A First World War fighter pilot Mr A. L. B. (Ben) Bennett DFC, who was general manager for years and later adviser to the KNCU, carried the task on splendidly. Such was the devotion of the Chagga to these two men and their gratitude for their services that they bestowed unique Chagga titles on them both.
Dundas was given the title Wasaoye-o-Wachagga (Elder of the Chagga) and Bennett that of Mbuya-o-Wachagga (Friend of the Chagga). Indeed, so greatly loved and admired was Sir Charles Dundas that when he left Moshi for the last time by train to Tanga and ship to Dar es Salaam, the Chagga reputedly hired a band to accompany him on board ship and serenade him on his journey. As the boat sailed into Dar es Salaam harbour a day or two later, the band apparently struck up God Save the King. History relates that the Governor was not amused.
Bennett was at the peak of his career when I arrived and always gave me his help and support. His pride and joy was the recently opened building in Moshi that housed the KNCU headquarters. Not only did it accommodate all the cooperative headquarters' staff in splendidly equipped modern offices, but it also housed a fully residential KNCU commercial college. There was also an excellent multiracial hotel, the KNCU Hostel. It had beautifully furnished bed-sitting rooms with bathrooms attached and a top-floor scenic restaurant with wonderful views of the mountain.
Moshi was the obvious area on which to concentrate. It was densely populated with a million people living in banana groves (migombani) and coffee small-holdings (vihamba) on the fertile slopes of the mountain. This was where they cultivated the excellent Arabica coffee the Catholic missionaries introduced at the end of the last century. Thanks to the government, local authorities and Catholic and Lutheran missions, Moshi had universal primary education and the highest literacy rate in the territory. The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) was probably the most efficient and progressive cooperative organization in Africa. A district commissioner called Sir Charles Dundas, a Scots baronet, started it in the 1920s to enable Chagga coffee growers to compete on equal terms on world markets with the European growers....
Read more
February 3, 2007
Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU): the most efficient and progressive cooperative organization in Africa.
The first conquest of Kibo
In the following years several Missionaries and sportsmen visited various parts of the mountain, while Sir H. H. Johnston studied its flora and fauna. But not until 1887 was any serious attempt made to reach the top. In this year Count Teleki climbed to a height of 15,800 feet, and in August of the same year Dr. Hans Meyer, following the route taken by Count Teleki, attained the altitude of 18,000 feet. Here he came on an unscalable glacier wall, and was compelled to turn back. Renewing his attempt Meyer finally reached the summit in 1880 in company with Ludwig Purtscheller.
This first conquest of Kibo was the severest under-taking that has been, or is likely to be, required of anyone ascending the mountain. Meyer had then not discovered the notch in the ice wall of the crater rim, which by reason of the diminishing ice makes the ascent easier year by year. His ascent was therefore made over the Ratzel glacier which could only be scaled with ice axes. Every step required some twenty strokes of the axe, and the labour entailed for this purpose at such an altitude and whilst climbing at an angle of 35, must have been immense; added to this Meyer and his companion were in imminent danger, especially as Meyer himself had no climbing irons, and any step must inevitably have buried them down into the 3,000 feet abyss which yawns below the Western side of the glacier. A former traveller, Ehlers, who had alleged that he reached the North-western summit, reported that there was no trace of a crater. Meyer may have doubted this statement, but there could be no certainty on the point until he topped the rim and suddenly saw before him the huge crater with its frozen floor 600 feet below. It must have been a thrilling moment, and the consciousness that he and his companion stood there, the first men to behold this wonder and to reveal the secret Kilimanjaro had kept concealed through ages, must have been an inspiring thought....
Read more
This first conquest of Kibo was the severest under-taking that has been, or is likely to be, required of anyone ascending the mountain. Meyer had then not discovered the notch in the ice wall of the crater rim, which by reason of the diminishing ice makes the ascent easier year by year. His ascent was therefore made over the Ratzel glacier which could only be scaled with ice axes. Every step required some twenty strokes of the axe, and the labour entailed for this purpose at such an altitude and whilst climbing at an angle of 35, must have been immense; added to this Meyer and his companion were in imminent danger, especially as Meyer himself had no climbing irons, and any step must inevitably have buried them down into the 3,000 feet abyss which yawns below the Western side of the glacier. A former traveller, Ehlers, who had alleged that he reached the North-western summit, reported that there was no trace of a crater. Meyer may have doubted this statement, but there could be no certainty on the point until he topped the rim and suddenly saw before him the huge crater with its frozen floor 600 feet below. It must have been a thrilling moment, and the consciousness that he and his companion stood there, the first men to behold this wonder and to reveal the secret Kilimanjaro had kept concealed through ages, must have been an inspiring thought....
Read more
February 2, 2007
Chief Thomas Marealle II OBE
Chief Thomas Marealle II OBE was the Paramount Chief (Mangi Mkuu) of the Chagga people of Tanzania.
After winning an election, he was inaugurated as chief in January 1952. The government abolished the system of Chieftainships in 1961, although Marealle, anticipating this, had voluntarily left his post the previous year. After working for the United Nations in the field of foreign aid for thirteen years, he is now a retired diplomat....
Read more
After winning an election, he was inaugurated as chief in January 1952. The government abolished the system of Chieftainships in 1961, although Marealle, anticipating this, had voluntarily left his post the previous year. After working for the United Nations in the field of foreign aid for thirteen years, he is now a retired diplomat....
Read more
Kichagga has various dialects
Kichagga (kichaga) is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the people of Tanzania, South of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is one of a group of closely related languages spoken in that area. Kichaga has various dialects including Vunjo, Rombo, Machame, Uru, Kibosho and Oldi Moshi....
Read more
Read more
Chaga Chieftains{Mangi}
Chiefship in chaga appears to be very specific with no influence from early ancestors. In the neary south Pare Mountains, the old clan chiefship of the Mashariki Bantu world, continued to be the ritual center of life among the early Asu and remained so, in fact, down through the nineteenth century. But among the ancentral chaga of North Pare and among their descendants who settled around Mount Kilimanajro, a new kind of chiefship, Mangi, probably originally meaning "the arranger, planner" came into being not much before 1000 AD.
Chaga Politics The Mangi Rule
The Mangi are chiefs that govern small, clan-based states. The Mangis controlled chaga affairs even during colonial times, even though some tribes did not have such control. It was also during this time that the Chaga in early to mid 1900's they installed a Mangi Mkuu (Chief of all Chieftains) to look after their affairs and speak for the chaga people. Mangi Mkuu Consolidated power from the other 3 Chagga Chieftains thus making the Chagga more powerful and in control of their affairs during Colonial times. His capital was in Marangu. The Practice of Mangi Mkuu led to their downfall during the struggle for independence. One might have expected that the most progrssive local governments in the country at that time, would have continued to support the national movement now that its aims were becoming realities, and that Mangi Mkuu would have played a leading part. The opposite was the case. Local rivalries determined the issue. And it was the chaga critics of Mangi Mkuu who ranged themselves behind the Tanganyika African National Union TANU. Significantly enough, Kilimanjaro was the last place in Tanganyika to be won by TANU, and the price of victory was the downfall of Mangi Mkuu.
Mangi Sina of Kibosho
in the same area, [Kilimanjaro region] and in permanent competition with Rindi, Sina had by 1870 developed a large army and was active in agriculture and cattle raids. He was still in control of his empire at the arrival of the Germans in 1891.
Rindi of the Chagga
Rindi of the Chagga was another major chief ruling in the Kilimanjaro region in 1860, making Moshi an important base for ivory and slave trading with Zanzibar. He signed a Treaty with the Germans in 1885 and Moshi became their headquarters and most important economic and political centre....
Read more
Chaga Politics The Mangi Rule
The Mangi are chiefs that govern small, clan-based states. The Mangis controlled chaga affairs even during colonial times, even though some tribes did not have such control. It was also during this time that the Chaga in early to mid 1900's they installed a Mangi Mkuu (Chief of all Chieftains) to look after their affairs and speak for the chaga people. Mangi Mkuu Consolidated power from the other 3 Chagga Chieftains thus making the Chagga more powerful and in control of their affairs during Colonial times. His capital was in Marangu. The Practice of Mangi Mkuu led to their downfall during the struggle for independence. One might have expected that the most progrssive local governments in the country at that time, would have continued to support the national movement now that its aims were becoming realities, and that Mangi Mkuu would have played a leading part. The opposite was the case. Local rivalries determined the issue. And it was the chaga critics of Mangi Mkuu who ranged themselves behind the Tanganyika African National Union TANU. Significantly enough, Kilimanjaro was the last place in Tanganyika to be won by TANU, and the price of victory was the downfall of Mangi Mkuu.
Mangi Sina of Kibosho
in the same area, [Kilimanjaro region] and in permanent competition with Rindi, Sina had by 1870 developed a large army and was active in agriculture and cattle raids. He was still in control of his empire at the arrival of the Germans in 1891.
Rindi of the Chagga
Rindi of the Chagga was another major chief ruling in the Kilimanjaro region in 1860, making Moshi an important base for ivory and slave trading with Zanzibar. He signed a Treaty with the Germans in 1885 and Moshi became their headquarters and most important economic and political centre....
Read more
Chagga Interacted with the Ongamo
A striking blending of features of ancient Afsan and Niger-Congo civilizations, with some features of Sudanic civilization contributed by the Ongamo, emerged out of this period of cross-cultural encounter. The dominance of the new highland planting agriculture ensured that the new communities came to speak the Chagga Language of the makers of that agriculture. Initially these communities took the form of villages built along highland ridges. This custom apparently preserved an old practice coming from the Kaskazi and Upland Bantu side of their ancestry. The chaga also circumcised boys and initiated them into age-sets of the typical old Bantu type, but at the same time they adopted from the Southern Cushitic side of their ancestry the practice of female clitoridectomy which they stopped after christianity/Islam came. In a variety of other aspects, Cushitic or Nilotic ideas prevailed in Chaga culture, notable case being music, in which drumming anciently typical of Niger-Congo civilization was entirely lost. The drawing of blood from cattle was a specifically Southern Cushitic addition to the sources of food. And like the Ongamo and Southern Cushites, the emerging chaga society was entirely patrilineal. The beginnings of chaga interactions with the ongamo date well before 1600, and at some point in time the Ongamo had even been the dominant people through much of the Kilimanjaro area. By seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the ongamo were probably becoming increasingly restricted, by chaga expansion, to eastern kilimanjaro. Yet within that region they must have remained an important and still independent society, even as late as the second half of the nineteenth century and in the face of massive acculturation to the chaga about them, ongamo society retained sufficient cohesion to keep its age-set system functioning to some extent....
Read more
Read more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)