Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale (died August 4, 1905) was a Tanzanian spiritual

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and a leader of the 1905–1907 Maji Maji Rebellion against colonial rule in

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

(present day Tanzania).

Biography

Kinjikitile was a member of the Matumbi people, living in what is now

Kilwa District Kilwa District (''Wilaya ya Kilwa'' in Swahili) is one of six administrative districts of Lindi Region in Tanzania. The District covers an area of . The district is comparable in size to the land area of the nation state of East Timor. Kilwa d ...

Lindi Region Lindi Region (''Mkoa wa Lindi'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Sri Lanka. The regional capital is the m ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

(then German East Africa, later

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

). The Matumbi practiced religious forms of folk Islam. In 1904, the then relatively unknown Kinjikitile disappeared from his home in Ngarambe. He returned after a few days and said that he had been possessed by a spirit medium called Hongo, believed to take the form of a snake. Kinjikitile claimed to have communicated with the deity Bokera through the spirit Hongo. He encouraged his followers to overlook tribal differences and unite against the Germans. Kinjitkile's reputation grew rapidly, drawing followers from the 100,000 square kilometers the territory encompassed. He told his followers that their ancestors had commanded him to lead a rebellion against the

German colonial empire The German colonial empire (german: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies and territories of the German Empire. Unified in the early 1870s, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-li ...

. This helped start the Maji Maji Rebellion. Kinjikitile gave his people 'holy water' ( sw, maji) to protect them from German bullets. After a group of Matumbi people attacked the home of a local official in July, 1905, Kinjikitile was arrested by German troops. He was hanged for treason on August 4, 1905. His brother continued Kinjikitile's work and the rebellion continued until 1907, with over 100,000 or 200-300,000 Africans killed in the German suppression of the revolt. Present-day Tanzanians consider the failed rebellion to have been the first stirring of nationalism, and Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale a proto-national hero.

Legacy in literature

Tanzanian playwright

Ebrahim Hussein Ebrahim Hussein (born 1943) is a Tanzanian playwright and poet. His first play, '' Kinjeketile'' (1969), written in Swahili, and based on the life of Kinjikitile Ngwale, a leader of the Maji Maji Rebellion, is considered "a landmark of Tanzanian ...

wrote a popular play in Swahili language called ''Kinjeketile'', based on the Maji Maji Rebellion.

Biography

Legacy in literature

References

Further reading