Swahili and the Maji Maji Resistance Against German Rule

Abstract

This chapter begins with the observation that before the Maji Maji war of resistance against German rule (1905–1907), no extensive efforts were made by the German colonial government to promote either German or Swahili in what was then German East Africa. But the Maji Maji war confirmed some of the worst fears of sections of the German colonial establishment about the unifying role of the presumed intersection between the Swahili language and the Islamic religion. The Maji Maji war led to a decisive shift in German colonial language policy, for the resistance demonstrated clearly the power of Swahili and its Arabic-derived script, in polemics as in poetry, to unify and mobilize the African subjects against German colonial rule. The “minimalist” approach to German colonial administration with regard to the utility of the language now gave way to purposeful colonial policy that included deliberate interventions to (re)configure and control Swahili and (re)direct its (socio)linguistic development.