The Chagga States or Chagga Kingdoms also historically referred to as the Chaggalandvon Clemm, Michael. "12. Trade-Bead Economics in Nineteenth-Century Chaggaland." Man, vol. 63, 1963, pp. 13–14. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2797613. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. (Uchaggani, in Swahili) were a pre-colonial series of Bantu sovereign states of the Chagga people on Mount Kilimanjaro in modern-day northern Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania.Yonge, Brian. "The rise and fall of the Chagga empire." Kenya Past and Present 11.1 (1979): 43–48. The Chagga kingdoms existed as far back as the 17th century according to oral tradition,Vansina, Jan. "Once upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa.” Daedalus, vol. 100, no. 2, 1971, pp. 442–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024011. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. a lot of recorded history of the Chagga states was written with the arrival and colonial occupation of Europeans in the mid to late 19th century. On the mountain, many minor dialects of one language are divided into three main groupings that are defined geographically from west to east: West Kilimanjaro, East Kilimanjaro, and Rombo. One word they all have in common is Mangi, meaning king in Kichagga.Bender, Matthew V. “BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO.” The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023. The British called them chiefs as they were deemed subjects to the British crown, thereby rendered unequal. After the conquest, substantial social disruption, domination, and reorganization by the German and British colonial administrations, the Chagga states were officially abolished in 1963 by the Nyerere administration during its third year as the newly independent nation of Tanganyika.
History
The Bantu peoples began migrating to the Kilimanjaro region approximately five to six centuries ago, with some evidence suggesting even earlier settlements. Local traditions indicate that the mountain was already inhabited by the Wakonyingo or Wateremba pygmies prior to the arrival of the Bantu.Huntingford, G.W.B. 1963 ‘The Peopling of the Interior of East Africa by Its Modern Inhabitants.’ In History of East Africa, R. Oliver and G. Mathew, eds., Oxford, Vol. 1:58–93. Archaeological discoveries on Western Kilimanjaro, including stone bowls, obsidian flakes, pottery fragments, and tools, suggest human activity in the area dating back around 2,000 years. Dundas, Charles. Kilimanjaro and Its People: A History of Wachagga, their Laws, Customs and Legends, Together with Some. Routledge, 2012.
The initial Bantu settlers are believed to have migrated either directly from the Taita region or later from a more northern location known as 'Shungwaya,' situated between the Tana and Juba rivers. Scholars debate the timeframe of these migrations, with some proposing a dispersal between A.D. 1200 and 1300, while others suggest it may have occurred three to five centuries later.Lehmann, F.R. 1941 ‘Some Field Notes on the Chagga of Kilimanjaro.’ Bantu Studies, 15:385–96. Support for the later timeline is found in oral traditions of the Mbokomu clan, which asserts that their founding ancestor originated from Gonja in Usambara and migrated north to the Pokomo area before reaching Kilimanjaro approximately six generations before the mid-19th century. Additionally, there are accounts of the 'Umbo' people from Usambara who migrated in large numbers across the southern slopes of the mountain. Dundas, Charles. Kilimanjaro and Its People: A History of Wachagga, their Laws, Customs and Legends, Together with Some. Routledge, 2012.
Kilimanjaro lacked native iron ore, necessitating the acquisition of iron through trade. The Chagga people primarily sourced iron from the Pare and possibly the Kamba communities. The extent of iron usage prior to the mid-18th century remains unclear, although Chagga oral traditions reference a period before the introduction of iron spear technology. While the exact timeline for the arrival of iron is debated, it is acknowledged that from the late 18th century onward, the availability of iron increased significantly, leading to widespread use of iron spears. Krapf, J.L. 1858 Reisen in Ost Afrika. Stuttgart. 1860 Travels, Researches and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Year’s Residence in Eastern Africa. London: Trübner.
Furthermore, the inhabitants of Kilimanjaro generally did not possess the means to produce pottery, likely due to a scarcity of clay. Consequently, they obtained pottery from settlements in the plains, such as Kahe, although some localized production occurred in areas like Usseri in the northeast and Narumu in the south. Overall, the Chagga relied heavily on trade with neighboring communities for essential commodities, including iron, pottery, and magadi—a type of soda used in cooking. Krapf, J.L. 1858 Reisen in Ost Afrika. Stuttgart. 1860 Travels, Researches and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Year’s Residence in Eastern Africa. London: Trübner.
Etymology The term "Chagga" is an exonym referring to the area around Mount Kilimanjaro and its slopes, rather than the mountain itself. Its origin is unclear, but some linguists believe it was coined by Bantu language speakers, including Swahili speakers, to describe the mountain's inhabitants following the arrival of coastal traders in the early 19th century. In contrast, the endonym "Wakirima," meaning "People of the Mountain" in Kichagga, is used locally, while "Chagga" does not have a specific meaning among the inhabitants.Bender, Matthew V. "BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO." The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
The word was taken by European explorers who arrived on the mountain in the middle to end of the nineteenth century from their Swahili guides. A pioneer in this was Johannes Rebmann. He referred to both individuals as "Jagga" in his letters and journal entries. While mentioning the various kingdoms, he thought of the mountain as one social and cultural realm. He was followed by explorers like Karl Klaus von der Decken who visited in 1869, Charles New in 1871, Harry Johnston in 1886–7, Hans Meyer in 1887, and William Abbott in 1888, and they all came to refer to the mountain as Kilimanjaro and the locals as Chagga.Bender, Matthew V. "BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO." The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
The mountain was already referred to by the Swahili as "Kilima Ndsharo" (or "Dscharo"), "The Country of Dschagga," at the coast in the early 19th century. Rebmann said the mountains meaning from Swhaili is "Great Mountain" or "the Mountain of the Caravans" in 1848–1849, referring to the mountain that could be seen from a great distance and acted as a signpost for travelers. He and Krapf discovered that different adjacent peoples had different names for it: the Taita just reduced the coastal Swahili name to "Ndscharo." The Kamba termed it "Kima ja Jeu," or "Mountain of Whiteness." The Maasai dubbed it "Ol Donyo Eibor," or "White Mountain." It was simply referred to as "Kibo" by the Chagga themselves, particularly the Kilema and Machame. By 1860, Rebmann's German spelling of Kilimandscharo from 1848 to 1849 had adopted the anglicized name "Kilimanjaro".
The most striking illustration came from Johnston, who built a homestead on the slopes of the mountain and spent close to six months there. He described the kingdom in which he lived, Moshi, as one of many "Chagga states" on the mountain in his texts. He speaks to the mountain as if they are a single group, destined in the natural order of events to become politically unified, despite the division and animosity existing on the mountain.Bender, Matthew V. "BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO." The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
The usage of a single name to describe Kilimanjaro sounded reasonable from a distance. The people spoke what was thought to be a dialect of the same language, lived on the same mountain slopes, engaged in the same types of agriculture, and shared many other cultural practices, spiritual beliefs, and social structures. Nevertheless, it also revealed a basic misunderstanding of Africa, based on the presumption that individuals could and ought to be divided into tribes, regardless of their individual histories and ideas about what constitutes diversity.Bender, Matthew V. “BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO.” The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
This misconception quickly turned into the foundation of colonial rule. German expeditionary forces took over military command of the Kilimanjaro kingdoms in 1892, incorporating them into German East Africa. German control in the region drastically changed regional government in the years that followed. At the newly established town of Moshi, mangis were appointed local administrators who were tasked with keeping the peace, allocating land, organizing corvée labor, and collecting taxes under the supervision of a government official. Their prosperity now came from extorting money and labor from their subjects rather than through trade or combat.Bender, Matthew V. "BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO." The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
Moreover, the Germans started to combine many of the lesser kingdoms into bigger ones. By 1916, the total had dropped to 28 as a result. The mountain was significantly impacted by Christian missionaries as well. Following the Germans into Kilimanjaro in the middle of the 1890s, the Catholic Holy Fathers and the Leipzig Lutheran Mission soon spread across the mountain, erecting churches, schools, and clinics. Every chiefdom on the mountain had a resident European missionary by the year 1915. Kilimanjaro was approached by these officials and missionaries in the same manner as it was by the explorers—as one mountain, one community.Bender, Matthew V. "BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO." The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
For instance, Widenmann concluded that specific behaviors were distinctive to the "Chagga" people in his publications from the late nineteenth century concerning health on the mountain. The people were seen by missionaries as belonging to a single "tribe" that had only been divided by a century of inter-chiefdom conflict. Bruno Gutmann, a Leipzig missionary, provides one of the most extreme instances of this alleged oneness. Between 1907 and 1950, he wrote more than thirty books and essays about the inhabitants of the mountain. Along with acknowledging that they were all members of one tribe and shared an identity, he also recorded what he believed to be their shared cultural norms and rules.Bender, Matthew V. “BEING ‘CHAGGA’: NATURAL RESOURCES, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, AND IDENTITY ON KILIMANJARO.” The Journal of African History, vol. 54, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199–220. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43305102. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
Geographic context