The rebellion started on 8th august 1888 in pangani districts
where the German east African company had established an administrative post
It was led
by abushiri ibin salim all harthi a prominent trader of afro Arabs origin.his
father was an Arab and the mother an African of the galla tribe
It all
started when abushiri refused to host the German flag and refused to listen to
the German instructions. His people then started rioting against the Germans
It then
abruptly and spontaneously spread to other areas like tanga kilwa bagamoyo
mikindini kilwa etc
Some Bantu communities
like the bonda and zinguwa also joined the rebellion bwana her a Swahili cheifs in uzingua and other coastal traders
joined the revolt later
Than Germans
were caught unaware and therefore suffered heavy losses when the rebellion had
just began
Company
officials were beaten and driven out of all coastal towns with the exception of
bagamoyo and Dar es salaam where the
abushiri rebels besieged them
The Germans
called for assistance from home by may 1889,reinforcement had arrived under
major con wissman
He commanded
the large army comprising of 600 Nubian Sudanese 50 Somalia 350 Zulu and 20 Turkish
troops hence the resistance started to crumble
Within two
months wissman had captured northern towns of pangani and dares salaam
Following
this success many Arabs who had supported abushiri opted to make peace with the
Germans which weakened the rebellion
Abushiri retreated into the interior and hired 500
mavti fighters who used the ngoni tactics of warfare but these still didn't
save the situation because they were only interested in looting
At first he
used conventional war fare but sensing the possibility of defeat he embarked on
guerilla tactics.
On 15
December 1889 he was betrayed by a jumbes called magaya of usagara who reported
him to the German. He was captured and killed at bagamoyo
Abushiri had
used Islam to rally support and his weaponry consisted of old fashioned guns
and bows,arrows clubs and spears.the Germans had superior weapons like machine
guns and bombs
By 1890 the German
commander had moved to the south and captured almost all the southern coastal
towns like kilwa Lindi
He then
turned to bwana heri who realized first that he was bound to lose the fight and
desperately submitted to Germans in April 1890.this marked the end of
uprisinguprising
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