German & Tanzanian Actors revisit KINJIKITILE

By +Caroline Anande Uliwa  @CarolAnande-Twitter, @CarolAnande-Facebook, @CarolAnande-Instagram

Kinjikitile Ngwale, for many Tanzanians the name rings a bell. Though it quickly dissolves in memory and tongues much like a droplet in the ocean, as the canvas of muffled scars from our recent history scream too loudly, we failed! Or did we?

Here actors from left Konradin Kunze, Isack Peter
playing Kinjikitile in this scene, Shaban Mugado
and Sabrina Ceeasay enact the chilling scene where
Kinjikitile is capturedand hung in front of his family,
after being sarcastically been
asked to turn Christian, which he refused

“The following text by Hermann von Wissman is a description of how a military camp should be set up. Graf von Gotzen continues with an analysis of the ‘strong and flexible native’; who will not disappear like the Native Americans or the Aborigines. 

He claims the ‘natives’ will be able to do, much needed labour for the Germans and thus can be used to support the colonisation process.”—Translations from journal entries written by governor of German East Africa, Adolf Graf von Gotzen and Herman von Wissman. The latter was the founder of the colonial army ‘Schutztruppe’, which led the ‘Maji Maji’ war in Tanzania, from the German side in 1905-07.

As I reluctantly dragged my feet to a theatre piece called ‘Maji Maji Flava’, I dreaded seeing another loose translation of how silly our Tanzanian ancestors were to fight ‘bullets with water’. Thankfully on this night, the 28^th of Jan at the National Museum in Dar es Salaam. Was a descent portrayal via active theatre, of the muddy area of victim and victor that our history calls ‘Maji Maji War’. This play involved actors and accompanying crew from two different companies aptly from Germany http://www.flinnworks.de & Tanzania http://www.asedeva.com. 

A whip cuts across hunched backs from sturdy masculine hands, the subjects receiving the whips are 'natives'...Right? My mind scrambles to process the scene in front of me, picturing that this was how it was for our great grandmothers and fathers as recently as 1903. 

Isack Peter who is playing a Graf von Hotzen role, continues to inject terror into the natives. In one scene the native played by Lisa Stepf, is on all fours. Her hair grabbed back by Isack, she is ordered to repeat while squealing with despair ‘I have no culture, I need to be developed by force, please save my soul’; after receiving a visceral whip she quickly reiterates. You can watch a snippet of the video here https://web.facebook.com/CarolAnande/videos/1241885885908006/

One of the first scenes with actresses Lisa left
and Sabrina Ceesay middle with Isack Peter.
Here Ceesay gives a beautiful voice to the
women who paved way in the revolt
against the Germans and Colonial rule in TZ

“We did research academically as well as field research, we went to Songea, we went to Iringa, Mtwara. We met people whose families were directly involved in the war. So when they mentioned ‘Babu yangu or Baba yangu’ like me they didn’t just loosely mean ‘my ancestors’; they were actually talking of their genetic family members."-Isack Peter, main actor from Asedeva. 

It was hauntingly refreshing, to see in action snaps of what broke the humanity of our ancestors here in East Africa. Almost as harrowing as scenes from Hollywood productions like ‘Roots’ or recently ‘Hidden Figures’, which continue to stir the sternum of many a coffee coloured people worldwide. 

This vivid portrayal of the anarchy that went on in Tanzania, just a little over a 100 years ago. Was a welcome assault in sewing the threads that clarify our behaviours today. As they say in Kiswahili ‘Mtoto wa Simba ni Simba’ translating ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’. 

“We came here 8 years ago because a friend of mine was the director of the Goethe Institut; it’s only then that we learned about our shared history, about the Maji Maji war. So we were really ashamed that we didn’t know about it, so we came to Tanzania not knowing it was a German colony, not knowing anything about the Maji Maji war...So that moment when you understand that part of our history just doesn’t appear in the History books, you start to ask why…” 

That was the Director of the production, Ms Julia Gecheter from Germany of Flinn Works, indeed this play wasn’t produced just for the Tanzanian public. On this night was the last show of a 20 show enactment, wherein 14 shows were performed in Germany and 6 here in Tanzania.

This production was generously funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany and so the research that went into it. Had the crew visiting archives from first person’s accounts in both Tanzania & Germany. Like the interviews documented in written format at the University of Dar es Salaam, with the first person account of a village member who witnessed the hanging of Kinjikitile Ngwale. 

This play was impressive given it's heavy subject. The crew of six managed to keep the play memorable in plot. It's music was one of the highlights, with Jan Beyer who was solely on stage as a musician. Lent his producer/music skills superbly. In one scene which enacts the war combat, the crew perform a medley of German (choir like) & Tanzanian (Ngoma songs) classical music, which actor/musician-LIsa Steph later shared, "We took days to perfect that..."

That said, one of the most fulfilling thing about the play was the audience inclusion afforded at the end. Here audiences were asked to air their views via a video recording on i-pads. Which the crew will then send to the cultural ministry of Germany & the cultural ministry of Tanzania; in the hopes that it urges the two nations to officially acknowledge that 'Maji Maji War' happened and effectively deal with it, in terms of reconciliation, reparations , etc.

“We have footage, of some of the audience clips from those who watched the play in Germany. Many of them are in tears as they didn’t know this happened…” Shaban Mugado from Asedeva.

The actors in total in the play 'Maji Maji Flava'
shown at the National Museum recently

Research verifies that the tactics employed by the German colonialists, weren’t reduced to war combat (gunfire & such). What made them win was the inhumane tactics they resorted to, which included burning of villages, crop fields and food storage. That resulted in a famine that lasted three years after the war called ‘Fugu’. 

Now through the research conducted by this team, “We found out that though many history books in Tanzania record casualties to the tune of 300,000 Tanzanians from the war combat. We found other journal entries from first witness German accounts, who tally it to 1,000,000+Tanzanians. 

Notwithstanding population statistics acquired from ’Slave Trade’ records of the inhabitants of south and eastern Tanzania of the time. Indicate room for error in what is in our history books, indeed it could be that many more lives were lost, certainly from the famine that ensued…” Isack Peter, ASEDEVA

One of the last scenes where Kinjikitile has been hanged... far left 
Lisa Stepf on the Bass and on the drums, 
also the music score composer for this play Jan S Beyer

It’s always been subliminally relayed that we were ‘stupid to have believed that water could exterminate bullets’. Yet isn’t it possible that prophet/psychic/medium Kinjikitile, was really speaking more in metaphysical terms, inspiring courage as he did across tribal lines. To all Southern & Coastal Tanzanians of the time to unite and deny the degradation that was 'colonisation'.