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LIBRARY
University of California.
Class
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BRITISH AND GERMAN
EAST AFRICA
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KRIIISII ANIMiFRMAN
LASr AFRICA
THEIR l.roNOMIC & COMMERCIAL
RLLATIONS
By
>R. U. BkCOE
• ; IHOkf ^^^ •* IIPPOO Tl« ■'
^MTH ILLUSTRATIONS A>?i; N.AP
NEW YORK
LONo.vlANS, GRLLN & CO,
lOMDON: EDVN AKD APN(UI>
411 t.ihts rtst'V' fi
^.
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BRITISH AND GERMAN
EAST AFRICA
THEIR ECONOMIC & COMMERCIAL
RELATIONS
BY
DR. H. ERODE
AUTHOR OF "TIPPOO TIB"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD
1911
AUrinfU* rtmvedl
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••: •••
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V ^
NOTE
The author was for many years in charge of the
German Consulates at Zanzibfiir and Mombasa.
This volume was written in September, 1910, but
the statistics have been brought up to date as
far as possible.
September, 1911.
228505 ^ ,
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
PAOX
Zanzibar as centre of trade in the old times - - - 1
German and British conquests in East Africa - 4
The London Agreement of 1890 - - - - 5
German East Africa's gradual severance from Zanzibar's
commercial influence - - - - - 8
Corresponding development in British East Africa - - 15
Qeneral points of view regarding the development of (German
East Africa and the two British Protectorates - - 24
CHAPTER n
COMMEROIAL RSLATIONS
Shipping communications, postal and telegraph service - 27
Direct trade between German East Africa and British East
Africa - - - - - - - 31
German transit trade through British East Africa - - 34
Transit regulations > - > - 35
The Eilima Njaro district - 37
The German Lake ports - 45
Direct trade between Uganda and German East Africa - 61
Earnings of the Uganda Railway out of German traffic - 65
The Uganda Railway as a stimulus for German colonial
enterprise . ,. . - - 66
German postal service in transit through British East Africa 67
vii
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER m
BOONOMIC RELATIONS
PAOK
The Congo Act 68
The Act of Brussels - - - - 69
Education of natives - - - 74
Sanitary .-.-.-- 78
PoliticiJ control of natives - - - - - 82
Taxation ------. 85
The labour question • - - - 87
Savings Banks, Currency - - - - - 95
CHAPTER IV
CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT
Coffee 97
Rubber 100
Sisal 103
Cotton 107
Copra - - - - - - 116
CHAPTER V
FARMING IN 1*HB HIGHLANDS
Land settlement - - - - 119
Sheep-farming ...... 125
Cattlcrranching - - - - - - 132
Other live stock - - - - - 135
Ostrich-farming and rearing of silkworms - - 136
Domestication of wild animals - - - - 137
CHAPTER VI
NATURAL PRODUCTS
Native production ------ 140
Game - - - - 143
Minerals -.----- 146
Forests - - - - - - 149
Fisheries - - - - -161
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CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER Vn
MUTUAL KZOHANOI OF KZFEBIINCI
PAOX
Exhibitions- • - - • -152
Mutual visits - - 156
CHAPTER Vm
Future Prospbcts - 159
Appendices A— F (oontaininq Statistics) - - 168
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FAOB PAOI
OLD FRUrr MARKET, ZANZIBAR - frawtupiece
DARESSALAM ...... 10
MOMBASA: THE OLD HARBOUR - - - 30
OVER THE MAU BSOARPMENT, UGANDA RAILWAY - - 42
APPROACH TO FORT TERNAN - 54
SLAVE CARAVAN - - 70
BNTBBBE - - - 110
NATIONAL BANK AT MOMBASA - - - 156
ONE OF THE GOVERNMENT HOUSES AT DARESSALAM - 156
MAP- - - 0^ ^ftd
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LIST OF AUTHORITIES
Andbrson, a. 6. : Our Newest Colony. Nairobi, 1910.
Andbbson, C. a.: Native Labour in British East Africa.
Mombasa, 1909.
EuoT : The East Africa Protectorate. London, 1905.
Gregory : The Foundation of British East Africa. London, 1905.
Johnston: A History of the Colonization of Africa. Gam-
bridge, 1899.
Kbltie : The Partition of Africa. 2nd edition. London, 1895.
Playns : East Africa. Woking (Surrey) and London, 1908-9.
The following official publications, periodicals, handbooks, and
newspapers have been consulted :
The English Colonial Reports and Blue Books referring to British
East Africa and Uganda.
The Administration Reports of the Uganda Railway.
The Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, British
East Africa.
Quarterly Report of thr Progress of Segregation Camps and
Medical Treatment of Sleeping Sickness in Uganda (for the
Quarter December 1 to February 29, 1908).
The Agricultural Journal of British East Africa .
Ordinances and Regulations of the East Africa Protectorate.
The Official Gazettes for East Africa and Uganda.
The Zanzibar Qazette.
The Red Book, 1909 : A Directory of East Africa^ Uganda, and
Zanzibar. Mombasa, 1909.
The East African Standard.
The Gtorman White Books referring to German East Africa.
xiii
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xiv LIST OF AUTHORITIES
Berichte iiber Handel und Industrie-Zusammengestellt im Beich-
samt des Iimem — as far aa they concern German East
Africa, British East Africa, and Uganda.
Deutsches Rolonialblatt.
Die Landesgesetzgebung des deutschostafrikanischen Schutzge-
bietes.
Der Amtliche Anzeiger f iir Deutschostafrika.
Der Pflanzer.
Deutschostafrikanische Rundschau.
Deutflohostafrikanische Zeitung.
Deutschkoloniale BaumwoUunternehmungen. Bericht II. des
Eolonialwirtschaftlichen Eomites.
ABBREVlATIONa
BJ;.A British East Africa.
B.KAC. British East Africa Company.
B.I. British India Steam Navigation Company.
C.O.A. Cotton Growing Association.
D.O.A.L. Deutsche Ostafrika Linie.
D.O.AG. Deutschostafrikanische Gesellschaft.
D.O.AR. Deutschostafrikanische Rundschau.
D.O.AZ. Deutschostafrikanische Zeitung.
G.E.A. German East Africa.
K.B. Deutsches Kolonialblatt.
K.W.E. Kolonialwirtschaftlichen Komite.
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BRITISH AND GERMAN
EAST AFRICA
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BRITISH AND GERMAN
EAST AFRICA
CHAPTER I
INTBODUCmON
About twenty-five years ago, when Grermany and
Great Britain divided East Africa, Zanzibar was the
centre of the trade there, as it had been when
the first merchants of the West arrived there. At
the commencement of 1800 American whalers first
called at the island. In 1830 the American firm
John Bertram settled in Zanzibar, and found there
a large market for their cotton goods and hardware, ^
in exchange for which they exported ivory and ^
rubber. A new impetus was given to the trade of
the island in 1832 when Seyid Said, the ingenious
ruler of Muskat, after having subdued his adver-
saries on the mainland, made Zanzibar his per-
manent residence. To him, East Africa owed its
wealth to the number of people who passed through
the Zanzibar headquarters on their Vay to the slave
1
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2 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
markets of Arabia and the countries of the Persian
Gulf. As an important product for the Occidental
v^marketi he encouraged the cultivation of doyes,
which, first met with by the Arabs at Mauritius,
surpassed in a very short time all other crops on
the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and still form
the principal item in their export statistics. As
early as 1833 the United States made a commercial
treaty with the Sultan, and three years later they
established a trading consulate at Zanzibar. Great
Britain had dose commercial relations with East
AMca, on account of its proximity to India, and
during a few months in 1824 had exercised a Protec-
torate over Mombasa, and established a Consulate.
In 1844 the French followed, and were in great
favour — especially under Sultan Said. In the years
1847-1849, under Captain Guillain, they took a
great part in the exploration of East Afiica.
Shortly afterwards the Hamburg firm of O'Swald
and Co. established themselves in Zanzibar. From
the west coast, where they had been trading, they
sent, in 1846, a sailing-ship to East AMca to get
cowrie-shells, which were used as coinage on the
west coast. The &vourable commercial conditions
they found at Zanzibar encouraged the firm to stay
there, and they acquired a site near the Customs
House, which is one of the best in the whole town.
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INTRODUCTION
In 1859 the Hanseatic States made a treaty with
the Sultan, and established a Consulate under the
management of O'Swald's representative. Some
years later the Hamburg firm, Hansing and Co.
opened a branch at Zanzibar. ^
The opening of the Suez C^nal, in 1869, created
new connections between East Africa and the
Occident. The glorious explorations of the mission-
aries Livingstone, Krapf, and Rebmann, had
awakened an interest in the Dark Continent, and
opened a new field for evangelization. Lay explorers
like Speke and Grant made fiirther discoveries, and
whetted the appetite for colonial acquisition.
The English interest in East Africa grew when,
after Seyid Said's death, in 1861, Great Britain was
called upon to act as umpire between his two sons,
Thueni and Majid, who divided the Sultanate be-
tween themselves, the elder getting the Arabian,
the yoxmger the African possessions. In 1872 the
British India Steam Navigation Company started
a regular service between Aden and Zanzibar. In
1873 Great Britain caused Seyid Barghash to sign
a treaty for the abolition of slavery, and English
influence grew so rapidly that the same Sultan
offered to the Chairman of the British Shipping
Company a lease of all his Custom duties and other
royalties. Still, Great Britain, involved in more
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4 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
urgent affairs, allowed the right moment to pasSi
and left the field open to German oonquesta
The famous voyage of Dr. Peters to East AMca,
in 1884, is well known. He acquired for the
Gesellschaft fur deutsche Eolonisation some treaty
rights with native chie&, for which, on February 27,
1885, an Imperial Charter of Protection (Schutz-
brief) was granted In the same year a German
Protectorate over the independent State of Witu
was declared.
In 1886 Grermany and Great Britain came to an
understanding as to the extension of the Sultan of
Zanzibar's possessions. It was agreed that they
included the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, and the
Lamu Archipelago, in addition to a ten-mile belt
along the coast from Tunghi Bay to Elipini, and
some northern towns. The territory behind the
Sultan's ten-mile strip was divided into two parts,
the northern half being assigned to Great Britain,
the southern to Germany.^
In 1887 the Sultan granted a lease of his main-
land possessions lying between the Umba Biver
and Kipini to the British East Afiica Association ;
in 1888 a similar concession of his territories south
of the Umba was given to the Grerman East Afirican
Company. On July 1, 1890, a treaty was signed
1 "The Red Book," 1909, p. 28.
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ENTRODUOTION
in London between Great Britain and Grermany
which may be regarded as the political foundation-
stone of their respective Protectorates in East Africa.
The result of this agreement was that Germany
withdrew her Protectorate over Witu, and resigned
her claims to other territories north of what is now
German East Africa, receiving in exchange the
definite cession of the country which the German
Company had held so far in lease from the Sultan,
and the island of Heligoland. Great Britain estab-
lished a Protectorate over the remainder of the
Sultan's possessions, which was recognized by
Germany.
The London agreement of July 1, 1890, was a
great disappointment to all those who had an
interest in German colonization. Enthusiasts dreamt
abeady of a huge Grerman colonial empire, and Dr.
Peters and his friends especially found their hopes
sadly chilled when they learnt that the treaties he
had made during his famous Emin Pasha Expedi-
tion were annulled by the fact that the country
over which he had acquired a possible Protectorate
fell under the English sphere of influence. The
Sultanate of Witu was overvalued in its importance,
as was the influence which Germany had secured
for some time in Zanzibar. Having lived for many
years in this place, I heard often enough well-
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6 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
educated visitors express their regret that we had
given up our Protectorate over Zanzibar to acquire
the tiny island of Heligoland, and it always took
a good deal of eloquence to persuade those sceptics
that we never had enjoyed such a Protectorate.
The German Government published a detailed
memorandum on the subject of the Anglo-German
agreement. It was admitted that Zanzibar so far
had been the centre of the East African trade, but
they pointed out that this development was based on
circumstances more accidental than necessary. In
the troublesome slave-raiding times Zanzibar, from
its insular position, was a safer place than any port
on the mainland, and this was the chief argument in
favour of Seyid Said making it his residence. For
the same reason the European firms settled there.
Indian traders kept shops at several places on the
mainland, but their headquarters were in Zanzibar.
From there they got the imported goods for the use
of the natives ; thither they sent the produce of the
interior. The traffic waa done by dhows, which
were able to anchor in the shallowest water. The
increasing importance of Zanzibar led to the creaticm
of steamship communication with India and Europe.
The opening of a cable line in 1879 enabled the
European merchants there to get regular informa-
tion about the fluctuations of the European markets,
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INTEODUOnON
especially in regard to the important London ivory /
market.
Still, it was unnatural, and doubled the cost, to
ship t}ie exported articles first on the coast and
then reload them again in Zanzibar, or vioe versa
in the case of imported goods. Greneral experience
teaches that trade always extends from the islands
to the mainland, not the reverse. Besides, the
Zanzibar roadstead does not offer nearly such a
good anchorage as many ports on the coast. After
all, as the memorandum points out, it was not
Zanzibar that ruled the mainland, but the main-
land that ruled Zanzibar. History has proved since
that those arguments were true, but it needed many
years of hard and often disappointing work to bring
about the economic independence of German East
Africa. And it was, anyhow, a fact that at the
time of the London agreement the German colony,
as well as the English sphere of influence, was
absolutely controlled by the Zanzibar market.
According to a report of the British Consul-
General in Zanzibar, the exports of this island to
Mombasa — ^for the northern ports no statistics were
given— amounted during the period from Septem-
ber 1, 1891, to August 31, 1892, to $205,830, or
about £32,000 ; whilst the exports from Zanzibar to
the German ports represented in the same time a
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8 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
value of about £450,000.^ More reliable statistics are
obtainable since February 1, 1892, and tbe figures
show that from this date to the end of 1892 the
net imports of Zanzibar represented a value of
Bfi. 10,823,082, the net exports of Rs. 6,705,040.
More than 48 per cent, of the imports in Afirican
articles came from German East Africa, 8 per
cent, from the country under the control of the
Imperial British East AMcan Company, 38 per
cent, from the Sultanate itself, and 6 per cent,
from the southern ports of East Africa. Of all
imported articles the island itself consumed only
43 per cent. ; the rest was re-exported, and 56 per
cent, of this was taken by German East Africa,
12 per cent, by the British territory, whilst 17 per
cent, went to other places of the Sultanate, and
15 per cent, to the south.'
The first steps which Germany took to make
her territory independent of the Zanzibar influence
was the establishment of a direct shipping line
between Hamburg and the two principal ports,
Tanga and Daressalam. The first boat of the
Deutsche Ostafrika Linie reached Daressalam on
September 1, 1890, the boats at first running every
eight weeks ; but in 1891 the service was altered to a
1 K.B., 1892, p. 286 ; and 1893, p. 42.
s im., 1894, p. 326.
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INTRODUOTION
monthly one.^ In 1898 an intermediate line was
started, so that a fortnightly service was guaranteed,
and, with some slight moderations, has been kept on
till the present. The line also established, in the
beginning of 1892, direct shipping communications
with India, which had hitherto made Zanzibar the
centre for African trade.
On September 18, 1890, a cable service was
opened in German East Africa which connected
Bagamojo with Zanzibar. Imperial post offices were
established at Daressalam and Bagamojo on Octo-
ber 4, 1890, whilst the German office at Zanzibar,
which had been established there on August 27 of
that year, was abolished in 1891.'
On November 22, 1891, a German company ob-
tained the concession to build a railway from Tanga
to Usambara,* which, though the work went on
pretty slowly, contributed to the development of the
northern part of the German colony, where already,
in the previous year, the Deutschostafrikanische See-
handlung had started business.^ Experiments were
made with cotton, ginger, and copra, and, with the
progress of the railway, niunerous plantations arose
in the hinterland, their chief produce in the first
years being coffee. Near Pangani the Deutschost-
1 K,B., 1892, p. 22. « Ibid., 1890, p. 133.
» Ibid., 1891, p. 631.
« Ibid^ 1890, p. 201, and 1891, p. 395.
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10 BRITISH AND 6EBMAK BAST AFRICA
afnkanische Goaellsehaft had started, before the
Arab rebellion, a plantation at Lewa, where
nearly every possible tropical produce had been
experimented with. Other plantations grew up near
Bagamqjo, Daressalam, and the southern coast places.
It must be admitted that the first results in most
places were not very encouraging ; the general lack
of interest at home in colonial questions handicapped
the development of the young colony, and the
principal drawback from which the country had to
suffer was the unwillingness of the Reichstag to
grant any public money for building railways. So
it was not until the beginning of this century
that a real economic separation of German East
Africa from Zanzibar was noticeable. The great
political events which then took place — the European
crusade against China in 1899 and the rebellion in
German South- West Africa in 1904 — enlarged the
ideas of the home people, awakened interest in
matters abroad, and taught them the great impor-
tance of railways in the colonies. So in 1904
the long-desired central railway from Daressalam
to the interior was inaugurated by a legal Act of
July 1, under which the Imperial Government
grants to the Ostafrikanische Eisenbahngesell-
schaft a concession, and guaranteed an interest
on the building capital. On February 9, 1909,
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INTRODUCTION 11
H.B.H. Prince Adalbert of Prussia turned the first
sod at Daressalam.
In the meantime the Usambara Railway was
also extended, an additional section from Korogwe
to Mombo being opened on February 19, 1905, thus
bringing the total distance from the coast up to
129 kilometres.
An important step in the economic separation of
Grerman East Africa from Zanzibar was the sever-
ance of their monetary unity, which, if not legal, had
existed in fact until 1903. When the German com-
pany acquired their territories in East Africa the
usual coinage there was the Indian rupee. The
close connection between East Africa and India
made it desirable to adopt a similar system, and so
a German rupee was created which differed from the
Indian coinage only in the inscription, and passed on
the East African markets at the same value as the
former. The heavy fluctuations to which a silver
coinage was naturally exposed, and the continual
decrease of the price of silver at the end of last
century, caused the Indian Government to take
legal measmres, with the result that a standard
value of their rupee was created, one sovereign being
declared equal to Ba. 15. The German rupees
benefited by this measure, though the only guarantee
they gave was based on their actual silver value.
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12 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
The Zanzibar Government was therefore fully justi-
fied in deciding, in the beginning of 1903, that in
future no German rupees were to be accepted by
their offices. Just about this time, on April 1, the
privilege of coinage was, according to a new agree-
ment, abandoned by the Deutschostafrikanische
Gesellschaft, and the German Government, to avoid
a depreciation of the German rupees, took immediate
steps to redeem the company's coins with Indian
rupees. In less than a month, at no small cost, about
half a million of German rupees were withdrawn from
Zanzibar to the coast — ^a token of the close com-
mercial relations between these countries. On the
other hand, it was estimated that nearly three-
quarters of the rupees circulating in the German
colony were of Indian coinage.
The German Government stuck to the rupee
coinage, and followed the Indian example by an Act
of February, 1904, which declared the German
crowns (10 marks) and double crowns (20 marks)
as official coinage, with a value of Bs. 7^ and
15. Though after this measure the difference
between Grerman and Indian rupees was a very
small one, based only on the difference of value
between £1 and 20 marks, the former mutual
interchange of German and Indian rupees, which
had made the coast trade so easy, never revived ;
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:^
INTRODUCTION 13
and when in 1905 a bank with the privilege of
issuing notes started business at Daressalam, the
financial separation between the two countries was
complete.
The circulation of the so-called Mombasa rupees
— a coinage in use in the territory under adminis-
tration of the British Company — had already been
prohibited in German East Africa in 1893.^
A more accidental factor in the slackening of the
relations between Zanzibar and the Qerman Colony
was the outbreak of plague in Zanzibar in Septem-
ber, 1905. The German Government, which had
to take strict measures against a spread of the
disease to their territory, issued regulations which,
in the beginning, stopped the dhow traffic between
Zanzibar and the coast altogether; later on only
a few ports were opened for communication, and
among these Bagamojo, in former times the principal
dhow port, was not included. When at last all
restrictions were removed, the dhow traffic never
assumed its former importance.
Between 1899 and 1904 over 2,000 German
dhows called every year at the port of Zanzibar ;
this figure fell in 1905 to 1,455, and to 286 in 1906.
In the following three years the figures were 772,
1,120, and 1,020.
1 K.B., 189S, p. 486.
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14 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
On July 1, 1897, the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie
moved their headquarters from Zanzibar to Dares-
salam, a change which was demanded by the
Imperial Government in consideration of the large
subventions this shipping line received. In an
agreement between the Government and the
Deutsche Ostafrika Linie, dated August 7, 1890,
it had already been pointed out that for shipments
to and from German East Africa no higher rates
could be charged than for shipments to and frt>m
Zanzibar.
In the course of time the other important trading
firms also established branches on the different
coast places, and in 1891 the general manager of
the Deutschostafrikanische Gesellschafb transferred
his residence to Daressalam.
The British Government watched with keen
interest the development of the young German
colony. Their Consul-General at Zanzibar received
in August, 1891, the exequatur for German East
Africa, and for some years a British Vice-Consul was
even residing at Daressalam. From the very
beginning the British authorities realized the
danger which the building up of a German colony
meant to the commercial position of Zanzibar. To
keep its old importance as the centre of trade, it
was therefore decided in 1891 to abolish all import
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J»U — likJP
INTRODUCTION 16
duties in Zanzibar, and on February 1, 1892, the
latter was declared a free port.^ At the same time
a pier and warehouses were erected to fisMsilitate the
loading and shipping. Later on financial difficulties
caused the Zanzibar GoTemment to break with the
free trade system, and in 1899 a general import
duty of 5 per cent, ad valorem was established,
which in January, 1908, was raised to 7^ per cent.
Though it was very doubtful whether this measure
was in accordance with international conventionSi
the Qerman Qoyemment did not protest, because
this further rise of the Zanzibar duties could only
be propitious for their own competing colony* In
Appendix A a statistical list is given which shows
the gradual decline of the commercial relations
between Zanzibar and German East Africa.
It will be interesting to see that German East
Africa, during the years from 1898 until 1902,
received between 51 and 66 per cent, of its total
imports from Zanzibar, and forwarded at the same
time about 62 per cent, of its total exports to that
island. Those figures have diminished in the last
four years to less than 18 per cent, of both imports
and export&
The commercial relations between Zanzibar
and what is now British East Africa were never
1 K3., 1892, p. 207.
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16 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
of such great importance as those which had
existed between the island and the German part
of the mainland. This was natxiral enough on
account of the geographical position. Bagamojo
and Daressalam were much handier than any other
ports for the Arabs who started their expeditions
to the dark continent from Zanzibar, and so it was
no wonder that those places became the starting-
points of the long caravan roads which led to
Tabora, and &rther on past Lake Tanganyika to the
riches of the future Congo Free State. Besides,
the hinterland of Mombasa was by far less attrac-
tive ; the route from there to the interior led first
through the waterless Taru Desert, and further
inland the hostile tribes of Masais and Nandis made
the journey dangerous. So the wealth of the British
sphere of influence lay, in the Arab time, more in its
coast-belt where Malinda and Lamu had risen to
the position of flourishing ports. Lying nearer
to the north, they enjoyed a direct trade with
Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Arabs report that
in the Malindi district about 20,000 slaves culti-
vated shambas, and that on an average between
three and four hundred big dhows a year left that
port for the north, with about 15,000 tons of grain.
Still, Zanzibar was the commercial centre for all the
produce which was needed on the European markets,
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INTRODUCTION 17
and the supplier of most articles for the mainland
trade.
Whilst in the German sphere of influence the
Imperial Govemment started their administration
immediately after the London agreement, in the
British part the British East Afirica Company tried
for some time to administer the coast by themselves,
and even began to extend their influence to
Uganda, but they soon found the burden too
heavy for their shoulders. On April 1, 1893, the
Company handed over the administration of Uganda
to the British Government. In the same year the
Sultanate of Witu was abandoned, and on July 1,
1895, after the Mbaruk Bebellion, the rule of the
Company came to an end altogether. The British
'^ Foreign Office established a direct control over the
East Africa Protectorate, which was effected by the
Consul-General at Zanzibar, who at the same time
got the title of Her Majesty's Commissioner.
During the short time the Company governed the
country they could not do much for its develop-
ment. The limited means they had were a good
deal wasted in ransoms which they had to pay to
slave-owners for runaways, who found an asylum
in Freretown, a settlement founded in 1874 near
Mombasa for the reception of liberated slaves. 'Evexi
when, in 1894, the British Government established
2
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18 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
their Protectorate, the dependence of the country
on Zanzibar remained the same, and all the more so
as the ruler of the Protectorate and the Consul-
^ General in Zanzibar were one and the same person.
A new step in the development was only taken
when the making of the Uganda Railway was
started m 1895.
Interest in Uganda was first inspired by Stanley,
who declared it a splendid field for mission-work.^
The Church Missionary Society sent out a party of
pioneers in 1877, who were followed by a Roman
Catholic Mission. Soon a rivalry between the two
sects arose, and formed a deplorable chapter in the
history of evangelization. Serious troubles followed,
and just at a time of utmost chaos the British East
Africa Company proceeded, in accordance with the
Anglo-German agreement, to occupy the country.
The famous Captain Lugard restored order in an
admirable way, but the Company found their means
too small for governing such a far-away district.
The general feeling in England, especially in
missionary quarters, was against the abandonment
of Uganda, and so, in 1893, the Government sent
the Consul-General of Zanzibar, Sir Grerald Portal,
on an expedition to Uganda, to report on the best
means of dealing with the country, whether through
1 EUot^ "The East Africa Protectorate," p. 28.
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INTRODUCTION 10
Zanzibar or otherwise. Portal advocated the estab-
lishment of an official administration and the con-
struction of a railway. The idea of connecting the
Indian Ocean with Lake Victoria by rail had already
been considered for some years, and was an outcome
of the responsibilities accepted by the British
Government at the Brussels Conference of 1890.
As one of the most effective means for counteracting
the slave trade, the suppression of which was the
object of the conference, the Signatory Powers had
decided upon the construction of roads, and so
philanthropic motives provided a good argument
in addition to the strategic and commercial purposes
for which the railway was to be built.
The Company^ could not afford to make the rail-
way themselves, because, running the first part of
the way through a sterile country, and having few
lateral feeders, it could not be expected to be
remunerative for some time. Finally, in June, 1895,
after Lord Salisbury's return to office as Premier,
it was resolved that the line should be constructed
by the Qovemment itself. At the end of the year
the first rails were laid, and the first train reached
the lake in December, 1901.
All stores and materials were ordered in Europe
1 Eastwood on The Uganda Bailway, in Playne's ''East Africa,"
pp. 195-228.
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20 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
or in India. The total quantities of stores shipped
from the west of Suez aggregated over 305,000
tons, at a cost of £2,306,300 ; and from India 41,000
tons of stores, of the value of about £150,000.
As labourers for the railway construction Indian
coolies were imported, and in the busiest time about
20,000 men were at work. Their needs for food
and clothing caused a heavy increase of imports,
especially in the case of rice, which came direct
from India. The figures were very high, and
reached in 1898 and 1899 over £100,000.^ Naturally
the coolies also attracted a great number of traders.
When the construction of the railway approached
completion, and the coolies and their followers left
the country, the imports declined ; but, on the other
hand, the tendency of the railway to develop the
country soon made itself felt.
Thus Mombasa soon began to be served by direct
steamers from Europe. After 1899 the intermediate
steamers of the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie touched at
the port; in July, 1900, the Austrian Lloyd from
Trieste conunenced running : first bi-monthly, later on
every month. In July, 1901, chartered steamers of
the British India Steam Navigation Company began
calling each month, coming from Europe, and pro-
^ '' Handelflberichte das In. und Audandes." Maikeft, 1904,
SerieV.,No. 11.
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INTRODUOTION 21
oeeding from Mombasa by Zanzibar and Delagoa Bay
to India. In addition, the regular ships of this line
used to call at Aden on their way to Bombay/
A slight interruption of the general development
of the country was caused by an outbreak of plague
at Nairobi, during March and April, 1902, which
made quarantine restrictions necessary on the coast.
The damage done to the traflEic was not very severe,
and a new era began when, in February, 1903, a
regular shipping service was started on Lake
Yictoriai which opened absolutely new markets in
Uganda and the German part of this country for
the Mombasa trade. This gave a further impetus
to the shipping companies, and so from the year
1903 the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie sent their main
steamers to call regularly at Eilindini. In January,
1904, the Austrian Lloyd increased its service to a
monthly one, and in January, 1905, the Messageries
Maritimes began to call at Mombasa. The latter
event was a noticeable step in the solution of
Mombasa's economic subjection to Zanzibar. English
travellers used to patronize this French line because
at that time it provided ithe quickest connection
with London, but they had always to tranship at
Zanzibar, where a British Government steamer
used to sail at the end of every month in connection
1 Colonial Reports, Africa, No. 9, 1901.
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22 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
with the outward and homeward bound French
boats. This service now became superfluous, the
passengers saved a day or two of their time, and
the Government's ship was spared for other work
on the mainland coast.
In accordance with the growing independence of
British East Africa, the important European firms
which had their headquarters in Zanzibar, opened
branches at Mombasa, and many new firms, uncon-
nected with Zanzibar, started business in this port,
which promised to become the gateway for a bound-
less market. After all, it seemed no longer possible
to keep Zanzibar and East Africa under joint ad-
ministration. In 1903, therefore, a separate Com-
missioner was appointed, with his oflEicial residence
at Mombasa. On April 13, 1905, the administration
of British East Africa and Uganda was transferred
frx>m the Foreign to the Colonial Office, and in
1906 the two Commissioners got the rank of
Governors.
German interests in British East Africa and
Uganda are still entrusted to the Consulate in
Zanzibar, but as early as 1899 on account of the
growing German interest on the mainland, a trading
Yioe-Consul was appointed at Mombasa, and ever
since 1903 an officer of the Foreign Office has been
in charge of the Vice-Consulate there. In Entebbe,
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INTRODUCTION 23
the capital of Uganda, a trading Vice-Consulate was
established in 1901.
The statistics in Appendix B, L, show the influence
which Zanzibar formerly exerted on the British
East Africa market, and how it gradually decreased.
It will be remarked that the value of the exports
from British East Africa to Zanzibar fell from 83 per
cent, of the total in 1898 to between 6 and 9 per
cent, during the last five years. The same is the
case with the imports. The statistics of the British
East Africa Qovemment even show during the laat
five years, imports from Zanzibar at a value of only
£1,000 to £2,500, but they do not include the goods
imported via Zanzibar from Europe and Asia.
The various articles of export to Zanzibar are tabu-
lated in Appendix B, II. About 40 per cent, of them
can be supposed to be consumed by the Sultanate
itself, for the rest Zanzibar is still the distributor
of ivory, copal, and cowries. A comparison of
the statistics of British and German East Africa
shows that the latter s connection with Zanzibar is
the closer of the two.
I did not think it beyond the scope of the present
essay to dwell in some detail on the relations be-
tween Zanzibar on the one hand, and the German
and British possessions in East Africa on the other.
A description of the commercial development of
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24 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
these colonies cannot be given without reference to
the predominance which the Zanzibar Island had
enjoyed in the East African trade. The fact that
these territories for many decades had been in
economic dependence on this trade centre shows
that there must be some similarity in their produce
and their needs, and it would be very curious if this
were not the case. They are neighbours, they have
a similar population, a similar soil, and the same
fistuna and flora. So it is obvious that the imported
articles, as required by the natives, are practically
the same, that the same raw. products are exported,
and on all matters of agricultural and industrial
enterprise the conditions must be very similar.
Besides, the two Governments were, as regards the
administration of their colonies, bound by the same
international treaties.
Still, the short historic review which has been
given in the preceding pages shows that Ger-
many and England had to act quite di£Perently
in order to develop their East African possessions.
Germany, in order to set its colony on its feet, had
to break down solid commercial ties sanctioned by
time. Bagamojo, which was in the days of Arab
rule the most flourishing place on the coast, had to
be sacrificed; its shallow waters were good enough
for dhow traffic, but did not offer anchorage for
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INTRODUOnON 26
steamers in direct communication with Europe.
So, in proportion as Daressalam grew, Bagamojo
declined. Tanga soon acquired importance under
the influence of the Usambara Railway ; but this
railway did not for a long time penetrate far into
the interior, and so all cultural experiments which
the German Qovemment made were limited to the
tropical parts of the colony.
England, however, had secured for her influence
the old centre of East African trade. From Zanzibar
Island, where for many years capable Consuls had
looked after British interests, the British Govwn-
ment could watch the fiirther development of the
new mainland possessions, and they interfered only
when the British East Africa Company declared
themselves unequal to any further administration.
But, then, with the energy which characterizes the
British race, they s&rted constructing the Uganda
Railway at an expense of about £6,000,000, an
enterprise which calls for the highest admiration.
As the rails advanced, the colony came gradually
into existence as a civilized country ; the completion
of the line had the effect of opening up the countries
of Central East Africa, and not only did British
territory benefit by the new route, but also large
parts of German East Africa. The fertile Eilima
Njaro district, and the German provinces round
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26 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Lake Victoria owe their rapid development to this
line of oonununication.
The railway brings the traveller in one day's
journey to healthy highlands which, with too much
optimism, were regarded as a paradise for European
settlement. So the coast-belt was neglected, and
at the same time that German pioneers lost their
money in experimenting with tropical products,
heavy sacrifices were made in British East Africa
in order to find out the possibilities of the high-
landa It was only a few years ago that the final
German successes in tropical products opened the
eyes of the English colonists, since when they have
started in the coast districts plantations of which
the German experiments were the modeL
The German colonists were not tempted to make
expensive experiments in the highlands because
there were no means of communication to open them
for settlement. Now that in German East Afi*ica,
also, railways are extending more and more into the
interior, the experiences gained by their British
neighbours will enable the German colonists to
avoid losses, and start at once upon the right lines.
It may therefore be said that, with regard to
tropical products, Germany was the teacher of
England, while on the question of agriculture and
stock-raising Germany can learn much fix>m lier
English neighbours.
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CHAPTER II
COMMEBCIAL RELATIONS
Befobb any details about this reciprocity of in-
terests are given, it may be usefiil to discuss the
commercial relations which exist between German
East Africa and the two British East African
Protectorates.
Direct communication between them is carried
on by a number of shipping lines, amongst which
the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie, already mentioned,
takes the first place. This company, highly sub-
sidized by the Imperial Government, had for many
years a regular fortnightly service between Africa
and Europe, calling at Mombasa and the important
ports of German East Africa. Later on a slight
modification was made, in so far as the bigger
steamers — ^the so-called main line — sailed every three
weeks, and an intermediate line called every six
weeks. In August, 1911, it was decided to resume
a four-weekly service.
Apart frt>m this European service, the line keeps
27
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28 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
up a regular service between East Africa and India,
calling about every fortnight inwards and outwards
at the East African porta In addition to Mombasa,
the port of Lamu, in British East Africa, is one of
their goals.
Since the beginning of 1909 the Imperial Govern-
ment of German East Africa sends monthly one of
its steamers to connect with the French mail: one
steamer of the Messageries Maritimes arriving from,
another one leaving for, Europe on the 27th of
every month. This service is not of much impor-
tance for the general traffic between German East
Africa and British East Africa, but connects with
a regular coast service which existed between the
capital, Daressalam, and the northern ports of
German East Africa, and serves as a connecting
link for the mails.
A coastal service is carried on by a boat of 629
tons register belonging to an Indian merchant of
Zanzibar. She goes from Zanzibar to aU the impor-
tant ports of British East Africa, and calls on her
way at Tanga, nmning about twice a month.
Further connection between the ports of German
East Africa and British East Africa is maintained
by the Bombay and Persian Steam Navigation
Company, flying the British flag, which was started
early in 1909 by some Indians for the purpose of
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GOMMBBCIAL RELATIONS 20
competing with the Deutsche Ostafiika Linie. Their
ships, running hetween India and East and South
Africa, call in British East Africa at Lamu and
Mombasa, and in the German colony at Tanga and
Daressalam. Lately an understanding has been
arrived at between the two competing companies,
with the result that the Indian line will give up
their service in February next%
For a short time, too, the Union Castle Line has
carried on shipping between Mombasa and the two
southern German ports. In connection with their
service to Durban roxmd the Cape, they started in
the beginning of this year to send their ships to the
north as &r as Mombasa, calling on their way at
Zanzibar, Daressalam, and Tanga. Since then it
has been decided that this service is to be given up,
and a direct service of the Union Castle to East
Africa through the Suez Canal will be started instead.
Those ships wiU go as far as Durban to the south,
but will no longer call at the German ports.
Other shipping lines which serve British East
Africa, but not the German ports, are the British
India Steam Navigation Company and the French
Messageries Maritimes, and quite lately an English
cargo line and an Italian company have started a
monthly service to East Africa. All those lines are
of practically no iiiiportaace to the trade between
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30 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
German Eaat Africa and Britifih East Africa ; com-
munication between the respective ports is possible
via Zanzibar, but is used only occasionally for the
mail and by passengers.
On a moderate scale a dhow service still exists
between the German and British ports, which shows,
according to the statistics of the Mombasa Port
Office, the following figures :
Bntand.
OUwed.
Year.
Dhows.
Tons.
Dhows.
Tons.
1906
46
1,043
96
2,111
1906
63
2,273
134
3,466
1907
58
1,688
71
1,364
1908
63
1,688
87
2.103
1909
66
1,346
66
2,921
There is also some overland communication down
the coast between Mombasa and Tanga. Natives
often go this way to save the cost of a sea journey,
and for this march they need about four days. Last
year a postal service was for a short time established
between the two places, runners of the respective
Governments meeting twice a week on the boundary.
The service was soon found superfluous on aooount
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 31
of the regular shipping communicationB between the
two places.
More desirable would have been a direct telegraphic
communication between the German and British
possessions. It is so far done by cable via Zanzibar,
and a word costs the extravagant sum of half a
rupee ( » 67 pfennige). A further disadvantage was
that the cable between Mombasa and Zanzibar was
often interrupted in former times, because at its
entrance into the Eilindini Harbour it went over a
coral reef; so it was suggested by the German
Government that an overland line should be con-
structed between Mombasa and Tanga, and that
each Power should bear the cost of constructing the
section in its own territory. This would have
meant seventy-two miles for the British and about
thirty miles for the German Government. The
former was of opinion that the advantages offered
by the arrangement would not justify the cost, and
so the plan was given up.
At present the Government of British East
AMca is inclined to erect a Marconi station at
Mombasa, which would connect with the wireless
telegraph stations at Pemba and Zanzibar. This
would at any rate offer finisher facilities for the
trade with German East Africa.
The direct trade between German East Africa and
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32 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
British East Africa — Uganda will be dealt with
later — showed in the last year a total value of
£21 ,611. Details are given in the lists in Appendix C.
List I. gives the gradual increase of the imports
and exports to and fix>m British East Africa since
1903, and shows that at this time there were no
imports at all from German East Africa, whilst the
exports to it were only valued at £1,065. In
Lists 11. and III. the various articles of import
and export since 1904 are enumerated. The imports
from German East Africa to British East Atrica are
far higher than those from British East Africa to
German East Africa; they amounted in the last
year to £17,079, or 2*2 percent, of the total imports
to British East Africa; whilst the exports from
British East Africa to German East Africa repre-
sent in the last year, which shows a higher figure
than all the preceding years, only £4,532, or 0*8 per
cent, of the total exports. For the Budget of
German East Africa, which in 1909 had total
imports of £1,697,085 and exports of £655,975,
these figures are simply infinitesimal.
The exchange of goods between the two countries
is chiefly limited to produce of agriculture and stock-
raising. British East Africa forwards to the Grerman
colony a regular supply of ghee (native butter), which
comes from the Jubaland, a country rich in cattle ;
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COMMEBCtAL BfiLATlONS 3^
and since 1904 potatoes have been exported from the
highlands near Naux>bi to the German coast towns.
German East Africa is a supplier of grain — especially
rice — ^to its British neighbour, as well as of various
provisions which are not specially classified in the
statistics — chiefly sugar and salt. It forwards also
some native tobacco, and, since 1905, a regular supply
of seeds and plants for the making of plantations.
Hides and skins, ivory and rubber, which also form
items in the statistics, ought to be excluded fix>m
them, as these articles are only imported to the
British territory for re-export. But even if we
deduct the figures which those articles represent in
the last years — viz., £4,900 — there still remains a
respectable amount which German East Africa con-
tributes to the needs of the British colony.
The overland trade near the coast is of no com-
mercial importance whatever ; it is limited merely to
an occasional exchange of the daily needs of the
natives, and remains uncontrolled. Farther inland
the districts near the boundary are not inhabited
until one reaches Kilima Njaro, which country,
together with the districts round the lake, is the
base of the mutual trade between German East
Africa and British East Africa. On the north-east
of the lake, Uganda has a common boundary with
German East Africa and regular shipping oommuni-
3
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U BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
cations. Here the commercial interests of these
two Protectorates meet.
The commercial relations between the respective
territories would not be important if they were
limited to a direct exchange of goods. The chief
point of interest lies in the part which the Uganda
Railway takes, as a channel for a large percentage
of Qerman East Africa's trade.
According to the of&cial statistics of the Imperial
German Government for the calendar year 1909,
the transit traffic of German East Africa through
British East Africa and Uganda represented a value
of £323,109, or 14 per cent, of the total trade of
German East Africa — £173,013, or 10 per cent, of
the total, applying to imports ; £150,096, or 23 per
cent., to exports.
A detailed table, which shows the gradual increase
of the general transit traffic since 1904, is given in
Appendix D. It will be found that the figures for
the imports, as well as for the exports, for the last
year are nearly three times as high as in 1904.
The German figures can be checked by the British
statistics, which are compiled in Appendix E. The
Custom House at Mombasa keeps detailed statistics
about the export articles, showing separately the
part which Uganda, the Congo Free State, and
German East Africa take; whilst for the import
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 35
only, the total figures of all transit goods are given.
So the value of the German transit export is given
with some accuracyi while the value of the imports
can only be estimated. It can, however, be said
that of all imported articles declared as transit
goods through British East Africa, at least 90 per
cent, go to Qerman territory.
A slight difference which on comparison may be
remarked between the British and German statistics
results from the fact that the former are given for
the financial year, from April to March. Moreover,
the prices of goods, as declared in the Custom House
of Mombasa, differ, of course, from the value which
they represent at the German place of entrance
and exit.
It may not be out of the way to mention here the
legal regulations affecting the transit traffic through
British East Africa.^
Goods imported for conveyance by the Uganda
Railway and declared for transit have to pass
through the Custom House at Kilindini. Kilindini
is the southern and more important of the two
harbours of Mombasa Island. The usual import
duty has to be paid at the place of entry, but will
be refrmded if the goods are re-exported within six
months, at the option of the transit agent, either at
^ The CoBtomB Ordinanoe, No. U of 1910.
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36 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
the place of entrance or the place of exit. A bill
of entry, with detailed descriptions of the merchan-
dises, in triplicate, must be presented by the transit
agent to the proper officer of cnstoma The original
and duplicate is retained by the customs-officer;
the triplicate, marked with a visS by him, is re-
turned to the transit-agent, who forwards it to the
customs-officer at the place of exit.
When goods capable of being easily identified,
which have been imported and upon which duties
have been paid in importation, are re-exported
within twelve calendar months, the duty is also
refunded.
For all transit and re-exported goods only a
charge of 25 cents per package is made. The regu-
lations about transit trade through Uganda are
nearly the same,^ only, as a rule, no refund of
export duty paid on merchandise passing through
the Protectorate is made; but the export duty on
ivory, rubber, and hides, imported into the Protec-
torate fix)m the adjoining territories of German East
Africa and the Belgian Congo, and not declared in
transit, are reduced by the amount of import duty
proved to have been paid.
The parts of German East Africa which owe their
development more or less to the Uganda Railway
^ GoodB in Tranrnt Ordiiuuioe, No. 7 of 1909.
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COMMEBCIAL BELATIONS 37
are the Kilima Njaro and the provinces round
Lake Victoria.
The centre of adminiatration in the Eilima Njaro
district is Moschi; its distance from Tanga is
352 km.| and from Taveta, the English station on
the bomidary^ 43 km. The distance between Taveta
and Yoiy the nearest station of the Uganda Bailway,
is about 80 km. Yoi is situated at mile 103
(km. 165) of the Uganda Railway from Mombasa.
The present head of the Usambara Railway, Same,
is at km. 252 from Tanga, or 100 km. away from
Moschi.^
There was not much trade in the Eilima Njaro
district when first the German Qovemment took it
under its administration, the chief article of export
being ivory, which was mostly brought down to
PanganL Other caravan roads went to Tanga,
Vanga, and Mombasa. A French mission, which
soon after settled on the mountain, chose this route
to the English port, where they had an agent. For
the journey to Mombasa caravans required about
fourteen days, and twenty-three to Tanga."
The establishment of the Qerman administration,
of course, drew the trade more to Tanga, which
^ At the end of March, 1911, the seryioe waa opened as far as
km. 298. Of. K.B., 1911, pp. 453-454.
« K.B., 1894, pp. 478-485.
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38 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
offered the advantage of regular shipping com-
munication, and after the completion of the Usam-
bara Railway as &r as Muhesa, in 1895, several
days on " safari "^ were saved.
But this state of affairs soon changed when, in
1897, the Uganda Railway reached Voi, and the
port of Mombasa was supplied with increased ship-
ping facilities.
I was unable to find reliable figures about the
transit traffic of Moschi through British East Afi*ica
in the years 1898 to 1902. In 1903 the British
statistics show an export of German transit goods
of £6,107, which must chiefly be ascribed to the
Eilima Njaro district, as the shipping service on
Lake Victoria, which opened the north-western
parts of German East Afi*ica, was at that time just
beginning.
In 1904 the figures for exports fix)m Moschi in
transit through British East Africa amounted to
£9,123 ; in the following four years they fell to an
average of between £6,000 and £7,500 ; and in the
last year they grew again to £8,800. The imports
have been gradually increasing from £6,100 in 1903
to £15,000 in 1908, and in 1909 represented a value
of nearly £22,000. The figures for 1910 are still
"Safari,'' a Swahili word of Arabic origin, means both
" march " and " caravan."
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 39
more promising, the imports in the first six months
of the year amomiting to £15,000.
Amongst imported articles, the first place is
naturally taken by cotton goods, which showed
in the last four years an average figure of £5,000.
Hardware in 1909 was imported to the extent of
£1,350, which means, compared with the preceding
three years, an increase of more than double;
corrugated iron shows also a considerable rise.
The total goods imported to Moschi via Taveta
amounted, according to German statistics in 1908,
to 235,043 kg., and in 1909 to 339,858 kg.
The total exports were 113,582 kg. in 1908 and
150,591 kg. in 1909. The principal goods exported
in W09 were :
£
Hides and skins ...
value 4,150
Coffee
„ 2,360
Ivory ..,
„ 2,000
Cotton...
125
Beeswax
„ 123
The export of coffee from the Kilima Njaro
through British East Africa was stopped for some
time by measures which the British Government
took in order to prevent the spread of a disease
which they thought originated in Gennan East
Africa. Coffee imported for local consumption had
to be roasted. If it was introduced into the Pro-
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40 BRrriSH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
tectorate for export — ue., if it was carried in transit
through the Protectorate — ^it was to be packed in
double canvas sacks, in petroleum tins, or in lined
wooden cases, and sealed by the customs-officer at
the place of entry. These restrictions were first felt
to be irksome by the planters, but in coxuse of time
they got accustomed to them. The difference in the
co^t of transport between the Tanga and Mombasa
route was so great that the higher costs for packing
could be easily borne.
Another regulation, which handicaps the trade
between British East Afirica and the ELilima Njaro
in some way, has been issued by the Qerman Qovem-
ment with reference to the import of live stock. To
avoid the spread of disease, it has been ordained
that all live stock entering Grerman East Afirica fix)m
British East Afiica must be imported via one of
the seaports. On numerous occasions an exception
is made to this rule when the Imperial Consulate of
Mombasa recommends it, the condition being, of
course, that these animals are previously examined
by a competent veterinary officer.
From Yoi it is a march of three or four dajrs to
the German boundary. The first station is Bura,
where the Algerian Fathers have a settlement.
From there a plain, nearly waterless in the dry
season, has to be crossed until Taveta, the British
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COMMEBCIAL BEL^TIONS 41
frontier station, with a District Commissioner and a
cnstoms-clerky is reached. /From Taveta it is two
dajTs' march to Moschi, ojpfEilima Njaro. This is the
time in which a regukj/caravan does the '' safari/'
heavy transports requiring, as a rule, a little over a
week. , .
The traffic is mostly done by carts. From Yoi to
Taveta, donkeys — the so-called Wangamwezi speci-
men — are used as relays ; there they are replaced
by oxen. The former service by porters has been
abandoned as a means of regular communication,
the service by carts being a good deal cheaper.
There have been schemes to start a regular motor-
car connection between Yoi and the Kilima Njaro
district, but so far without any result. The chief
obstacles responsible for this fidlure are the bad
state of the roads and the lack of water. The
ground — especially on the English section of the
way — is not firm enough, consisting of loose sand,
and thus offering a bad foundation for road con-
struction. All efforts which the British Govern-
ment has made, and on which it has spent large
sums, suffered £rom this geological formation. The
roads in the Moschi district, with a subsoil of day,
are in a better condition.
Last year a well-known German, who has been
trading in British East Afirica for over ten years.
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42 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
tried to float a company, with a capital of £5^000, to
run a motor-car service on a big scale. Nothing has
been heard since of the scheme, and so it is to be
supposed that he could not raise sufficient money.
The idea would have been a good one if it had
been started ten years ago ; but the present develop-
ment draws the Kilima Njaro trade from the
Uganda Railway away to the Usambara Railway.
It is now only a march of three to four days from
Moschi to the rail-head, and at the end of next year
the line will probably have reached this place. A
good deal of the Moschi trade — according to official
estimates, about 20 per cent. — is already diverted to
Tanga, and it is only due to the wise tariff policy of
the Uganda Eailway that this line can still compete
with the Usambara Railway.
The following statistics may be of interest :
A cart carries about 1,200 lbs. For one hundred-
weight Bs. 3^ to Rs. 4 are charged from the Kilima
Njaro down to Voi. For the up traffic the rate is
Rs. 6 to Rs. 7. This means about Rs. 75 a ton for
exported, Rs. 130 for imported, goods, from or to
Voi. The rates between Moschi and Same, the
present terminus of the Usambara Railway, are
nearly identical The Usambara Railway has only
three classes of trade goods — ^general, special No. 1,
and special No. 2. General goods are charged
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<
<
Q
<
'J
H
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COMMEBCIAL RELATIONS 43
3 cents ^ per 100 kg. per kilometre, or, if loaded in fuU
waggons, 2.5 cents ; special No. 1 pays 1.5 or 1.25
cents; special No. 2, 0.75 or 0.6 cent. Special
No. 1 includes imported goods for the use of natives,
agricultural implements, building materials, and
hides. Special No. 2 comprises produce of planta-
tions, agriculture, and live stock. For ivory an
additional charge of 50 per cent, is made to the
rate for general goods. The distance between Same
and Tanga is 252 km. This means, approximately,
for general trade goods R& 75 or Bs. 62.50, for
special No. 1 Bs. 37.50 or Bs. 31.25, and special
No. 2 Bs. 18.75 or Bs. 15.
The Uganda Bailway has seven different tariff
classes and charges, and charges the following rates
per 100 lbs. per mile :
Special class, 0.28 cent ; intermediate, 0.45 cent ;
first, 0.60 cent ; second, 1 cent ; third, 1.40 cents ;
fourth, 2.50 cents ; fifth, 5.50 cents.
Full waggon-loads of certain country products
are charged special cheap rates for a ten-ton truck.
Most of the exported articles firom the Moschi
district belong to the special class; beeswax is in
the first class, ivory in the second class.
Amongst imported articles, cotton goods are
charged in the second, hardware and building
^ 100 oentsa 1 rupee in Uganda and Britiah East Africa.
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44 BBinSH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
materiab in the first, agricultural implements in
the special class.
So the transport of the principal trade goods of
Kilima Njaro district is approximately charged as
follows :
BetwMB Toi and
BetmmiSam*
HombMa (par
ton).
(p«rt^
Bi.
Bi.
Hides
6.60
37.60
Skills
6.60
18.76
Coffee-beans
6.60
18.76
Beeswax
13.93
71.00
Ivory
127.00
lia.60
Cotton clothes ...
23.08
37.60
Boilding materiak
13.93
37.60
Hardware
13.93
37.60
Ajpicoltural implementa
6.60
37.60
So the only article which is transported cheaper
on the Usambara Railway is ivory, which can easily
stand a high-freight rate. On all the other goods
the difference of transport is greatly in &vour of the
Uganda Railway, and it is no wonder that traders
and farmers prefer to bear the discomfort which the
transit through a foreign country naturally inyolves,
instead of paying the extravagant charges of the
home railway.
Those statistics are, of course, only accurate for
places which are equidistant fix)m the two railway-
stations. The farther the Usambara Railway pro-
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 45
oeeds, the more its chances grow of securing the
trade of the district. A new tariff is now under
consideration, and it is to be hoped that it will
be more specialized and will pay regard to the
capacity of every article to bear higher or lower
rates.
The total traffic of the station at Voi in 1909-10
was 587 tons outwards and 1,235 tons inwards ; and
the railway authorities estimate that about 1,000
to 1,200 of the total were to and from Eilima
Kjaro.
The first German station on Lake Victoria, Bukoba,
was founded by Emin Pasha in 1890. In the
following year the station at Muansa was estab-
lished.^ The headquarters were first at Bukoba,
but at the beginning of 1893 they were transferred
to Muansa,' and in 1898 a sub-station was founded
near the English boundary at Schirati.
In 1891 and 1892 the executive committee of the
German antiHEdavery lottery sent several expeditions
to the lake, with the intention of building a wharf
there and of starting a regular boat-service.* The
plan was given up, as it was found that there was
hardly any slave-trading to be suppressed on the
1 K.R, 1891, pp. 185 and 204. ' INd.. 1894, p. 14.
> Ibid., 1891, p. 341 ; and 1892, pp. 438443.
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46 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
lake ; but, as a final result, an aluminium steam-
launch was sent up to Muansa, which remained at
the disposal of the chief of the station.
Already, in the first year, very favourable reports
were sent from the stations about the agricultural
possibilities of the country ; wheat, rice, potatoes,
live stock did well in the Muansa district ; at Bukoba
coffee was the chief produce.
Friendly relations were maintained with the
English authorities in Uganda. In December,
1890, we find already that the Commander of
Bukoba and the manager of the British East Afiica
Company issued a joint regulation ^ about the boat
traffic on the lake. During the troubles which soon
arose in Uganda the German officers granted their
neighbours valuable assistance. In February, 1892,
Catholic missionaries who had to flee the country
found an asylum at Bukoba." In October, 1892,
the Commander of this station reports that he
assisted the British officers with a loan of 200 gora
of cotton goods.®
The general caravan road to the lake went from
the coast past Mpapua and Tabora to Muansa ;
from there communication was carried on by native
canoes to Bukoba and the English station Kampala.
1 K.B., 1891, p. 261. 2 jind., 1892, p. 313.
* Ibid., 1893, pp. 111-112.
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 47
In 1892 a regular postal service was started to the
coast, under the management of a German firm, in
contract with the Imperial Government. Their
expeditions went once a month, and took ninety days
to get from the coast to the lake.^ A direct route,
which went from Kampala through British territory
over Lake Baringo, was not much in favour on
account of the hostility of the native tribes ; so nearly
all trade, even from Uganda and Unyoro, went
through the German colony, their chief export
being ivory, their imports cotton goods, beads, and
wire.
In 1893 the Irish trader Stokes, who had a
settlement at Muansa, sent frt)m there to the coast
ivory of the value of nearly £20,000, which he had
brought from the Congo Free State; in 1899,
520 caravans, with 3,419 porters, passed the station
of Bukoba on their way from and to the western
provinces of Uganda.
But, for the same year, the Commander of
Muansa had to report a decline in the trade from
the German to British territory. At the time of
his report, early in 1900, the terminus of the
Uganda Railway was still a march of fourteen days
distant from the lake. He mentions that a load
from the German coast to Muansa cost at that time
1 K.B., 1892, p. 263.
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48 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Bs. 35y and needed a transport time of ninety days,
whilst the same load was brought to Entebbe in
tweniy-one days for a charge of Bs. 25.^
In 1899 the value of goods transported from
Uganda to Mombasa amounted already to £30,272 ;
in 1900 to £25,385.
A complete change was caused when the adminis-
tration of the Uganda Railway started a regular
shipping service on the lake. In the early days the
trade was done by Waganda canoes and dhows, but
a great number of these were destroyed during the
political troubles ; later some European sailing-
boats, and, since 1895, even an English steamboat,
handled the traffic. The first steamer of the rail-
way, the Winifred, with a displacement of 700 tons,
and 550 h.p., was launched in February, 1903, but
only served the British ports. Another steamer of
the same size, the SyhU, was added early in 1904,
and called also at the German ports. Both ships
carry 150 tons of cargo, and have accommodation
for ten first-dass and eight second-class passengers.
In 1906 followed the Clement Hill, of 1,100 tons,
250 tons cargo capacity, and accommodation for
sixteen first and twelve second-class passengers.
Her engines have 685 h.p. A special cargo boat, the
Nyanza, was launched at the end of 1907, with
^ K.B., 1901, p. 484.
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 49
550 h.p., a displacement of 1,146 tonSi and 525 tons
cargo capacity. All these ships have twin screws,
and run between nine and ten miles an hour. A
tug of 100 tons, Percy Anct€7*son, with 60 h.p., and
a speed of seven to eight knots has been running
on the Lake since December, 1907.
With these ships the Uganda Railway carries
on a weekly service between Port Florence, the
terminus of the line, and the Uganda ports. Three
or four times a month, too, trips round the Lake
are made, and the German ports Schirati, Muansa,
and Bukoba, are called at
According to a report of the manager of the
Uganda Railway, in the second half of 1903, 28 tons
of rice were landed at Port Florence, of which a
good deal was German produce. The regular trans-
port from the German ports down the Uganda
Railway started, of course, only in 1904. Since, as
the statistics in Appendix F show, a remarkable
increase is to be noticed
The Assistant-Chief of the German Customs, Herr
Broschell, who came at the end of 1904 on a tour of
inspection to the German Lake ports, wrote a very
&vourable report on the commercial possibilities of
this part of the colony, and paid in it a high tribute
to the work done by the railway administration.
He praises their courtesy in tariffing, and mentions
4
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50 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
that, to fi^tcilitate the loading, they had procured
several big iron lighters at Muansa and Bukoba which
cost £1,000 each. They had also offered to erect a
pier and warehouse at Muansa, and to construct a cart-
road at Tabora, in order to attract the trade from
there. The pier was consequently built soon after-
wards by the railway for the German Government.^
At the time of Broschell's report, the traffic on
the Lake was done by the Sybil and Winifred and
about 20 dhows. As exported articles he mentions
hides and skins, ground-nuts, rice, simsim, cotton,
live stock, and samlL The wages for labourers
amounted to B& 2 and B& 3 a month, and this
made it possible, in spite of the cost of transport,
for ground-nuts to be cultivated on the Lake at a
paying rate, which was impossible on the coast on
account of the high price of labour. The trade
in hides and skins had already caused two European
firms at Mombasa to appoint agents at Schirati,
and the Deutschostafrikanische Gesellschaft had
settled at Muansa since 1898, and had transactions
to the extent of Bs. 250,000. The well-known
merchant Alidina Yisram, who used to open
branches at every promising place in the interior,
was estimated to do at Muansa a yearly business
of Ba. 800,000, importing about Bs. 200,000 and
exporting Ba. 100,000 worth.
1 K.B., 1905, pp. 236-238.
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
51
A Grerman fiurmer had settled two days inland
from Mombasa, and did good work in expanding the
cotton cultivation among the natives. He gave
them free seed, and bought their crops for 4 pice
(about Id.) a pound unginned. Another &rmer went
in for live stock, and started a rubber plantation.
In the Bukoba district twenty-three trading firms
were already settled, amongst these four European
houses, three of whom dealt in hides and skins.
There was, in addition to the above-mentioned
articles, a small export of coffee, which grows wild
in the Hinterland.
The Custom duties collected in the Lake ports
showed the following figures :
Y«M.
Haania.
SchintL
BnkoU.
Bi.
Ba.
Bm.
1900
120
240
6
1901
888
262
102
1902
7,886
2,688
2,686
1903
20^606
6,604
7,197
From April to August, 1904, the following earn-
ings were reported :
Mmnw.
Sohinti.
Bukotw.
Ba.
Ba.
Ba.
April
May
4,216
967
4,413
S,936
1,490
1,998
June
8,851
826
8,626
July
6,886
1,782
8,702
Auguit
7,S68
7,868
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52 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
And from September to November the average sum
which the Custom House at Muansa collected every
month was valued at Rs. 11,000, and, looking at
this figure, it has to be taken into consideration
that some of the important exported goods, such as
grain, are free of duty.
The export of the principal articles amounted in
the calendar year 1903 at Muansa to 71,185 marks ;
Schirati, 19,768 marks ; and Bukoba^ 22,184 marks ;
or a total of £5,657. The import to Muansa to
208,792 marks, Schirati to 43,025 marks, and Bukoba
to 86,432 marks, or a total of £12,912. The further
development of the transit trade from and to the
German Lake ports can be seen in Appendix D.
The chief articles of export were from the begin-
ning hides and skins. The number exported from
Muansa during the calendar year 1903 represented
a value of £1,200, those from Schirati £600, and
from Bukoba £1,200. In 1904 the exports fix>m
Bukoba amounted already to a quantity of 300
tons, valued at £21,500 ; the corresponding figures
were for Muansa 277 tons, valued at £12,900,
and for Schirati 44 tons, with a value of £3,100.
The highest figures were reached in 1907, viz. :
Flaoe.
e.
Tims.
Muansa
Bukoba
Schirati
44,863
22,062
3,188
748
298
43
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
53
The year 1908 shows a slight decrease, owing to
the general depression of the American market.
The figures for 1909 are not yet known in detail,
but are assumed to be equal to those of 1907.
Less in value, but higher in quantity, is the export
of ground-nuts, especially from Muansa — viz. :
T«M.
Tons.
e.
1904
679
1,764
1906
1,044
4,994
1906
2,402
16,613
1907
677
6,172
1908
1,244
10,602
Schirati exported yearly between 100 and 500
tons, and since 1907 Bukoba has also shipped some
hundred tona
The latter port uses the Uganda Railway
especially as a conveyance for coffee, of which,
since 1905, average quantities of 200 to 300 tons,
at a value of £2,500 to £4,500, have been exported.
The quantity of cattle in the Muansa district is
conducive to the export of samli, which averaged
in the years 1900 to 1907 between 100 and 180
tons, at a value of £2,000 to £5,000 ; 1908 shows
a slight decrease.
The export of wild rubber from Muansa ranged
from 12 to 20 tons; the figures for simsim rose to
23 tons for 1906.
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64 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Schirati exported in 1907 27 tons of hemp at a
value of £600.
The export of ivory fix)m the German Lake ports
through British' East Africa has never reached a high
figure. The ivory from Uganda goes, of course,
direct to the coast, since the completion of the
railway, and so do the greater number of the tusks
coming fix)m the Congo State. Ivory is, besides,
an article which can stand a long transport by
caravan, and so is not in such need of rapid transit,
the more so as it has to pay the highest tariff.
Still, Bukoba exported in 1908 nearly a ton, at a
value of £900 ; Muansa, 360 kg. at £400 ; and
Schiratii 203 kg. at £260. According to English
statistics the German ivory export in transit
amounted in the financial year (April to March)
to—
1907.
1908.
1909.
£
£
£
965
2,076
2,462
And during the months April to July in 1910 to
£707. A part of this came from the Kilima Njaro,
but most was exported from the Lake ports, among
which Bukoba takes the first place. Probably a
good deal of this ivory is the produce of the Congo
State.
Beeswax has formed an article of export from the
Lake ports, since 1905, when Muansa started with
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• •••.•• •
• •••/•• •
• • • •/ • • •
• • • • • ••
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COMMERCIAL BBLATIONS 65
shipping 174 tons, at a value of £18,000. In 1907
the highest figures were reached with 323 tons,
of £33|500 value, fix)m Muansa, and 43 tons, of
£4,500, from Bukoba. The British statistics show
for the financial year 1907 a total German transit
value of £43,970, which decreased in 1908 to
£22,293, and in 1909 to £8,982. The decline is
mainly due to the shortage of produce in German
East Afirica; but the principal point which is
responsible for the decrease of the transit through
British East Africa is the dislocation of the traffic,
caused by the construction of the Central Bailway
from Daressalam. The centre of the wax produc-
tion in German East Africa is the Wanyamwezi
country round Tabora, which, until 1907, used to
send its produce to Muansa. Since the rails have
reached Mrogoro (km. 209) it seemed more profit-
able to send this article, which is easily transported
and, owing to its high value, can bear the transport
costs, to the German coast. A similar experience
has been met with in hides and skins, with the
exception that these articles, the relative value and
weight of which are not equally favourable, remain
more under the influence of the nearest railway
communication. So the transit of hides and skins
shows in its quantity as yet no new remarkable
decrease ; but the &ct that the export from Muansa
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56 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
sank from 748 tons in 1907 to 437 tons in 1908,
whilst in the same time the export yia Daressalam
rose from 83 to 47 tons, is a proof of the growing
influence of the Central Railway.
The same remarks apply to the principal imported
articles — ^viz., cotton goods. The import via Muansa
fell from 681 tons in 1907 to 310 tons in 1908, and
it may be admitted that this decrease was principally
due to the bad commercial conditions on the Lake,
caused by the shortage of exports in hides and
skins on account of the American crisisi the conse-
quence of which was an impoverishment of the
natives, who could not afford to buy imported
clothes at the former rates. But as at the same
time the imports via Daressalam increased from 481
to 542 tons, it may be concluded that a good deal
of the trade goods, which before found their way
to the Colony over the Uganda Railway, were
brought to the market by the Central Railway.
Also, all the travellers to and from Tabora and
Lake Tanganyika, especially the German officers
stationed there, frequented the route through British
East Africa only until about 1906, since when
they usually travel direct overland from and to
Daressalam.
The British import statistics show a transit of
£189,647, £157,020, and £228,002, from 1907 to
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 57
1909, and it can be taken that at least 90 per cent,
of this was destined for German East Africa. The
total imports into German East Africa amounted
in those years, roughly speaking, to £1,190,000,
£1,289,800, and £1,697,000.
This shows that, though the rate of transit was
somewhat higher in 1909 than in previous years,
it fell far short of the total of the imports.
The rails now reach as far as Dodoma at km. 471,
and in the middle of 1912 Tabora (km. 850) will be
reached.^ So, by-and-by, the German transit trade
through British East Africa will show a most re-
markable decrease, at least in the percentage of the
total trade of the German colony. The quantity and
value of goods transported through British East
Africa will not sink in the same way, because every
year the development of the Lake districts will
make further progress.
Two articles especially, which in the last year
have been successfully cultivated on the Lake, will
depend for some time on the facilities offered by the
Uganda Railway — ^viz., cotton and rice.
The export of cotton from Muansa has increased
from 10 tons in 1907 to 21 tons in 1908, and 22 tons
^ At the end of May, 1911, the rails had reached km. 664-666.
Cf. K.B.t 1911, p. 463. Details about the constmction of the
Central Bailway, together with a good map, are given in K,B.f
1911, pp. 273-276.
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58 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
in 1909. For the first six months of 1910 an export
of 11 tons, of a value of £885, is reported.
More striking still is the increase in rioe exported
from that port. It represented in 1904 a figure of
432 tons, which fell in the following year to 387 tons ;
but since then has shown a gradual rise to 698, 752,
and 794, until in the last year it fell again to 345 tons.
In the first six months of the current year 265 tons,
at a value of £2,000, were exported. The shortage
in export is not due to the shortage of production,
but to the fact that a good deal of the article is
used locally, especially in the gold-mines of Sekenke ;
even the Tabora market is provided with rice from
Muansa. A new impetus in the cultivation of rice
has been given by the Deutsche Nyanza-Schiffiihrts-
gesellschaft, which started husking-works at the
beginning of this year. They have twelve different
machines, which are worked by steam. The firing
is done by wood and husks. According to informa-
tion which I owe to the courtesy of the manager of
this company, they exported during the time from
February to August last 200 tons of white rice into
British territory, whilst 150 tons were sold locaDy.
Most of the export went to Jinja, in Uganda ;
smaller quantities to Nairobi and Mombasa. A good
deal even goes in transit from Muansa through
British East Afirica to the German Coast ports. The
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 50
total transit amounted in the time from April, 1909,
to March, 1910, to 763 cwt., at a value of £243.
The rice is more highly valued than the beet
Indian sort
The exports to the coast will increase further,
since the Uganda Railway has reduced the freight
rates. For a ten-ton truck, loaded with grain, seeds,
and similar country produce, from Muansa to
Mombasa, Rs. 348.75 are charged according to the
tariff. At the request of the manager of the
company, it has been decided to give them a
reduction of 40 per cent. The production of the
Muansa district is supposed to be 4,000,000 lbs.
a year, but could easily be many times more. The
&ctory works ten hours a day, and prepares in
this time 6,000 kg. white rice out of 10,000 kg.
husked rice.
The company keeps a flotilla of three steam-tugs
and two iron lighters, which are sent to the smaller
Lake ports to carry the native produce from there
to the &ctory. They also have a steam-launch for
passenger traffic, and two more steam-boats are in
course of construction. The manager is fiiU of
praise for the assistance he receives from the
Uganda Railway. The company's boats have been
brought up by this line, and engineers of the rail-
way have fitted them out at Port Florence, where
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60 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
also all neoessary repairs are made at rates which
could . not be cheaper at home. This shows the
keen interest which the Uganda Railway has in
keeping the Muansa district as a regular feeder.
On the other hand, it is understood that the
Nyanza-Schiffahrtsgesellschaft limit their shipping
to the German part of the Lake, and do not interfere
with the direct traffic to Port Florence.
The gold-mines at Sekenke, about a week inland
from Muansa, have still to be mentioned. They have
been working since 1906, in which year an export
of 80 lbs., at a value of £1,600, is first reported
by the British statistics. Last year a new stamp,
worked by steam, has been erected, since when the
exports show a noticeable increase. In 1909, 1 11 kg.,
and in the first half of the current year 166 kg.,
have been treated, which passed over the Uganda
Railway. As the fireights are very high, it is likely
that the mines will soon ftdl within the sphere of
influence of the German Central Railway. A similar
change has taken place with the gold in the
Congo State at Kilo, near Lake Albert. It was
shipped during the years 1906 to 1908, via Uganda
and British East Africa to the East Coast, but since
then it has been found cheaper to send it directly to
the Atlantic.
The probable future development of the Grerman
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS 61
transit trade through British East Africa will be
dealt with in a later chapter; here it may only
be mentioned that Muansa will gradually fSall under
the influence of the Central Railway, especially if
a good road, suitable for motor-car traffic, be con-
structed between Muansa and Tabora. There is a
rumour that a contractor, who had experience with
motor traffic in South- West Africa, is floating a
company for this purpose. On the other hand, the
trade of Bukoba has a great future, and will for
some time depend on the Uganda Railway. The
Hinterland of this port, Ruanda and Urundi, is very
fertile, and offers a great field for agriculture and
stock-fiuming. The natives there are intelligent
and more adaptable to cultivation than the gener-
ality of African tribes.
The direct trade between the German Lake ports
and the adjacent British territories is of but little
importance. There is no overland traffic at all
between the Schirati district and British East Africa,
the boundary being closed on account of the sleep-
ing-sickness, which is endemic there.
The overland trade between the Bukoba district
and Uganda is supposed to be limited to a yearly
value of about £200. It passes through the military
station at Kifumbiro, and consists chiefly of small
quantities of salt and of bark clothes, the former
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02 BRITISH AND GBRMAN BAST AFRICA
being exported by the natives in exchange for the
latter articles. Occasionally also some ivory is
exported. The custom duty has to be paid at the
Custom House at Bukoba, and the station of
Eifumbiro controls the passaga The German
Yice-Gonsul at Entebbe is of opinion that there is
besides some occasional smuggling of cattle fix>m
the German territory.
The regular shipping service carried on between
the German and British ports by the railway boats
has already been mentioned. Apart from this, a
dhow traffic is done on a moderate scale. The
Custom Office at Schirati reports for 1909 the
following number of dhows between this port and
British places:
Glerman dhows : entered, 37, with 749 tonB ; cleared, 37, with
360 tons.
English dhows: entered, 34, with 497 tons; cleared, 26, with
388 tons.
The corresponding figures for Muansa were : sixteen
German dhows, at 546 tons, arrived ; and thirteen
at 444 tons, cleared ; no British dhows.
Bukoba : one German dhow, at 60 tons, entered ;
two, at 80 tons, cleared Twenty British dhows, at
737 tons, entered ; twenty-two, at 780 tons, cleared.
The total imports firom German East Africa into
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COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
63
Uganda, and vice versa the exports, were according
to statistics of this Protectorate :
1902.
1908.
1904.
1906.
i9oe.
1907.
1908.
1009.
Imports
Sxports
896
!
1,782
I
1,898
%
1,072
!
2,798
!
A
279
2.604
A
4,726
2,716
1,817
2,862
In the figures for export, the transit trade
through the Protectorate is included ; of the pro-
duce of the country itself only a very small part
went to (German East Africa, and in 1909 native
mats at a value of £57, and 424 gallons of simsim
oil at a value of £57i and some cotton-seed were
exported to the district of Muansa and Bukoba.
Besides, some furniture, which was made in an
Indian joinery at Entebbe, for the district and
post ofiSces at Muansa, was exported, of the value
of £490 in 1908, and X168 in 1909.
The exports from German East Africa to Uganda
consist mainly of rice and cattle. The figures
were —
1907.
1908.
1909.
Bice
Cattle
Owt
6,111
Hatd.
326
2,832
«
369
Owt
7,006
HMd.
1,023
3,166
£
1,167
Owt
3,890
Hwd.
100
£
1,396
£
138
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64 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
The sums which the Uganda Barilway earns fix>m
the German transit traffic can be seen in the lisfc
in Appendix F, which gives the gross receipts
derived from bookings to and from German Lake
ports since the inauguration of the Lake steamer
service. The idea which it gives is not absolutely
correct, because it shows only the goods actually
booked to and from those places. So, for instance,
if a traveller first takes a ticket to Nairobi, and
proceeds thence from there to a German Lake port,
the statistics give only the price of the ticket from
the last place, though in most cases he has used
the whole line for his journey. Further, goods
which have been shipped by dhow from a Grerman
Lake port, and reach the railway only at Port
Florence, do not appear in the statistics, nor do
those goods which have come up the line and go
by dhow to German Lake ports. The figures thus
lost in the statistics of the German transit trade
on account of the dhow shipping were, according
to a report of the Grerman Consulate of Mombasa,
about 2,000 tons in 1904 and 1,500 tons in 1905.
Since, as has been shown already, the dhow traffic
has decreased more and more.
The German Government paid to the Uganda
Railway for official goods sent up to their stations
through their Mombasa agents —
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pa^
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COMMERCIAL KELATIONS
65
Ba.
In 1907-8 (March to April)
... 19,800
In 1908-9
... 22,960
In 1909-10
... 13,060
The total groBs receipts of the Uganda Railway
are compiled in Appendix F; and the percentage
of revenue given by the diflFerent countries that
the railway serves are, according to the last
Annual Report of the Chief Accountant, as follows :
1904.
1905.
190e.
1907.
1908.
1909.
British East
Africa ...
64
47
48
46
42
60
Uganda and
the Congo
German East
32
32
28
30
37
30
Africa ...
14
21
24
26
23
20
So we find the amazing fitct that the British
railway is based for one-fifth of its financial suc-
cess on the trade of the neighbouring (German
colony, and the latter owes, as the statistics in
Appendix D show, approximately the same per-
centage of its trade to this means of communi-
cation.
It may further be pointed out that all those who
use the Uganda line for travelling to and from the
Xilima Njaro and the German Lake ports usually
have to stop some days — sometimes over a week — in
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66 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
British East Africa, to wait for the next communi-
cation. That means a good deal of money which
residents of German East Afirica spend in the
hotels and shops of Mombasa, or wherever they
may break their journey.
The beneficial influence which the Uganda
Railway had on the development of the German
East Afirican trade could not, of course, be under-
estimated by the Grerman authorities. They learnt
that broad-minded investments in new countries
were paying ; and if in the first year this institution
was worked at a considerable loss — and even up
to the present only a moderate interest is earned
on the capital expended — it pays and justifies its
existence in a hundred different ways. The revenue
from Customs duties is increasing hx>m year to year ;
the taxation of natives in the most distant districts
makes continual progress ; the country is pacified ;
the slave-trade is suppressed ; diseases and famines
can be combated easily ; flourishing towns have
been founded in the interior; new products have
been made accessible to the markets of the world ;
and scores of settlers have found a new home in
the new country.
So the results of this railway were necessarily a
stimulus for German enterprise ; and when at last
the Reichstag granted the means for the prolonga-
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COMMBRCIAL RBLATIONS 07
tion of the Usambara and the oonfitruction of the
Central Bailway, the Uganda Bailway could be
used as a pattern. The mistakes which were made
could be avoided, and whatever had stood the test
of time could be adopted. Long before a definite
Bill was brought before the Reichstag, the Colonial
Office had made inquiries about all the details of
construction and working of the Uganda Railway
— rails, sleepers, bridges, engines, administration,
tari£b, catering, and so on — ^and if everything has
not been imitated, it has been at least an object
of careful consideration.
Finally, it may be pointed out that the Uganda
Railway is also used for the postal service of Grerman
East Africa. In 1905 an arrangement was made
between the respective Governments that letters to
and from the German Lake ports are carried in
transit through British East Africa at a fixed rate,
which varies according to the weight of the bags
forwarded. In 1908 this service was extended to
parcels as well.
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BOONOMIC BELATIONS
As regards forther economic relations between the
respective colonies, a certain unity results from the
fact that they all lie within the zone of the Berlin
Congo Act.
Their Customs policy has, therefore, a common
basis ; and, indeed, if we compare the tariffs in force
in the Grerman colony with those of British East
Africa and Uganda, we find a most remarkable
resemblance. The tariflfe for the two British Pro-
tectorates are practically identical.
A general import duty of 10 per cent, ad vahreni
is being levied on most goods. Distilled liquors, and
in German East Africa wine and beer, are charged
at a higher rate ; while those goods which are able to
further the development of the country are admitted
free of duty, as, for instance, plants and seeds
intended for cultivation, manures and insecticides,
agricultural implements and industrial machinery,
material for transport, etc.
68
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS
As regards export duties, the German and British
regulations are so far in unison that they make no
charge on any plantation produce. The chief objects
of duty are the natural raw products of the country
— such as ivory, hides and skins, gum copal, wild-
grown rubber, cowries, and shells. Ivory is charged
a 15 per cent, duty in both territories. Hides and
skins pay in the British Protectorate 10, in German
East Africa 12 per cent. Beeswax, which is free
in the British territory, is charged an export duty
of 2 per cent, in Grerman East Africa. Woods are
charged 5 per cent, in the British, 10 in the (German
territory. For the export of live stock the German
regulation contains a detailed tariff, whilst in British
East Africa only horses, camels, and donkeys are
charged an export duty.
Another important matter, in which an inter-
national agreement applies equally to the two
Governments, is the treatment of natives. Both are
bound, under the Act of Brussels, to take effective
steps for the suppression of the slave-trade and the
protection of the natives ; and we have already seen
that the obligations which the British Government
had undertaken under this Act were used as an
argument to obtain the capital for the construction
of the Uganda Bailway granted by Parliament.
The general provisions of the Act may be
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70 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
supposed to be known. The signatory Powers
promised to construct roads, found stations, control
the shipping of native dhows, the trade in fire-arms
and ammunition, and to limit the import and sale
of alcoholic liquors. In consequence, regulations
were issued for the suppression of the slave-trade
which may already be said to have disappeared
altogether in the German and British Protectorates ;
and in the course of time the whole institution of
slavery will have received its death-blow.
At the time when Germany and England acquired
their East African possessions the whole economic
life was based on slavery, and it would have been
suicidal if for philanthropic reasons the sudden
abolition of that institution had been proclaimed.
There would have been no labourers on the planta-
tions, no sailors for the dhows, and it would have
been difficult to get house-servants and porters.
Besides, detestable as the slave-trade is with all its
cruelties, slavery in itself is harmless in the form
in which it exists in East Africa. The slave is a
J part of his master's household, who gives him board
and lodging, and maintains him in times of illness
and in his old age. The institution is so interwoven
with the habits and customs of the country, that it
is not felt as a degradation by the native, who
mostly is best off when be is under a certain
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• ••» ••••/••
? •m •• • %• • •
•• •• •••••
• ••• • • , -
• • •• • • •«
»••••'•'
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 71
obligation to work. The work which a master
expects from his servant is generally so little that
domestic servants at home appear much greater
slaves than the natives who bear this name. Acts
of cruelty were infrequent, even in Arab times,
because it was in the master's own interest to treat
his people well ; under European regime he is
severely punished whenever he comes under the
notice of the authorities. A slave-holder who has
been committed for ill-treatment of a slave has to
set him free in German territory as well as in
British.
Notwithstanding, slavery is an evil which is not
tolerable under Christian administration, and so the
Governments had at least to soften its asperity,
though they could not eradicate it, for economic
reasons.
It has therefore been ordained in German East
Africa that every slave has the right to purchase
his freedom at a just and reasonable price, which is
fixed by the local authorities. They have also to
give their permission, if a master wishes to sell his
slaves to another owner, and this is only possible if
the slave himself agrees to it, care being taken that
members of the same family are not separated one
from another by these transfers. Finally, according
to an ordinance dated December 24, 1904, all
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72 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
children of domestic slaves, bom after December 31,
1905, are free in German East Africa.
In the British possessions slavery has been re-
cognized as a legal status only on the coast-belt
belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar, who in a decree
of the 15th El Haj, 1307 (August 1, 1890), inter-
dicted all future '* exchange, sale, or purchase of
slaves, domestic or otherwise/' Children of slaves
bom since 1890 were declared free.
So, in British and in German territory, slavery
seemed to be condemned to a natural death ; but in
home circles in England, influenced by a wrong
humanity, this seemed still insufficient. It was
declared shameftd that in a dependency of the
United Kingdom this institution should still be
admitted in even a mild form. And so quite
suddenly, October 1, 1907 was fixed as the date for
the total abolition of slavery ; a simi of £40,000 was
voted by Parliament to compensate slave-own^:*s ;
and it was ordained that no claims referring to
slavery were to be entertained after the end of 1911.
Money could hardly ever have been spent for a
more unwise purpose. The slaves did not wish to
be freed, and the masters did not like to part with
their slaves. The money had to be pressed upon
them ; and the freed slaves, who by-and-by learned
that they did not need to work if they did not like
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BC50N0MI0 RELATIONS 73
it, became idlers and criminals ; the patriarchal ties
which connected them with their masters were
severed ; in cases of disease they received no assis-
tance ; the number of marriages, and therewith the
chance for future native ofl&pring, decreased. The
disastrous results on the side of the slave-owners
are still more obvious. They lose their old labourers,
and find, even if they are willing and able to
pay wages, no recruits. The sums which they
receive in compensation just help them through
the first stage of the calamity, but when these have
been dissipated with Oriental indolence, they have
not energy enough to adopt a new economic system,
and are bound to sink into poverty.
It is to be hoped that our Government will not
alter the present status, according to which the last
slaves will die out in a few decades. Meantime the
tie of slavery is becoming lighter and lighter, and
sufficient opportunity is given to the present slave-
holders to insure the survival of the fittest. Those
Orientals who can justify their existence in a
civilized country have meanwhile time enough to be-
come familiar with the changed economic conditions.
In a lecture which the former G^erman Colonial
Secretary, Herr Dernburg, gave before the Afirican
Society in London in November, 1909,^ he dis-
* K.B,, 1909, pp. 1093-1096.
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74 BRITISH AND GBBMAN EAST AFRICA
cussed the solidarity of interests which unites all
colonising Powers, and urged the responsibilities
which England and Germany had accepted with
reference to the natives of their African possessions.
No less an authority than ex-President Roosevelt
expressed in a public speech at Nairobi, during his
visit to British East Africa in 1909, the opinion
that» by raising the black man, who is incompetent
to better himself, the colonizer fulfils a demand of
righteousness, and in the meantime serves his
ultimate self-interest.
The moral education of the natives has been
the work of missionary enterprise, which was already
active in East Africa before England or Germany
had political ambitions there. It is regrettable that
the value of the missionary work is frequently
under-estimated. It may be admitted that tactless
persons, who will be foimd in every profession, some-
times cause trouble to the administrative officers ;
and it would perhaps be better if the doctrine of
Christian fraternity were less instilled into the
natives than the Divine command that ''if any
would not work, neither should he eat." Still, it
would be unfair not to recognize the great part
which missionary societies have played, and still
play, as pioneers of civilization.
They abound in East Africa, and make, of course,
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 75
little distinotion whether their field lies in German
or British territory. The Evangelical Lutheran
Mission of Leipzig has stations in the highlands of
British East Afinca and on the Kilima Njaro ; the
English Church Missionary Society also evangelizes in
both Protectorates ; and the Boman Catholic Mission
of the Holy Ghost has branches all over East Africa.
This means to these societies a continual communion,
mutual stimulation, and exchange of experience, and
also guarantees that the education of their charges
shall proceed more or less along the same lines.
To the colonizer industrial missions are certainly
of the greatest importance. The German Neukirch
Mission on the Tana has trained some masons, and
the Fathers of the Holy Ghost are said to provide
good carpenters ; the Anglo-American Africa Inland
Mission, with the headquarters at Eijabe, in British
East Africa, has won special fame for the industrial
training of natives, and their intention to settle on
the German part of the Lake Victoria can therefore
be welcomed. On the other hand, the Governor of
Uganda, in his Annual Report for 1907-8, com-
plains that the missions, which have done excellent
work there for the literary education of the popula-
tion, were, in spite of the high intelligence of the
natives, not able to train industrial workmen. A
sum of £200, which had been offered in the shape
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76 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
of bonuses for the production of blacksmiths, masons,
carpenters, or wheelwrights, could not be distributed,
nor did any mission accept the offer of an equal
amount in aid of the establishment of a technical
workshop.^
The whole school management in the two British
possessions is in the hands of the missions, whilst in
German East Africa fix)m the earliest times Govern-
ment schools have been established. The first school
was opened at Tanga in 1893, and soon came into
&vour with the natives, after they had realized that
no religious propaganda was to be taught. At
present every place of some importance has its
Government school, and a great number of boys
have been brought up in them, who, for small wages,
do good service as clerks in every possible branch of
the administration and in private businesses. The
industrial education has not been neglected either,
and the carpenter workshop at Tanga attracts the
admiration of all visitors, as does the excellent band
which is being trained under the control of the
leading schoolmaster. Local bands which try to
amuse the citizens of Mombasa and Lamu consist
merely of Tanga boys, who have deserted from the
original German band.
The need for educating natives to become clerks
1 C!olonial Beport^ No. 600, p. 20.
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 77
and workmen of a higher class is more urgent for
the German Government than it would be for a
nation which can easily rely for reserves on more
developed parts of her Empire. It is quite natural
that in the British East African offices Indian clerks
are more in evidence than in German East Africa ;
their wages, however, are a good deal higher, but
the work they do is often not better than that done
by natives.
A sound policy demands that labour, as far as
obtainable, should be confined to members of one's
own nation, and a great outcry arose in the papers
when the Daressalam flotilla, in order to save
expense, employed Indian artisans in their work-
shops. Those who argued against this system
forgot that every German workman employed in
their stead would have cost at least three times
as much as an Indian, and would, sooner or later,
have succumbed to the climate, if he had tried to
do the same hard work. There can be no doubt
that the Uganda Railway has a great advantage
over us, because they can use at comparatively cheap
rates Indian and Eurasian engine-drivers and guards,
whilst we have to pay German functionaries who have
been trained for this responsible service at home, and
have, of course, a higher standard of life than those
who have been bom and bred in a tropical country.
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78 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Apart fix)m the moral education of the natives,
the care for their physical welfare is a matter of
self-interest to the protecting Power. A common
scourge for the German as well as the British
Qovemment is the sleeping sickness, which has
devastated whole districts on Lake Victoria, and
needs continued attention. The disease, which is
well known in West Africa, was first noticed in
Uganda about April, 1901, and in 1902 a doctor
was deputed specially to investigate the infected
districts; the report he gave showed that the
disease was beyond the power of the Medical
Department to deal with. A special conmiission
of experts was despatched by the Royal Society to
study it on the spot, and finally, in January, 1903,
Colonel Bruce, of the War Office, was sent out with
a full staff to make further search into the cause
and nature of the disease.^ Since then it has been
proved that the illness is spread by a fly {Glossina
pcUpalis) aUied to the tsetse, which infects the
patient with a trypanosoma, and so Causes the
disease. It soon spread over to the German part
of the Lake, and a special hospital for sleeping
sickness had to be opened near Bukoba. In 1905
Professor Eoch was sent out on a scientific expe-
^ (General Report on the Uganda Protectorate for the year
ending March 31, 1903 (Africa, No. 15).
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 79
dition to the Lake, where, together with his British
colleagues, he made fiirther inquiries, especially as
to the conditions imder which the Glossina palpalis
Uved, propagated itself, and transferred the disease.
It was found that the bushes round the Lake
offered those flies an asylum, and it was therefore
decided that they should be cut down everywhere
roimd villagea Professor Eoch also found that
atoxyl proved a cure, and though it had later to
be admitted that the cure was not a permanent and
general one, its administration greatly prolonged
life in many cases.^
Finally, the experience which had been gained
about the character of the disease led the two
Governments to an agreement, which was signed
in London on October 27, 1908,' and brought into
effect on the first day of 1909. With a view to
the more effectual combating of the disease, the
respective Governments promised one another to
forbid natives who might be suffering fix>m the
disease to pass into each other's territory; to
establish segregation camps at adjacent points on
either side of the common boimdary for the deten-
tion of sick natives ; to prevent natives from crossing
^ Quarterly Beport on the Progress of Segregation Camps
and Medioal Treatment of Sleeping Sickness in Uganda for the
Quarter December 1, 1902, to February 29, 1903.
« K,B., 1908, pp. 1197-1199.
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80 BRITISH AND OERMAN BAST AFRICA
into areas of the other Power which have been
declared infected ; to notify without delay the areas
so declared infected ; and to destroy all those migra-
tory animals which may be reasonably suspected
of being a source of aliment to the Ohssina palpalis.
And the officers in charge of concentration camps
were to be recommended to visit each other for the
purpose of discussing their experiences of the disease.
In consequence several segregation camps have
been established in Uganda and British and
German East Africa, and at present the disease
has already lost much of its terror : the death rate,
for instance, in the kingdom of Uganda, having
decreased from 8,003 in 1905 to 1,723 in 1908.
Owing to their clothes and more careAil habits
of life, Europeans are less exposed to the attacks
of the fly than natives. Since 1906 no European
cases have been reported in Uganda. In German
territory during recent years some Europeans were
infected, but have got much better under medical
treatment.
Another disease which occasionally alarms the
country is the plague, which is endemic near Lake
Victoria, its principal focus appearing to be the
railway terminus at Eisumu. A somewhat serious
outbreak occurred at the beginning of 1905. Since
1908 some cases have been reported every year ;
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 81
occasionally Nairobi and other places on the railway
have been infected. On the German side, in 1906,
Muansa suffered for a short time from the disease.
The outbreaks always cause quarantine measures,
and more or less handicap the traffic on the Lake.
It seems that, owing to lack of means, the British
Government is not in a position to take effective
steps against the evil. The campaign against rats
could be waged with more energy — prices should
be given for each rat killed ; and apparently the
microscopic examination cannot be done in a suffi-
ciently thorough manner. The coast has been spared
this disease with the exception of the Zanzibar
epidemic in 1905, and some cases which broke out
in Daressalam and Eilwa, but did hardly any harm
to the general trade.
Smallpox used to be quite a common disease all
over East Africa before it was taken under Euro-
pean administration. Latterly, it has been suc-
cessfiilly combated by systematic vaccination, the
methodical way in which the Grerman medical
officers are vaccinating whole tribes having done
much to stamp out the disease. It still breaks out
occasionally, here and there, however. Last year,
for instance, the shipping service on Lake Victoria
suffered for some time by the outbreak of a fresh
epidemic near Muansa.
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82 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
While these diseases have in general more effect
on the natives, malaria and other tropical fevers
cause special trouble to the Europeans who settle
in the country. Much has been done by science to
study their character and discover the proper way
to fight against them ; and high praise is due to our
famous bacteriologist, the lately deceased Professor
Koch, whose merits are recognized by the British
nation not less than by his own compatriots^
To provide relief to those who are suffering under
the influence of the tropical climate, the German
Government opened, in 1905, a comfortable sana-
torium in the Usambara Hills, which is also
occasionally made use of by residents of British East
Africa.
The economic prosperity of a young colony
depends a good deal on the &ct that peace is being
kept in the country. It cannot be expected that
native tribes should accept without reluctance the
blessings of civilization for which they have to
sacrifice many of their inherited customs and liber-
ties. So, even to the wisest Governments, it will
happen that during the first years of their adminis-
tration troubles break out amongst their prot^s.
Uganda was disturbed by serious rebellions in 1892
and 1897, and the German East African revolt of
1905 is still fresh in our memory. In British East
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 83
Africa troubles with the Somalis in the north, and
variouB risings of the warlike tribes in the highlands,
made military expeditions necessary. The measures
which the one Power takes to overcome the re-
bellions will always have their effect on the neigh-
bouring territory. Weakness shown by the one
Power would damage also the prestige of its neigh-
bour, whilst the prompt overthrow of the rebels will
in general increase the authority of the European
race.
It must not be forgotten that there is a good deal
of tribal community between the natives of the
neighbouring Protectorates. A general language,
the Swahili, is understood in nearly every part of
East Africa ; the coast population, mostly Moham-
medans, are connected by ties of religion ; and even
if it is admitted that Islam on the east coast
is anything but fanatic, signs of a pan-Islamic
agitation were noticed only two years ago, and
it is certain that a religious rising in one part of
East Africa would soon spread all over the country.
In the interior the bellicose Masai tribe lives on
both sides of the boundary. Disturbances on the
English side would certainly affect the German
part, and vice versa; and so the joint control and
the immediate communication of any signs of
possible unrest are to the interests of either Power.
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84 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
When, in 1904, the Chief of the station at Moschi
was afraid that a general rising of the Masais was
imminent on Elilima Njaro, he could be calmed by
the information that the conduct of the tribe on the
English side of the boundary did not justify his
fears. In his lecture in London, Herr Demburg
mentioned that some time ago the Governor of
British East Africa suggested to the German
authorities that regular information about the move-
ments of the natives in the neighbouring districts
should be exchanged.
In this connection, it may be mentioned that for
the suppression of the German East African rebellion
in 1905, the existence of the Uganda Railway proved
also of great assistance. When riots broke out near
Bukoba and Muansa, a naval detachment used this
quick conveyance, and so, in a very short time, were
enabled to restore order.
The easy life which Nature grants to the
aborigines of the Tropics could not develop in them
a great instinct for hard working. This is an
argument which justifies in some way the institu-
tion of slavery, and even serious politicians have
recommended a system of compulsory labour in the
colonies. But apart fit)m the ethical arguments
which controvert this, the carrying out of such a
system would be very difficult for political reasons,
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 85
and so the best way of accustoming the natives to
regular work is to increase their economic needs.
The more they appreciate the articles from oversea
— clothing and trinkets — the more they feel inclined
to earn money. Another expedient to develop in
them the desire for regular labour is the intro-
duction of a general census. It is only natural that
for all advantages which natives derive from the
establishment of European rule they should con-
tribute in some way to the expenses of the Power
which protects them.
In German East Africa, as well as in the British
Protectorates, the system of hut-tax has first been
adopted. In German East Africa taxes have been
collected since April 1, 1898; British East Africa
and Uganda followed the example somewhat later.
The annual impost in German East Africa and
British East Africa is Es. 3 per hut, which cannot
be considered excessive ; and in Uganda as much as
Bs. 5 is levied in the more developed provinces.
The German Hut-tax Begulations point out in the
first paragraph that the tax should only be levied
''as &r as the peaceful influence of the adminis-
tration reaches." Similar precautions were taken
in the British Protectorates to avoid trouble which
might be caused among the natives on account of
the new impost. To facilitate the collection, it was
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86 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
also provided that the tax could be paid in kind, or
that, in lieu of paying money, one could work for
the Government during a certain time. In British
East Africa a labour period of one month is regarded
as equal to a tax of Bs. 3.
The hut-tax was in the earliest times thought to
be the best system of taxation, because the number
of the existing huts gave the surest base of control ;
but, on the other hand, it had its drawbacks,
because it charged the domiciled people, whilst a
great number of workmen, especially most of the
porters, escaped free. A disinclination to create
new huts was soon remarked, and it was often
found that several families shared one hut in order
to avoid the taxation.
So, with the extension of administrative influence,
the somewhat unjust hut-tax system has been
augmented by a subsidiary poll-tax. Adult male
natives, who are not liable to pay hut-tax, are
charged in British East Africa a poll-tax of a like
amount. In German East Africa a Regulation of
1905 provides the Government with the same
alternative.^ In Uganda the Government is alto-
gether abandoning the hut-tax in favour of the
poll-tax, and it is very likely that the German
Government will soon follow suit.
1 << Landetgesetzgebung," Nachtrag III., p. 69.
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ECONOmO RELATIONS 87
Apart from the good effect which a regular
census has in accustoming the natives to work, it is
a favourable source of revenue to the Qovemments.
The labour question is a most important factor
in tropical countries where plantations are started.
The white man is not able to do manual work in
an unaccustomed climate, and must rely for this
on the assistance of the natives. The difficulty
was at once felt when the first plantations were
established in Usambara. In 1891 some hundred
labourers were imported from China and Java, at
considerable expense. Their wages were high, too,
and they suffered much from the climate. The
experiment was not repeated, but more and more
indigenous labourers were employed, the assiduous
Wanwamwesi tribe being particularly induced to
take up regular work. In 1895 the manager of
the plantation at Kikogwe, near Pangani, settled
300 families there. ^ The home of the Wayamwesi
is the district round Tabora, but having been used
as caravan porters since the Arab times, they are
spread all over the land. They remain wherever
they find a living, but sooner or later always
return to their home country. Many of them
wandered over to British East Afiica,^ where they
are much liked as workmen on the railway, as
1 K.B., 1895, p. 480.
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88 BRmSH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
porters for the numerous ^'sa&ris/' and as labourers
in the plantations. There is a settlement of about
a thousand of them near Mombasa, and they are
keeping in touch with the German Consulate there.
With other natives of the German colony living
at Mombasa, they have even elected a Chief, who
is a sort of agent in all the relatioBS with the
Consulate, and the system has proved quite
successful.
The Consulate tries to lead them back to German
East Africa whenever they are needed During
the rebellion of 1905 hundreds of them were
recruited at Mombasa to serve as soldiers or por-
ters. The recruiting of labourers for service abroad
offers great difficulties in British East Africa, and
depends on the permission of the Government,
which, as a fact, is never given, because the country
needs the few labourers it has for its own use.
Still, natives of German East Africa cannot be
forbidden to return to their home-country, and
so, whenever a labour-agent turns up, the would-be
labourers appear in the Consulate and declare that
they wish to go to Tanga, or whatever place it
may be, and before they are shipped the local
authorities are given a chance to examine them,
and find out whether they are really German
subjects.
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i
ECONOMIC RELATIONS
There are hardly any tribes in British East
Africa who have an equal instinct for regular work,
and so the labour question became urgent at the
very moment when plantations were started there.
At a meeting in the beginning of 1908 the planters
pressed the Government hard to get a regular
supply of indentured labourers from India. The
Qovemment promised to make immediate arrange-
ment for this, in case the circumstances should
prove that the local supply was not sufficient ; but
up to the present time no importation of laboiurers
has been found necessary. This shows that the
fears of the planters were exaggerated, as they were
in German East Africa. There the colonists declared,
in 1906, that there would be in the following
years an additional demand for 20,000 labourers,
and that the country itself would not be able to
supply them. The increase has been much higher
than the planters anticipated ; there were during
last year nearly 70,000 men working on the rail-
ways and on plantations, and still it was not
necessary to import labourers from elsewhere.
Though the planters will not fully admit it, the
importance of the labour question is realized by the
respective Governments of the German and British
Protectorates, but they have to take the opinions
of both parties, and not only the interests of the
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QO BRITISH AND OERMAN EAST AFRICA
planters, but those of the nativeB as well, have to
be regardecL So, first of all, in British East Africa
an ordinance was issued in 1906 to regulate the
relations between masters and servants. Contracts
for a longer period than one month had to be in
writing, and if any party was tmable to read, had
to be concluded before a magistrate. Inducing
natives to proceed beyond the Protectorate for
employment was interdicted, and breaches of con-
tract were declared punishable by law.
In the course of time friction arose between the
Government and the planters, and it came even to
an open riot at Nairobi when certain rules were
published, under which the Government promised
to procure labour for the colonists.
After prolonged negotiations with the interested
parties, new principles were laid down in 1908, in
accordance with which the Government declared its
willingness to endeavour to recruit labour, the
principal items being that the employer had to erect
huts for the use of the employees, to provide them
with suitable food, or a daily allowance in lieu
thereof, as directed by the local authorities, to main-
tain a sufficient supply of cooking utensils, to arrange
for proper waternsupply, to supply the people, where
it was found necessary, with a blanket, and so on.^
1 East African Slamkrd, April 11, 1908.
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 01
The Qerman Qoyemment followed the proceed-
ings in British East Africa with interest. The
Colonial Secretary, Herr Dernburg, who, on a tour
of information, visited East Africa in 1907, used
this occasion to study the British policy with regard
to native a£5ur8 in British East Africa, and the result
was the issuing of two regulations, in February,
1909, concerning the recruiting of labourers and
their legal position* The latter is mainly based
on the principles adopted by the British Govern-
ment in 1908 ; the former puts recruiting under
official control, the export of labourers for foreign
service without the sanction of the Government
being strictly prohibited, and contracts for a longer
period than seven calendar months, or 180 actual
working days, being forbidden.^
A new British ordinance of March 21, 1910, to
regulate the relations between employers and natives,
and to control the recruiting and engagement of
natives, is very similar to the German regulations ;
but the period for which contracts can be made
binding is fixed at two years.^
In British East Africa a Commissioner for Native
Affiiirs has been appointed, who is the competent
^ AmiUcker Afixriger^ No. 6, 27 Februar, 1909.
^ Officidl OazetU of the East Africm Proteckrate, No. 250,
Apnl 1, 1910.
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82 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
authority for all questionfi concerning the legal posi-
tion of the natives, and to whom all applications
for the supply of labourers have to be made. The
general impression among the farmers is that this
officer regards himself too much as the representative
of the natives, and overlooks the interest of the
employers.
In German East Afiica only lately several — at pre-
sent four — *^ Eingeborenen-Kommissare " have been
gazetted. The name means the same as Com-
missioner for Native Affistirs, but their business is
more localized. They are for a limited district the
intermediary between employers and labourers, and
their chief object is to settle differences between
both parties. There have also been complaints that
they are inclined to decide disputes rather in favour
of the natives than of the employers, but as a whole
this institution appears to work well.
One complaint which farmers may raise against
the ordinance, which is probably as perfect €U3 a
similar institution can be in a new country, is that
its regulations can easily be enforced against them,
but not against their employees, who withdraw from
their responsibilities. If a native disappears, it is
very difficult to trace him. A farmer on the British
coast, who is known to treat his employees well,
complains in a pamphlet which he wrote on the
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ECONOMIC RELATIONS 93
subject that from June, 1908, to end of February,
1909, 260 deserted out of a total of 720 men
engaged. They were all registered according to
law, and the authorities did not succeed in appre-
hending a single one.^
So the farmer loses the premium which he has
paid for the recruiting, and, even if the man is found,
he will, in the most cases, not be able to pay to the
farmer a sufficient compensation, and the imprison-
ment to which he might be sentenced is not felt by
him as a stain upon his honour.
To avoid desertions farmers have suggested for
a long time that a general pass system should be
adopted. It would certainly check the evil, but its
enactment would be very complicated, and cost
enormous sums. It will be possible at a later date,
when the administration has penetrated more into
the whole country.
In Uganda the labour question has offered no
difficulties so far, because there are no plantations
of importance, and probably none will be established
in. the near future. A high percentage of the
natives there are absorbed in the caravan service as
porters, and the increasing construction of roads will
make them free for other work. The same can be
said about German East Africa, where the building
^ Anderson, "Native Labour in BritiBh East Africa."
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94 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
of railways at present keeps thousands of labourers
busy, who later on can be used on plantations.
Besides, it must not be forgotten that new railways
open new districts, some of them densely populated,
where labourers can be recruited, and at the present
time are already being recruited.
Finally, it may be pointed out that a great deal
depends on the employer himself whether he is
able to get a sufficient stock of labourers or not. A
farmer who is known to treat his employees well
will always have a regular influx, whilst a man who
has once got a reputation for injustice or cruelty
will have permanent difficultiea And here I cannot
help stating that the general impression amongst
natives is, that their treatment is not so good in
German East Africa as in British territory. Often
when I asked Wanyamwesi why they did not
remain in their own country instead of living in
British East Africa, I heard the reply that they are
too severely, treated in Qerman East Africa. This
is in general certainly not correct, but it is true
that the way in which the natives are dealt with is
a good deal stricter in Qerman East Africa than in
the British colony, and the farmers would be the
last to blame our Government for it. Another
advantage which German territory offers from the
farmers' point of view is that justice is more easily
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ECONOmO RELATIONS 05
and speedily obtainable there than in the British
colony, where a good many formalities have to be
gone through before a native gets his well-deserved
pmiishment. The formless administrative jurisdic-
tion which is in use in German East Africa
works excellently, and guarantees complete justice.
Further, corporal punishment, which is by &r more
effective than fines and imprisonment, is adopted
more frequently under Qerman jurisdiction than it
is by the British authorities.
To develop amongst the natives the instinct for
economy, a savings bank was instituted in Dares-
salam, under the control of the Bezirksamt (district
office) there, but experience teaches that it is used
less by natives than by Europeans. A similar
institution has been started in British East Africa
and Uganda under the administration of the
General Post Office. The interest granted is, in
German East Africa, 3^ per cent. ; whilst in the
British territories only 2^ per cent, is given, at
present.
Speaking about banks, I may mention here that,
with regard to the coinage, a certain uniformity, to
which I have referred already on pp. 11-12, exists
between the respective countries. Though the
rupees of the one Power are not accepted in the
territory of the other Power, their nearly equal
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96 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
» * .... ■■!■■■
value facilitates the control of the market in the
respective territories. Further, some years ago a
reformation of the coinage waa undertaken, and the
centesimal division accepted in both territories.
The experiments which the British Government
made at this time with the small coinage gave
some useful hints to the German Government, and
the bad results which were obtained in British
Eaat Africa with the first issue of aluminium coins
caused the German Government to stick to the
copper coinage with which the natives were
familiar.
Other administrative measures which may call
for comparison — such as the creation of legislative
councils and of municipalitieB — ^have a more political
character, and are therefore beyond the scope of
the present chapter.
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CHAPTER IV
CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT
Pboceeding now to deal with the unity of interests
as regards the economic produce of the respective
Protectorates, I may recall my remarks on page 26
by saying that Qerman East Africa is ahead of
British East Africa by a decade in the development
of the tropical belt.
German East Africa was started as a plantation
colony ; the articles which proved successful were
coffee, rubber, sisal, and cotton. The experiments
which were made in Usambara with coffee have
already been alluded to. In 1892 the Deutschost-
afrikanische Gesellschafb had planted 115,000 trees,^
and in 1896 800,000 trees were reported in the
eastern Usambara (Handei).^ The first experiences
were very favourable ; climate and soil seemed
suitable. The prices realized per ^ kg. averaged
1 K.B., 1893, p. 318.
^ Die au8 den deutschen Eolonien ezportierten Produkte
etc, Beilage zum deutschen Eolonialblatt 15 Mai 1896.
97 7
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08 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
from 90 pfennig to about 1 mark. But soon came
counterHstrokeB. In 1895 the HemUeia vastatrix
made its appearance and, later, followed the heavy
falls in price on the home market ; the labour ques-
tion caused difficulties ; the soil did not appear to
ftdfil its promises, and at present the general im-
pression prevails that the establishment of coffee
plantations in Usambara is unremunerative. The
old plantations carry on the production, but refrain
from further development. The export via Tanga
amounted in 1903 to 336 tons, and rose until 1905
to 400 tons, to which figure it fell again in 1907,
after a sudden increase to 497 in 1906. In
1908 the high figure of 650 tons, at a value of
799,000 marks, was reached; but for 1909 a
remarkable decrease is reported.
In proportion as the coffee cultivation is being
abandoned in Usambara, its cultivation increases
near the Kilima Njaro. The soil there seems more
favourable, the labourers are by far cheaper, and
the whole running of the farm is less expensive,
because in Usambara most of the plantations belong
to large companies with a great administrative
staff, while on the Kilima Njaro smaller &rmers —
mostly Italians and Greeks, with no high standard
of life — do the businesa The export from the
Moschi district shows the following figures :
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 09
Yew.
Too*.
Value in
Hwks.
1904 ...
1906
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910 (January tUl July) . . .
0026
6
28
41
72
t
1
19
6,869
21,380
31,746
49,796
47,000
10,071
And it must still be noted that these figures
include only the export via Mombasa. The coffee
which goes down the Usambara Railway to Tanga
represents at least 20 per cent, of the total produce
of the district, and it is to be expected that the
impending completion of this line will cause a
further extension of its cultivation.
The bad experiences which German companies
suffered with coffee on the coast- belt did not
encourage their British neighbours to make similar
experiments, but the conditions under which the
article is grown on the Kilima Njaro are very
similar to those in some parts of the British high-
lands. Around Nairobi some French colonists are
cultivating it, after the start had been made by a
station of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost. The
missionaries of this society had obtained their
experience in the German Uluguru Mountains,
where coffee had been grown by them, for local
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100 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
consumption only, for more than twenty years.*
Labour near Nairobi is just as cheap as on the
Kilima Njaro, and water to move the engines is
plentiful. The variety cultivated in the highlands
is Arabian, which succeeds best in the altitudes of
tropical countries. When last year I visited one
of the more important coffee plantations near
Nairobi, the manager had just gone to the Kilima
Njaro on a tour of inspection.
The production of coffee in British East Afirica
represents so far only a small figure ; its export was
630 cwt., at a value of £1,068, in 1909- Round
Lake Victoria, especially in Uganda and in the
hinterland of Bukoba, the natives are cultivating
coffee on indigenous trees, which is also exported,
and successfiil efforts are being made, particularly
by the German Government, to improve its quality
by teaching the natives the right method of collect-
ing the beans.
Rubber has always been indigenous to the
African mainland as a creeper called Landophia.
In Uganda a tree, the Funtumia daatica^ is found.
The article, collected by natives, has for a long
time formed a valuable item of the export
statistics. The German and British Governments
were jointly interested that the produce of their
1 K.B., 1894, p. 145.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 101
possessions should maintain a good name on the
home market; and so we find that even in early
years ordinances were issued in Qerman East Africa
as well as in Zanzibar, and in British East Africa,
against the adulteration of country produce. As
far as rubber is concerned, it has been ordained by
both Powers that the collection and sale of root-
rubber, and the extraction of rubber from boiled
bark, are prohibited, and every ball of rubber must
be cut through the centre to show that no foreign
or inferior substance is admixed
The abundance of wild rubber in the country
justified the opinion that its cultivation on planta-
tions would also be successful, and experiments
which were made in Qerman East Africa since 1898
proved that the Manihot Glaziovii (Ceara rubber)
did well on the east coast. The first export of
plantation rubber, in 1907, was estimated to amount
to 50 tons ; since 1908 separate statistics have been
kept for the plantation produce, and the figures are
87 tons in 1908, and 163 during the last year.
British farmers have followed the Qerman example
since 1906 ; but their plantations have not yet
reached the bearing stage, though next year exports
will be possible. They could utilize the experience
of their Qerman neighbours, and also found it easier
to acquire the necessary seeds. But the soil seems
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102 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
not quite so favourable on the British coast as in
Grerman E^t Africa.
The English market takes a great interest in
rubber cultivation ; and in 1908 an exhibition was
held in London^ where examples, grown in all parts
of the British Empire, were shown.^
The sudden rise of the rubber prices in 1910
produced a sort of fever among English business
men ; the high dividends which were paid to rubber
shareholders in Ceylon and in the Straits Settle-
ments caused the foundation of numerous new
companies in London, which tried to acquire planta-
tions wherever they could. So many of the Grerman
East African plantations came into English hands,
and those who had started them realized high
prices, which enabled them at once to establish new
plantations. The fear has been expressed in some
German quarters that the rubber of the colony
would become an object of English speculation, and
that an English ring might be formed to dictate the
prices of the article. This fear is hardly justified,
in view of the fact that most of our rubber is still
the produce of wild-growing vines, and that new
plantations are constantly being started by German
enterprise. On the contrary, we should be glad if
our English neighbours would begin to show some
1 Another exhibitioii was held in 1911.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 103
interest in our colony, and thereby prove its value ;
and we can only rejoice that for some years an
English company has being doing plantation work
on the Eilima Njaro. We should learn from our
neighbours to be grateful to every pioneer who
enters our country with sufficient means to do some-
thing for its development, be he British, Greek,
Italian, or of whatever nationality.
The sisal cultivation was started in German East
Africa under very bad auspice& Of 1,000 plants
imported from Florida in 1893, only 6 per cent,
arrived in a state fit to be planted.^ At present
about twenty millions of plants are found in the
various plantations of German East Africa. The
climate seems to suit the sisal better than its old
home in the Western Hemisphere. While it there
needs from five to eight years to arrive at maturity,
on the East African coast it matures in less than
four years, and propagates longer leaves, which give
finer fibre.' The yield approximates to 2^ lb. per
annum.
The introduction of the sisal cultivation was
benefited, at the beginning of this century, by a
large rise of the prices in the world's markets,
caused by the failure of the general production
1 K.B., 1896, p. 445.
< See Playne, <*£a9t Africa," pp. 192-193,
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104 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
owing to political troubles in the West Indies. So
a Gennan company which, at the time of its
foundation, had based its calculations on an
expected price of £15 per ton, realized for its first
crop, in 1903, £40, and even £45, per ton.^ Since
then the prices have fluctuated a good deal, but
have always been high enough to justify the running
of sisal plantations as a paying undertaking. The
article has a good future, as its demand on the
world market is from year to year increasing.
Of course, a sisal planter needs a good deal of
money, as the machines are expensive, and the
more the plantation expands the larger profits there
are. To bring the plants to the factory many
companies use tramways.
The export fi*om German East Africa rose from
1,000 tons in 1904 to 2,800 tons in 1907, and
4,057 tons in 1908.
In British East Afi[ica the first sisals were planted
in 1902, as ornamental borders in the grounds of
the Government House at Mombasa, the suckers
having been brought over from the German colony.
They have since grown to an extraordinary size
and multiplied exceedingly.
Commercial sisal-planting was only begun in
1907, after the news had come that the German East
^ K,B., 1903, p. 205.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 105
African produce had been sold for 5^d. per pound
on the American market. A general fever to plant
sisal arose, but the German Government poured
water on this by placing a heavy prohibitive export
duty on the produce of their colony. Under an
Act of November, 1907, for each exported suckor
25 cents, for each bulbil 10 cents, have to be paid.
The Government had been forced to adopt this
measure by the farmers, who would not lose the
advantage which lay on their side as a result of
their earlier operations ; but it is doubtfiil whether
it would not have been wiser for them to make
some money out of selling their bulbils and suckers
at high prices to their British neighbours. The
produce of East Africa represents such a small item
on the general market that for many years to
come there is not much fear that it will have much
effect on the prices. Besides, the development of
the sisal production could only be stopped for a
short time, but not hindered altogether. The result
was, apart from a good deal of ill-feeling on the
side of the British Government, that farmers had
to order their plants from more remote countries,
especially from Ceylon, and paid prices somewhat
higher than those in German East Africa.
There are now a number of sisal plantations on
the British East African coast, near Mombasa and
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106 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
Malindi, the first of which will begin to be cut and
exported in the course of next year. The manager
has often visited on tours of inspection the Qerman
sisal plantations, and it is even to be hoped that
he orders his machines from a Qerman firm which,
residing at Tanga, has lately opened a branch at
Mombasa.
In the first years all machinery used for sisal
production came from England and America, but
for some years the Qerman industry has made
successful efibrts to construct machines for the
needs of the colonies.
The fibre which British East Africa has hitherto
produced is obtained from the wild-growing San-
aeviera Ehreribergii. Two companies have concessions
near Yoi and farther inland for its manu&cturing.
Experiments with ramie, made at Nairobi, were
not successful.
A part of the British export originates firom
Uganda and the Qerman Schirati district. It is
taken from the leaves of Sanseviera Ghiineensis by
the manual labour of natives. Schirati exported,
according to Qerman statistics in 1907, 27 tons at
a value of £623 ; in 1908 no export is recorded,
and so it seems that the article has been given up
in favour of some other produce.
A solidarity of interests doubtless exists between
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 107
Gennany and England with regard to the cultiva-
tion of cotton in their respective colonies.
The American War of Secession in the sixties
of the past century caused a great decrease in the
production of cotton, and latterly the production
of this article has not kept pace with the needs
of the world market.^ Since 1889 the consumption
of America has risen by 60 per cent., whilst produc-
tion has sunk by about 12 per cent, compared with
the average of the last ten years, a fact which led
to wild speculations, with the result that the prices
were raised by more than 50 per cent. There was
every reason to fear that the whole European
textile industry would fall under the tyranny of
an American trust, and therefore the mill-owners
of the various European nations started to take
joint steps to open new fields for the cultivation of
this important product. In Grerman colonies the
Kolonialwirtschaftliches Eomitee, in British terri-
tories the British Cotton Growing Association, have
made successful efforts in this direction. In May,
1904, an international congress of cotton manu-
facturers accepted the necessity of a joint struggle
for the cultivation of cotton.
Ever since early times the cotton plant has been
^ Kolonialwirtechaftliches Komitee. Bericht 11. Deutsch-
koloniale BaumwoUuntemehmungen, 1902-3, pp. 3, 6, 7.
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108 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
indigenous in East Africa. In the Lindi district
it has been known for centuries, its existence in
Uganda being reported in the first years of British
occupation.^ This fact suggested that methodical
cultivation might prove successAil in this part of
the world. The first experiments in German East
Afiica were made at Kikogwe on the Pangani River,
where the climate and ground were found exceed-
ingly suitable. In 1891 and 1892, 4,600 kg. Texas
(long staple) and 300 kg. Sea Island were exported.
Twenty hundredweights of seed were provided free
of cost to Arab farmers, and a price of 3 pice (fd.)
was guaranteed for a pound unginned.^ Soon a gin-
ning factory was erected at that place, and in 1897
we find that the produce of Kikogwe was valued
as '^ middling Texas good colour,'' its staple being
better than '^ even running middling Texas." The
only fault was some fly in it. The price it fetched on
the home market was 31^ pfennig per pound, only
i pfennig less than best Texas. Successful experi-
ments were also made near Tanga, Mikindani, and
Ealwa. At the latter place an agriculturist was
appointed by the K.W.E. to teach the natives
the cultivation of the article. But soon the plants
began to suffer under various pests. Locusts,
especially in 1894, did a deal of damage, and
1 K.B., 1890, p. 349. « Ibid., 1893, p. 154.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 109
a general fall in prices, brought about by tem-
porary overproduction, made the cultivation un-
profitable. So several plantations gave the article
up, in spite of all assistance guaranteed to them.
The Deutsche Ostafirika Linie promised to carry
the article free of charge, and premiums were
granted by the K.W.K. for every hectar planted
with cotton during a certain period. From 1904
to 1906 no progress was made, the export remain-
ing all those years on a scale of 189 tons. A new
impetus was given in 1907, in which year 231 tons
were shipped. The figure for 1908 was 270 tons,
and has in the last year considerably increased, but
the actual statistics are not at my disposal.
The experiments in German East A&ica, were
followed with great concern in the interested
British quarters. In December, 1902, the Chamber
of Commerce at Manchester declared a sample
grown in that colony to be equal to the best
Egjrptian produce,^ and in the next year, in a
report about the general market of the cotton
industry, the Vice - President of the B.C.G.A.
referred to the German successes,^ in order to
encourage the production of the article in British
East Africa and Uganda.
The start was made in Uganda, where the intelli-
1 KB^ 1903, p. 129. s Ibid., 1904, p. 372.
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110 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
gence of the natives gave early hope of success.^
A company was formed to take over the industrial
and commercial side of the work, which was first
confined to the central province and the areas near
Kampala and Entebbe. The circle soon widened,
and so the production which began, in 1905, with
12,187 lb., increased gradually to 1,702,694 lb.,
at a value of £35,292, and Uganda to-day is still
only on the threshold of its possibilities. There is
hardly a district in the country not fit for the
cultivation of the staple, and it is only a question
of construction of roads to get the cotton plant
grown even at the most remote places.
The type grown in Uganda is an acclimatized
variety of American long-stapled upland, known as
" black rattler."
In British East Africa the cotton cultivation is
more localized. Round Lake Victoria the Kavi-
rondos, a diligent tribe, produce an artide similar
to that in Uganda, while along the coast varieties
equal in value to the best Egyptian can be
grown, the "Abassi" type being the favourite.
Jubaland and the (Strict of Malindi have been
found especially suitable for the staple ; on the
Sabaki River, north of Malindi, an English company
^ Leggett, '' Cotton - growing in British East Africa and
Uganda." See Playne, " East Africa,'' pp. 381-384.
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U3
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 111
has planted a large area with cotton. But the task
of getting the natives interested in the new article
has so far heen not very successful. They prefer to
stick to their accustomed crops. So the results in
British East Africa are not in any way equal to those
in Uganda, owing, in a certain measure^ to the
drought and disease from which the land has suffered.
The export rose from 28,880 lb. in 1905, to
251,828 lb. in 1909.
The measures which were taken in the German
and British territories to make the cotton production
popular are practically similar. The K.W.K. as
well as the C.G.A. distribute free seed amongst the
natives, and assure them of a good price and a ready
market. In the first years in German East Africa
the natives in the south had an unfortunate experi-
ence when, under pressure of the Government, they
had started cotton-planting, but, on account of the
sudden &11 in price of the staple of the home
market, realized only a very small, if any, profit out
of their crops. They could not, of course, under-
stand the fluctuations of the home market, and
thought they were cheated by the authorities.
To avoid similar disappointments, a minimum
price is being fixed in advance for a certain time,
the E.W.K. in Grerman East Africa, for instance,
having guaranteed to buy any quantity for a price
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112 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
of 30 to 40 cents per pound ginned ;^ whilst in British
territory the C.G.A. haa guaranteed, since the
beginning of their work, a minimum of 6 cents.
The system of advancing cash on the expected
crops is, owing to the native character, somewhat
dangerous, as it inclines the people to be idle, and
they often spend the money without fulfilling the
conditions under which they receive the loans.
The respective Governments have issued regula-
tions in order to secure good quality in the cotton
grown in their countries. Thus, by an Act dated
August 4, 1904, the German Government prohibited
the import of all seed from America, and prescribed
that all other seeds could only be imported via
Tanga, after previously having been officially
examined and found free from boll-weevil and other
dangerous pests. Plantations in which the boU-
weevil or other dangerous insects are found must
if ordered by the police, be destroyed by fire, the
parts of the plants above ground being destroyed in
any case after the crop.'
The British Government issued, in 1908 and
1 ^ DeutBohrift iiber die Entwickelung der Schutegebiete," etc.,
in 1908-9, p. 27.
* A new regulation, dated July SO, 1910, has brought some
modification. American seed is admitted, if grown in Nyassaland
or Uganda; and, in addition to Tanga, some other ports are
admitted as places for entry.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 113
1909 respectively, ordinances which entitled the
Governors of British Eaat Africa and Uganda to
'' make rules for maintaining or improving the quality
of cotton in the Protectorates, or to be exported
from the Protectorates, either in reference to the
distribution and use of seed, or to the inspection of
seed, crops, cotton imginned or ginned, or ginneries,
or fisuitories." ^ In consequence of this, it has been
ordained in the Protectorates that *' all cotton plants
shall be destroyed after the first season's crop has
been picked therefrom, and on no account shall they
be allowed to remain for a second season, or for
more than one year, in the ground."
In Uganda no cotton-seed can be used which has
been obtained from other sources than the Govern-
ment ; and for the purchase of cotton, unless made
by natives, a licence is necessary in Uganda. All
cotton purchased by a licensee may at all reasonable
times be inspected by Government officers, and
information has to be given as to the place where,
and the person by whom, such cotton was grown, or
bought, or ginned.'
All cotton hand-gins must be registered in
Uganda, and all seed obtained frx)m them must be
^ East Africa Protectorate Ordinances and Regulations, vol. x.,
p. 13.
> Official Oazeite for Uganda, 1910, p. 182.
8
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114 BRITISH AND OEBMAN EAST AFRICA
destroyed, unless proof can be given that it is not
destined for growing purposes.^
Those measures may seem necessary in a country
where the article depends mainly on the native
cultivation. In German East Africa, where large
companies are interested in the produce, the Govern-
ment, on the contrary, favours the production of
good cotton-seed in its own country. A publica-
tion of the Imperial Governor, dated February 2,
1909, points out that, in 1908, 3,000 cwt of
Egyptian seed, at a value of Es. 24,000, had been
imported by the K.W.K., and considerable quanti-
ties besides by private companies, and suggests that
under the control of experts of the K.W.K., or
the Biologisch - Landwirtschafbliches Institut at
Amani, the plantations of the colony should produce
proper seed. It was suggested that to all planta-
tions which, in the view of experts, seemed able
to produce a proper seed, the K.W.K. should
guarantee a price of 7 marks per cwt., in bags,
free factory. With such a price promised by the
K.W.K., it would be more profitable to farmers in
German East Africa to sell the seed locally than to
send it to Europe for oil produce.
In accordance with this publication, the ELW.E.
have declared lately that they are prepared to make
1 Official Gazette for Uganda, 1910, p. 2.
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 115
contracts with planters about providing seed; for
the present year they have promised a price of
8 marks for 50 kg.
The supplying of seed to natives has been regu-
lated by an order of September 15, 1910, pre-
scribing that seed shall be granted to them by the
local authorities or persons especially appointed by
the Governor.
In British East Africa so far no restrictions have
been made as to the seed to be supplied. It is con-
trolled only at the time of the import, if it is free
of pests.
The E.W.E. and the C.G.A. have been accustomed
to exchange mutual experiences in cotton cultiva
tion ; they keep up a regular correspondence, and
assist one another whenever the occasion arises.
At the present time Grerman Blast Africa is probably
ahead of the neighbouring British Protectorate, so
far as the large farming is concerned, and in this
line seems also to have better chances for the
future. But as regards native cultivation, Uganda
beats it easily, and there is every probability that
the German colony can learn a good deal from the
experience of its British neighbours, especially when
the staple begins to get still more popular round
Lake Victoria, where the natives are in many ways
similar to the aborigines of the adjacent British
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116 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
t6rriix>ry. At the beginning of 1910 a German
company, which owns cotton plantations in German
East Afiica, started a gin factory at Jinja, in
Uganda.
Cotton-seed grown in the country represents no
little economic value, and there has been, since last
year, a regular export of it, and even of oil made
out of the seed, especially from Uganda ; 1,495 tons
of seed, at a value of £8,083, and 3,370 gallons of
oil, at a value of £252^ were shipped thence to
Europe in 1909. British East Africa exported 104
tons of seed, at a value of £522. From German
East Africa no such exports have been reported
so &r.
Where the transport to Europe does not pay,
cotton-seed provides good fiiel for machines, and
has been used for this purpose in Uganda. The
German Government, hearing about this, showed an
interest in the scheme, and made inquiries through
the intermediary of the Consulate of Mombasa.
A product of the East African tropical belt, which
represents a high economic value, is copra. Cocoa-
nuts were grown and cultivated by the Arabs and
the more well-to-do Swahilis on the coast. With
the abolition of slavery, and the increasing im-
poverishment of the former slave-owners, a gradual
falling-off of the cultivation became noticeable — in
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CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICAL BELT 117
British East Afirica still more than in the German
colony.
The British Annual Beport for 1908-9 com-
plains of a consequent want of care of the trees ;
and it is a sad fact that thousands of palms have
died during the last years owing to an insect pest.
There was for a long time an opinion prevalent,
especially in Zanzibar, that copra was not a paying
produce for Europeans. This may have been justi-
fied so long as the plantation-work was mostly done
by slaves ; but since paid labour has more or less to
be employed by the Arabs and Swahilis, it is not
quite dear why Europeans should not compete
successfully with them. Europeans, too, will be
more methodical in weeding, manuring, and fighting
insect pests.
In German East Africa, since the early days of
first occupation, companies have been engaged in
planting cocoa-nuts, and many private persons,
too, own larger or smaller plantations near the
various coast towns. By the end of 1908 there
were, according to the official German report, not
less than 570,000 trees of a bearing age on European
plantations. On the British coast it is only a few
years since the first plantations were started by
European planters, and at least three or four years
must pass before they can begin to reap their reward.
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118 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
As a reason for the decrease of the export of copra,
it is said that the consumption of the fresh cocoa-
nuts — the "madafu" — has become more popular.
In German East Africa they are much in request in
the interior by the labourers on the railways and
in plantations. The Mombasa statistics show even
a small export to Egypt. The sale of the nuts is
often more profitable than the procuring of copra,
and so, as year by year new countries in the interior
are opened up by the railway, new opportunities
are given to the planters, both on the German and
British coast.
The development of the tropical belt in British
East Africa is handicapped by difficulties which the
land question offers there. Natives have numerous
claims over unoccupied areas which, under a Land
Titles Ordinance of 1908, will be gradually adjudi-
cated. Until this is done, the Crown does not allot
any land there, and intending planters have to buy
the necessary areas from natives, always running
the risk that their titles may not be recognized.
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CHAPTER V
FABMING IN THE HIGHLANDS
In British East Africa, as opposed to German East
Africa where there were no railways to open up
the healthy highlands, efforts were made soon after
the completion of the Uganda Railway to open
up the country for European settlement. Early in
1903 a great propaganda was started to attract
settlers from South Africa.^ The promises which
were made to immigrants were very optimistic, and
when these rushed into the country there was no
machinery to help them. It was only in April,
1903, that a chief surveyor was appointed, who had
to perform the duties of both surveyor and land
officer.' His whole staff consisted of two Indian
assistants.
In 1906 the land and survey departments were
separated, a trigonometrical branch was formed,
additional surveyors were added to the industrial
^ J. A. L. Montgomery, ''Land Settlement in British East
Africa" (See Playne, "East Africa," p. 308).
119
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120^ BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
branch, and an assistant land officer was appointed.
For the general control of both land &nd survey
departments a Commissioner of Lands was ap-
pointed
Though the service now works all right, it
suffered a long time from the arrears which had
been accimiulated during the first three years of
immigration. The beginning of the settlement was,
anyhow, a great disappointment. Many of the
would-be settlers who had come with some capital
were impoverished before they got their deeds, on
which they might have raised some money. The
paradise which they hoped to find appeared as a
country with unproved means; many came with
insufficient knowledge of agriculture, and wasted
their capital on unpractical experiments ; even
those who had been able agriculturists elsewhere
were faced by new conditions, and suffered losses
which crippled them.
By the end of 1908 nearly 4,000 square miles
had been given out in land grants, nearly half of
which consisted of smaller grants, from homestead
freeholds of 640 acres to leases of from 5,000 to
10,000 acres. The other half comprise a few large
concessions, one of them belonging to a Peer, who
has really worked as a broad-minded pioneer in the
country, never hesitating to make new experimenta,
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 121
the fruits of which are now being reaped by his
fellow settlers.
The highlands offer good prospects to the settlers
both for agriculture and for pasturage. The Euro-
pean cereals which prove successful are oats, barley,
and wheat. In the first years fitilures occurred
frequently, because the meteorological conditions
were not known ; but the fact that, in spite of the
increasing European population, the import of flour
latterly shows a decrease, proves that, after all, the
task has been successful.
Potatoes were, especially for the small fSumer,
a good ready-money crop, but the supply was soon
larger than the demand ; they were sold as &r as
the coast places, even Zanzibar and German East
Africa, and there was also for some time an export
to South Africa ; but the attempt to get a regular
market there failed, because they could not com-
pete with the local produce.
The vast grazing grounds of the highlands offer
still better chances for stock-raising. Experimental
farms which the Qovemment has established near
Nairobi, and on other places in the highlands, teach
the intending formers the right methods, and pro-
vide them with seed and live stock.
From the very beginning of the settlement of
British East Africa the impression has prevailed
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122 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
that it was really a white man's country. Ez-
President Boosevelty who has seen a good deal of
the worlds emphasized in his Nairobi speech, to
which I have before referred, that he had visited
the home of settler after settler, both British and
Dutch, and had seen large families of every age
who had never been out of the country, and were
as sturdy as anyone could wish them to be. He
expressed the opinion that the country '^ where
one could grow almost everjrthing, from sugar and
cotton to wheat and wool, apples and strawberries,
had a great agricultural and industrial future," and
thought ^* that the greatest need was to encourage
white settlements, alwa3n3 supposing the settlers
to be of the right type, of tough fibre, willing
to work and conquer." He suggested that " ample
inducements should be offered to the capitalist to
come, but that it should always be kept in mind
that a real white man's country could only be built
up by making the opportunities favourable for the
actual home-makers who do not expect to make
great fortunes, but who do expect, as the reward
of hard work, to build comfortable homes for them-
selves and their families, and to see their children
grow up fit and able to inherit the land after
them."i
1 East African Standard, August 7, 1909.
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FAEMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 123
In German East Africa the question as to
whether the country is suitable for European settle-
ment is still somewhat doubtfiil. The highlands
which may be suitable are, owing to the difficulty
of getting to them, less known ; and as long as no
reliable experience has been obtained it is pro-
bably wise of the Government not to enourage
European immigration on a big scale. The tests
which the Government made on an experimental
farm in the Usambara highlands were, in the first
years — as far as live stock was concerned — not very
promising : the possibilities which seemed to exist
for cultivation of cereals were frustrated by the
lack of means of conveyance to bring them to
market. Since then the state of affiurs has
improved; settlers are doing well now in the
Wilhelmstal district, and the surroundings of
Kilima Njaro and Mount Meru already begin to
present the appearance of a white man's country.
A third of the whole land there has been disposed of,
according to the last annual report of the German
Government, and the statistics for 1908 report
that 21,140 ha. have been let to thirty-seven Boers,
2,250 ha. to two Germans, 2,000 ha. to two English-
men, and 390 ha. to a Greek. Since then the number
has still further increased. There is a tendency of
German settlers in Palestine to emigrate to German
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124 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
East Afirica ; they have ak^ady sent emissaries to
the Eilima Njaro, and if the favourable reports of
the district continue, it is to be hoped that the
ideal of the home-maker, which Roosevelt defined,
has been found in our country.^
In granting land, both the German and British
Governments follow the principle that it shall not be
given away for the purpose of speculation, but that
the intending settler must really prove his intention
of developing it. In British East Africa he is given
five years to carry out a certain development, and
when this has been effected, he receives a ninety-
nine years* lease of the property. Small homestead
farms of 320 acres may be acquired in freehold. In
German East Africa a leasehold is first granted on
condition that every year one-tenth of the land
at least has to be brought under cultivation. Every
tenth so developed may be acquired as freehold, and
in addition to it a frirther tenth, so that after five
years the whole land becomes his property.
The present German Colonial Secretary, Herr vor
Lindequist, who, on a tour of information in 1908,
visited the British highlands, made very detailed
inquiries about the possibilities of white settlement,
and afterwards saw the German highlands extend-
ing south from Lake Victoria to the Eilima Njaro.
1 About a dozen families have now settled there (1911).
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 126
They are said to be very similar to the British high-
lands, only the water question seems to ofFer some
difficulties^ which probably can be overcome by
well-boring. This country will probably in the near
fiiture be opened for stock-farming on a large scale.
In addition to the attempts to further the pro-
duction of colonial cotton, there exists at present
a great interest at home in growing wool in the
African colonies. At first sight the idea of selecting
for this purpose a country on the Equator may
appear to be fighting against Nature ; nevertheless,
the experiments made for some years in the
British East African highlands have proved
successfrd.
The large plains of Bift Valley have been grazed
by large herds of sheep as &r back as the memory
of man can reach ; but the domestic animal does not
produce wool, carrying instead a coat of thick and
coarse hair.
Experiments with imported flocks were at first
started at the Qovernment's farm at Morendat, in
the Rift Yalley, and the report which the manager
gave for the year ending December, 1904, does not
sound very satisfactory.^ Diseases such as scab
and heart-water caused heavy losses, and an insect
pest, known as the sheep nostril fly, gave a con-
1 Afiriea, No. 4, 1905.
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126 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
siderable amount of trouble. Lincoln and Welsh
ewes were not a success ; the sheep par excellence
appeared fix)m the very beginning to be Merinos,
whose lambs were soon much in request by the
settlers. Fairly successful experiments were also
made in crossing with native sheep, consisting of
selected ewea Repeated attempts to interest the
Masai in wooled rams met with failure, as '' their
conviction that they originate from lions and hyenas
is very firmly rooted."
In the beginning of 1906 a syndicate which owns
large grazing areas in the Rifl Valley imported
5,000 Merinos, at a cost of £20,000, from Australia;
but the first experiment in sheep-farming on a large
scale was not at all successful, the greater part of the
flock and their o£&pring dying firom diseases.
This £5iilure did not discourage the bulk of
the settlers, and after many bitter sacrifices, it
may be finally stated now that wool-growing is
proved to have a future in the East African high-
lands. Present experience shows that the importa-
tion of ewes as a rule does not justify the expense,
but that the colonist — especially the one with limited
resources — ^must confine his attention to the improve-
ment of the native stock. ^
As to the way to grade up the local sheep, the
1 Anderson, " Our Newest Colony," pp. 86-89,
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 127
Qovemment experts favour the principle of first
introducing to the native ewe such imported rams
as will produce a breed of large frame, so that their
progeny may be better able to resist the climate and
can carry more wool. They suggest improving this
first cross by a woollier strain. For instance, the
British Lincoln, Welsh Mountain, and Welsh Border
rams had first to produce a large-fi:Bmed animal
which, when afterwards crossed with Merino, would
gain in wool-crop over a second cross through the
Merino alone. It is obvious that those animals
would also give more mutton than the small-fi'amed
Merino, but this latter argument is of little use for
the farmers, as the demand for mutton is limited to
the local market, and the chance of opening a
frozen-mutton trade with South Afirica and India
is still a question of the future. At present most of
the farmers prefer to grade up their ^ flock with
Merinos only. Their reasons are that the Merino
ram is the most easily obtained, gives more wool
at the first crop, and produces a hardy, if smaU,
animal.
Graded sheep to the third generation have done
very well, and the further they are bred away from
the native, the more nearly do they approach to
pure-bred animals.
Clipping from pure Merino bred in the country
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128 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
realized in September, 1907| in the London market,
15^d. per pound, and was classified as ''sixties super.''
For the first cross Merino-native 4d. was paid, and
the prices for second cross Merino-native, Lincobi
Merino-native, and Welsh Merino-native were be-
tween 6^. to 8^. per pound unsecured wool.
The first export was in 1906, and amounted to
309 cwt., at a value of £944. The figures for the
following years are —
Yew.
Owt.
£
1907
1 cri/O ••• ••• •••
1909
247
331
319
841
2,073
1,367
The price for native ewes is about five or six
shillings ; rams can be imported fix>m Elngland and
Australia for about £5. The Government farm at
Morendat has annual sales, where colonists are able
to pick up bargains. Also at private stock sales
suitable rams are obtainable.
In the year ended March 31, 1909, the Govern-
ment farm sold 1,307 sheep, which included 55
pure bred rams, 151 graded rams, 416 draft ewes,
and 684 wethers.^
^ Annual Beport of Department of Agriculture, British East
Africa, 1908-9, p. 72.
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS l2&
The prices realized at an auction in October,
1908, were—
Pure-bi^ Merino rams ...
£1 58. to £7 16s.
Bams, third cross, 1 1 months old . . .
XIO to £16.
„ second „ 16
£11 to £30.
II II II *•*• II •••
£8 to £13.
Shropshire, Suffolk, aod Kerry Hill
rams, half-bred
£7 lOs.
One Auctralian ewe
£4.
Merino ewes ...
£3 13s. 6d.
Native (Merino ewes in lamb by
Suffolk rams)
Bs.^.
During the last few years settlers from German
East AMca have begun to buy occasional sheep from
their British neighbours. I heard that some months
ago sixty sheep, thirty of them pure bred, were
bought near Nairobi and driven overland to the
Kilima Njaro district, which seems just as suitable
for stock-farming as the Rift YaUey in British
East Africa. As mentioned above, the same is
said about the highlands between Kilima Njaro
and Lake Victoria. They offer good grazing places,
and the agricultural expert who was a member of
Herr von Lindequist s staff during his tour of
information in 1908 is frdl of praise for their
possibilities. Another part of German East Africa
which may prove suitable as a place for stock-
farming is Uhehe, which can easily be connected
by a branch line with the German Central Bailway.
9
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130 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Steps to start sheep-farming in German East
A&ica on a large scale are at present being taken
by the Wollschafzucht - Syndikat, which was
founded in 1909, with the idea of producing in our
own colonies a part of this product, of which the
German industry every year needs quantities at
a value of 20,000,000 pounds sterling. Germany's
own colonial production so far amounts to only a few
thousand marks, which comes from South- West
Africa. The number of sheep has, however, in-
creased in the last three years from 3,500 to 20,000
animals.
The syndicate now intends to start a company
for wool-growing in German East Africa. They
applied to the Imperial Consulate at Mombasa for
details about the experiments which English farmers
had so far made, and declared their intention of
buying in British East Africa about 100 ewes and
a sufficient number of rams to mate with them.
The Consulate gave them the answer that the
Agricultural Department would sell them with
pleasure a great number of Merinos, pure bred, and
several first crossing, graded up Corridales, Suffolks,
and Shropshires ; half-bred Merino and Corridale
ewes were also available.
A £axmer who had heard of the intention of
the syndicate offered forty-eight Merino rams at
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PAKMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 131
£5 each. He stated that they had been bred on
his farm from imported Australian ewes. Shorn last
January, the flock produced an average of 8 lb.
f oz. wool per sheep ; the lambs of seven months
produced an average weight of 3 lb. 7 oz. of wool
per lamb. The wool realized 9d per lb. average at the
London sales. The forty-eight rams would, in the
opinion of the &rmer, suffice to mate with 2,500 ewes.
The offer has been forwarded to the syndicate,
but no answer has been received yet.
This shows that, if German settlers are inclined
to start sheep-&rming, they will have no difficulty
in finding the necessary stock. It may be admitted
that the price which this farmer demands is some-
what high, but a direct import firom Europe would
probably cost more, and the flock would not be
so well suited to the Afiican climate as the animals
bom in the country.
Other advantages which intending German
farmers have over their British neighbours are that
they can avoid the mistakes which in former years
have been made in British East Africa, and profit
by the experience gained there. So, for instance,
it is now generally recognized that fencing is a
necessary protection against worm diseases, and
that a medical treatment of copper sulphoid, re-
peated twice a year, is usefrd.
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132 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
In ftiture, after German sheep-farming has passed
the experimental stage, the settlers of the neigh-
bouring countries may assist one another in
exchanging rams in order to avoid inbreeding.
The above remarks about sheep-farming refer
more or less to general stock.
There are millions of cattle in the German and
British East African possessions. No less than
between 976 and 1,433 tons of hides and skins
were exported in 1906 to 1908 from German East
Afirica; in 1909 British East Africa produced
11,626 cwt. of hides for export ; Uganda's export
in 1908 was 5,931 cwt.^ Hides and skins are in
British East Africa and Uganda the principal items
in the export statistics; in German East Africa
they take the second place. A proof of the
abundance of cattle in those territories is also the
high figure which ghee (native butter) represents
in the export statistics.
Most of the cattle are in the hands of the natives.
The breed is not a very fine one, but has proved
to be good material for grading up.^ For breeding
up Hereford, Ayrshire, Shorthorn, and Guernsey,
bulls are kept on the British Government's farm at
^ For German East Africa no separate statistics for hides and
skins are given, and for British East Africa only since 1909.
Uganda's figures for 1909 are not yet known.
> Anderson, " Our Newest Colony," pp. 103-107.
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 133
Morendaty and settlers can send their cows for
service to the farm. At occasional auctions pure-
bred and graded-up cattle can be bought. In the
financial year 1908, 183 head were sold at
Morendat.
The importation of pure-bred cows and heifers is
being given up more and more. The experiment of
importing cows in calf has proved a failure.
The natives at first did not show any interest
in grading up their cattle ; in Usambara, where a
district officer once tried to persuade them by force
that the system was a beneficial one, serious trouble
ensued, which in the chronicle of Grerman East
Afirica got a certain fame as the " bull war." But
it seems that in the last year the natives have
begun to grasp, in German East Afi*ica as well as
in British East Africa, the advantage of grading up
their stock.
The demands of the local market for beef are
limited, though butchers' requirements are in-
creasing daily. The chances of opening a cold-storage
trade with abroad have been referred to above.
Some of the graded-up cattle can be sold as working
oxen on farms. At present the most successful form
of cattle-ranching is dairying. There is a regular
supply of fresh butter, cheese, and milk from the
British highlands to Mombasa. Opportunities for
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134 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
carrying on the same business are less favourable in
German East Africa, because there the conveyance
offers more difficulties ; but it is to be hoped that
a similar transport of dairy produce will be possible
to the coast when more white farmers begin to
settle in the highlands which the Central Railway
crosses.
The cattle diseases which are endemic in East
Africa are a great drawback. In 1891 the rinder-
pest made terrible ravages all over the country. It
has since appeared again here and there, and only
a few months ago a new outbreak was reported in
the south Masai reserve. The German Government,
which was immediately informed by the CSonsulate,
sent a veterinary officer to British East Africa, who
made inquiries in the infected area, and, together
with his British colleagues, finally discovered that
it was not the real rinderpest, but a new disease,
the character of which is not yet quite known.
It is obvious that the respective Governments
have a joint interest in stamping out those diseases
which endanger the economic development of their
territories, and wherever the occasion arises the
necessary steps are taken in full unanimity. Last
year an International Veterinary Congress was held
at the Hague, which, amongst other objects, turned
its attention to the various stock diseases. To
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FARMING IN THE fflGHLANDS 135
describe those and the measures which may be
adopted against them in detail would be too difficult
for a non-professional. I direct the attention of
those who are particularly interested in the subject
to an article written by the British Government's
Veterinary Bacteriologist, Dr. A. Theiler. It is pub-
lished in the Agricultural Journal of British East
Africa^ vol. iii., part 1 (April, 1910), pp. 25-42, and is
entitled, '^ Notes on Stock Diseases of German and
British East Afirica and Uganda, and the Eesolutions
of the International Veterinary Congress at the
Hague, Holland, 1909." The article also gives an
idea of the co-operation between the German and
British veterinary officers.
Pigs are doing well in the country, and breeding
them has, both in Grerman East Africa and in British
East Africa, proved a paying business. There are
factories in both the countries which provide the
local markets.
Horses thrive well in the highlands where there
is no tsetse fly. In Usambara good specimens have
been bred, and in British East Africa their niunber
is so considerable that every year two or three race
meetings are held at Nairobi. The Government
keeps some stallions at Morendat, which, for a small
fee, can be used to serve the mares of the farmei*s.
If the intended settlement in the highlands between
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136 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
Eilima Njaro and Lake Victoria is really started,
the fiumers there will have good opportunities of
buying horses from their British neighbours.
Ostrich-farming was started about ten years ago,
by a German Company, on the Eilima Njaro, but,
owing to unwise management, they had to give up
the business. Later, in British East Africa, experi-
ments were made with better success. South
African experts found that the ostrich in the Rift
Valley had very fine feathers, and quite a number
of farms have been established there. There was an
export of ostrich feathers from British East Africa
in 1907 of 51 lb., at a value of £60, and in 1909 of
375 lb., at a value of £422. The figures for 1908
have not been published.
On the Eilima Njaro experiments have been
made again lately. According to the last annual
report of the German Government, about 100 birds
were kept on farms there, and, though no export of
feathers has been reported so far, there is no reason
to assume that the undertaking should be less
profitable than that in British East Africa. It
depends only on the necessary experience, which is
probably at present more highly developed in British
East Africa, where many of the farmers have learnt
ostrich-farming in South Africa.
The rearing of silkworms seems also promising in
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 137
some parts of East Africa. Mulberry-trees were
planted in German East Africa first in 1894.^ Later
on the British Government had some hundred trees
in the Eenia province,^ but the experiments did
not prove an industrial success. During the last
year a settler has been more successful near Lake
Victoria. There is a silkworm found there which
feeds on indigenous plants; its cocoons are being
collected by natives for this settler, who has a
branch in Kampala (Uganda) and in Bukoba. There
was an export of 1,006 kg., at a value of 933 marks,
from Bukoba during last year.
The settler is trying to float a company to run
his undertaking on a larger scale, and it is quite
possible that the industry has a great futiire on
the I^ke.
The same company which formerly was interested
in ostrich-farming has also made experiments in
domesticating the zebra. For a long time the German
and British Governments were interested in this
question, and the latter particularly incurred heavy
expenses in connection with it. It has been proved
that these animals can be tamed, but neither the
zebra itself nor any hybrid is as suitable for every-
day work as are horses, donkeys, or oxen ; and since
1 K.B,, 1895, p. 8.
s Eliot, <<The East Africa Protectorate," p. 168.
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138 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
it has been found out that the hope that the zebra
would prove immune to tsetse fever or other
endemic diseases was vain, further experiments have
been given up, having more value from a sporting
than an economic point of view.
There is every reason to believe that the African
elephant would also be capable of domestication, but
it is doubtful whether the experiment would be
commercially successful. Last year the Uganda
Government imported an elephant from India to
work on road construction, but the experiment must
have failed, as he has since been sold to Hagenbeck.
Two elephants which Count Gotzen had imported to
East Africa, in 1904, for his expedition through the
dark continent, had to be sent back soon after the
commencement of the journey. Four elephants
which an East African expedition, equipped by the
King of Belgium in 1879, took to the interior, died
during the march, apparently because the food and
water which could be provided for them was in-
sufficient for those fastidious animals.^
The eland can probably be utilized as a domestic
animal. A successful experiment of using them as
draught animals has been made at the Government's
farm near Nairobi. Four elands kept there, two of
which are full grown, are as tame as any oxen, and
1 K.B., 1894, p. 676.
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FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS 139
there is every hope that, with use, they will be just
aa submissive to the yoke. They staud about two
hands higher than ordinary oxen, and are supposed
to be immune to most of the cattle diseases.^
1 East Jfrican Standard, July 2, 1910, p. 9.
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CHAPTER VI
NATURAL PRODUCTS
Those who are sceptical about the opportunities
which tropical colonies may offer to white settlers
must of necessity come to the conclusion that the
ftiture of those countries is mainly based on the
productions of the native races. We have seen that
in East Africa cotton cultivation depends a good
deal — in Uganda entirely — on native cultivation,
and that in the Muansa district the activity of the
natives has led to the erection of husking works
and a large export of rice.
Before the European occupation large quantities
of grain went from the mainland to Zanzibar and
the countries of the Persian Gulf. At present it is
being suggested that the cultivation of maize should
be started on a larger scale for export to South
Africa, but probably this will be more a question 0{
European enterprise.
Ground-nuts, simsim, and chillies, are articles par-
ticularly suitable for natives. The enormous export
140
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NATURAL PRODUCTS Wl
of hides and skins would not be possible without
the numberless herds of cattle and sheep raised by
the pastoral tribes of the interior.
A business which will always be reserved chiefly
to the native population is the collection of the raw
products of the country. Rubber has already been
mentioned, and another article of this sort which is
of a great economic value is beeswax.
Bees are plentiful in East Africa, and the natives
have always appreciated their honey ; but the wax
used to be thrown away as representing no value.
Not before 1903 was a general interest taken in
the article, which, with the increasing demand in
the home market, soon became one of the most
important items of the export statistics. Its figures
rose from 245 tons in 1904 to 675 tons in 1907,
representing a value of £73,000.
Its success in German East Africa caused a
German farmer in British East Africa to draw the
attention of the Wakikuyu, a tribe used to hiving
bees, to the article, and it soon came into favour
there ; the produce of the country represented, in
1903, a value of £184, and has since then increased
to £7,600 in 1907.
The Uganda Government also made efforts to
introduce the industry into their country. In 1908
they sent some sub-chie6 over to German East
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142 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Africa to get information in the Muansa and
Bukoba districts about the methods of hiving bees
and of collecting the wax. They were freely
assisted by the German authorities in their attempts.
Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to say whether
the new industry will become popular amongst the
Waganda; but a small export of wax is already
reported for the period from April to November,
1909.
Since 1908 a decrease is remarkable in the pro-
duce of wax in German East Africa as well as in
British East Africa. It is probable that there is
a certain reciprocity between rubber and wax. If
the one article fetches higher prices, the other
is neglected by the collecting natives. During the
last few years, it has been more profitable to collect
rubber, and in the same proportion as its figure in
the statistics rose, the figure for wax fell. Another
cause which is held responsible for the decrease in
the export of wax is that the old stocks in the
interior seem to be exhausted, and also that here
and there swarms of bees have been killed by a too
greedy system of collecting their wax.
Gum copal may be mentioned here as an article
which depends entirely on the industry of the
natives. It is the resin of a wild-growing tree, and
is used for varnishing. The best quality is the fossil
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NATURAL PRODUCTS 143
resin. Of this, as of beeswax, it has boen found
that the natural resources are diminishing. It was,
therefore, a matter of interest to the trade when
some years ago a German chemist declared that he
had found a means of using the fruit of this tree for
the varnishing industry. It seems that the experi-
ment has fieiiled, but it may be repeated with better
success later on. Both German East Afirica and
British East Afirica would have the benefit of it.
The export of ivory is based more or less on the
work of natives. This brings us to a point on
which a great solidarity of interests exists between
the two respective Powers — viz., the protection
of game.
Big game is incompatible with agriculture. The
former has to disappear as the latter extends, much
to the regret of the lover of nature. Its extirpation
means also a loss to the economic sources of the
colonies : the trophies represent a high commercial
value, and big-game hunting attracts every year
a number of wealthy people who spend their money
in the country.
All these arguments have caused the German
and British Governments to issue game regulations,
and an international convention was signed in
London in 1900, which laid down certain principles
for the preservation of wild animals. A distinction
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144 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
was drawn between animals whose preservation it
was desired to insure, those of which it was desired
to prohibit the destruction when young, and those
whose females it was illegal to kill when accom-
panied by their young. The present German and
British game regulations are based on those princi-
ples, and are more or less similar. The licence for
a sportsman costs £50, which enables the holder
to shoot specimens of most animals, additional
charges being made for the shooting of elephants.
Residents pay a smaller price for the same licence,
and special facilities are given to the settlers.
That the sportsman's licence is expensive is as
it should be. People who can afford to travel for
their pleasure to East Africa may also contribute
a fair sum to the cost of administering the country.
It is only since 1909 that the German Government
has made use pf the financial value of its game.
Under the old regulations a licence could be had
for Rs. 10 only, and it was to a great extent the
large earnings which the British Government
realized from its game licences — they were esti-
mated in 1904 at £3,188, and have since heavily
increased — which caused the German Government
to adopt a similar system.
The influx of sportsmen to British East Africa
is more prominent than to German East Africa
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NATURAL PRODUCTS 145
because the Uganda Railway offers excellent facili-
ties for reaching the hunting districts, whilst in the
German colony long safaris are necessary.
Special regulations have been issued by the two
Powers Ifc protect the ivory supply. Tusks of
female and infant elephants are confiscated when
found in anyone's possession ; the smallest weight of
tusk allowed in German East Africa is 5 kg., whilst
in the British territory tusks of less than 80 lb.
are prohibited. The regulation is so strictly en-
forced that even tusks which are in transit through
British East Africa from another country are con-
fiscated by the Customs authority if they are not
according to the regulations.
The ivory which the Governments acquire as
royalty or otherwise is sold firom time to time by
auction in the Custom Houses at Daressalam and
Mombasa, the dates being always published a long
time in advance, to enable the traders of the neigh-
bouring countries to participate.
As to this article, Zanzibar has still kept its posi-
tion as a central market. The tusks exported firom
German East Africa nearly all find their way there,
while Mombasa, where two American ivory firms
have branches, ships only about a fifth of its
export to Zanzibar, the remainder going directly
to Anierica, Europe, and India.
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146 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
The finding of minerals is in most cases a
matter of luck. One may prospect during months
in a district without discovering anything, and as
soon as one leaves, a new-comer may by chance
discover in the same place the richest mines.
The geological formation of German East Africa
and the two British possessions is certainly the
same, and the minerals which have been found in the
one may be supposed to exist in the others as welL
The gold-mines of Sekenke have already been
referred to. They belong to a reef which runs
northward across the British boundary through
Eamagombo in the Nyassa Province, and probably
reappears on the Sio River in Uganda.^ The
Belgian gold-mines on the west of Lake Albert are
perhaps also connected with it. The mines of
Sekenke now give a considerable profit, but the
gold which so far has been found in the British
territory is of such a kind that the working of it
would prove unremunerative. In March, 1907, the
news that copper, gold, and diamonds were found
near Makindu caused general excitement, but
turned out to be a hoax.
Mica is dug in the Uluguru Mountains in German
East Afirica, and in 1908 represented already an
export figure of 77 tons, at a value of XI 6,550. It
1 Miot, << The East Africa Protectorate," p. 159.
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NATURAL PRODUCTS 147
is also found along the Tsavo River, in British East
Africa, and the flakes are apparently of considerable
size,^ but no attempts have hitherto been made
to gather it.
Valuable days have been found in the hinterland
of Tanga in German East Africa, and in the Rift
Valley and near Lamu in British East Africa. The
Industrial Mission established a manufactory of
tiles, bricks, and pots, near Mombasa. Their tiles
especially soon became popular, and began to oust
the ugly corrugated iron, which is still mostly used
for roofing. For the past two years a German
company have been considering a plan for estab-
lishing a cement factory near Tanga, and are
making inquiries about the possibilities of a market.
Unfortunately, no exact details can be given about
the import of cement to British East Africa, because
this article is not mentioned separately in the
Customs statistics of Mombasa, but is included in
the general item of building materials. The chances
of manufacturing cement in the country can, how-
ever, be supposed to be good, as at present the
local price of the article is heavily influenced by
the high cost of transport. At Lamu, too, a fitrmer
intends to erect a fisu^tory, but he cannot yet raise
the necessary capital.
^ £liot^ ''The East Africa Proteotorate," p. 160.
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148 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
A product which will probably shortly contribute
to the farther development of German and British
East Africa is carbonate of soda. There are two
soda lakes near the boundary, the one on the
English, the other on the German side. A syndi-
cate with large means was formed two years ago
in London to take advantage of the Magadi Lake
on the English side. It is intended to build a
railway-line for a distance of sixty miles, connect-
ing the Lake with a station of the Uganda Railway ;
and it is said that the work will be done on such
a big scale that two goods trains will be despatched
every day, and a special manufactory for barrels on
the Lake and a pier at Eilindini Harbour will be
necessary. The route for the future railway was
surveyed last year, and though nothing definite
has been heard since, ^ it seems likely that the work
will be started soon.
The attention of German business-men has also
been attracted to the possibilities of their soda lake.
Only lately a German banking combine have sent
out an expert to report upon the commercial value
of the soda found in the Lake. This gentleman is,
if the information given to me is correct, rather
pessimistic about the scheme of a commercial enter-
prise on the Lake, but in the meantime I learn that
^ A contract for the railway has now been signed.
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NATURAL PRODUCTS 149
an English financier has applied to the German
Government for a concession. His agent, who is
at present in Mombasa, was full of hope, and
expressed to me the opinion that the soda would
find a large market, even if the work was started on
the two lakes at the same time. He said that his
principal was able to build a railway in connection
with the terminus of the Usambara Railway, and
would guarantee a minimum export of 100,000 tons
a year.
Little use has been made, up till now, of the
riches which East Afirica possesses in its forests.
Both Governments regard it as their principal duty
to conserve and enlarge them, rather than to
encourage a rash commercial use. Therefore, when-
ever concessions are granted, guarantees must be
given for new afibrestation. Some concessions have
been given in the British colony, particularly in the
Mau Escarpment, but there is no export of wood
so far ; the consumption is local, and even so
the supply is not yet sufficient, and large quanti-
ties of timber are still imported annually from
Norway.
German East Africa is in this respect ahead of
its neighbour. The Usambara mountains, now
reached in one day's journey from Tanga, carry
large forests of fine cedar, and several companies
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150 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
have already made use of them. One has con-
structed a branch railway to the Usambara line,
another has erected a funicular railway at consider-
able cost. There was already in 1908 an export of
fine wood — ^not including bark — of 657 cbm., at a
value of £3,149, to Germany, and of 223 cbm., at
a value of £554, to Zanzibar.
Fuel is used in large quantities by the railways
in the respective Protectorates, and it is an impor-
tant matter for the Governments that an adequate
supply should be insured for the future.
On the coast the mangroves represent an article
of high value. Towards the end of last century a
German merchant first discovered that their bark
produces a good tannin, the best of them, which
grow near Lamu, giving between 50 and 60 per
cent. The first expoi*ts were made from this port
in 1903, of a value of £1,155. As the tree is
abundant on most parts of the coast, his example
soon found imitators; numerous concessions were
given along the British and German shores, and the
export gradually increased. New methods have
since been found for its industrial use, and there is
even a project to erect a factory in German East
Afiica for the extraction of the tannin. The poles
of the mangroves are used as building material for
native huts, and are, as far as they are not con-
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NATURAL PRODUCTS 161
sumed locally, exported to Zanzibar, India, and
Arabia.
The bark collected in British East Africa was, as
long as the German merchant still held the principal
concession, exported by German ships, which earned
from him during the last years an average of £6,000
in freight. After the expiration of the concession,
it was given to an English company, which is in
close connection with the Government, and ships
the article on their own boats.
Another tree of use for the tanning industry is
the black wattle, which grows well in the Usambara
mountains, and has been planted for some years in
the British highland. Their bark gives an average
of 33 per cent, of tannin.
Fish, cowries, tortoise, and other shells, call for no
remarks; but it is worthy of mention that pearl-
fishing was carried on for some time in the territorial
waters. Several concessions were given in the south
of German East Africa, but the business did not
pay. Ambergris is occasionally found on the
northern shore of British East Africa, but it has
never been reported that it has drifted so far south
as to the German coast.
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CHAPTER VII
MUTUAL EXCHANGE OF EXPEBIENGE
In the preceding chapters, I think, the products are
exhausted in which a reciprocal economic interest
exists between the German and British Protectorates
in East Africa. Mutual interest and peaceful com-
petition are greatly stimulated by exhibitions.
The first one in East Africa, of more than local
interest, was held in July, 1903,^ at Mombasa. It
was undertaken by the British East African
Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Uganda,
Zanzibar, and German East Africa, were invited to
participate. The invitation to the latter arrived
somewhat late, but in spite of that its share in the
exhibition was not small The German plantations
and their produce proved especially interesting;
photos of the former were shown. Cofiee, fibre,
vanilla, and cotton gained first prizes. German
timber, and fiimiture manufactured from it, was
much admired ; and among native products, tobacco,
1 African Sta/ndard^ July 25, 1903.
152
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MUTUAI. EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE- 163
simsim, and ground-nuts were granted first prizes.
Of manu&ctured articles, German East Africa
exhibited with the same success matting, bricks,
tiles, and soap. British East Africa made its mark
with farming produce— live stock, dairy produce,
vegetables, and flowers.
The Official Gazette of British East Africa, in
reporting on the show, recognized that much of its
beauty was due to the great energy displayed by
our German neighbours, who at a short notice sent
up a very fine array of exhibits, many of which
were selected by the judges for prizes.^
At an exhibition of colonial produce which was
held at Daressalam in the next year British East
Africa took no part ; the Government sent only, to
show their interest, the Director of the Agricultural
Department as representative.^
In 1905, again, a show was held in Zanzibar
which was even attended by visitors from Madagas-
car and the Seychelles. British East Africa again
contributed mainly the produce of agriculture and
live stock — ^grain, maize, potatoes, vegetables, butteri
cheese, and so on — and obtained thirty-two prizes
out of forty-six exhibits.
German East Africa again took a much more
1 O.O., 1903, p. 272.
> D.O^.Z., August 13, 1904.
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154 BRITISH AND GEBBCAN EAST AFRICA
general part, nearly every possible product of the
country being shown. ''We feel no compunction,"
says the Zarmbar Oazeite^^ ** in meting out a full
measure of praise, even at oiu* own expense, to our
neighbours across the water. If we had been asked
what was the most important exhibit on the ground,
we should have said that of Amani, not so much for
what it was (though it lacked little in that respect)
as for what it represented. No settler student of
natural history or anyone interested in East African
progress could have fiuled to detect in the carefully
arranged exhibits the fruit of much laborious
research, which in time must prove of immense
benefit to the country. As an experimental station
Amani is &r and away the best equipped of any on
the east coast ; it would, perhaps, be more correct to
say that it is the only properly equipped biological-
agricultural experimental station in this part of the
world."
During recent years this excellent institute has
also attracted visitors from British East Africa, where
the settlers were in former times comparatively
indifferent to what happened across the frontier.
But no sooner were the German successes with
rubber and sisal known, than there was a rush to
our colony with the view of getting usefrd informa-
^ September 13, 1905.
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MUTUAL EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE 165
tion. In the last few years the Consulate at Mom-
basa gave many letters of introduction to the Amani
Institute and the planters in Usambara, and when-
ever visitors returned, they were full of praise of
what they had seen there; and in the quarterly
publication which the agricultural department of
British East Africa issues accounts are often given
of the German methods of dealing with the tropical
products. So, for instance, in the edition of January,
1910, an English planter, who had just returned
from a run through the rubber districts of German
East Africa, gives in an article detailed notes on
Oeara rubber in German East Africa. About the
reception he got in Usambara he writes : '' I should
like to record a sense of the friendliness with which
we were received, the willingness displayed to give
information and explain the minutest details, and,
further, we were most hospitably entertained.
Nothing was a trouble, and to make us comfortable
seemed quite a pleasure.''
It may be mentioned here that copies of this
quarterly are regularly sent by the English Agri-
cultural Department to the Government at Dares-
salam and to the institute at Amani. In exchange
the British Government receives the respective
German publications.
It is no wonder that British East Africa is better
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156 BRITISH AND GERMAN BAST AFRICA
known to Germans than the German colony is to
English people. Mombasa has to be passed by
residents of the German colony on their way fix>m
and to Europe, whilst German East Africa is out of
the way of those who have their homes in British
East Africa or Uganda. Many German officers
have to cross right through British East Africa on
the way to their stations, and time generally allows
them a short break in the journey at Nairobi or
some other interesting place in the interior. Many
others are attracted by the facility which the
Uganda Railway offers for an interesting trip
round Lake Victoria.
But, apart from this, the German interest in their
neighbours is keener than vice versa. Governors of
the German colony have often visited the neighbour-
ing colony ; even the Secretary and Under-Secretary
of the German Colonial Office went to British East
Africa to collect information there, but a British
Governor has never called at Daressalam, nor,
during his visit to British East Africa, did Mr.
Winston Churchill — at that time Colonial Secretary
— extend his journey to the neighbouring colony.
The reason is obvious. The English are a nation
of long colonial experience. For experiments in a
new colony they easily find models in one of their
old possessions ; they do not need to go to school to
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!••••• ■•
National Bank at Mombasa.
One of the Government Offices at Daressalam.
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• - • • • "•"
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MUTUAL EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE 157
such a colonial parvenu as their German neighbour
appears to them to be. We, on the contrary, are
glad to learn wherever we can, being novices in all
colonial questions.
But there is also another side to the question.
For us East Africa was the jewel of all our colonial
possessions, whilst in the huge British Colonial
Empire their East African Protectorates were looked
upon as step - children. The general interest in
them was exhausted for some time by the construc-
tion of the Uganda Biailway, which had swallowed
enormous sums, and after its completion there was
not much inclination to make further sacrifices for
their development. In Germany, on the contrary,
the colonial interest which awoke by-and-by was
mostly concentrated on the East African possession.
So everything which has been done in German East
Africa is of a solid character ; in British East Africa
one notices everywhere the tendency to save money.
One has only to compare the two capitals, Dares-
salam and Mombasa. At the one are smart villas
with all home comforts ; at the other ugly bungalows
of corrugated iron.
German East Africa had in the last calendar year
a total trade of £2,353,060 ; the import represented
a value of £1,697,085, the export of £655,975. The
corresponding figures for British East Africa during
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158 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
the financial year 1909 were : Total £1,365,303 ;
import, £775,246 ; and export, £590,057- In those
figures Uganda's imports and exports are included,
and in the figures for exports even the transit goods
from German East Africa and the Congo State,
which amount to £228,002, are comprised.
This shows that our colony is far more developed
than the two British East African Protectorates.
It would be vanity to attribute our better successes
to better colonial methods adopted by us ; a good
deal of it we even owe to our neighbours, who by
their railway have opened to cultivation some of
the best parts of our colony. But the principal
point is that in the division of East AMca we have
apparently got hold of the better territory.
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CHAPTER VIII
FUTUBB PROSPECTS
Prophesying is a thankless task* In 1908 a report
of the German Consul at Zanzibar tried to prove
the incipient independence of Qerman East Africa's
trade from the Zanzibar market. The partner of a
German firm, one who claimed to he, and was re-
garded as, one of the best experts on the East African
trade, wrote a paper against this view, and pointed
out, with detailed statistics and much eloquence, that
Zanzibar would for ever remain the centre of the
East African trade, and that in the same degree as
the mainland was developed the position of Zanzibar
would be strengthened. Should this gentleman,
who had known East Africa for two decades, read
his remarks again to-day, he would hardly maintain
his thesis.
The prospects for the friture relations between
German East Africa and British East Africa are not
more easily given.
The shipping question has at present reached a
159
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100 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
new stage. The Grerman line had a sort of monopoly
on the east coast for twenty years; so much so,
indeed, that most of the trade of British East Africa
was carried in her bottoms. This state of aflGedrs
gave rise to criticisms in English quarters, and for a
long time the establishment of a direct British line
between England and East Africa has been agitated
for. Now, in this year, two British lines have
started running to East Africa, the above-mentioned
Union Castle Line and a special cargo line (Harri-
son, Ellerman, and Clan). They do not call at the
German East African ports, nor is it likely that a
tariff war between them and the Deutsche Ostafrika
Linie will arise. But even without this the Qerman
line will suffer heavy losses in their traffic from and
to British East Africa. First of all, she will lose a
great number of her usual passengers, many of
whom are officers of the East Africa and Uganda
Protectorates, who, of course, will be sent in future
by the Union Castle Line.
In cargo, the competition will be felt as well, more
as regards the goods exported from British East
Africa than those shipped there from Europe, for
the English goods were already mostly carried in
English vessels, and there is not much likelihood
that the new English cargo line will take away
many of the continental freights. The only con-
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FUTURE PROSPECTS 161
tinental ports they call at are Antwerp, Marseilles,
and Naples, and the German line has the advantage
of through bills of lading firom the interior.
But in spite of the new competition, there is not the
slightest reason why the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie
should altogether withdraw from the British East
African ports, as did the Union Castle from Dares-
salam and Tanga. Qermany imports goods at a
value of £79,400, and exports of £75,767, to and
from British East Africa and Uganda. This means
out of the total trade 10*2 per cent, of the imports
and 12 9 per cent, of the exports. These figures, in
addition to the figure represented by the goods
passing to and from German East Africa, in transit
through British East Africa, justify the existence
of a German line in British East Africa.
True, this transit trade will not last for ever.
The Kilima Njaro district — as has been pointed out
already — ^will soon fall under the influence of the
Usambara Railway. A further period must elapse
before the Lake districts are served by a German
railway. Up to the present the means have been
voted only for the construction of a line as far as
Tabora. The probable influence which the extension
of the railway up to this point will have on the
Lake ports has been alluded to in Chapter II.
Plans for the further extension of the railway have
11
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162 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
not yet been published, but it is certain that the
next care of the Grerman Government will be to get
a connection with Lake Tanganyika. The construc-
tion of a branch line to Lake Victoria is a cura pos-
terior. Our Lake ports are very well served by the
Uganda Railway, and it would be foolish to take a
German line there with the idea of competing with
our British neighbours. The result would be that the
Uganda Railway would lose, but we would not gain.
Railway building is an expensive undertaking in a
tropical country, and the capital we are able to raise
for this purpose is greatly needed for new countries
which still await development. There are large
districts in the north-west of our colony which
promise a good economic future — namely, the pro-
vinces Ruanda arid Urundi, which have been men-
tioned before.
The highlands between Kilima Njaro may also be
liable to a development which one cannot anticipate
at present. If it proves a country for stock-farming
and for white settlement, it will be necessary to
extend the Usambara Railway, and, in course of
time, this line should reach the Lake. In any case,
it would only be necessary for one of the two
German lines to connect the Lake with the coast.
Wherever the terminus may be, a place where large
ships can anchor would have to be selected, and this
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FUTURE PROSPECTS 163
would become the principal port for all trade on the
German side of the Lake.
This wiU happen sooner or later, and then the
Uganda Railway will lose much of its present
earnings. But in the meantime other countries will
have been developed within the sphere of its influ-
ence. At present a line is being constructed from
Jinja to Kakindu on Lake Choga. This opens new
districts of Uganda which offer, on account of their
fertility and the intelligence of their population,
great economic possibilities. From Nairobi a branch
is in construction to the Kenia district, and other
feeders will follow by-and-by. So, what the Uganda
Railway loses in German transit will be replaced
by the increase of traffic in the British Protectorates.
The English authorities are not, therefore, nervous
with regard to the prospect of one day losing the
German transit trade.
This, however, wiU certainly mean an important
severance of the commercial relations between the
respective Protectorates. German East Africa's
position will be strengthened when all the traffic
which passes through British East Africa goes
directly to Daressalam or Tanga. The development
of these two ports has shown what the influence of
a railway to the interior means. The former place,
in early years merely the centre of administration,
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164 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
has grown to be an emporium of trade. Before
long, many of the firms which now buy the produce
of German East Afirica in Mombasa will open
branches in Daressalam — first of all, those which
deal in hides and skins — and it is likely that the
two firms which export ivory from Mombasa will
settle at the principal German ports. Some other
Mombasa firms which import goods via the Uganda
Railway to the north-east of German East Africa
will do the same.
The German commercial interests in British East
Africa will then somewhat decrease; but, on the
other hand, the direct exchange of goods between
German East Africa and the two British Protector-
ates will grow in proportion to the general increase
of trade. It has been mentioned that at present
the Muansa district supplies great quantities of rice
to British East Africa, whilst the latter country
exports a good deal of samli to German East Africa.
In the same way other articles may be foimd in
course of time which the one country is more able to
produce than the other, and for which the other
offers a good market.
Further, the more a country is generally developed
the more possibilities it offers for every new-comer.
There are at present about a hundred German
subjects living in British East Africa, and a dozen
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FUTURE PROSPECTS 165
in Uganda ; over half a dozen large German com-
panieB are doing business, and some smaller traders
and farmers are gaining their bread there. English
interest in German East Africa has increased lately.
In addition to the one company which has planta-
tions on the Kilima Njaro, other syndicates have —
as mentioned above — invested capital in rubber
estates, and often enough questions are brought
before the Consulate at Mombasa about the oppor-
tunities which a settler would have in German East
Africa. There is every chance that the more the
development proceeds the more the reciprocal
interests will increase.
Of great importance also is the part which Grer-
many takes in the trade of the British Protectorates,
and which England takes in that of German East
Africa. The respective figures of Germany have
been given above. England's direct trade with
German East Africa amounted in 1908 to £62,930
for imports, and £6,076 for exports. India, a part
of the British Empire, supplied in the same year to
German East Africa goods at a value of £210,586,
while the exports from there to India amounted to
£2,850. There are many hundreds of Indian traders
doing business in the German colony. This
guarantees also for the future a mutual commercial
interest.
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166 BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA
As regards special economic relations between
German East Africa and the two British Protector-
ates, there wiU always remain a certain solidarity of
interest on account of the fact that the produce and
the needs of the countries are more or lees identical.
Methods which have proved useful in the one
territory will be of use in the neighbouring country
as well. Thus, to mention one instance, cotton culti-
vation seems to have a great future in East Africa,
and the time may not be very far distant when mills
can be started there. The first land to prove suit-
able for it would probably be Uganda ; it offers the
best prospects for this product, and has an intelli-
gent population which seems more able to be trained
to assist in machinery work than do the natives of
other parts of East Africa, It would, of course,
mean quite a revolution in the economic status of
East Africa, if the cotton goods — at present the
principal item of the imports — were manufactured in
the country itself. It would mean a heavy decrease
in the Grovernment's revenue for import duties, and
many of the old firms which derive their best earn-
ings firom the sale of European and American piece
goods would have to look for other sources of in-
come. But, on the other hand, the establishment
of a regular inland industry would mean so high a
development that this possibility could easily be
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FUTURE PROSPECTS 167
accepted. The country which started first could
easily become a supplier to the neighbouring colony.
The same would be the case if the intended
cement factory could be started in German East
Africa. It would probably work cheaply enough to
oust a further import from Europe.
The possibilities are so manifold that it would be
ridiculous to go into details. What can be assumed
as certain is that the gradual development will have
the effect of making the economic relations between
German East Africa and the two British Pro-
tectorates closer and closer ; and so, in peaceful
competition, Germany and England will work to-
gether for the expansion of civilization in East
Africa.
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APPENDIX A
German East Africa's Trade with Zanzibar (in Marks)
siNOE 1898.
Peroentige
PerwntagB
Exports to
ofth«
Imports from
oftho
Year.
Zuuibu.
Total
Totri
Export
Import
1898
3,215,805
74
7,024,547
60
1899
2,696,427
69
7,094,956
66
1900
2,987,189
69
5,873,976
51
1901
3,169,411
69
6,951,925
63
1902
3,548,139
67
5,060,767
57
1903
3,387,786
66
5,531,459
54
1904
3,644,195
41
6,411,274
37
1905
2,132,318
21
4,632,665
26
1906
1,378,049
12
4,153,151
17
1907
2,411,170
19
4,178,869
13
1908
1,877,191
17
4,269,193
17
1909
2,271,100
17
4,296,600
13
APPENDIX B— I.
British East Africa's Trade with Zanzibar (in Sterung)
SINCE 1897.
Potsentage
Poroentage
Ymt.
Exports to
of the
Imports from
Zanabw.
of the
2uudbftr.
TotiJ
Total
Export
Import
1897
43,648
62
106,953
23
1898
69,544
83
206,635
43
1899
86,038
70
109,640
24
1900
72,507
86
101,620
23
1901
82,469
73
129,748
30
1902
36,642
25
153,367
34
1903
33,986
21
82,567
19
1904
30,546
13
99,725
19
1905
23,778
7
97,190
14
1906
28,761
6
91,655
12
1907
40,178
8
76,638
9
1908
36,434
8
76,848
9
1909
53,866
9
t
1
The fieures of the exports to Zanzdbar in 1902 are according
to the official statistics of British East Africa. The other figures
are based on the Zanzibar statistics.
168
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APPENDIX B
109
APPENDIX B— II.
Artiolbs Exportkd fhoh British East Africa to
Zanzibar smci 1904.
1904.
1906.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
Carbonate
of soda ...
^^
..
...
200
Chaiies ...
1,400
_
—
—
Copra
700
900
4,600
3,500
2,200
4,000
Gum oopal
—
300
400
900
300
800
Ghee
1,900
1,800
1,200
4,600
?
3,700
Grain
2,000
3,700
2,600
5,700
3,900
6,400
Hides, skins,
and horns
2,800
700
—
2,460
2,100
3,574
Ivory
16,700
6,700
8,700
10,000
13,900
21,200
Live stock
1,300
600
1,000
2,700
1,600
4,200
Potatoes...
1,100
1,300
1,000
1,600
1,700
1,600
Rubber ...
_
..^
....
....
6
1,600
Tortoise and
shells ...
156
1
1
513
t
375
Wood ...
700
.».
400
200
200
Other
articles ...
1,600
3,000
3,600
—
10,000
4,400
APPENDIX C— I.
Total Value (in Sterling) of Dibbct Trade between
Oeriian East Africa and Biutish East Africa.
Year.
Totol
Import to
Brltiah
Afrioa.
ImjEorted
Gennan
East
Afrioa.
P*r
Cant, of
Total
Import
Total
Export of
BHtlah
East
Africa.
Bxportod
toOierman
Baat
Afrioa.
Cant of
Total
Export
Oimnd Total
of Trade
man East
Africa and
Brltiah East
Africa.
1908
1904
1906
1906
1907
1908
1909
486.947
518,148
672.860
768,647
799,717
797,168
776,246
10,585
10,971
10,824
8,070
10,488
17,079
27
1-6
1-4
1-1
1-8
2-2
159,815
284,664
882.889
440,705
515,062
486,818
690,067
1,065
608
2,306
2.981
2.875
2,982
4,632
0-6
0-2
0-7
0-6
0-5
0-7
0-8
1,065
11.088
18,276
18,805
10.945
18.470
21,611
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170 BRITISH AND OEBMAN EAST AFRICA
APPENDIX C— II.
Valub (in Stkrung) of Vaeious Artiolks Imfobted into
British East Afbioa from German East Africa.
1904.
1905.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
A^cultural
implemeDts ...
Building
196
210
195
—
—
—
materials ...
28
7
—
—
12
Furniture
—
—
—
8
Grain:
Kice
2,847
5,039
4,238
4,611
4,956
1,165
Wheat
12
—
—
Other sorts ...
2,330
325
117
414
1,664
1,162
Live stock :
Cattle
—
—
7
Horses
—
49
—
Donkeys
—
123
—
Mules
Sheep
...
2,229
666
""~
^_
56
49
3
Gk>ats
12
—
—
1
Poultry
Ostriches J
—
20
13
10
27
Provisions of all
sorts
2,344
2,419
3,616
1,435
1,366
2,448
Seeds and plants
—
7
176
723
204
147
Tobacco
12U
122
180
179
670
226
Wood
56
—
—
Hides and skins
_
.._
.—
4,013
Rubber
.^
—
560
Ivory
—
*~
—
337
All other sorts
422
2,277
2,280
669
1,375
6,997
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APPENDIX C
171
APPENDIX C— III.
Value (in Stbrung) of Various Articles Exported from
BRITI8H East Africa to Qbrhan East Africa.
1904.
1906.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
Borities
_
_
_
24
23
^^
Carbonate of
soda
—
415
Copra
257
18
25
—
Coffee
333
48
21
56
—
98
Ghee
170
593
375
1,172
1
1,090
Grain:
Maize
^.^
193
548
10
—
—
Millet
—
..—
72
Pulse
—
245
Simsim
..
42
Rice
671
—
508
221
Beans
—
3
Groundnuts...
35
?
637
Potatoes
1,073
1,120
1,164
885
983
Live stock :
Horses
—
—
60
Mules
_-
100
240
Donkeys
65
—
127
Cattle
5
—
28
Sheep
—
—
30
Goats
6
Wild animals
_
263
All other sorts...
182
—
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APPENDIX E
173
APPENDIX E
Valuk (m Sterling) of Transit Goods Ikfortkd imo
British East Africa.
1903
... 18,400
1904
... 57,067
1906
... 131,751
1906
... 172,216
1907
... 189,647
1908
... 157,020
1909
... 228,002
Yalus (in Sterung) of Goods Exported from German
East Africa in Transit through British East Africa.
1903 ...
6,107
1904 ...
... 43,270
1905 ...
... 93,179
1906 ...
... 138,030
1907 ...
... 174,661
1908 ...
... 102,119
1909 ...
... 167,000
(According to British statistics.)
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APPEN
UGANDA
Statxhbnt of Gboss Bbcxifts dibivkd from Booking to ako from Gxbxan
OOAOHINO.
Port
Number of PMMDga*
Inwards.
Total.
InwmnU
Beoalpto.
Number of Paiacngers
OtttwardB.
Total.
From Febraaiy 1, 1904,
to ICaroh 81, 1904 :
Ut
2nd
8rd
R>
lat
1 Snd
8rd
ClMS.
ClMS.
ClSM.
ffluM
Claaa.
CUm.
Sobirati
—
—
—
1
—
6
7
Muanfla
—
—
—
—
—
8
—
6
8
Bukoba
—
—
—
—
—
6
6
Total
—
—
—
—
—
4
—
16
20
From April 1. 1904, to
MarohSl, 1906:
Sobirati
8
12
119
184
891
4
2
68
64
Maanfla
2
86
804
842
4,677
21
16
144
181
Bakoba
9
17
71
97
2.236
9
12
186
167
Total
14
65
494
678
7,704
84
80
838
402
From April 1, 1905, to
MarohSl, 1906:
Schirati
7
9
182
148
1,202
1
4
186
140
Muansa
47
92
489
628
16,606
46
87
468
586
Bukoba
16
21
174
211
2.902
16
14
176
206
Total
70
122
796
987
19,610
61
105
764
930
From April 1. 1906, to
Marob 81. 1907 :
Scbiiati
11
21
118
145
1,602
18
20
110
148
Maanaa
67
90
690
887
19.918
66
40
408
604
Bakoba
20
20
240
280
4,002
18
9
248
276
ToUl
88
181
1.048
1.262
25,422
87
69
766
922
From April 1, 1907, to
Maroh 81, 1908 :
Schiimti
81
18
278
827
2.929
87
18
226
281
Maanaa
128
98
1.126
1,842
28.749
69
67
796
912
Bokoba
68
49
492
699
16.648
82
82
679
643
Total
212
160
1,896
2,268
47.221
128
107
1,601
1,836
From April 1, 1908, to
Marob 81. 1909 :
Scbiiati
"
14
12
168
194
Muansa
.
Detail
8 not a
eailable.
66
68
1,081
1.210
Bakoba
60
16
620
686
Total
—
—
—
—
—
180
91
1.869
2.090
From April 1. 1909. to
Marob 81, 1910 :
Scbtiati
14
7
169
190
2,891
16
4
186
155
Maanaa
86
41
812
989
18.794
79
40
801
920
Bakoba
77
16
782
876
11.680
42
18
474
629
ToUl
177
64
1,768
2,004
82,765
186
67
1,411
1.604
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DIX P.
RAILWAY.
Lakb Ports since Inauguration of Lars Steamer Service.
Ck)ODS.
Outwards
Reodpts.
Other
OoAdhlng
ReoeiptB.
Ri.
58
801
28
887
519
8,515
1,962
189
2,588
1.112
Total
Ooaching
Raoelptik
R&
58
801
28
887
1,549
10,680
5»800
Gooda Traffic
Inwarda.
Tona. Receipta.
1
12
21
Gooda Traffie
Outwarda.
Tona. Reodpta.
84
65
517
885
Ra.
84
2,215
8,814
6,118
7,157
76,784
45,692
8
99
80
187
52
618
288
Ra.
817
4,498
8,075
Total
Gooda
Receipta.
7,885
4,867
41,887
25,584
Ra.
401
6,708
6,889
Groaa
Receipta.
18,998
11,524
118,071
71,276
459
7,009
6.917
14,885
18.078
128,751
76,576
5.986
881
16,116
8,820
8,889
620
10,184
416
20.767
1.865
11,514
8,002
11.220
12
597
88
15.881
2,988
18.682
6,166
27.886
1,602
18,867
5,480
647
96
759
149
1,004
8
719
268
17,529
2.658
41,806
7,188
51,597
2,879
82,029
7,042
41,950
6,018
48,190
21.858
917
54
1,882
864
129,588
5,888
226,686
51,422
1,750
288,496
76.061
125
1,921
550
2,596
87
2,181
729
12,126
281,124
68,857
861.607
7,111
286,046
80.475
958
54
2.185
508
2,692
71,288
4,224
116,194
84,585
200,871
9,622
842,880
85,957
218,400
12,265
884.686
98,095
154,958 488,449
601
8,188
545
581
2,482
788
8,751
892
2,900
771
4,829
21,286
186.889
44,076
202.251
12,857
128,561
48,698
22,016
149,720
88,857
210,098
88,412
418,018
112,488
568,858
19,968
409,607
124,178
490,046
24,895
181,749
45.899
252,048
89,425
466,208
184,291
689,919
20,949
1.804
11,894
8,712
990
167
1.772
1,247
2,997 878.687
4,857
82,460
21,589
117
1,948
997
22.410
12.585
808,707
186,649
4,068
808
2.662
1.120
8,181 58,856 8,062 452,891 4.085 209,812 662.208 720,559
180,116
18,818
127.568
68,426
558.748
25,858
481.275
205,075
80,218
468,785
226,614
.
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LanxiozLi T^i
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RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
IQm^ 202 Main Library
LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE
2 ;
3
4
5 <
b
MX BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
Book* may b« R*iMw*d by colling 642-3405.
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
.. ■-■'.■> T
, 1 ,, 1 J SJ
I
FORM NO. DD6
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY, CA 94720
LD 21-100m-7,'83
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