30/10/2017
TANZANIA: Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale (died August 4, 1905) was a Tanzanian medium and a leader of the 1905–1907 Maji Maji Rebellion against colonial rule in German East Africa. (PLEASE SEND US ANY PHOTO OR GOOD ARTISTIC RENDITION OF NGWALE).
Kinjikitile was born in what is now Tanzania (then German East Africa, later Tanganyika). In 1904, the then relatively unknown Kinjikitile disappeared from his home in Ngarambe, Matumbi.
He returned after a few days and said that he had been possessed by a spirit medium called Hongo, believed to take the form of a snake.
Kinjikitile claimed to have communicated with the deity Bokera through the spirit Hongo.
He encouraged his followers to overlook ethnic differences and unite against the Germans.
He told his followers that their ancestors had commanded him to lead a rebellion against the German colonial empire. This helped start the Maji Maji Rebellion.
Kinjikitile gave his people holy water ("maji") to protect them from German bullets.
�His movement spread from his base in Ngarambe, some 200 miles south from Dar Es Salaam.
Five missionaries were murdered and German reinforcements were sent in. In the end, the magic water which they thought would protect them from the German guns failed.��
Thousands were killed in battle. German revenge was terrible; a scorched earth policy wiped out whole villages and all their crops.
In July, 1905, Kinjikitile was arrested by German troops.
He was hanged on August 4, 1905 for treason. His brother continued in Kinjikitile's work and the rebellion continued until 1907. It's estimated 250,000 died from famine.�
Present-day Tanzanians consider the failed rebellion to have been the first stirring of nationalism, and Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale a proto-national hero.
The National Maji Maji Memorial Museum, in Songea, southeastern Tanzania, is one among the six National Museums of Tanzania.
It is the only Museum in Tanzania that portrays the history of the Maji Maji war and only conserves, protects and preserves some of the original weapons and tools used during the Maji Maji war of 1905 to 1907 in the region.
(Credits: WIKIPEDIA and BBC)
