were preceded by the explorers, the the missionaries were men with a mission. They wanted to stay and win Africa into Christianity.

  
  

  Their activities were to have a serious bearing on the direction of African history in the 19th and 20th Centuries. They usually invited their home countries to come and conquer Africa. In a sense therefore, the pattern of the partition was substantially affected by the earlier settlement of the missionaries.

  
  

  Secondly, the missionaries purported to know the African better than other Europeans. Thus many of the policies pursued by the colonizing powers were inspired by the reports of the missionaries. It is important therefore to regard missionary activity in Africa in the 19th Century as the pioneering arm of imperialism.

  
  

  Missionaries in West Africa

  
  

  Christianity made practically no headway in West Africa between the 15th and 18th centuries. But in the 19th Century there was a great movement among English Protestants called the Evangelical revival. Evangelicals led the crusade against the slave trade.
  

  
  

  They stressed that man is saved by faith that made the work of converting non-Christian seem extremely urgent, though it tended to produce low and condescending view of non-Christian cultures Two important missionary organizations in West Africa were the Church Missionary Society (founded and run by Evangelical Anglicans), which was established in 1799, and the Wesleyan Missionary Society.

  
  

  Both of these were soon at work among the settlers and recaptives of Freetown, and the Creole Christians.Christianity spread more rapidly in West Africa than in any other region of the continent. By 1900 there were about quarter million Christians, nearly 2,000 churches, about 3,000 missionaries – 2,500 of them African and 29 missions. The bulk of Christian activity was concentrated in areas of British trading and political domination, namely along narrow strips of coast.

  
  

  The Protestant Churches began the Christian missionary activity after 1800. They include Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists and various German and Swiss churches. They differ from the Roman Catholics in that they do not recognize the Pope as head of their Churches; their priests or ministers may marry; and their services are more varied. They received the name ‘Protestant’ because they protested against the Roman Catholic Church and therefore had to leave it.

  
  

  The Church of England (Anglican Church)

  The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, had two main missions in West Africa. One was the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), and the other the Church Missionary Society (CMS).

  
  

  The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG)

  This mission operated mainly in Ghana.

  
  

  Ghana

  
  

  The first chaplain of SPG, Rev Thomas Thompson, stayed for four years from 1752- 56, trying to learn the Fante language. He baptized eight peole some of whom disappointed him. He tried to start schools which were not successful at first. He therefore sent some boys to England for education. Rev Philip Quaque, a Fante educated under Mr Thompson’s scheme in England, was the chaplain from 1765 until 1816. He mixed trading with his job as chaplain. The only thing that he did actually to convert his fellow Africans was to run a school. In 1788 the school had 12 children. But he worked at his post for 41 years and left a small group of Christians on his death.
  

  
  

  Church Missionary Society (CMS)

  
  

  Men who had been active in the Sierra Leone Company founded the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799. It was logical that Sierra Leone should be one of the first areas of interest.

  
  

  Sierra Leone

  
  

  Missionaries were dispatched in 1804. They were Melchior Renner and Peter Hertwig, both from Germany. Zachary Macaulay, the able ex-governor of Sierra Leone was on the Society’s committee. He had brought some Susu to England for education. Therefore, Renner, after a long delay in Freetown, went with some reinforcement from Germany to the Rio Pongas in 1808 to start the Susu Mission. The mission proved both a challenge and an opportunity for the CMS. The challenge lay in the climatic unsuitability of the coast for Europeans, and in the lack of precedent in missionary methods. The opportunity was the ability to reach a significant number of Africans who were uprooted from their tribal surroundings and who represented a variety of ethnic groups.

  
  

  From 1808 to1812 setting up of the Susu mission remained the CMS’ only work. Even so, it was reported, there was no church, no proper public worship, and the school room was everything. By 1812 there were 120 pupils. In the same year three lay missionaries came out to teach working with the hands. One CMS missionary, Nylaender, worked north of Freetown on the Bulom shore and produced a grammar and translation of part of St Mathews Gospel in Bulom tongue.The colony was administered on parish basis, each parish was supervised by a clergyman, and the CMS provided not only churches but schools and education in each parish, culminating in training colleges for boys (Fourah Bay) and for girls (Annie Walsh Training Institution).

  
  

  The Yoruba Mission

  
  

  In 1942, the CMS in Sierra Leone sent the missionary Townsend to Shodeke, the chief of Abeokuta in the Egba part of Yorubaland. This was because several hundred Yoruba from Freetown had returned to their native land and sent urgent requests for missionaries to come after them. Shodeke undertook to suppress the slave trade and welcome white traders and missionaries to his land. Thus the Yoruba Mission was begun and in 1846, Townsend and Crowther reached Abeokuta to start work. This was the first effective mission from Sierra Leone. In 1948, five people, including Crowther’s mother, with whom he had been reunited after twenty-five years became Church members. By 1857, there were 827 communicants. Schools were founded and in 1949 a teachers’ training college at Abeokuta began.
  

  
  

  However, the slave traders on the coast and in Abeokuta itself had no time for the mission and only wished to crush it. The priests of the Yoruba Supreme Being, Olorun, also opposed the Christians. The most serious threat was from Ghezo of Dahomey (the ‘Leopard’), who attacked Abeokuta in 1851, but Bit he was repelled, with heavy losses, and the Egba drew the useful conclusion that the presence of the Christians and their God had secured their victory. All persecution stopped and many more chiefs sent their children to school.

  
  

  This interference in politics was seen even more clearly in 1851. In that year, missionaries asked the British government to take over Lagos to bring peace to the country. Accordingly, the British deposed the ruler, Kosoko and elevated Akitoye as a puppet, with conditions that: first he would outlaw slave trading; second that he would afford complete protection to missionaries; and third that he should engage only on lawful trade, especially with British merchants. This incident shows clearly the co-operation between missionaries and the British government in achieving their aims.The Yoruba mission also encouraged trade and agriculture. Once the slave trade was stopped in Lagos, the river Ogun was open to legitimate trade, which the missionaries encouraged. They encouraged the growing of cotton and taught Africans how to clean and pack it and to repair the machinery. They arranged for its export to England. Crowther introduced the plough round Badagry and gave prizes for the best farms.

  
  

  In the 1860s, however, war broke out again in Yoruba. The British government intervened on the prompting of the missionaries. The events of that war can be summarized to demonstrate how often the missionaries proved to be one side of the coin of European colonial ambition.

  
  

  Missionary influence in the colonial occupation of Lagos

  
  

  Starting in 1839, large numbers of Anglican CMS missionaries, many of whom were former Yoruba slaves, started to arrive in Abeokuta. The CMS hoped to see the Egbas develop a christian state, which would grow through the palm oil trade, and which would turn away from slaving. Abeokuta was interested in this emerging trade and regarded the missionaries as worthwhile contact with the British traders at Lagos.

  
  

  When the Egbas turned to a policy of military expansion at the expense of the Egbados, a Yoruba sub-tribe, the mission approved on the grounds that this would extend the influence of its Christian teaching. However, Ghezo of Dahomey was not so willing to see Egbadoland, which gave Dahomey access Porto Novo and Badagry, fall to the Shodeke of Abeokuta. Ghezo had already conquered Mahi to the north of Dahomey and was determined to destroy Abeokuta. Under these circumstances in 1851, the Egba-missionary friendship scaled new heights. The missionaries persuaded the British authorities at Lagos to help Abeokuta, and Ghezo was successfully driven back to Abomey. However, fear and suspicion of the missionaries began to set in, and they were expelled from Abeokuta in 1862.

  
  

  To begin with, the Egbas were suspicious of British motives informally occupying Lagos in 1851. In return, the British did not like the fact that Abeokuta was intending to make Badagry into a more important export than Lagos. Then came the problem of Ibadan which caused the split between the Egbas and the missionaries.

  
  

  The Niger Mission

  
  

  In 1857, a further British government expedition in the ship Dayspring went up the Niger. The CMS sent Ajayi Crowther and JC Taylor, an Ibo, and decided to start a Niger Mission. The expedition left Taylor at Onitsha, then a town of 13,000 people, where he worked for nearly two years. Crowther obtained three sites for the mission. Crowther began to build a mission and read from the Hausa New Testament to passing caravans but soon after, the dayspring was sunk on the Juju rock at Jebba.Deaths still occurred among European missionaries sent to the Niger and Crowther was so active and effective that Venn decided that he should be made a Bishop to had an all-African mission. In 1864, he was consecrated at Canterbury Cathedral in England. His main stations were then Onitsha and Lokoja. He recruited his staff mainly from Sierra Leone and ordained a few of them who were worthy. He was invited by William Pepple into Bonny in 1864 and despite persecution and one martyrdom, the mission progressed.

  
  

  The Methodists

  
  

  The Methodists broke off from the Anglican Church in the 18th Century. Their leader, John Wesley, an Anglican minister, did not wish to do this but he was often not allowed to preach in the Church of England and so Methodism became separate. They worked more with the poorer and simpler English people than the Anglicans did.

  
  

  Sierra Leone. Of the 1789 arrivals in Sierra Leone from Nova Scotia, 223 were Methodists and had their own black preacher, Moses Wilkinson. The work of the early Methodists did not pick until 1815 when Rev W Davis arrived. By 1821 there were 470 members of the church and by 1840 2,000. In 1841 they had 1,500 pupils in their schools. They were divided into two areas: the Creole Churches, mainly in the Colony around Freetown, and the white-run mission Churches, mainly in the bush.

  
  

  The Gambia. After 1821, the Gambia came under governor Macarthy. He proposed that Wesleyan Methodists should work there. Morgan arrived in 1821 and began work among Muslims in the Kimbo chiefdom. This proved to be an uphill task and he soon returned to Bathurst where he opened a school for liberated Africans who lived there. By 1836 there were 535 Methodists in the Gambia and 230 in the schools. Little increase occurred after that, partly because European after European died.

  
  

  Gold Coast. In the Gold Coast the mission work was begun by Africans. William de Graft, a pupil at the Cape Coast Castle School, on his own initiative began in 1831 a ‘Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge’ which studied the Bible in order to understand it. Between 1838 and 1857, TB Freeman, the son of Negro father and an English woman did much work in Kumasi. After the British attack on Kumasi in 1874, however, the mission had to leave the area. Not until 1896 did they return by 1913 2,600 baptised Asante and a new beginning had been made in the Northern territories. In all areas, there was a clamour for schools.

  
  

  Catholic missionaries in West Africa

  The Catholic revival began half a century later than the Protestant efforts. It led to the formation of fairly small missionary congregations, often with only several hundred members each. Whereas the Protestant societies included both clergy and laymen, and a large number of lay supporters at home, the Catholic congregations consisted only of priests, nuns, or brothers. Funds were collected by a number of separate organizations, which pooled small amounts from large numbers of humble contributors. The most important of these was the society called the Work of the Propagation of the Faith.

  
  

  The Catholic congregations that had the greatest impact on West Africa were the Society of African Missions, and the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. The latter grew out of a congregation founded in France in 1844 by a converted Jew, Father Liberman. In 1848, it joined another body, taking the name of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Bishop Melchior de Marion Bresillac, a French aristocrat who had previously worked in India, founded the Society of African Missions in 1858.Sometimes the individual foreign missionary was unable to translate the high ideals, which brought him to Africa into day-to-day practice. Many were high-handed and authoritarian with their converts and exacted work from them, much in the fashion of forced labour for colonial governments.

  
  

  Effects of missionary enterprise

  
  

  In pursuing their main aim of conversion to Christianity the missions had several general effects:

  
  

  (i) New religion. They introduced a new religion into West Africa. This broke down tribal, national and racial differences by preaching the brotherhood of man. This contributed towards African unity and world understanding of Africa It must also be said that after independence, the presence of Christian, educated elite led to divisions within states: an important example were the Ibo in a mainly Muslim Nigeria.

  
  

  (ii) Education. Missionaries served the cause of imperialism further by providing a small circle of Africans with Christian Western education. They and their children were to prove invaluable to colonial rulers in establishing their administration: they provided government clerks junior officials in the commercial houses and interpreters in the early days of colonial rule.

  
  

  (iii) Medicine. Hospitals helped to defeat diseases, do operations and fight malnutrition. Thus the missions helped Africans to live more healthily and happily and be more useful members of society.

  
  

  (iv) Traditions challenged. The old way of life was undermined and old authorities challenged. Being independent observers, missionaries were often arbiters. Also, total conversion often, meant a rejection of chiefs and elders whose power came partly from ancestors. This effect uprooted Africans, sometimes violently, from their environment and was not always good.

  
  

  (v) Abuses stopped. Specific abuses like slavery were denounced and combated by missions, sometimes again weakening traditional society but in the long term leading to improvements.

  
  

  (vi) Europeanisation. There was the effect of an inculcation of the European, as well as Christian attitude to life. They did not live as simply as Jesus intended his disciples to do and they had, by African standards, enormous numbers of material possessions.
  

  
  

  (vii) Independent churches. Missionary influence led to the foundation of the many independent African churches.

  
  

  (viii) Source of information. Apart from venturing into hitherto unknown parts and supplying information to their home countries about the possibilities of trade, they also sent home reports of practices such as human sacrifice and domestic slavery or twin murder which the colonial powers used as justification for occupying Africa for its own good. Often these reports were exaggerated, and in fact the real motive of the colonial powers for occupation was economic, not moral.

  
  

  (ix) Trade encouraged. Missionaries had an indirect effect in the early days of encouraging European traders, partly to supply their needs. Trade followed the mission. The flag followed trade. Missionaries asked for protection in some cases or demanded British or French interference. In the German Cameroon, missionaries were encouraged to go ahead into new areas to make first contacts peacefully. The occupation of Lagos in Nigeria was a case in point.

  
  

  (x) European conquest and colonization. The flag of European conquest sometimes followed the mission. Missionaries asked for protection in some cases or demanded British or French assistance. In the German Cameroon, missionaries were encouraged to go ahead into new areas to make first contacts peaceful. Later, traders and the German government followed less peacefully.

  
  

  Problems faced by Christian missions in West Africa

  
  

  The Christian message received varied responses in West Africa. Some people accepted it, while others rejected it. There were rulers who were alarmed by the missionary presence and activities, for the missionaries demonstrated their capacity to disrupt the political and social life of the people early. Jaja of Opobo, for example, would on no account allow missionaries into his kingdom. His rejection of the missionaries was shaped by the events occurring in the neighbouring Bonny state.
  

  
  

  In Bonny, present – day Niger, King George had warmly welcomed the missionaries. But he went even further in his pro-missionary zeal; he personally led the campaign to convert his subjects to Christianity. These attempts had destabilising consequences for the kingdom of Bonny. People became completely subservient to the white missionaries.
  

  
  

  The missionaries gradually took over his powers, forcing him to increasingly depend on their prop to rule. Many rulers and people believed that the white men were spirits and therefore unnatural. They were treated as bringers of evil who would bring famine and destruction. Many Africans rejected the missionaries on these grounds. Furthermore, the egalitarian doctrine of Christianity made many converts, especially of slave or subject origin, insubordinate to their rulers.
  

  
  

  The Christian doctrine which placed all men on the same level before God because they were all God’s creation seemed to undermine the authority of rulers. Some of questioning the rulers’ actions. This was particularly evident in Efik country. Many rulers sought to resist this harmful ideology.

  
  

  Missionaries in East Africa

  
  

  For East Africa, missionary activity can be divided into two phases. First the period from the early 1840s until about 1870. During this time the number of missionaries involved was small, their success limited and sphere of their operation confined largely to the coast. Then following the death of Livingstone in 1873 came a great wave of enthusiasm and support that led to the establishment of new mission stations in the interior, particularly in Buganda.

  
  

  Missionary activities at the Coast

  
  

  The earliest European missionary in East Africa was a German, Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf. He had been sent by the Church Missionary Society in England to work among the Galla of southern Ethiopia in 1837. It was hoped that through this strategy he might effectively spread the Gospel across much of north-eastern Africa, the area occupied by the Galla.

  
  

  It failed, however, and in 1844 Krapf came south to Zanzibar, hoping to obtain permission to cross to the mainland and approach the Galla from the south. A few months later he crossed to Mombasa and established a mission station at Rabai. Here Johann Rebmann in 1846 and Jakob Erhardt in 1849 joined him. Krapf saw the Rabai station as the first of a series, ‘the first link of a mission-chain between East and Central Africa’, he wrote in 1848.

  
  

            

  
  

  From the Rabai base, these missionaries travelled inland. Rebmann travelled to Taita in 1847 and Chagga the following year when he met Chief Makinga. It was during these visits that he saw Mt. Kilimanjaro. In July 1848 Krapf visited Usambara where he was welcomed by the Shambaa king Kimweri ye Nyumbae who asked for missionaries to come and teach his people. In 1848 Krapf travelled through Ukambani and met Chief Kivoi and saw Mt Kenya. He made a second visit there in 1851 hoping to set up a mission station. But while travelling with Kivoi towards the Tana River he was attacked and Kivoi was killed.

  
  

  These pioneering days were difficult and the work of evangelism did not prove a success. When the British Consul, Colonel Playfair, visited Rabai in 1864, he found that only six people had been baptized and another six were being taught. But their work was not without some achievement. From the experience of their travels inland and from information they gathered from Arab and Swahili traders, Erhardt compiled a map of the interior, including what he called the Inland Sea, ‘Uniamuesi’. This, together with their reports of snow-capped mountains on the equator, was to arouse much geographical curiosity and controversy. Several expeditions were sent out to East Africa in search of the Nile’s source. On top of all of this, Krapf’s work on a Swahili grammar dictionary was to prove of great value to missionaries and travellers. Due to ill health he was forced to leave in 1853, but Rebmann remained for another twenty years.

  
  

  During the 1860s and 1870s, one of the main concerns of mission societies in East Africa was the suppression of the slave trade and the subsequent problem of what to do with the freed slaves. In 1863 the Holy Ghost Fathers came from Reunion Island and started a mission in Zanzibar. In 1864, Bishop Tozer and the UMCA came to Zanzibar after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a station in the Shire area of Malawi. Much of their time and energy was taken up by the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade and plans for the resettlement of freed slaves. One such centre was set up by the Holy Ghost Fathers at Bagamoyo in 1868 at which former slaves were taught basic skills such as agriculture and carpentry as well as how to read and write.

  
  

  In 1875, the CMS started a similar centre at Freretown on the outskirts of Mombasa.Livingstone’s death in 1873 made him a national hero in Britain. His reports on the slave trade and speech at Cambridge University in 1857 were received with enthusiastic response, and money and offers of assistance poured in. Livingstone’s emphasis on ‘Commerce and Christianity’ united both religious and business interests and gave a new impetus to missionary activity in Africa, widening its aims and objectives.

  
  

  Typical of this new policy was the formation of the Livingstone Central African Trading Company by James Stevenson of Glasgow, with the dual object of supplying the missionaries in the area and exporting ivory at a price that would undercut the Arab slave traders.

  
  

  Missionary activities in Buganda

  
  

  Henry Morton Stanley led the exploration to the interior of east Africa and especially Uganda in 1876. He was an explorer who was looking for a missionary, David Livingstone. In the cause of his second great African journey, Stanley spent some time in 1875 at the court of Kabaka Mutesa I of Buganda. There, like Speke, he was impressed by the organisation of Buganda and, unlike Speke he found Mutesa no longer a foolish youth but a skilful diplomatist. In the course of his stay, Stanley broached the subject of Christianity with the Kabaka and found in him a ready listener. Stanley saw in Mutesa’s interest the possibility of establishing a sound missionary station in an organized and prosperous country.

  
  

  Sir Henry Morton Stanley dispatched a message by Linant de Bellefonds, an agent of the Egyptian Government whom he found at Mutesa’s court, calling upon the missionary societies of England to answer Mutesa’s request for aid. Stanley’s appeal created a greater impression than had the earlier proposal by Speke, which the CMS had rejected. In view of the state of public interest aroused by Livingstone’s death it would indeed have been difficult for the missions to resist Stanley’s call. Nevertheless, the CMS would still have preferred to abide by their established policy of steady progress, step by step, from the coast.

                                   

  
  

  Their position became untenable, however, when, a few days after Stanley’s letter had been published in the Daily Telegraph to startle its receptive readers, an anonymous offer of £5,000 was made to the CMS for the purpose of establishing a mission station on the shores of Lake Victoria. Other contributions were also received for the same purpose. The CMS selected a party of six to form the first expedition, and in spite of many difficulties Kabaka Mutesa received the first two members, who formed the advance guard, in July 1877. At the end of the following year three more missionaries entered Uganda from the north, following the Nile route.

  
  

  Missionary activities and relation to the Kabaka

  
  

  The first missionaries to arrive were from the Church Missionary Society (British Protestants) in 1877, led by Alexander Mackay. There was also the Catholic White Fathers Mission, founded in 1868 by Cardinal Lavigerie to work among the Muslims of Algeria and more particularly to provide homes for children orphaned by famine. The order had grown in strength and Lavigerie had begun to look for further fields of activity. The party of missionaries set out from Bagamoyo in June 1878, and on reaching Tabora divided into two parts, one going on to Ujiji and the other, under Father Simon Lourdel, turning northwards to cross the lake to Buganda. Both groups received a warm embrace from Mutesa and were accommodated at his court and confined in his capital to curb their freedom of movement and the possible influence they might have on his people.

  
  

  Buganda offered an excellent starting point for missionary activity. The country was under a strong government. It had a ruler who was intelligent and interested in Christianity. The Protestants and Catholics lacked charity towards each other. Mutesa and his people regarded Protestantism and Catholicism as two different religions, one for the Ingleza (the English) and one for the Fransa (the French).

  
  

  In 1879, Mutesa almost became a Christian and even sent Baganda ambassadors to Queen Victoria, on a trip organised by CMS missionaries. However, the Katikiro(prime minister) Mukasa pointed out that the Kabaka must remain independent of the three rival foreign religious groups: Muslims, Protestants and Catholics. The katikiro told the Kabaka, ‘If you join any of these foreign religions there will be no peace in this country’. Even if Mukasa’s advice had not given Mutesa sufficient reason to pause, the issue of polygamy – of what to do with about two hundred wives – would have done so. Moreover, the Kabaka found the disputes between Protestants and Catholics confusing.

  
  

                                    

  
  

  The absence of White Fathers between 1882 and 1884 was a blessing in disguise to Christianity in Buganda. African converts, left under their own leadership, continued the work of evangelisation with not only fervour but a growing self-reliance and responsibility. Men like Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe emerged as inspiring Catholic leaders during Father Lourdel’s absence. Lourdel’s temporary withdrawal also led to an abandonment of the narrow and rather futile policy of trying to Christianise Buganda by first converting the Kabaka. From 1882, a new policy of spreading the Gospel widely to all in the capital who would care to listen to it was adopted. By the end of Mutesa’s reign in 1884 there were several hundred Christian converts in Buganda.

  
  

  Kabaka Mwanga’s reign and persecution of Christians

  
  

  The worsening relations between the missionaries and the Buganda leadership were brought to a head by Mwanga’s accession to the throne. During his reign, Mutesa had been able to retain control over the new forces at work in his country. He had succeeded in preserving his independence by playing Anglicans against the Catholics, and both against the Muslims as the situation demanded. Arab traders had been admitted freely from as early as the 1840s, but their activities had been carried on under the strict supervision of the Kabaka himself. And if many of his subjects had become interested in Islam, Mutesa himself had paid it some attention, with the tolerant outlook of one who knew his own ability to check excess.

  
  

  The Christian missionaries had been able to arouse deep concern for their teachings in the minds of some Baganda and had attracted a wider circle of those who hoped to benefit materially from the new religion. The arrival of the Christian missionaries had pushed the influence of the Muslims to a dangerous precipice, for the Christians combined their war against the slave trade with a powerful presence at the Kabaka’s court. But under the watchful eye of Mutesa, neither the Christians nor the Muslims could hope to be too successful, lest they should challenge his own pre-eminence.

  
  

  Mwanga, who succeeded Mutesa on the latter’s death in October 1884, was of a different calibre. A young man of weak character, he was unable to dominate the situation in which he found himself, save for brief periods and by ill-considered acts of violence. At first it was hoped that the accession of Mwanga to the throne would strengthen the churche. Joseph Mukasa was promoted to the the position of majordomo (leading servant or butler in the palace), and Andrea Kagwa became the hunting and travelling companion of the young Kabaka. A bitter struggle for power, however, developed between these new young men and the older tribal chiefs headed by the Prime Minister.

  
  

  Impact of European explorers and missionaries on Buganda Kingdom

  
  

  European explorers and missionaries had a great impact on Buganda Kingdom in a number of ways:

  
  

  (i) Growth of Christianity: By 1896 there were nearly 7,000 baptised Protestants and 57,000 readers. Further growth was aided, firstly, by the work of GL Pilkington who was the chief translator of the Bible into Luganda and began a system of ‘reading-houses’ where the scriptures were studied with enthusiasm under African teachers. Secondly, the strictly graded society of Buganda made the Baganda willing to accept the bishops, archdeacons, priests and other ranks of the Anglican Church. Thirdly, Bishop Tucker in 1909 was able to put into practice a church constitution which ensured an African majority in the House of Laity and also in the House of Clergy as soon as the African priests outnumbered the Europeans. He had left, he said, the Church of Uganda, ‘with power to make its own laws’.

  
  

  (ii) Growth of the Church: The numbers in the Anglican Church rose as this activity continued. Missionaries from Buganda began in the nineties to work in Toro and by 1914 there were 9,000 Christians there. Bunyoro and Ankole also saw advances. Apolo Kivebulaya, a teacher on the edge on the then Congo Free State, translated St Mark’s gospel into the language of the pygmies for use in his evangelical work. From 1890 Bishop Tucker encouraged the Africanisation of the Church and by 1914 there were 33 African priests of several tribes who began as a group the breaking down of tribal barriers. By 1918 there were 110,000 baptised Anglicans in Buganda.
  

  
  

  The coming of the railway from the coast gave rise to many social ills. In 1937 a Revival led to new evangelism, better living and as Muganda said, ‘heart-knowledge’ of Christianity instead of verbal acceptance. This has continued to the present and has affected Anglicans in Kenya as well as Uganda and other areas. Its theme song is the Luganda Tukutendereza, ‘We praise Thee’. The Revival works through meetings for confession, prayer and singing. By 1966 Uganda was the only African country where Christians (including Catholics) outnumbered non-Christians.

  
  

  (iii) Growth of education: Mission education flourished and the government took no part until 1920. In 1900 there were seventy-two CMS schools with nearly 8,000 scholars and in 1913, 331 schools with 32,000 scholars. The schools were mainly primary up to World War II but they included the famous Kings College, Budo (founded in 1906 for sons of prominent Baganda Protestants), and agricultural, technical and industrial training institutions. The Catholics had Saint Mary’s College, Kisubi offering high school education to the sons of prominent Baganda Catholics. Since there were more Protestant boarding schools than Catholic in the early days, there were more Protestants among Uganda’s elite in the 20th Century.

  
  

  (iv) Development of agriculture: In the agricultural field Borup, a lay missionary, imported the first cotton seed in 1903 and thus began the cultivation of this vital cash crop, on which the prosperity of Buganda depended.

  
  

  (v) Developments in medicine: In the medical field the CMS was well-known. In 1897 a hospital was opened at Namirembe. Dr A Cook in 1900 was the first to diagnose sleeping sickness, to demonstrate how widespread syphilis was and to show that one form of anaemia was caused by the hook worm. He also warned that the population of Buganda and Bunyoro was decreasing largely through sexually-transmitted diseases. Not until 1922 did the population begins to increase in the Protectorate as a whole. In addition, three centres for lepers were founded by the CMS after 1920.

  
  

  (vi) Forerunner of colonial rule: In Britain and Europe in general, the need to spread christianity justified imposition of colonial rule. However, it is the efforts of explorers over the source of the Nile, and the efforts of Protestant missionaries from Britain in Buganda, that led to the declaration of a protectorate over Uganda.

  
  

  The rivalry and turbulent relations between the Protestants and Catholics in Buganda, ultimately resulted in a civil war (the Battle of Mengo) in 1892, which the protestantswon. But the situation was still dangerous for the Protestants. The Catholic got support from the Germans in Tanganyika. The Kabaka was certainly hostile. The Protestant appealed to their government, Britain, to declare this area a British protectorate and give them and their work security. Public opinion in Britain supported them. Buganda was declared a British protectorate in 1894.

  
  

  Missionaries in Kenya and Tanzania

  
  

  Kenya

  
  

  After the efforts of the 1840s by Krapf and Rebmann, other missionaries followed much later. These included the Holy Ghost Fathers who arrived in Mombasa in 1890 and founded a mission in Bura in 1891. The Consolata Fathers came in 1902, founding the Mangu Mission in 1906. The Mill Hill Fathers from Uganda founded a mission near Kisumu in 1903, Mumias in 1904 and Kakamega in 1906. African Inland Mission (AIM) was founded in 1895 and began its work in Machakos. The Society of Friends (Quakers) founded a mission at Kaimosi in August 1902 and later among the Akamba. The CMS began their work in Western Kenya from Uganda with Bishop JJ Willis founding the Maseno Mission, while the Church of Scotland Mission worked in Central Kenya.

  
  

  This Church later became known as the Presbyterian Church. It can be seen that most of these mission stations were established well after the British occupation in 1895, and perhaps as a direct consequence of the building of the Uganda Railway (1896 – 1901).

  
  

  Tanzania

  
  

  Missionaries moved in from Central Africa. They included the LMS near Lake Tanganyika. The Holy Ghost Fathers worked at the coast while the White Fathers worked in central and western Tanzania.Founding of mission stations in East Africa also meant establishing rehabilitation centres for freed slaves (Freretown in Kenya and Bagamoyo in Tanzania). It also meant establishing of schools to teach literacy skills and vocations such as agriculture, carpentry, and masonry. Examples of mission schools in Kenya included Maseno School, Alliance High School and Mangu High School. In Uganda, the Catholic and Anglican missionaries founded St. Mary’s College, Kisubi and Kings College, Buddo respectively. Mission stations were therefore centres of learning as well as medical centres as they offered medical services.

  
  

  Missionaries in Central Africa

  
  

  The story of missionary enterprise in Central Africa must start with David Livingstone. Livingstone was the pioneer of a widespread missionary movement in Central Africa. Several different mission groups took part in this, one of the first being the London Missionary Society. The LMS tried to work among the Matabele, but was as unsuccessful as the Jesuits who established missions at Bulawayo and Empandeni. The Paris Missionary Society’s Francois Coillard tried to establish a station at Mashiangobi’s in western Mashonaland but was taken away and warned not to try again by Lobengula’s indunas. Coillard did not give up, and moving northwards to Bulozi, he managed to get close to Lewanika and achieved much success with the king and his people.

  
  

                                        

  
  

  Dr. David Livingstone

  
  

  Activity 4.2

  Look for a historical map in the library and trace the movement of David Livingstone in East and Central Africa. Act out how he dealt with various African kings that he came by during his journeys in Africa. What would have been the reaction in Rwanda during the reign of King Mutara III Rudahigwa?

  
  

  Dr David Livingstone was both a traveller and a missionary. Livingstone was born at Blantyre near Glasgow in 1813. At the age of 10 he went to work in a cotton mill, but spent time improving his education through evening studies. He entered university in 1836 to study medicine, at the completion of which he volunteered to work with the London Missionary Society (LMS) and proceeded to South Africa to join Robert Moffat at Kuruman in December 1840, from where he rapidly moved to Central Africa.

  
  

  
  

  Objectives of Livingstone’s missionary work

  
  

  There is every reason to suppose that Livingstone’s ambitions, besides straightforward missionary work, had been formulated before he left for Africa, but they certainly concretised and took a more practical form during his first twelve odd years in Southern and Central Africa. The Following were the objectives of his missionary work:

  
  

  (i) To spread Christianity: Although born of Christian parents and becoming a devout Christian early, Livingstone’s missionary zeal seem to have been catalyzed by a speech delivered by the veteran missionary practicing in South Africa, Robert Moffat. Moffat spoke of ‘Africa’s perishing millions’, to whom the word of God would be a great gift. Moffat continued, ‘I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been.’ The picture embodied in these words captivated Livingstone’s entire being and fired his soul with great passion. He would go to Africa! He would be a forerunner for Christ ‘in the land of the miserables’.
  

  
  

  (ii) To abolish slavery and promote legitimate trade: Livingstone detested slavery, which he saw firsthand in South Africa and later in its Arab form in East Africa. He was anxious that Christianity should break out of its narrow geographical confines and penetrate the interior. But such penetration required safe lines of communication, unsuited to the conditions of the slave trade and with endemic war. This could be secured only by regular trade of a kind welcome to interior peoples. Besides, the Zambezi valley would be a good source of raw materials for the British textile industry by producing enough cotton to make Lancashire independent of the slave-grown cotton of the American South. If articles of British manufacture were supplied to the interior by means of ‘legitimate’ commerce then the slave trade would find it difficult to survive. And if this could be accompanied by the spread of Christian influences, a new moral climate would exclude slavery and soften other features of African life.

  
  

  (iii) To introduce western education: He also entertained the current popular belief in Europe, that white settlement in the vast, sparsely populated parts of the interior of Africa would greatly benefit the indigenous people in terms of western education and civilisation. Besides, the open space of Africa would provide a very healthy alternative to the slum dwellers of Britain’s cities.

  
  

  Livingstone’s legacy

  
  

  In reality, these expeditions constitute Livingstone’s major activities in Southern and Central Africa. Through them he had become an eyewitness to the most in human and repugnant trade in slaves, one whose eradication he felt must be the obligation of his countrymen. In his reports back to England as well as in lectures he gave between the expeditions, he singled out this as a reason why men of good will must come to Africa. The slave trade must be abolished. And here he achieved immensely. His writings and speeches on the horrors he witnessed at first hand in the central-southern African interior, stirred the humanitarian urging of the British Government to enforce abolition of the trade by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1873, the year of his death.

  
  

  He inspired the foundations of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) and the United Free Church of Scotland, which established a mission at Blantyre. Men were inspired to volunteer for missionary work as a result of Livingstone’s example. The activities of these missionaries were later to lead to the British colonisation of parts of central-southern-eastern Africa.Another target audience was settlers and farmers. He summoned his countrymen to come and settle in the healthy and fertile Central Africa, like the Shire Highlands. The British industrialisation now seriously underway, created a situation of overcrowded slums, smog-filled environment, and deplorable living conditions of the lumpen proletariat who were ready to move to new sites any time. Many people in England followed Livingstone’s persuasions with a lot of interest. The settler situation in Central Africa subsequently became a prominent factor in the British colonisation of this area.

  
  

  Livingstone also believed that commerce must be encouraged as this would undermine the slave trade and put Africa at par with the rest of the world. The Scottish doctor’s activities and attitude towards Africa, was itself the epitome of paternalism, that of a superior being sent as a gift to the ‘unfortunate’ lands. This attitude hopelessly betrayed the pioneer tourist’s motives. The white settlers, argued Livingstone, would tap the mineral and agricultural potential of Africa which the ‘natives had been too lazy to harness for the benefit of all mankind’.

  
  

  Finally, there can be no debate that Livingstone hoped to prepare the way for imperialism. He did so in various ways. He spread his views by means of his books, such as Missionary Travels and Researchers in South Africa (1857). A voracious readership consumed his letters, reports and articles, many of which appeared in newspapers and magazines.
  

  
  

  Thus he played no mean role in nurturing public opinion for effective British involvement in Central Africa. His death in 1873 activated Stanley’s great trans-continental journey from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo between 1874 and 1877 this led to the surveying of the River Congo, and active interest of King Leopold of Belgium and De Brazza of France in the region. Livingstone indirectly influenced these happenings, but they nonetheless conformed to his imperial motivations from the very beginning.

  
  

  Missionaries in Zambia

  
  

  Francois Coillard

  
  

  Coillard belonged to Paris Missionary Society. Earlier missionaries had not been very successful. In 1858 the London Missionary Society missionaries Helmore and Price came to Bulozi but the Kololo chief Sekeletu gave them a cool reception on account that David Livingstone was not with them. Helmore died of malaria and Price went back to South Africa. In 1879, the Jesuits began work among the Ila. Lewanika, now restored as ruler of Bulozi, took this as an insult, as he regarded the Ila as his subjects. On this occasion the Jesuits left because of disease, but when they returned in 1881, Lewanika sent them away. It was the Methodists who finally established themselves among the Ila, and later extended their activities beyond the Kafue.

  
  

  However, the advantages of having missionaries working in his area were not lost on Lewanika. For one thing, they would teach people to read and write, and so improve the administrative system; for another, they would bring legitimate forms of trade, and so discourage the slave raiding of the Mambari. To be resisted, however, was Christianity itself, as it threatened the king’s own religious authority. Thus, in this cautious mood, Lewanika gradually moved towards acceptance of missionary activity in Bulozi.

  
  

  Meanwhile, Lewanika’s ally Khama had come under British protection. For Khama this meant security from the Boers of South Africa and from the Ndebele. Lewanika was well aware that the quickening of advance of Europeans from South Africa could not be ignored. An alliance with white men, either those in the south or those in the west, was essential for his survival. He decided to follow Khama’s example and in 1886 allowed Francois Coillard to found a mission station in Bulozi. Lewanika realized that this would mean valuable new kind of education for his people, or at least for his sons and those of other Lozi chiefs. If he could keep this education under his control, it could greatly strengthen his own position as a ruler, which was still by no means secure.

  
  

  Coillard had worked in Lesotho and spoke the Sotho language which was similar to the Kololo spoken by Lewanika and his people. The Paris Missionary Society now became something of a state church in Bulozi. It was successful among members of the royal family, Lewanika’s son Letia being converted, and the Mokwani, or Queen-Sister, being persuaded to temper her punishments with mercy. But the PMS never became a popular church among the people of Bulozi as did the Watch Tower in the 20th Century. The Paris missionaries also suffered greatly from malaria. Coillard’s wife died in 1891, and Coillard himself died of blackwater fever in 1904.

  
  

  Missionaries in Malawi

  
  

  Missionary work preceded the effective establishment of government by European powers. Missionaries from a number of Christian churches were involved in this work. Christian churches in Malawi included the following:

  
  

  (i) The Universities Mission in Central Africa (UMCA)

  
  

  At a meeting at Cambridge on December 4, 1857, Livingstone had said, ‘I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity. Do you carry on the work which I have begun. I leave it with you’. These words inspired the formation of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, supported by largely Anglican well-wishers in Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities. Soon afterwards Charles Mackenzie was chosen to lead the first expedition. Mackenzie, a brilliant mathematical scholar at Cambridge, had planned to become a lecturer there, but in 1854 he decided to devote his life to missionary work. He had been working for five years in Natal when he was appointed leader of the UMCA expedition.
  

  
  

  Having been consecrated a Bishop, Mackenzie set out with five European and three African Christians from South Africa. The party met Livingstone early in 1861 at the mouth of the Zambezi. Livingstone had recently explored the Shire and Lake Malawi area, and it was agreed that he should accompany the mission party to search for a mission site.

  
  

  The Magomero Mission

  
  

  They sailed up the Zambezi into the Shire in Livingstone’s ship, the Pioneer. At Chibisa’s kraal, the party stopped while Livingstone and Mackenzie pushed on towards the Shire Highlands where they hoped to find a mission site. Two years earlier, Livingstone been impressed by the prosperity of Nyanja villages there. But the area had been depopulated by Yao slave raids. Within a couple of days of setting out, trouble with a raiding party led to a change of plans. The missionaries made a settlement in the low-lying land at Magomero, where Livingstone left them.The disasters which befell the mission can largely be traced to this ill-fated decision. The entire region was increasingly harried by the Yao who were pushing south-westwards from their home in the Rovuma Valley in their search for slaves. The whole area proved unhealthy too, and soon all the members were suffering from recurrent fevers.

  
  

  The climax came in January 1862, when Mackenzie took a small party down the Shire to meet Livingstone who was bringing supplies. The canoe in which they were travelling struck a sand bank and the medicine chest which contained the all-important quinine was lost. Shortly afterwards Mackenzie and a colleague, Henry Burrup, fell ill with malaria and died in a few days. Illness struck the others, and within a year there were three more deaths.

  
  

  The move to Zanzibar

  
  

  In June 1863 Bishop Tozer took Mackenzie’s place as leader of this mission, and when he reached Magomero he reluctantly came to the conclusion that the mission had to be withdrawn to a less isolated and unhealthy centre. Tozer moved to Zanzibar, home of the Sultan, the recognised head of all the Arabs in East Africa, and the greatest centre for the trade in ivory and slaves.
  

  
  

  In August 1864, work among the Arabs and freed slaves begun there. When the Sultan agreed to close the slave market in 1873, the missionaries hastened to buy this site, and soon a fine cathedral was built with the alter on the spot where formerly the slaves’ whipping post had stood.

  
  

  The move to Likoma Island

  
  

  Tozer was determined that the UMCA should return to the lake region as soon as possible. After 1875 the UMCA established a chain of mission stations leading to the lake. In1881, the missionary WP Johnson travelled around Lake Malawi. In 1885 a permanent settlement was established at Likoma Island, and this became the centre of missionary activity on both sides of the lake.
  

  
  

  A map drawn in 1899 shows seventeen stations on the eastern side and five on the western. It was Chauncy Maples who built up Likoma, while WP Johnson carried out itinerant work from the steamship Charles Jansen. This steamship was important in two other respects: it enabled the missionaries to bring stores from Matope on the Shire River; and it put them in touch with the Scottish missionaries at Bandawe, where medical care was available. This meant that the UMCA missionaries no longer had to rely on the dangerous route to Zanzibar.

  
  

  The Nyanja people, however, were now being raided by the Gwangwara Ngoni, so the UMCA mission at Likoma, like the one at Magomero, became a place of refuge rather than a centre of civilisation. There was also the recurring problem of malaria. In the first thirty years of the mission, fifty-seven missionaries died out of a total of two hundred, and the average tour of duty was only five years. Furthermore, Islam was well-established in the Likoma area, making it difficult for the missionaries to convert people to Christianity. Nonetheless, schools were opened; the gospels were translated by WP Johnson into the chi-Nyanja language; and medical work was carried out, especially after the arrival in 1889 of Dr Robert Howard.

  
  

  Likoma Island became the centre of mission work in the area – indeed today the headquarters of the Anglican diocese of Malawi – and a fine cathedral was completed in 1905. From this centre missionaries eventually spread into Zambia. Meanwhile, the UMCA made their biggest impact in the rural areas. The main emphasis of UMCA education was still academic, and in reality the UMCA missionaries did little to prepare Africans for the Industrial Revolution when it came. They did, on the other hand, allow an African clergy to emerge: the first African priest was a Yao, Johanna Abdalla. Another African priest was Leonard Kamungu, who was ordained in 1901, and who later worked at Nkhotakhota and in Zambia.

  
  

  (ii) Livingstonia Mission

  
  

  The UMCA withdrew to Zanzibar in 1863. In 1874, the Free Church of Scotland formed a new mission in the area. It was called Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland in memory of the great missionary-explorer.

  
  

  Work in the south among the Amachinga Yao

  
  

  It was first established in 1875 at Cape Maclear at the south end of Lake Malawi. It was not particularly successful in this area. The local people, the Amachinga Yao; saw little value in the missionaries for a number of reasons. First, they were sufficiently secure in their political position to need aid of external allies. Secondly, they also possessed in Islam an alternative historic religion and an alternative source of modernising skills to those offered by Livingstonia; and thirdly, and perhaps most important, their economic structure, and therefore their political power, depended on the continuance of the slave trade, while the missionaries demanded that they abandon slave trading and turn to ‘legitimate’ trade along the line of the Shire River.

  
  

  This they could not accept, and the missionaries six years’ sojourn on the edge of Yaoland was characterized by tension between the mission settlement and the chieftains of surrounding villages, as the former sought for refugees from the latter’s villages to swell the ranks of its dependents. The Yao made little use of the missionaries.

  
  

  Work in the north among the Tonga

  
  

  In the north, even more momentous developments were taking place. In 1881 the Mission left Cape Maclear and moved north up the lakeshore at Bandawe in Tonga country. Here, under the energetic leadership of Dr. Robert Laws, the Mission was more successful. The Tonga were not involved in the slave trade and there was an absence of Islamic influence among them.
  

  
  

  The Tonga, unlike the Amachinga Yao, welcomed the missionaries as they were looking for allies against Mbelwa’s Ngoni, from whose kingdom they had broken, and who continued to raid towards the lake in the 1880s. Also, being agriculturalists, the Tonga were less opposed to the missionaries than the Yao or the Ngoni, whose way of life depended on raiding.
  

  
  

  Yet, perhaps more compelling in their need for missionaries was the internal competitiveness of the Tonga society in which a premium was placed upon individual achievement, in consequence of which education was sought with unequalled enthusiasm. The Tonga took quickly to education and by 1890, there were more than 2000 Tonga pupils in mission schools. They wanted this education not to strengthen their political position, as was the case among most of the other African societies who were quick to encourage education, but to give themselves the skills they needed to take part in a western-style economy.

  
  

  From 1886 onwards, the Tonga were using their new skills to obtain jobs as clerks, foremen and interpreters in the young work markets of the Shire Highlands, where the African Lakes Company, an adjunct of the Livingstonia Mission, had established the first settler-type economy north of the Limpopo. The desire for educational skills generally preceded conversion to Christianity itself. Many Tonga took advantage of the missionaries’ teaching while remaining suspicious of their beliefs; not until 1895-1898 and after 1903 were there large-scale conversions of the Tonga.

  
  

  (iii) The Blantyre Mission

  
  

  The Blantyre Mission, a second Scottish mission in Malawi, was another branch of the Presbyterian church. It was founded in 1876 by Henry Henderson and established on land given by the Yao chief Kapeni in the Shire Highlands. It was more successful than the Livingstonia Mission had been at Cape Maclear because the Amangoche Yao, unlike the Amachinga, wanted an alliance with the missionaries. They had been driven south by their Amachinga compatriots and were now being attacked by the Maseko Ngoni of the Dedza highlands. They saw some value in an alliance with the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland, established a year later than Livingstonia.

  
  

  Success, however, did not come immediately to the Blantyre Mission. From 1879-1881 there were management scandals and in 1881 the Mission had to be re-founded by Reverend DC Scott. By 1885 the mission was carrying out successful missionary and educational work. But the mission’s residential role as a small colony was paramount, as it had also acquired certain political powers. The mission intervened repeatedly in the political and judicial process, judging a wide range of cases, not only at its stations, but among the surrounding Yao chiefdoms. Scott and his colleague Hetherwick, not only judged cases between chiefs, but also decided on punishments themselves.

  
  

  iv) The London Missionary Society (LMS)

  
  

  The London Missionary Society (LMS) had opened a station at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. In 1881, a Scottish businessman, Stevenson, gave some money for making a road between the lakes, so that the missionaries at Ujiji could get their supplies from the African Lakes Company. This route, named the Stevenson Road, served two other stations – the L.M.S. station at Fwambo and the Free Church mission at Mwanwanda. In order to supply these new missions, and to collect ivory from the northern end of the lake, the Company decided to establish a permanent trading station at Karonga.

  
  

  This move invited trouble because the Arab and Swahili traders, attracted by the chance of selling ivory to the Company, decided to settle in the area. But the Arabs and Swahilis, viewing the lake-side missions as the chief critic of their own form of trade – the slave trade – now threatened the latter with violence and annihilation. Mlozi, the leading Arab tycoon, was not at all happy with the presence of the missionaries in Karonga, and the threat of Portuguese interference from the south-east. In the face of mounting opposition, British missionaries in the late 1880s began to campaign for some form of British protection.

  
  

  John Moir, the founder of the Lakes Company, obtained the signatures of a number of chiefs to be sent to the Queen of England for her protection, or, if that was refused, the protection of a chartered company, in this case the African Lakes Company. Predictably, the request was refused, on account of the financial responsibilities it might involve the British Government in. At this stage, Cecil Rhodes offered to shoulder the administrative costs of the country under the British South African Company’s charter. But the ALC’s supporters and the Scottish missionaries were strongly opposed to the idea of South African involvement.

  
  

  The British Government, however, did eventually reverse its earlier stand to accept administrative responsibility over Nyasaland. She could no longer take lightly the dangerously proximate Portuguese presence and the growing German interest in East Africa in the 1880s. Moreover, the victory of the Mahdi in Sudan in 1885 had created another fear. Salisbury thought that Sudan was urging the Arabs in the lake country to drive the missionaries and other white men into the sea, and conquer the whole region for Islam.