Arusha pre 1939

The threat of colonial labour demands to the domestic economy was largely deflected, however, large-scale land alienation fundamentally threatened Arusha and Meru long-term survival and would become the central economic and political issue in both societies over the course of the twentieth century. The German administration's attitudes to land were contradictory at best, favouring European settlement in some areas, while sharply restricting it in favour of African smallholder production in others. The cool and fertile highlands of northeastern Tanzania was one of the favoured settlement areas, but the conquest of Usambara had led to such an orgy of land grabbing by European speculators that the government started in 1895 to restrict alienation to leasehold grants of unoccupied land and required leaseholders to clear and develop 5 to 10 per cent of their land annually. From Shambaa, the settlers moved on to Kilimanjaro and Meru, but there was little unoccupied land on the congested mountain sides themselves, and settlers were forced to accept lower land around the bases of the mountains, rapidly ringing each with a chain of European farms and plantations.

On 19 October 1896, a German captain, Kurt Johannes, approached the Arusha in an attempt to secure diplomatic relations with local chiefs, but the Arusha warriors, unable to forget a German raid of the previous year, attacked and killed two missionaries. Captain Johannes returned to his base in Moshi,where he persuaded Rindi to side with him and mobilize Chagga troops to retaliate.The Arusha were easily defeated by the punishing onslaught: their weapons and food reserves were confiscated and their houses were destroyed, until they were forced to bow to German control.

In 1899 the Germans began construction of a strong fortification, a boma, which they forced the Arusha to build. Maasai in Arusha still remember the humiliation of this task:the new colonists took pleasure in riding around on the backs of the Arusha and Maasai men, egging them on with whips. One Maasai recorded the growing resentment at this form of transport in his memoirs. He was particularly enraged by an unusually heavy cargo; passing the river with his charge set heavily across his back, his patience snapped and he tossed his 'master' into the water. Fearing the consequences, many Maasai went into hiding in the bush, until a Maasai chief was sent to find them.The chief explained to the mutinous group that he was acting as a mediator, and that if the group returned to work all would be forgiven.The runaways marched back into the new town in a column of about 400 men; as they strode down Boma Road, the entire troop was gunned down in the street - one of history's many warnings never to trust a 'safe conduct'. It is said that the 'mediator' was promptly promoted.The bloodstained fort was completed in 1900 and became a barracks for 150 Nubian soldiers, later being made the regional government offices until 1934. when it was turned into the Arusha Museum of Natural History.

A steady influx of traders and farmers into Arusha in the 19th century, notably Indian traders, private German farmers and immigrant Africans, stimulated economic growth, prompting the German administration to conceive an 'idealistic' vision of a vast white settlement of their own construction. The Germans came up with several schemes to import settlers-from bizarre backgrounds.

The first of these plans back-fired when the Boer farmers of German origin who had taken up the offer of free farmland proved too uncouth for the ideal community; they were mainly squeezed out into Kenya.

The grand scheme was revised: now 10,000 German peasants from settlements around the Volga Basin and Caucasus in southern Russia were to be imported. The four families who arrived as a test project were painfully disappointed to discover that Arusha did not have four harvests a year, as they had been led to believe, and soon made their way to Tanga begging to be sent back to Russia.

Although small, Arusha is as well known as Dar es Salaam. From a tiny German military garrison in 1900, the town has grown to become the 'tourist' capital of Tanzania. Its position at a central point between Cairo and the Cape puts it at the heart of Africa. This position helped Arusha's rise to fame which began when it became the headquarters of the former East African Community.

Arusha town is beautifully set in a landscape of rolling green foothills at the Southern base of Mount Kilimanjaro’s sister mountain called Meru. This frontier-like town with a hint of western flavor was, from its origins, as is still to today, an important center for all sorts of hunting and photographic safaris.

The town originally grew around the “Boma”, (Swahili word for a cattle corral), a German Fort built in the late 1800’s. Throughout the years Arusha has remained a relatively small town with a predominant safari and farming community; characterized as a melting pot for a variety of international settlers ranging from Asians, Germans and Greeks to South Africans and British.

A German captain, Kurt Johannes, one of the town’s first foreign settlers approached the WaArusha people, in 1896, in an attempt to secure diplomatic relations with the local chiefs. The WaArusha, were a long established tribe of pastorialists and farmers originating from a mixture of the Maasai and Meru tribes. Their social structure, heavily influenced by their Maasai ancestry, was based upon warrior class and status according to age. Kurt’s efforts at diplomacy failed due to attempted previous German raids on the area and two of the missionaries in the group were killed. An infuriated Captain Johannes returned to his base in Moshi, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and there persuaded Chief Rindi of the Chagga people to mobilize troops and join forces with him in the take-over of the WaArusha, who were actually Rindi’s allies in many previous local battles.

So by1898, the betrayed WaArusha were easily defeated by the punishing onslaught of the two forces. Their weapons and food supplies were confiscated, their houses destroyed and they were finally forced to bow down to German control. The colonists moved into the area, and in 1899 begun the construction of the Boma’s strong fortification, forcing the local WaArusha and Maasai to build. The WaArusha still remember the humiliation of this task. Their spears were turned into digging tools, shields served as crude wheelbarrows and machetes were used to cut down trees. Young women and children had to carry thatching material whilst older men and women had the task of stamping barefoot on the wet mud used to join the stones of the construction.

One Maasai recorded the growing resentment towards the Germans and their acts on the people. They used to take pleasure in riding around on a laborers backs, egging them on with whips. One day while crossing a river a laborer became enraged with the particular heftiness of his charge, lost his patience and tossed his “master” into the water. Fearing the consequences many of the Maasai went into hiding until a chief went to find them. He told the mutinous group that he was acting as a mediator and that all would be forgiven if they returned to work. The 400 or so runaways headed back into the newly emerging Arusha town and as they marched up Boma road the entire troop was gunned down in the street – one of history’s many warnings never to trust a “safe conduct”.

Another Arusha Maasai elder remembers, “when employed on this construction work, six of us were called out to climb a very tall tree to cut the upper branches. We climbed using a locally made rope, such as the one for honey hunting. Whilst we were up the tree the Nubu askari (watchman) pulled the rope away. Meanwhile another party was cutting the trunk of the tree with a saw. The tree started to fall with us still in it, powerless as the rope had been removed. We all came down with a crash. Of the six of us, three died on the spot and three escaped with nothing more than bruises and scratches.”

After many such incidents the bloodstained fort, built mostly of stone rag (uncut stone), was completed in 1901 and initially became the barracks for 150 Nubian soldiers. The structure endured and throughout the years, it served as a police station and jail till 1934, as regional government offices till 1965 and finally as the Arusha Museum of Natural history as it still remains today.

The Boma formed the nucleus of Arusha as it remained under rigid German rule. The town slowly grew with German staff quarters mushrooming to the east of the Themi [Temi] River, which flowed past the Boma. Beyond the Boma the town’s first commercial area developed with the establishment of about 30 Indian, Greek and Arab owned shops selling cloth, trinkets, soap, enameled plates, bowls, beads and copper wire. One shop even had a sewing machine that produced jackets and trousers for the German soldiers as well as the “more progressive natives.” The township was spotlessly clean as the Germans had the natives walking around with little baskets picking up any litter lying around. The streets were laid out with fine sidewalks and cemented gullies.

The European settlers came in initially as missionaries, then as Government officials and finally as settlers. Most of the immigrants were, of course, Germans and this prompted the German administration to conceive an “idealistic” vision of a vast white settlement of their own construction. At first they imported South African Boers, of German origin, as farmers but found them too uncouth for their “ideal community” and consequently squeezed them out. They then imported German peasants from the Volga Basin and Caucasus in Southern Russia but the test families which came soon discovered that Arusha did not have 4 harvests, as they were led to believe, so they made their way back to the port begging to return home. In the end Arusha ‘s international medley of settlers moved in at their own accord, with the South African Dutch as farmers, the Greeks initially as railway contractors and then farmers and, the Asians, as traders, clerical and professional workers.

Kenyon Painter, an American millionaire banker from Ohio, enchanted by Africa, arrived in Arusha by ox wagon in 1907 to go on a 3 month hunting safari. He was one of the first paying clients to come out on a safari to Tanganyika. At this time the town boasted only one tiny hotel bearing the name of it’s Jewish owner, “Bloom’s”. As Brian Herne put it, “Bloom’s was nothing more than a whitewashed, mud-brick building with a roof of corrugated iron sheeting. It had a dozen bedrooms, a chintzy lounge, and a bar cum dining room overlooking a fast snowmelt stream called the Themi [Temi] River.”

Right next to “Bloom’s’ hotel was John Mulholland’s store. This was a grocery store with a twist as the owner “dealt in everything from rhino horn and ivory tusks to trophies of every sort, along with the best groceries in town”. One could also buy pistols, rifles, tents, bedding, pots and pans and saddles there. Other than this, the town was made up of a few other modest dwellings, that included the original Indian owned “dukas” (shops) around the “Boma”, a telegraph office, a blacksmith and livery stables. There was also “half a dozen shops owned by Germans, Greeks and South Africans trading in farm implements, seed beans and cattle”, as farming was becoming a fast growing industry.

The influx of professional hunters and hunting clients started at around 1913. Their safari adventures mostly took them to the Serengeti where the wildlife was plentiful, especially the lions. Seven years later an American arrived with a strange new contraption, known as the Ford motorcar, and the news that the wonders of the Serengeti had reached the outside world. The first game laws were introduced in 1921 where a Game Preservation Ordinance demanded that any and all hunting should be on a license for which fees were laid down. Certain methods of hunting were prohibited but still, at that time, there was no special regulations pertaining to either the Serengeti or the Ngorongoro, which could be hunted over just like anywhere else. As lion, at that time, were classified as vermin, they could be shot without restriction.

Later in 1921, however, the British authorities decided to turn the Serengeti into a partial Game Reserve, with restricted hunting on lions in fear of them becoming scarce. It was turned into a full Game reserve in 1929 and with the growing awareness of the need for conservation it was upgraded to a National Park in 1951. The neighboring Ngorongoro Crater, another hunting destination, was declared a Complete Reserve where all hunting was prohibited in 1928. However, about one third of the crater floor was in the private ownership of Sir Charles Ross, so that area had to be excluded from the order. This said, there is no evidence whatsoever that Sir Charles, or any of his friends, ever took advantage of this position of privilege. On the contrary he was one of the earliest to regard the crater as a Game Sanctuary. Ngorongoro was finally turned into a Conservation Area in 1959.

Kenyon’s first safari, back in 1907, had led to an astonishing collection of animal and bird species thus resulting in a total of 31 extended safaris to Tanganyika in the time period of 1907 to his death, in 1940. He was guided by various “white hunters”, (a term used in those days to describe the men that operated “in a professional capacity taking out hunting parties for a living”), ranging from George Outram and Ray Ulyate too little known hunters, like Thompson and Noadi.

After German East Africa became Tanganyika and Arusha was taken over by the British on March 20th 1916, Painter became one of the town’s most significant investors, having invested over a million dollars in the area. He built Arusha’s first post office, church and hospital. In 1927, Painter acquired land on the south side of the “Arusha Clock Tower”, (donated by a Greek, Galanos, and still standing, today), and started building the “New Arusha Hotel” as there already was an “Arusha Hotel” , previously known as “Bloom’s”.

In 1928, Ray Ulyate, owner of Meru Estate farm at Lake Duluti, leased the newly finished “New Arusha Hotel” from Kenyon, as world recession and coffee market prices made it virtually impossible for him to carry on farming. During the same period, in return, Painter purchased the 11,000 acre Meru Estate and gradually developed it into a premier coffee estate.

The opening ball of the New Arusha Hotel was attended by the Prince of Wales, Edward the eighth (the uncrowned King). The hotels’ renown grew and Mr. and Mrs. Ulyate managed it efficiently for many years. Its dining room was unique, from the wainscoting to the ceiling, the walls were covered with a painting of the Great Rift Valley depicting all the familiar peaks and lakes. This was designed by Ray and painted a by a down and out painter looking for work. In the lounge and dining room hang original photographs taken by wild life naturalist Cherry Kearton, including the first ever flash light photographs depicting a Lion and Rhino. The verandah of the Hotel overlooked the car park that was often full of safari trucks and farmers vehicles, especially at lunch times and on Wednesdays, which was farmer’s market day. The hotel’s hype was further intensified by its location, In the front of the hotel the sign explained:

THIS SPOT IS EXACTLY HALF WAY BETWEEN THE CAPE AND CAIRO AND THE EXACT CENTER OF KENYA, UGANDA AND TANGANYIKA

New Arusha Hotel was sold to the African Tours and Hotel group in 1947 and their decision to re-build it in 1953 was met with certain sadness by the numerous Arusha residents. The sadness was because of the disappearance of a “piece of history” - thousands of tourists and VIP’s had passed through the New Arusha over the years and numerous dances and dinners had been held there. “How changed life would be when it was no longer possible to sit on the verandah of the “New A” and watch the world go by”.

Arusha town grew slowly and surely with an expanding farming and safari community. However, “even at its zenith of prosperity in the late 1950’s, Arusha was never a large town”. It only had a total population of around 8,000 people, this inclusive of about 1,000 white settlers that were not actually resident in the immediate township but on outlying ranches.

Another noted landmark addition to Arusha in the late 1950’s was the “Safari Hotel”. “Newer and fancier that the New Arusha it lacked the trout river frontage, lovely grounds and the old-world charm of it’s rival”. However, it was masterfully managed by an Englishman, Ben Benbow, who was on a first name basis with every white hunter as well as with celebrity actors such as Robert Taylor, John Wayne and Harry Kruger that visited and stayed, during the filming of “HATARI” in 1961. The place had a beautiful copper bar and “the walls were decorated with framed and signed photographs of white hunters with their clients and trophies”.

Arusha town over the years has grown immensely in population size, with a large influx of natives moving from the bush to the town, searching for jobs, as well as foreigners, of many nationalities, looking to make their fortunes. This has led to an expansion of the town, on the residential side, with houses mushrooming all over its immediate surroundings. However, funnily enough the actual town center remains unchanged, the “Boma’ still stands as the Natural History Museum, New Arusha Hotel, with a new owner and recently rebuilt, welcomes many travelers, and the Clock Tower, still standing marks the center between Cape and Cairo. One sad thing is that The Safari Hotel, even though still there, has lost its bronze bar. The town, much to it’s resident’s frustration, still only has one main road through it!

On the safari side, in the early 1930,s Ray Ulyate’s formed the first official photographic safari company known as “Tanganyika Big Game and Tourist Organization” operating out of the New Arusha Hotel. He was the first person to organize six day long trips, by road, to the Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. On the hunting side the “white hunters’ were numerous and Tanganyika attracted a large share of celebrity and other tourist hunters.

The first Tanganyika Guide for Hunters was published in 1929 and in its descriptions it described a safari starting from Tanga, the port of arrival on the Tanganyika coast, through to Lake Victoria, where the game was most prolific. It says that “there is an abundance of the commoner antelope, and in certain parts the rarer species such as the Greater and lesser Kudu, Gerenuk, etc…are still fairly plentiful. Big Game like the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Lion and Buffalo, all of which hold for the hunter a new thrill and experience, are to be found in this area in such a variety of country and cover that the Hunting of no two animals is ever alike.”

The Hunter’s guide continues to say that “game animals that inhabit the northern area are well protected and their existence is assured to prosperity by great game sanctuaries and regulations which govern the hunting or photographing of game”. In the Northern areas, at that time there was six complete reserves and two closed areas – Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru, Lake Natron, Northern Railway, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. The closed areas were “Pienaar’s Heights”, near Babati and the “Sangressa Steppe” in the Kondoa district.

Licensing ranged from a Visitor’s license to a Resident’s license with extra licensing fees charged and stipulations set on a Giraffe and an Elephant license. Additionally, to hunt the Black Rhinoceros in the Northern province one was required to hold a Governor’s license, as well as pay an extra fee, and this would entitle the holder to hunt one male Rhinoceros.

The revised Tanganyika Guide of 1948 had a typical safari starting from Arusha town, that could now be reached by air, road or railway. The safari route was also a bit more adventurous. From the Rift Wall and Lake Manyara going northwards along the Rift Valley to Engaruka, to visit the stone ruins and Maasai Bomas, and to hunt the Kitete swamp and forest belt for buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant and hippopotamus. At Engaruka plains one could collect a general bag of the commoner antelope. From there the trail would take one to the “Maji Moto”, (hot springs in Swahili), which is described as “a game photographer’s paradise”. Following we return to the old route, a visit to the Ngorongoro Crater and a stay at the “Ngorongoro Crater Rest camp”, (now the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge”), where one could enjoy beautiful views and great concentrations of game on the crater floor. Then on to the Serengeti plains where “it is not uncommon for visitors to photograph as many as fifty different lions in a stay of only a few days, and the masses of game have to be seen to be believed”. Finally you were invited to finish off your safari with a visit to Mongalla, situated to the west of Oldeani mountain, Basotu Lake, Hanang Mountain and Babati Lake, for a bit more hunting of hippo, rhino and other big game before your return to Arusha. This was a month long trip “which for a lover of wild life could not be surpassed, and it was only one of many that could be made in the game areas of Tanganyika Territory, the finest hunting ground in the world”.

In 1965 safari hunting in East Africa was forever changed by the “masterly blueprint of Brian Nicholson, a former white hunter turned Game warden”. He came up with a plan for administering Tanzania's expansive wildlife regions and changed most of the vast former “controlled hunting areas” into hunting concessions, that could be leased by outfitters from the government for a period of two or more years. In the same instance he also demarcated the Selous Game reserve’s 20,000 square miles into 47 separate concessions. Each concession was assigned a limited quota for each game species and outfitters were expected to utilize quotas as fully as possible, but not exceed them. Trophy fees were set so as to provide government revenue for anti-poaching, development and research. This form of hunting management continuous to govern the hunting industry of today.

This plan gave the outfitting company exclusive rights over the hunting land that it was allocated providing a powerful incentive for them to police it, develop tracks, airfields, camps and, most importantly, preserve the wild game in the area. Once the system was in effect, it was only the larger safari organizations and outfitters, that could muster the resources to bid for the most desirable blocks of land and who had the clientele to fulfill the trophy quota requirements, set by Nicholson, that got the concessions. The smaller companies and operators, that could not compete, ended up forming alliances so that they too, could obtain hunting territories.

The only hiccup, in all the years of Tanganyika/Tanzania hunting occurred on 7th September 1973 when, overnight, the Tanzania government issued a ban on all hunting and photographic safaris in its territory. Authorities “moved quickly to seize and impound all foreign registered Land Cruisers, supply trucks, minibuses, aircraft and equipment.” They bundled up all the safari clients, mountain climbers and bird watchers that happened to be visiting the country “at the time of the inexplicable edict” and summarily escorted them to Kilimanjaro airport, just outside of Arusha, and to Namanga, the Border post to Kenya, to await deportation. All tourist businesses were closed down and no government refunds were ever made to the local or foreign outfitters, or the deported tourists.

The only significant urban development in the region is Arusha Town, the building of which commenced at the turn of the century. A site was chosen by the Germans in the middle of a thickly populated and cultivated area, and the local inhabitants were moved out. The first headquarters, doubtless of a temporary construction, was on the site of the Clock Tower. Then the building of the Boma commenced; one Arusha elder reminisced:- "when employed on this construction work, six of us were called out to climb a very tall tree and cut the upper branches. We climbed with the aid of a locally made rope such as we used for honey hunting. The Nubu askari pulled the rope away whilst we were up the tree with a saw. Meanwhile another party was cutting the trunk of the tree with a saw. Whilst we were still up the tree, it started to fall. There was nothing we could do as the rope had been removed. We all came down with a crash. Of the six of us three were killed on the spot and three escaped: luckily we survivors were no more than bruised and scratched.".

The Boma was completed and formed the nucleus of the new town and of which one or two of the original German staff quarters remain, one in the hospital compound, another in the A.I.C.C. grounds. But the main staff area was to the east of the Themi [Temi] River, where the houses of the Regional Commissioner replaced the old German structure in the post World War II period. The German gaol was only recently demolished to make way for the E.A. Community Building.

In the aftermath [of the disasters of the 1890’s and the German conquest], men and women alike were conscripted to build roads and the German boma. [in Arusha]

Many Afrikaners (Dutch Boers) were exciled after the Boer War for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the British Government in South Africa. By ox-wagon they had trekked up to Tanganyika, then German East Africa, where they were received with open arms by the wily Huns, who gave them land at Arusha.

This was not as a benevolent gesture, but so that they could be used as a buffer against the savage, marauding Masai warriors. They suffered sorely at the time, but after the Germans had tamed the Masai, by force and worse, the exiles were left in peace and found that they had been alloted the most fertile land in the country.

From Arusha and Moshi, with their lovely climates and beautiful permanent streams, came the best coffee, fruit, vegetables, the later mostly grown for their seed which was exported to wholesalers in South Africa.

Arusha town was established by the Germans at the beginning of the present century and has grown to a population of 55,281. Several of the Afrtican groups, particularly the Somalis, are of non-Tanzanian origin. The Tanzanians themselves came from different tribes; the Arusha themselves, on whose land the town is situated account for only 18.7% of the population (1967 figure).

The Europeans came in, first as missionaries, then as Government officials and then as settlers. The immigrants were of course largely German, but the government encouraged South African Dutch to migrate from South Africa where they found British rule unacceptable after their defeat in the Boer war.

A small settlement of Russians was established around Engare Sero, but failed.

The Greeks started largely as railway contractors, but many took up ex German farms after World War I.

The Asians came in as traders, and later as clerical and professional workers. They now number about 4000 being largely from India and Pakistan.

The boma that Meru and Arusha were forced to build in 1900 was a solid statement of the imposition of a new political and moral order. Set on a small hill at the base of Mount Meru, the fortress-like building faced out over the plains below. One approached along a 'fine wide road, equal to a well-kept highway in England', that was `carefully marked off in kilometres', the adventurer John Boyes noted on a visit in 1903.

"The road led to a place called Arusha, and as we approached it we came to our astonishment in sight of a truly marvellous building, erected in European style and surrounded by a moat....

The boma was a one-storey building of stone and mortar, with a huge tower in the centre and the whole glistened bright in the sunlight, like an Aladdin's Palace transported from some fairy-land and dropped down in the heart of the tropics. Emblazoned on the front of the tower were the Royal Arms of Germany, which could be seen nearly a mile off....

The station was walled off and, being furnished with a Maxim and a machine gun, made a formidable stronghold...."

Standing in the midst of the 'lush plantations of the Waarusha', one approached the fort along a wide straight path and entered through a heavy stone portal into an open courtyard, surrounded by stone walls, with a square, flat-topped tower in the centre and Swahili-type houses arrayed along the back wall. Boyes was impressed by the amenities:

"Water from neighbouring gullies was laid on throughout the building, and a plentiful supply was available for all purposes. Water-power was used for driving a lathe in the workshop, and the officer had a staff of trained Natives. The wood-work especially was particularly well done. Even the tiles on the roof were made by the Natives, and the building was made entirely from local material. The inside of the station was paved with stone; the living rooms were fitted with electric bells; and Herr Küster said he hoped to install electric light at an early date."

The town itself lay below the boma and consisted of some thirty Indian, Greek, and Arab shops selling cloth, trinkets, soap, enamelled plates and bowls, beads, and copper wire. One even had a sewing machine out front and produced jackets and trousers for the German soldiers and 'more progressive natives'. Boyes found:

"Everything about Arusha was equally surprising, the streets being well laid out with fine side-walks, separated from the road by a stream of clear water flowing down a cemented gullyway. We had discovered a real oasis in the wilderness. The township was spotlessly clean and we saw Natives with small baskets picking up any litter lying about, as though the place were the Tiergarten of Berlin and not the wild interior of the Dark Continent....

Attached to the fort was a splendid kitchen garden in which grew almost every kind of European vegetable, and next to that a coffee plantation)."

The German administration, like the boma, was built on solid military lines meant to impress. German military officers served as both local commanders and district officers, alternately administering and punishing their unruly subjects. Mount Meru had been administered, largely by means of punitive raids, by Captain Johannes from Moshi. With the completion of the boma in 1901, colonial troops were garrisoned in Arusha under the command of First Lieutenant Georg Küster, and Arusha remained under military rule until the general transfer to civilian administration throughout Tanganyika in 1906. Even under civil rule, however, district officers continued to wield considerable power in the exercise of their authority, and they did so largely free of troublesome constraints imposed by the central government. Few remained in Arusha long enough to gain much of an understanding of the local situation. Eleven district officers served an average of sixteen months each during the period of German rule from 1901 to 1916.

German officers ruled through local Arusha and Meru leaders, but in the aftermath of the mass hangings of 1900 they had difficulty identifying likely leaders and persuading them to serve. The Germans initially chose Masengye (1900-01), a son of former Mangi Matunda (1887-96), to replace his executed brother, Lobolu (1896— 1900), as Meru chief, but Masengye was deposed and imprisoned within a year for murder (see Table 4.1: Meru Mangi). Abandoning the royal Kaaya clan for a nominee viewed as a more reliable collaborator, the Germans then appointed Nyereu (1901-02) from the Nasari clan, but he too was soon imprisoned, allegedly for neglecting his duties and procuring girls for German soldiers. The Germans finally found the nominee they had been seeking when they appointed Sambegye (1902-25), a member of the Nanyaro clan and favoured neighbour of the missionaries newly re-installed at Nkoaranga. Sambegye prospered as chief, taking ten wives by 1905, and he continued as chief until 1925. He soon ceased being a mission favourite, however, and in 1905 Rev. Krause complained that his overt friendliness was but a mask for covert opposition: 'How could it possibly be otherwise! His friends are beer and women, and he knows these do not mix with the new teachings.'

Arusha, unlike Meru, had no tradition of chiefdom, so the Germans appropriated the tradition of regional spokesmen (laigwenak) that had first emerged during the warriors' raids of the 1850s, and called them Mangi after the Meru term for chief.15 Having hanged Maraai and Rawaito, the spokesmen from Boru (upper Arusha) and Burka (lower Arusha) respectively, however, they had to find replacements. The new Arusha spokesman for Burka was Ndasikoi, but the Germans also wished to reward their Afro-Arab ally, Saruni, and so they split Burka between the two men (see Table 4.2: Arusha Mangi/ Olkarsis). Both men remained in office for the duration of German rule. Sabaya (1900-11) was appointed in Boru and served until his death, when he was replaced by his eldest son Leshabar (1911-16). Arusha opposed Leshabar and burned down his home, however, forcing the administration to replace him with Lairumbe (1916-33), a wealthy cattle trader associated with the Lutheran mission.

The Germans also appointed local headmen to rule over individual districts below the chiefs. In Meru, these came initially from the ranks of local lineage or clan leaders (vashili), who normally were chosen by local clan members to mediate disputes among them and represent their interests with other clans and the mangi. Vashili became increasingly dependent on the administration, however, as they became encumbered with the unpopular tasks of raising labour and taxes.

In accord with differences in local Arusha politics, headmen were initially drawn from the ranks of local age-set spokesmen (laigwenak) chosen by their age-mates to mediate internal disputes and to represent their interests with other sets. As in Meru, however, their traditional legitimacy quickly broke down before the illegitimate nature of the tasks they were asked to assume by the authorities. Thereafter, headmen, like chiefs, increasingly became drawn from an emerging group of younger men associated with either the government or the mission.'7

While there is no direct evidence to assess the impact of these changes on the nature of local leadership in Arusha and Meru, we can place them within the context of Arusha. While neither society had a tradition of strong central authority, the military successes and increasing wealth of the warriors during the 1880s and early 1890s enhanced their status and power while eroding whatever authority the mangi in Meru or the logwenak in Arusha had possessed previously. German conquest and rule reversed this process, for not only did Talala's crushing defeat in 1896-7 damage their self-confidence and reputation, as shown by their disintegration in 1900 but, more critically, the warriors lost nearly all their cattle as well as the means to replenish them. As power and wealth shifted to chiefs and headmen appointed by the administration, the influence of the warriors continued to wane. No future Arusha age-set attained the fame of Talala; joint activities by Arusha and Meru warriors ceased; and Meru slowly withdrew from the Maasai age-set system altogether until they refused to join with Arusha to initiate Terito in the mid-1920s.

Chiefs and headmen appointed by the Germans after 1900 saw their potential power and influence increase as a result of their newly institutionalized authority, their support from the colonial administration, and their ability to use their new-found power to gain wealth. At the same time as power and status were shifting from the warriors to the chiefs, the means of attaining them were also shifting from criteria based on age, respect, wealth in cattle and bananas, and the size of one's following to those based on education, affiliation with the government and mission, and wealth gained from wages.

While the means of achieving power were changing, the ways in which it was deployed through wealth in cattle and social investments were frequently similar, thus obscuring the more fundamental changes taking place under the surface of Arusha and Meru social relations. Chiefs became known for their large cattle herds and number of wives and, following the bumper harvest of 1907, there was a spate of 'ox-hangings' around the mountain as wealthy men competed to see who could distribute the most meat to their friends and followers so that they might be 'lauded by the people'.° Such changes were gradual at first, scarcely noticeable during much of the German period, but they would become more prominent in the years to come.

Chiefs' newly-enhanced power and status did not come without costs, however. Chiefs and headmen were frequently unpopular with their followers as they became increasingly answerable to their German patrons, losing their own legitimacy in the process. Just as the Germans quickly abandoned appointing Meru chiefs from the royal Kaaya clan, so all chiefs came to owe their office to the whim of the government rather than to whatever influence or status they possessed locally. Increasingly, one's patrons became more important than one's clients, as chiefs came to have a share in the power of others, rather than exercising it on their own.

The German administration, like the conquest that had established it, was viewed as harsh and unjust by Meru and Arusha. They called Lt Küster Bwana Fisi', or Mr Hyena. The missionaries thought that his successor, Baron Ludwig Friedrich von Reitzenstein, was 'kindly' and 'well-disposed toward the natives', respected by them because he allowed `no idling or disobedience from his chiefs or their underlings', held court according to local custom while making 'sure it was not spoiled by the long-windedness of the natives', and successfully built roads without resorting to the feared kiboko (whip).'' The missionaries' notion of respect gained by the firm exercise of authority was not the same as that held by Arusha and Meru, however, who objected to the continued use of corvée (unpaid labour) for public works, the collection of taxes, the corruption of chiefs and, most of all, the seizure of precious land for South African and German settlers. In their exercise of unfettered power and their continued reliance on military force and coerced labour, German officials must not have appeared to be very different from the predatory trading chiefs who had preceded them elsewhere in the Pangani Valley.

The first commercial area lay between the Boma and the Clock Tower, with a hotel on the site of the present New Arusha Hotel. Commencing with single storey thatched roof duks, some double storey iron roofed buildings went up in German times and were only demolished in the post war period.

After leaving Kilimanjaro we were astonished to come upon a fine wide road, equal to a well-kept highway in England. Such a road as this, in the depths of uncivilized Africa, was the last thing one would expect to find. My men knew of it, and said fearfully that we were coming to the boma of Bwana Fisi, which means "Mr. Hyena," of whom they were evidently in great fear. We were not sure, being English, what sort of a reception awaited us, but we could not help admiring the man who had been able to build such a fine road, carefully marked off in kilometers. The road led to a place called Arusha, and as we approached it we came to our astonishment in sight of a truly marvelous building, erected in European style and surrounded by a moat. Everything about Arusha was equally surprising, the streets being well laid out with. fine side-walks, separated from the road by a stream of clear water flowing down a cemented gully-way. We had discovered a real oasis in the wilderness. The township was spotlessly clean and we saw Natives with small baskets picking up any litter lying about, as though the place were the Tiergarten of Berlin and not the wild interior of the Dark Continent.

After pitching our camp we went across to the boma and introduced ourselves to the officer in charge, who struck me as the living image of "Captain Kettle." He was a trim, dapper little man with a pointed red beard, who looked-and was-a stern disciplinarian. He had certainly accomplished wonderful results. The boma was a one-storey building of stone and mortar, with a huge tower in the center, and the whole glistened bright in the sunlight, like an Aladdin's Palace transported from some fairy-land and dropped down in the heart of the tropics. Emblazoned on the front of the tower were the Royal Arms of Germany, which could be seen nearly a mile off.

Lieutenant Kuster, as this officer in charge of the station was named, very kindly showed us round, and we were amazed at the ingenious devices adopted by this enterprising military pioneer. Water from neighboring gullies was laid on throughout the building, and a plentiful supply was available for all purposes. Water-power was used for driving a lathe in the workshop, and the officer had a staff of trained Natives. The woodwork especially was particularly well done. Even the tiles on the roof were made by the Natives, and the building was made entirely from local material. The inside of the station was paved with stone; the living-rooms were fitted with electric bells; and Herr Kuster said he hoped to install electric light at an early date. The station was walled off and, being furnished with a Maxim and a machine gun, made a formidable stronghold. Attached to the fort was a splendid kitchen garden in which grew almost every kind of European vegetable, and next to that a coffee plantation. A market was held not far from the boma, and in the town itself were about thirty Indian and Arab stores.

Lieutenant Kuster entertained us most hospitably and invited us to dinner, which was served in a very comfortable dining-room, furnished in European style with furniture made by the Natives. The various dishes were passed through an opening in the wall, and as each course was finished our host made a sign which was well understood by the Native servants who went about their duties without a word. Everything was done with military precision, and it was evident that the Natives stood in awe of their master, which accounted for the title he has earned of Bwana Fisi.

Before leaving Mgodi we laid in a good supply of provisions, as the road we intended to take to British territory lay through an uninhabited part where food could not be obtained and water was also very scarce. On the fourth day of our march we came to Irangi. We had a badly needed wash and then got our papers ready to go to the boma. The Government officer was away hunting, but the sergeant in charge was very friendly. I camped near the Government station, and had all the Indian shopkeepers and traders round my tent during the day. While waiting I bought a number of head of cattle at a dear rate. Then I went up again to the boma to get my papers signed, and was advised not to go near Mbugwe or Arusha, where cattle disease had broken out. Having learnt that there was a path through the wilds which avoided these places, I decided to take it. All round I noticed dried up rivers, but in the rainy season the country must be a huge swamp. The Natives were Wagogo, much resembling the Masai in appearance.

Our next march was to Buyuni, going through a forest without seeing a drop of water from leaving camp at 6 a.m. until our mid-day rest at 2. Marching on again for an hour and a half, we went into camp near a very large mbuyu tree, in the trunk of which a hollow was cut about six feet square, forming a little cabin in which some of the men slept. It was now a nightly occurrence for the hyenas to come howling round.

Next morning Natives brought the rather surprising news that Lieut. Kuster had left Arusha, and I quickly noticed the change in the manner in which they spoke of him. Little boys who had been afraid to utter his name before, now ridiculed him and boasted of how they had got rid of Bwana Fisi. They had been in terror of him, and they rejoiced at his departure.

After German East Africa became Tanganyika, one of its most significant investors was Kenyon Painter, an Ohio entrepreneur who first came to Arusha on a safari in 1907. He bought 11,000 acres of land outside the town and developed the region's premier coffee estate. He gave the town its first post office, built a church, a hospital, and then an advanced coffee research center at a place called Tengeru, sixteen miles from Arusha. Painter invested eleven million dollars in and around Arusha. His single storey New Arusha Hotel was one of the regions's most noted landmarks, and was headquarters for the Tanganyika Tours and Safaris Company.

The result was a disastrous restriction of land available for Meru and Arusha. Alienated land formed an almost solid band around the heavily populated slopes of southern Meru, effectively restricting Arusha or Meru expansion down the mountain and on to the plains. The administration also blocked upward movements by establishing a forest reserve above 1,600 metres, at that time the upper limits of Meru and Arusha settlement. Arusha and Meru would effectively push the northern boundary up to 1,800 metres before the British effectively closed it in the 1920s, but the implications for the future were clear: 'An "iron ring" of alienated land was clamped around the native lands on the mountain. With expansion blocked, Arusha and Meru could only turn in on themselves, occupying vacant hillsides and pastures on the slopes, while turning their political grievances outwards against the settlers and colonial authorities in the years to come.

The imposition of German rule on Mount Meru thus fundamentally challenged the Meru and Arusha peoples' social, political, and economic practices and beliefs. The hierarchical, military administration of the boma threatened the fluid nature of local politics — in which wealthy patrons built their influence by feasting their clients, sharing cattle with them, and marrying their daughters — and led to the rise of a new class of local leaders beholden to their colonial overlords. 'Work' for cash wages posed a threat to continued family production and values, and land alienated to German settlers challenged the social contract in which every family had a right to its own kihamba or engisaka. In short, German political economy premissed on 'solid regulated work', capitalist production for the market, and authoritarian politics conflicted sharply with Arusha and Meru moral economies based on everyone's rights to sufficient land to support one's family, to the fruits of one's own labour, and to the exercise of social and political influence.

The two world views were not irreconcilably opposed to one another, however, and the peoples of Mount Meru proved adept at using colonial means to achieve their own ends. Thus chiefs used their new administrative powers to increase their local influence by acquiring numerous cattle and wives, while labourers similarly invested their wages in social as well as productive capital. In the process, new social syntheses began to emerge as people re-evaluated their own practices and beliefs in the light of new opportunities. Such simultaneous subversion of the colonial order and transformation of their own would continue throughout the period of colonial rule and beyond.

The Painters were as intrigued by Smith's beautiful coffee estate as they were with the tiny frontier town of Arusha. Unlike downtown Nairobi's flat-as-a-pancake landscape, Arusha was beautifully sited at the southern base of Mount Kilimanjaro's sister mountain, Meru, amid rolling green foothills. Towering above Arusha township is the 14,979-foot cone of Mount Meru's extinct volcano, which is more reminiscent of an Alpine landscape than of tropical Africa, for sometimes the peak is dusted with snow. Three swift, gin clear mountain streams flow through the perennially green, well wooded settlement, which had originally grown up around a German fort or boma (Swahili for cattle corral). The well-fortified boma was garrisoned with a platoon of soldiers and staffed by a handful of German civil administrators and police. (The fort's stone-rag, or uncut stone, structure endured and remained in use as a police station, jail, and administrative offices until 1965, when it became a museum.)

In practice, what mattered was not the Colonial Secretary's public statements with regard to settlement, but his administrative decisions on the problems which it presented. The first of these was the northern railway. When Dernburg conceded the building of the line from the River Pangani to Moshi, he insisted that this must be the terminus.

Right- wing opinion disagreed. In February 1911 the Colonial Society petitioned the Reichstag for extension to Arusha, and in July it revived the old idea of a line to Lake Victoria. Rechenberg had long opposed these views, but Lindequist accepted the Arusha line in principle, a decision which was to bind his reluctant successor.

1916, - Later in the year, 1915, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien was appointed to the command and measures were taken to connect the Uganda railway at Voi with the German line from Tanga at a point near its inland terminus. Owing to the ill-health of General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien, Lieutenant-General Smuts was nominated to the chief command and landed at Mombasa on February 19th, 1916.

Prior to this, our forces advancing along the railway extension above mentioned, had driven the enemy from Serengeti Camp (January 24th), but General Smuts found them still strongly entrenched on British soil behind the Lumi River with their centre on Taveta, S.W. of Kilimanjaro Mountain, and their right on Lake Jipe.

The immediate plan of campaign centred around the snow peak of Kilimanjaro, of which the fertile slopes form the richest and most desirable portion of the German Colony. Fifty miles to the N.W. Longido was already in the hands of a British column under General Stewart, whose objective was a flanking movement, around the western slopes of the mountain, to the enemy's rear. On March 7th General Smuts bridged the Lumi River ten miles north of Taveta and on the following day, by fine strategy and hard fighting, forced the Germans from the swamps and forests which they had been fortifying for eighteen months. On the following day they were driven from Salaita. van Deventer occupied Moshi, the German railway terminus, on the 13th, where he was subsequently joined by General Stewart's column from Longido.

The main body of Germans retreating from Taveta took up strong positions at Kahe station and along the Ruwu River, another body entrenched on the Latema-Reata Nek and were only dislodged after the fiercest fighting (March 19th). The Kahe position was turned by van Deventer on the 21st and on the following day the enemy were in full retreat down the line, destroying the bridges behind them. With the capture of Arusha, the occupation of the Kilimanjaro district was completed.

The second phase of the war opened after a brief interval devoted by General Smuts to the organization of the positions gained. It was soon evident that fighting would no longer be confined to one area.

In April, Belgian troops from the Congo, moving via Uganda, entered the German province of Ruanda, situated at the N.E. of the Colony, and Kigali, the capital of that rich and populous province was entered on May 6th. Germany had declared war on Portugal on March 10th, 1916, and forces were moving on the Rovuma River which forms the southern boundary contiguous to Portuguese territory. In May an independent British column, under General Northey, operating in the south-west from Rhodesia and Nyasaland, completed the investment of the German land frontier.

Having finished his preparations, General Smuts detached van Deventer early in April to proceed in a south-westerly direction at right angles to the German railway which was to form his own line of advance. On April 19th van Deventer, "after ceaselessly marching and fighting", and with the loss of most of his transport animals, seized the important position of Kondoa Irangi, where he was heavily counterattacked with superior forces by the German Commander-in-Chief on May 9th-11th. All attacks were repulsed, but it was only after the advance of a second British Column on his left that van Deventer again moved forward.

In the meantime General Smuts had been fighting his way towards the sea. On his left were the Pare and Usambara Mountains which sloped prepitously to the railway at their base; on his right was the Pangani, an unfordable river, running parallel to the mountains, and the strip, about 15 miles wide, between was densely clothed with bush. The main advance was along the Pangani, the main German defences had been prepared on the line of railway and in this way the enemy was manoeuvred out of one strong position after another. Zame was occupied, May 25th; Micocheni, May 30th; Mombo, June 9th; and Wilhelmstal, an important town north of the line, on June 12th. Tanga itself fell on July 7th, after slight resistance, practically completing our possession of the Usambara Railway, although some bush fighting was still required to clear the district of small bodies of the enemy.

Prior to this it had become evident that the Germans intended to retire on the Central Railway, via Handeni, and General Smuts with his main column crossed the Pangani in pursuit at the end of May. The advance was on a parallel line with that taken by van Deventer but 120 miles further east. This column captured Handeni (June 20th), situated at the head of a light railway and defeated the Germans at Lukigura River (June 24th) after an advance of about 200 miles. Difficulties of transport and sickness made a halt necessary, and the British force remained encamped at the foot of the Nguru Mountains till early in August.

van Deventer now moved forward again (June 24th), seized Dodoma, 85 miles to the south, the first point reached on the Central Railway and commenced to push the Germans along the line eastward towards Mpapwa and westward towards Kilimatinde, both of which he occupied in due course. A further advance eastward to Kilossa (taken August 22nd) brought van Deventer into touch with the British main column who had fought its way from the Lukigura, across the Wami River (August 18th), dislodging the enemy force from the Nguru Mountains.

Part of the defeated forces joined the German troops resisting van Deventer's eastward advance along the railway and assisted in the stubborn resistance he encountered at Kilossa (captured August 22nd); the main body retreated from the Nguru Mountains to Morogoro, the last point held by the Germans on this section of the railway and their provisional seat of Government. This important town was occupied by the British on August 26th, and the remnant of the German forces escaped southward to the Uluguru Mountains where preparations for a determined stand had been made. The German force from Kilossa had also retreated south towards Mahenge.

Without any halt to recuperate and to replenish the almost exhausted transport General Smuts continued the pursuit into the mountains , from which the Germans were driven to Kissaki on the Mgeta River. This position was captured on September 15th, and the enemy retired to a defensive line between the Mgeta and Rufiji Rivers, when, pending the reorganization of the attacking forces he was left unmolested.

The capture of the port of Tanga on July 7th brought the naval and military forces into close touch for the first time; an advance was made by combined forces to the southward, the ports of Pangani, Sadani (August 1st), and Bagamoyo (August 15th) were taken, and on September 4th, Dar-es-Salaam, the former seat of Government, surrendered. Naval forces completed the occupation of the coast line by the capture of Kilwa (September 7th), Lindi and Mikindani (September 16th), and Kiswere (September 18th).

Meanwhile a Belgian force about 10,000 strong, under General Tombeur, had seized Usumbura, at the head of Lake Tanganyika on June 8th and, pushing forward, had, in conjunction with the British, cleared the enemy from between the two lakes and completed the occupation of the lakes themselves, the British capturing Mwanza, on Lake Victoria (July 14th-15th), and the Belgians Ujiji and Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika (July 29th) at the lake end of the Central Railway. (For naval fighting in the lake, see p.672). Rolling stock was brought across the lake from the Belgian Congo terminus at Albertville and a systematic advance along the line to Tabora commenced. A Belgian column from Ruanda on the N.E.; the British from Mwanza, due N., and a second British force starting from Kirando, a lake port 220 miles south-west of Tabora, cooperated in this movement. After considerable fighting Tabora fell on September 11th.

In the South-West the third attacking force, under General Northey, had cleared the frontier between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa of the enemy by the end of May, captured New Langenburg on June 8th, 1916, and Bismarcksburg at the foot of Lake Tanganyika. The force then advanced in a N.W. direction through Malangali (where the Germans were routed "in a brilliant little action" July 24th), on Iringa, occupied August 29th, a military station about 160 miles from New Langenburg and 120 miles south of the Central Railway.

Summing up the position in October, 1916, General Smuts wrote, "with the exception of the Mahenge Plateau they have lost every healthy or valuable part of their Colony".

The effect of climate on the health of the troops, the losses of animals and the bad state of the wheeled transport necessitated a thorough and prolonged rest and refit. It was decided to send home all white troops affected by the climate with the result that nearly 12,000 were evacuated. Kilwa, a port south of the Rufiji position was prepared as a base and a considerable force transported there by sea.

The first expansion in the British period was the Babati Road area, laid out as a commercial area on the present market site, surrounded by dwelling sites which were taken up by immigrant Tanzanians who built typical 'Swahili' houses with mud walls and thatched roofs.

By 1934 the main Babati Road lay out had by no means been fully taken up, there were large gaps towards the station, which itself had been built on arrival of the railway in 1929. Water was drawn from the rivers running throught the town; the only piped supply was laid on privately by the New Arusha Hotel. Sanitation was by bucket, collected by gangs of prisoners.

The next expansion was the low density dwelling area to the east, including the golf course. To a sociologist it appeared difficult to justify the eviction of peasant ciltivators living at a density of over 1000 to the square mile to give Europeans space to knock a small rubber ball around. But the town planners pointed out the desirability of having an open area between the low density housing and the peasant cultivation to control the spread of disease, particularly Malaria!.

Arusha was occupied by the British

Arusha was occupied by the British on March 20th, 1916.

The official history reported: 'He [Smuts] resolved accordingly while the greater part of his force would have to stand fast along the Ruvu River during the rains, to detach the new 2nd Division under Major-General van Deventer, which was to move southwards towards Kondoa-Irangi and the Central Railway.

This expedition, numbering 1,200 mounted men, plus 8600 artillery and infantry moved southward from Arusha on April 4, 1916, on the start of what was subsequently described as 'a hell of a journey'. Never have local Weather prophets been more wrong. It rained and it rained and it rained.

After German East Africa became Tanganyika, one of its most significant investors was Kenyon Painter, an Ohio entrepreneur who first came to Arusha on a safari in 1907. He bought 11,000 acres of land outside the town and developed the region's premier coffee estate. He gave the town its first post office, built a church, a hospital, and then an advanced coffee research center at a place called Tengeru, sixteen miles from Arusha. Painter invested eleven million dollars in and around Arusha. His single storey New Arusha Hotel was one of the regions's most noted landmarks, and was headquarters for the Tanganyika Tours and Safaris Company.

Attached are lists of villages and other offices where you may find a circular date stamp. Well, most are circular and almost all are dated. The lists are loosely arranged as follows:

Name as it appears in an early cancel or in the majority of cancels. Many town names, especially in Africa and Asia, have a number of spellings in English. These are ignored. But, if the town name changed significantly, the newer name is in parentheses. Names often changed because of confusing same or similar names in the same colony.

Also, independence led to de-Anglicization, especially if the town name included words such as "fort". If the town is a post office outside of the colony but administered by the colony, that is indicated.

Next is the earliest date "known" of a dated cancel or, sometimes the date of opening. If not from literature, then from my collection. Sadly, most early dates from my collection are not that early.

Then there are letter or numeral killers used alone or in conjunction with a date stamp. Sometimes several different numbers were used, perhaps in different styles. This is a huge field, only touched on here.

Lastly, the location of the village is given (or will later be given) by latitude and longitude. Sometimes this is only approximate, variables including inaccurate old maps, inaccurate new maps, moving of towns, confusion over similar town names, quirky software and my own clerical errors.

The lists are a place to get started. They are incomplete, the degree depending on what literature is available to the author. Focus is on villages with post offices around the turn of the century without attempting to include newer offices. The cut-off date for each colony varies, depending on manageability of the number of offices.

Many of the village marks are rare. Occasionally, only a single example is known. Some offices were open only a few months and have disappeared from modern maps.

TANGANYIKA

[short list, with some names from Northern Tanzania]

Arusha 1922 3s22 36e41

Babati 1935 4s13 35e45

Kondoa 1920 4s54 35e47

Loliondo 1937 2s03 35e37

Mbulu 1920 sl 3s51 35e32

Monduli 1939 3s18 36e26

Moshi 1917 3s21 37e20

Ngare Nairobi 1928

Oldeani 1934 3s21 35e33

Singida 1926 4s49 34e45

Usa River 1929 3s22 36e50

Mount Meru Hospital Rehabilitation Committee

Regional Commissioner's Office

P.O.Box 3050

Arusha,

Tanzania

HISTORY

Mount Meru Hospital was built in 1926 as a military hospital for treatment of causalities in the first world war during Germany colonial in Tanganyika.

Since then it has remained as a regional hospital, and since no any major renovation has been done since it was built, all the buildings there are in bad condition.

The hospital now serves more than 1.6 million residents of Arusha and other visitors who come to Arusha for various reasons including meeting, business, Tourists e.t.c

REHABILITATION PLANS

Arusha regional commissioner Mr. Daniel Ole Njoolay formed a rehabilitation committee and on 29th November 1996 HE Prime Minister Mr. Fredrick T. Sumaye inaugurated this rehabilitation committee.

The first phrase which involved Arusha resident, companies and other organizations who contributed funds and material was completed on 28th February 1998 costing about US $ 130,500/=

The second phase which will cost not less than US $ 111,000/= started on 30th march 1998. That is why we request all Arusha residents from anywhere to contribute in order to reach this goal. Also all other well wishes are welcome.

Please send your contributions to

NBC 1997 (ltd.)

Uhuru Road Branch

P.O. Box 3004

Arusha,

Tanzania

Mount Meru Hospital Rehabilitation Committee

A/C No. 659000520

E -Mail MMHRC

Jep Information Center has donated this space on the Internet.

www.infojep.com/mmhrc/index.htm

Last modified 22-May-99

Arusha, 4,732 ft., 271 m. from Tanga, pop. about 350 (Bloem’s Hotel), is a military station (K.A.R.) with two missions, and is the business centre of a district located on the slopes of Mount Meru, with a considerable white population. In fact, owing to the more generous rainfall on the northern side, the slopes of the lesser mountain support the larger population of the two. In both cases white settlement is hampered by the large number of natives already on the land.

A road (light cars, dry weather only) leads to the S.W. from Arusha to Kondoa Irangi, 167m. and Dodoma, 209m. on the E.A. Central Rly., and thence to Mwaya on Lake Nyasa. 728m. total, and a road runs N. to Longido, 52m., Kajiado, 120m., and Nairobi, 180m. total to the N.

It is proposed to continue the road from Arusha to Kondoa Irangi and Dodoma and the East African Central Railway, i.e. a distance of about 280m. from Moshi.

The soil of the surrounding district is mainly volcanic ash, of great fertility, capable of producing magnificent crops of coffee, maize and cotton

Denys had planned that the safari should depart promptly at 9 A.M. on the morning of 14 November but by 9.05 A.M. he abandoned all ideas of travelling by road to Kajiado in Maasailand. The rains had started with a vengeance and they would simply not get through to their first camp. Hurriedly alternative plans were made for a freight train to take the party instead.

At 2 P.M. the lorries and other vehicles were loaded on to the train. In this highly unorthodox manner the hunters began their safari. They were planning to move southwards to Longido, on to Arusha, west to Babati to the lake of that name where the Prince hoped for good duckshooting - thence to Kondoa-Irangi, Dodoma and Iringi moving westward to Mwenzo and Abercorn to Lake Tanganyika. The rains continued to be phenomenally heavy, which made camping slightly precarious.

The extension of the railway from Moshi to Arusha was completed in 1929. [the line from Tanga to Moshi was started in 1891 by the Germans and completed in 1911].

Published on the occassion of the opening of the Railway on 5th December 1929, by His Excellency Sir Donald Cameron, K.C.M.C., K.B.E., and to commemorate the First Session of the Legislative Council of the Tanganyika Territory at Arusha.

Looking back a short space of years, to that period immediately after the war, Arusha was scarce a hamlet. Shops were few; garages and motor cars not at all. Ox-drawn waggons lumbered along the road to the railhead at Moshi, the journey occupying sometimes more than a week. Arusha was 'in the blue' almost unheard of, but not unsung, for those who had the opportunity of seeing the fertile slopes, the running streams, then unbridged, never tired of praising the scenery and the climate. Thus it was that a few intending settlers came and saw, and having seen staked their claims and are to-day the happy owners of beautiful homesteads and flourishing plantations. Those who see it to-day, with its railway just completed, its up-to-date hotel and its stores, see but the half completed dream of the early settlers. Floreat Arusha !

Arusha is situate approximately 3' South Lat. and 37' East Long. It is exactly midway between Cairo and Cape Town and is territorially the centre of Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda.

The altitude of the township is 4,613 feet above sea level and the surrounding country varies between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. As a background to the township Mount Meru towers its 14,960 feet into-azure skies and-along its slopes are dotted plantations and the huts and. groves of the Warusha and Wameru tribes.

The maximum temperature ranges between 70 and 80 degrees fh. and the minimum between 50 and 60 degrees fh. The hotest months are January and February, and heat is dissipated by the monsoon or " bigrains" commencing about 25th of March. The coldest Weather is experienced from June to August, then follows a spell of mildly warm Weather which continue through the "small rains."

The rainfall is approximately 45 inches for the year, 75 per cent. of which fall during the " big rains."

Established 1869.

Agricultural Implements and Machinery. Tractors. Coffee Macliincry. Dairy Supplies.

Engines and Engineering Supplies. Windmills. Turbines. Pumps.

Hydraulic Rams. Hardware, etc.

A Firm that has given Satisfaction for over 60 years.

G NORTH & SON, LTD.

Head Office: DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA.

BRANCHES,

EAST AFRICA:- ARUSHA, ELDORET, NAIROBI & NAKURU.

SOUTH AFRICA:- PIETERMARITZBURG, HARRISMITH, PRETORIA, JOHANNESBURG & EAST LONDON. RHODESIA:- SALISBURY.

Established 1869.

Existing Plantations ars mainly situated on the Southern slopes of Mount Meru (14,960 ft.), but excellent plantations have also been established on the Western, Northsrn and Eastern Slopes where, on account of soil differences, it was at one time thought Coffee would not thrive. This fallacy has been disproved by the very fine plantations now existing, and with it has been exploded the belief that Coffee would only grow in what was at one time known as the " Coffee Belt." This belt is perhaps still the best producing area on account of the rainfall it enjoys and also on account of its very generous water supply from many permanent rivers.

From the Eastern end of the mountain, the base of which is approximately twenty miles wide, there are the Maji ya Chai, the Usa, the Magadorisho, the Tengeru, the Malala, the Magameru, the Nduruma, the Kidjenji, the Themi [Temi], the Naru, the Narok, the Burka and the Engare OI'motonyi, which cross the main road from Moshi. Higher up in the mountain there are tributaries feeding these main streams, making this area the best watered in East Africa.

This "belt" is, however, not now the exclusive Coffee-growing area that it was. Plantations having been established as far afield as Mbugwe (near Lake Manyara), Babati, Ndereda and near Mbulu; Eighty to One Hundred and Fifty miles west of Arusha, while on the southern slopes of the Mondul range, about twenty-five miles west of Arusha, there is an excellent plantation.

The type of Coffee grown is Arabica; Mocha, and Blue Mountain varieties predominating, but a comparitively new variety known as "Kent's Hybrid" is finding favour and many planters are now planting this variety for its disease resisting qualities.

One great advantage to the young planter is that Coffee in this district bears its first fly-crop at about 2 1/2 years and at 3 1/2 years a crop which in cases have reached as high as 3/4 of a ton of parchment to the acre, while subsequent crops have reached the high-water mark of 1 1/4 tons of parchment to the acre. Such heavy bearing, however, it is advocated should be discouraged, as the trees in after years may suffer, but good soil, altitude and rainfall, or the lack of it, are factors which are largely responsible for differences of opinion in matters concerning Coffee-growing. It is well-known, however, that given the necessary plant food, good rains, etc., the Coffee tree is a most prolific bearer.

It is not intended here to go into the capital necessary to establish a Coffee Plantation, as so much depends on the land to be cleared and indeed on the individual himself, that it is only possible to say that a general figure of £5,000 is quoted as being sufficient in ordinary circumstances to acquire land and to plant up and bring to the bearing stage an area which should bring the investor a good return on the capital outlay, plus a good living, and there is, of course, also the appreciation of land values.

It will be readily understood that a District so prolific for Coffee-growing is also suited to Fruit, and indeed to any plant life. Citrus may be said to almost grow wild, while Tomatoes once planted reappear after the first rains as a weed. With Coffee as the main crop and with transport difficulties in the past, perhaps insufficient attention has been given in the past to Fruit Culture, but where the settler has had an eye on the future, there are fine orchards containing Orange, Lemon, Fig, Guava, Avocado Pear, Apple, Plum, Peach, Lauquat, Paw-paw, Mulberries, Grapes, etc., in flourishing condition, while Strawberries are equal to the best. The Banana is even more prolific than Coffee and forms the chief diet of the local indigenous population.

Roses are generally in bloom the year round and horticulturists will find a veritable Eden in Arusha.

Hitherto planters and settlers have expended all their energies in establishing their plantations and farms, but as these are brought to fruition, fine homesteads are being erected; green lawns appear and a 'little piece of England' is transplanted under tropic skies.

Perhaps much of the equable climatic conditions enjoyed in Arusha are due to the vast snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro (19,760 ft.), the highest mountain in Africa, which lies due East and from whose eternal snows the pravailing winds waft a delightfully cool and health-giving breeze.

If you wish to have a real enjoyable holiday, then go to Arusha and stay at the New Arusha Hotel, where you will obtain Hot and Cold Water in all Bed-rooms, Modern Sanitation, Teak Dancing Floor, Electric Light and really excellent food as well as Golf. Tennis, Big Game and Bird shooting.

IN THE CENTRE OF THREE TERRITORIES: KENYA, TANGANYIKA & UGANDA

and Midway between the CAPE and CAIRO on the All Red Route.

ADDRESS:

TELEGRAMS: "CENTRE," ARUSHA.

LETTERS Box 88, ARUSHA, TANGANYIKA.

Sisal-growing is a coming industry in Arusha and the vast plain lying ' directly south of Mount Meru and bounded in the north by the railway, is imminently suited for Sisal culture. Here there are vast level stretches of land which requires very little clearing and thus saves much capital expenditure. There is ample water, especially in the Kikuletwa River below the confluences of the Maji ya Chai, Usa, Magadorisho, Tengeru and Malala rivers, and there are similar facilities on the Loldiloi below the confluence of the Themi and Kidjenji rivers. Big Sisal interests are already planting up their holdings in this area.

Maize is also a prolific bearer in the district and 15 bags to the-acre may be said to be a good average crop. During 1929 an unprecedented drought was experienced in the low-lying parts of the district and the crop generally was a failure, but in the higher regions around Meru and Kilimanjaro the crop was an excellent one.

Arusha holds the Cup for the best District Coffee Exhibit at the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Kenya Show at Nairobi in 1928.