| Primary
Source |
| Imperialism |
Colonial Policy | [P|S|M] |
Reichstagsakten 1888/89, 7. Lp., Vol. 121, Attachment 41: Collection of Documents pertaining the Uprising in East Africa, No.9: Report from the Imperial consul general on Zanzibar
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Zanzibar, September 24th 1888
arrived Berlin, October 23rd 1888
Yesterday night, General Mathews suddenly returned with the troops from Pangani
and has described to me the conditions there as follows : on the first day after
his arrival he assembled all respected inhabitants as well as the leaders of the
country men who had entered the city, read to them the letters of the Sultan (p.402)
and appointed the Arab picked by the Sultan as wali.
In the beginning everything seemed to go well; then the actual leader of the
uprising, an Arab settling near Pangani with the name Buschiri, called an
assembly on his estate, and from that day the mood turned against the
general.The Arabs began to avoid him as a christian, his house was surrounded by
armed men day and night, and he would have been murdered, if his soldiers would
not have protected him with their own lives.
The rebels had nothing to complain against the wali appointed by the Sultan and
were willing to recognize his authority, because he was a Muslim and one of
them; general hatred was directed only against everything European and
Christian. When the rebels tried to entice the regular soldiers away from their
leader, General Mathews recognized that his presence in Pangani was of no use,
and according to the news from Tanga, where the movement is also controlled from
Pangani, a similar lack of success was to be expected, he returned with his
soldiers to Zanzibar on the 23rd. The wali has remained in Pangani, Mathews will
dispatch 100 Arab Askaris to him and the governor will attempt to gradually
introduce normal conditions with these. If, and in what period, he will succeed
can not yet be said; in any case, according to the opinion of General Mathews,
for European employees to return to Pangani or Tanga within a few weeks is out
of the question.
Works on the fortification of the town go on; earthen walls are thrown up along
the narrow inlet into the harbour in a way so that it can be taken under gunfire
from three sides, and the positions are guarded by armed men day and night.
signed Michahelles
His Excellency Prince von Bismarck
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Originaldokument [1]
[2]
translation and English language table of contents: AG
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