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TRADERS, ‘BIG MEN’ AND PROPHETS: POLITICAL CONTINUITY AND CRISIS IN THE MAJI MAJI REBELLION IN SOUTHEAST TANZANIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2004

FELICITAS BECKER
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Abstract

This article places the origins of the Maji Maji rebellion in Southeast Tanzania within the context of tensions between coast and interior, and between ‘big man’ leaders and their followers, which grew out of the expansion of trade and warfare in the second half of the nineteenth century. Without discounting its importance as a reaction against colonial rule, the paper argues that the rebellion was driven also by the ambitions of local leaders and by opposition to the expansion of indigenous coastal elites. The crucial role of the ‘Maji’ medicine as a means of mobilization indicates the vitality of local politics among the ‘stateless’ people of Southeast Tanzania.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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