The Rapid Mass Organizing of Religious Guerrilla Forces during the Maji Maji War
Presentation Type
Poster
Release Option
Metadata Only
Description
The Maji Maji War started as several separate peasant uprisings against the colonial government of German East Africa in response to high taxes and cotton quotas before being organized into a religious, nationalist movement spurred on by religious figures who prophesied a revolution against the Germans. The most well known leader was Kinjikitile who claimed to be possessed and blessed by deities and who could make a potion that turned German bullets into water called maji from which the name of the rising was derived. The organization of the splintered resistance forces formed along religious and political lines in the territory, forming a loose confederation of armies operating as guerrillas out of the wilderness. The tactics used against the colonial forces were effective, but the Germans circumvented their resistance by starving the entire population. The colonial forces burned crops and fields in order to break the spirit of the fighters as well as force them out, leading to the deaths of between seventy thousand and three hundred thousand people due to starvation.
Faculty Mentor
Cathy Skidmore-Hess
Department of Primary Presenter's Major
Department of History
Symposium Year
2024
The Rapid Mass Organizing of Religious Guerrilla Forces during the Maji Maji War
