and live in square mud-plastered houses called tembe which can be easily fortified and defended. The Bantu tribes are in general peaceful agriculturists, though the Bantus of recent immigration retain the warlike instincts of the Zulus. The most important group of the Bantus is the Wanyamwezi (see Unyamwezi), divided into many tribes. They are spread over the central plains, and have for neighbours on the south-east, between Nyasa and the Rufiji, the warlike Wahehe. The Wangoni (Angoni), a branch of the Ama-Zulu, are widely spread over the central and Nyasa regions. Other well-known tribes are the Wasambara, who have given their name to the highlands between Kilimanjaro and the coast, and the Warundi, inhabiting the district between Tanganyika and the Kagera. In Karagwe, a region adjoining the south-west shores of Victoria Nyanza, the Bahima are the ruling caste. Formerly Karagwe under its Bahima kings was a powerful state. Many different dialects are spoken by the Bantu tribes, Swahili being the most widely known (see Bantu Languages). Their religion is the worship of spirits, ancestral and otherwise, accompanied by a vague and undefined belief in a Supreme Being, generally regarded as indifferent to the doings of the people.
The task of civilizing the natives is undertaken in various ways by the numerous Protestant and Roman Catholic missions established in the colony, and by the government. The slave trade has been abolished, and though domestic slavery is allowed, all children of slaves born after the 31st of December 1905 are free. For certain public works the Germans enforce a system of compulsory labour. Efforts are made by instruction in government and mission schools to spread a knowledge of the German language among the natives, in order to fit them for subordinate posts in administrative offices, such as the customs. Native chiefs in the interior are permitted to help in the administration of justice. The Mission du Sacré Cœur in Bagamoyo, the oldest mission in the colony, has trained many young negroes to be useful mechanics. The number of native Christians is small. The Moslems have vigorous and successful missions.
Chief Towns.—The seaports of the colony are Tanga (pop. about 6000), Bagamoyo 5000 (with surrounding district some 18,000), Dar-es-Salaam 24,000, Kilwa 5000, (these have separate notices), Pangani, Sadani, Lindi and Mikindani. Pangani (pop. about 3500) is situated at the mouth of the river of the same name; it serves a district rich in tropical products, and does a thriving trade with Zanzibar and Pemba. Sadani is a smaller port midway between Pangani and Bagamoyo. Lindi (10° 0′ S., 39° 40′ E.) is 80 m. north of Cape Delgado. Lindi (Swahili for The Deep Below) Bay runs inland 6 m. and is 3 m. across, affording deep anchorage. Hills to the west of the bay rise over 1000 ft. The town (pop. about 4000) is picturesquely situated on the north side of the bay. The Arab boma, constructed in 1800, has been rebuilt by the Germans, who have retained the fine sculptured gateway. Formerly a rendezvous for slave caravans Lindi now has a more legitimate trade in white ivory. Mikindani is the most southern port in the colony. Owing to the prevalence of malaria there, few Europeans live at the town, and trade is almost entirely in the hands of Banyans.
Inland the principal settlements are Korogwe, Mrogoro, Kilossa, Mpapua and Tabora. Korogwe is in the Usambara hills, on the north bank of the Pangani river, and is reached by railway from Tanga. Mrogoro is some 140 m. due west of Dar-es-Salaam, and is the first important station on the road to Tanganyika. Kilossa and Mpapua are farther inland on the same caravan route. Tabora (pop. about 37,000), the chief town of the Wanyamwezi tribes, occupies an important position on the central plateau, being the meeting-place of the trade routes from Tanganyika, Victoria Nyanza and the coast. In the railway development of the colony Tabora is destined to become the central junction of lines going north, south, east and west.
On Victoria Nyanza there are various settlements. Mwanza, on the southern shore, is the lake terminus of the route from Bagamoyo: Bukoba is on the western shore, and Schirati on the eastern shore; both situated a little south of the British frontier. On the German coast of Tanganyika are Ujiji (q.v.), pop. about 14,000, occupying a central position; Usumbura, at the northern end of the lake where is a fort built by the Germans; and Bismarckburg, near the southern end. On the shores of the lake between Ujiji and Bismarckburg are four stations of the Algerian “White Fathers,” all possessing churches, schools and other stone buildings. Langenburg is a settlement on the north-east side of Lake Nyasa. The government station, called New Langenburg, occupies a higher and more healthy site north-west of the lake. Wiedhafen is on the east side of Nyasa at the mouth of the Ruhuhu, and is the terminus of the caravan route from Kilwa.
Productions.—The chief wealth of the country is derived from agriculture and the produce of the forests. From the forests are obtained rubber, copal, bark, various kinds of fibre, and timber (teak, mahogany, &c.). The cultivated products include coffee, the coco-nut palm, tobacco, sugar-cane, cotton, vanilla, sorghum, earth-nuts, sesame, maize, rice, beans, peas, bananas (in large quantities), yams, manioc and hemp. Animal products are ivory, hides, tortoise-shell and pearls. On the plateaus large numbers of cattle, goats and sheep are reared. The natives have many small smithies. Gold, coal, iron, graphite, copper and salt have been found. Garnets are plentiful in the Lindi district, and agates, topaz, moonstone and other precious stones are found in the colony. The chief gold and iron deposits are near Victoria Nyanza. In the Mwanza district are conglomerate reefs of great extent. Mining began in 1905, Mica is mined near Mrogoro. The chief exports are sisal fibre, rubber, hides and skins, wax, ivory, copra, coffee, ground-nuts and cotton. The imports are chiefly articles of food, textiles, and metals and hardware. More than half the entire trade, both export and import, is with Zanzibar. Germany takes about 30% of the trade. In the ten years 1896–1905 the value of the external trade increased from about £600,000 to over £1,100,000. In 1907 the imports were valued at £1,190,000, the exports at £625,000.
Numerous companies are engaged in developing the resources of the country by trading, planting and mining. The most important is the Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft, founded in 1885, which has trading stations in each seaport, and flourishing plantations in various parts of the country. It is the owner of vast tracts of land. From 1890 to 1903 this company was in possession of extensive mining, railway, banking and coining rights, but in the last-named year, by agreement with the German government, it became a land company purely. The company has a right to a fifth part of the land within a zone of 10 m. on either side of any railway built in the colony previously to 1935. In addition to the companies a comparatively large number of private individuals have laid out plantations, Usambara and Pare having become favourite districts for agricultural enterprise. In the delta of the Rufiji and in the Kilwa district cotton-growing was begun in 1901. The plantations are all worked by native labour. The government possesses large forest reserves.
Communications.—Good roads for foot traffic have been made from the seaports to the trading stations on Lakes Nyasa, Tanganyika and Victoria. Caravans from Dar-es-Salaam to Tanganyika take 60 days to do the journey. The lack of more rapid means of communication hindered the development of the colony and led to economic crises (1898–1902), which were intensified, and in part created, by the building of a railway in the adjacent British protectorate from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza, the British line securing the trade with the lake. At that time the only railway in the country was a line from Tanga to the Usambara highlands. This railway passes through Korogwe (52 m. from Tanga) and is continued via Mombo to Wilhelmstal, a farther distance of 56 m. The building of a trunk line from Dar-es-Salaam to Mrogoro (140 m.), and ultimately to Ujiji by way of Tabora, was begun in 1905. Another proposed line would run from Kilwa to Wiedhafen on Lake Nyasa. This railway would give the quickest means of access to British Central Africa and the southern part of Belgian Congo. On each of the three lakes is a government steamer. British steamers on Victoria Nyanza maintain communication between the German stations and the take terminus of the Uganda railway. The German East Africa Line of Hamburg runs a fleet of first-class steamers to East Africa, which touch at Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar. There is a submarine cable from Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar, and an overland line connecting all the coast stations. Administration, Revenue, &c.—For administrative purposes the country is divided into districts (Bezirksämter), and stations (Stationsbezirke). Each station has a chief, who is subordinate to the official of his district, these in their turn being under the governor, who resides in Dar-es-Salaam. The governor is commander of the colonial force, which consists of natives under white officers. District councils are constituted, on which the European merchants and planters are represented. Revenue is raised by taxes on imports and exports, on licences for the sale of land and spirituous liquors, and for wood-cutting, by harbour and other dues, and a hut tax on natives. The deficiency between revenue and expenditure is met by a subsidy from the imperial government. In no case during the first twenty-one years’ existence of the colony had the local revenue reached 60% of the local expenditure, which in normal years amounted to about £500,000. In 1909, however, only the expenditure necessary for military purposes (£183,500) was received by way of subsidy.
History.—Until nearly the middle of the 19th century only the coast lands of the territory now forming German East Africa were known either to Europeans or to the Arabs. When at the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese obtained possession of the towns along the East African coast, they had been, for periods extending in some cases fully five hundred years, under Arab dominion. After the final withdrawal of the Portuguese in the early years of the 18th century, the coast towns north of Cape Delgado fell under the sway of the Muscat Arabs, passing
