Former German East Africa

from : South and East African Year Book and Guide, 26th edition, 1920, p.521E-521F, 527, 546-547A, 552, 567, 570A



History of East Africa (pp.521E-521F)

The mandate to administer the former German Colony has been conferred to Great Britain under the terms of the Supreme Council of the League of Nations. Great Britain has transferred the Provinces of Ruanda and Urundi, in the N.W., to Belgium, with the concurrence of the Supreme Council. These Provinces contain three-sevenths of the population and more than half the cattle of the Colony.

Naval Defence. The boundaries of the East Indies Station, on the African coast, were enlarged in 1919, and include Zanzibar and what was the littoral of "German" East Africa.

Dar-es-Salaam remains, at least for the present, the seat of Government of the conquered Colony. The first Administrator is Sir Horace Archer Byatt, C.M.G. The native troops have gone back quietly to their villages and the few Germans that remain are reported as settling down under the new Administration.


Minor Transfers of Territory in East Africa, incident at the close of the War (p. 521F)

Ruanda and Urundi (British East Africa). - The British Government transferred the Administration of these Provinces in the N.W. of late German East Africa to the Belgian Government, with the sanction of the Supreme Council, in August 1919.

Kianga. - Situated at the mouth of the Rovuma River (late German East Africa), with an area of 400 square miles; the claim to this territory by Portugal was conceded by the Supreme Council on Sept. 25th 1919.


Climate : Conquered East Africa (p. 527)

The remarks on the British East African climate apply in most instances equally well to the former German Colony, both countries running side by side from the East Coast to the great central lakes.
Major H.G. Lyons has contributed much valuable information hereon in the April issue of the "Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society". He divides the country, both from the standpoint of climate and productions into five regions : (1) The coast belt, 15 to 40 miles wide, characterised by great heat and moisture; (2) the hilly district of Usumbura in the N.W.; (3) Mount Kilimanjaro and the adjacent country; (4) the inland plateau, which is a continuation of the B.E.A. plateau; and (5) the lake regions.
The coast belt is marked by its limited range of temperature, the mean monthly range being only 5-6 degrees F. The rainfall is heavy, but very uncertain, and the climate trying for Europeans.
Kondeland, N. & N.E. of Lake Nyasa, is spoken of by Sir Alfred Sharpe as a magnificent country, suitable for European settlement.


Area, Population and Resources :
The former German East African Protectorate (p. 546-547a)

This was bounded on the north by British East Africa, Lake Victoria and Uganda; on the west by the Belgian Congo, Lake Tanganyika, Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Lake Nyasa; on the south by Portuguese East Africa, and on the east by the Indian Ocean with a coast line of about 450 miles.
Great Britain has received a mandate to administer the Colony under the League of Nations. The following figures have reference to conditions before the war.

The estimated area is 384,000 sq. miles, and the population in 1913 was 3,536 whites (exclusive of garrison) and about 7,500,000 natives. The distribution of the adult male population according to occupation was as follows on January 1st, 1913 :



Government officials
Attached to Protectorate troops
Priests and missionaries
Planters and farmers
Engineers, &c
Mechanics and workmen
Merchants and traders
Not classified

Total

551 (*)
186
498
882
352
355
523
189

3,536 		Per cent.

15.6
5.3
14.1
24.9
9.9
10.0
14.8
5.4

100.0
(*) This number includes officials with military rank employed in the civil administration.


Year

1902
1905
1908 		Revenue

L 160,900
347,350
381,100 		Expenditures

L 405,200
672,450
595,200 		Year

1910
1911
1912 		Revenue

L 443,100
493,250
785,150 		Expenditures

L 702,300
730,250
966,050

Deficits in the revenue were made up by Military and other Grants in Aid from the Imperial Government.

Year

1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913 		Imports

L 716,945
882,767
1,257,642
1,190,318
1,289,338
1,697,085
1,932,938
2,294,582
2,515,458
2,667,925 		Exports

L 447,528
497,483
549,736
625,009
543,692
655,974
1,040,269
1,121,888
1,570,919
1,777,552 		Total

L 1,164,473
1,380,250
1,807,378
1,815,327
1,833,030
2,353,059
2,973,207
3,416,470
4,086,377
4,445,477


The principal Imports for 1913, were : -

Articles

Cotton Goods
Railway Materials
Rice 		Marks

15,187,916
4,676,579
3,714,694 		Articles

Machinery
Flour
Cement 		Marks

2,067,900
999,221
1,080,421


The principal Exports for 1913, were : -

Articles

Coffee
Copra
Groundnuts
Simsim
Cotton
Sisal
Timber
Rubber
- Plantation
- Wild
Ivory
Hides and Skins
Wax
Mica

Met. Tons
"
"
"
"
"
Fathoms

Met. tons
"
"
"
"
" 		Quantity

1,059
5,477
8,960
1,476
2,191
20,834
3,361

1,288
78
11
3,456
559
... 		Value (L)

46,500
117,400
95,900
20,400
120,700
535,700
9,990
308,000
20,300
11,500
274,500
70,700
24,000


The rise in exports was mainly due to the increase in rubber, copra, sisal hemp, hides and skins.


As regards Climate and Products, most of the information given on British East Africa apply to the neighbouring Territory.
Although certain parts of the interior lie at a level of some 6,000 feet above the sea, the altitude generally does not average more than about 3,500 feet, with the consequence that the counterpart of the magnificent pasture lands of the B.E.A. Highlands is missing. Still large tracts of country are fertile, and some of it is declared to be of first-class quality for cattle. Certain areas of the central plateaux, however, between Morogoro on the East and Tabora on the West are sterile and of the remainder a considerable portion is in the hands of the natives.
Where the rainfall and elevation are suitable there are districts, as for instance near Arusha and Moshi on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, where coffee, cocoa, etc., thrive as well as in any part of B.E.A. Sisal hemp can be planted almost anywhere; a considerable amount of rice is grown, and potatoes flourish generally above a certain elevation. Near Tabora there is a small date industry. In the Langenburg District, N. of Lake Nyasa, wheat can be cultivated.

The German authorities have been more enterprising than our own in the introduction and acclimatisation of new plants and, in consequence, exported large quantities of rubber and sisal hemp long before our own plantations matured.

The following were the principal experimental stations prior to the war : -
Amani - Biological, agricultural and general purposes.
Kibongoto (Moshi). - Tobacco growing and cattle industries.
Mpanganja (Rufiji), Mahiwa (Luidi), Mjombo (Kilossa), Mabama (Tabora). - Cotton cultivation
Morogoro - Fruit farming.
Dar-es-Salaam - General experimental purposes.

The increased prices of tropical products, which began in 1909, lead to a considerable growth in the area under cultivation. This reached 407,612 acres under European management in 1913. Plantations in the following year were 96 in number and included nine English Rubber growing Companies.
The planters were supplied with native labour under a Government system which compelled the natives to work for planters for a very small wage during part of every year, and native labour was thus very plentiful and cheap.
As regards minerals, gold, silver, mica, quicksilver, lead and lignite have been discovered. In 1912, the export of gold was L 26,550.

As regards means of transport, there is a railway from Dar-es-Salaam, to Tabora and Kigoma (Ujiji) on Lake Tanganyika (completed in 1914), and another (the Usambara Railway) from Tanga to Arusha on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. The latter is now connected with the Uganda line at Voi. A branch of the Central Railway to Lake Tanganyika will connect Tabora with Mwanza or some other point on Lake Victoria. The gauge of existing railways, one metre, agrees with that of B.E.A.; the Sudan and South African Railways are all of 3' 6".
Ujiji, near the terminus of the Dar-es-Salaam Railway was the meeting place of Stanley and Livingstone.
The principal ports are :- On the Coast - Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam, Bagamoyo, Kilwa, Lindi and Kiongo; on Lake Victoria - Mwanza, Bukoba and Shirati; On Lake Tanganyika - Usumbura, Kigoma and Bismarck; On Lake Nyasa - Langenburg.
German steamers were plying before the war on all three lakes.

A blockade of German East Africa was declared by the British Government in February, 1915.


Labour (p.552)

In German East Africa (1912) the following Government return was made of natives in European employment :-

Railway construction and repair
Railway services
Harbour works, Tanga
Government service
Employed by European merchants &c.
Employed in caravans for Europeans
At mission stations
In European domestic service
Mining
Plantations

Total 		16,055
4,007
100
5,000
2,500
5,000
3,000
9,000
2,966
91,892

139,520


In addition, some 25,000 were in the employ of Arabs and Indians. Wages ranged from 3 to 12 rupees per month in addition to food. Natives employed on the Central Railway received from 8 to 10 rupees and a food allowance of 15 hellers (2 1/2 d.) a day. Labour was reported scarce in the plantation districts.


Farming (pp.563, 564A, 567, 570A)

Cotton. In German East Africa 35,770 acres were under cotton in 1912, but the industry was not then an established success.

Rubber. In German East Africa, 112,257 acres were under rubber (Ceara) in 1912, many of the plantations being situated near the railway running from Dar-es-Salaam to Ujiji; the exports for that year were 1,017 tons, valued at L 362,012; the cost to the larger plantations, f.o.b., was stated to be 2 s. per lb. The export of wild rubber (173 tons in 1912) showed a tendency to decrease.

Fibres. Sisal hemp (Agave Rigida var. Sisalana) was introduced into E. Africa from Mexico by German enterprise in 1893, ten years before it was planted in British East Africa. In 1912, 61,877 acres were said to be planted in G.E.A., and in the following year the exports exceeded half a million in value and were used exclusively by the German Navy.

Timber and Forests. In Conquered East Africa the principal timber forests occur in the Usambara Highlands and along the lower courses of the Rufiji River. Mangrove forests extend along many parts of the coast.
At the close of 1912 the forest reserves of German East Africa amounted to 1,855,270 acres, equal to 0,75 per cent. of the total area of the colony. The most valuable trees are the cedar, podocarpus, and mangrove. Timber felling concessions were granted by the German Government.

Minerals. Conquered East Africa. - Gold has been found in several places to the south of Lake Victoria. In 1909, at the Sekenke Mine, 3,515 tons of ore gave 139 kilogrammes of fine gold; in 1910, 7,333 tons gave 347 kilogrammes, work ceased, however, in 1911.
Mica. Important mines were worked by the Germans near Morogoro on the Central Railway of their former East African Colony. In 1912, the 153,806 kilos (valued L 23,113) exported, constituted German East Africa the fourth largest producer of the world. The output was rapidly increasing before the war, and found a ready market in the manufacture of electrical apparatus. The entire shipment went to Hamburg. The variety mined was muscovite, or potassium mica.








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