Cotton Growing and Rebellion in German East Africa
In 1902, the Germans organized cotton production in their East African colony. Following their decision to cultivate cotton in the colony, a system was set up for the East Africans so that they would share the work involved with the cotton growing. A cash only head tax was established by the Germans to force the Africans to take the low-paying cotton jobs. The Germans chose a person to have low-level administrative responsibilities called a Jumbe, as well as, an akida. An akida was typically a Muslim recruited from one of the coastal towns and had similar responsibilities as the Jumbe. These positions were in place to carry out the German’s orders when they weren’t around to do so themselves. If a task or an order was not carried out according to specifications, the person or persons that were responsible were whip
The Germans had a reason for setting the cotton growing system up the way they did. It was easy for them to leave one of the Africans to do the order giving because it forced the workers to take orders from one of their own country men. This, to me, seems like a cowardly way for the Germans to handle the situation. They had someone else be the bad guy until someone need punished. I don’t understand why they had time to beat people, but not enough time to force them to do the work for which they got no profit for. The imposition of the head tax was also a contributing factor in the German rule. It brought them an easy source of income and forced the Africans to do work that they didn’t want to do by proving their factor authority over them. This system of rule is yet another example of a core country holding the smalle
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