African Response to Colonial Rule
Senior 4 · History
African Response to Colonial Rule
Lesson 1 of 3
25 min
In July 1896 an expedition of King Leopold's Congo Free State defeated the Rwandan royal army at Shangi, in south-western Rwanda. In December 1896 a faction of the Bega clan, led by Kabare and supporting Queen Mother Kanjogera, overthrew Mwami Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa in the Rucunshu coup and enthroned her young son, Yuhi V Musinga. The new government faced revolts at home and a European army on its border. Then, in March 1897, a German officer, Hans von Ramsay, arrived at the royal court.
Ramsay offered help against the court's internal enemies and against the Congo Free State, and asked in return for a formal submission to Germany. The court accepted. It even had a court official, Mpamarugamba, pose as the king during the meeting. Ramsay left a Schutzbrief (a letter of protection) and a German flag. Historians generally date the start of German colonial rule in Rwanda from this meeting.
Analyse it. Who gained? The Germans gained Rwanda at almost no cost. The court gained a powerful ally against its rivals and against Leopold's forces, and, as the next years showed, German guns to defeat revolts. Who lost? The court's opponents, and in the long run the kingdom's independence. This is what historians call collaboration: a decision by African rulers to work with colonisers for their own reasons.
Definition
Collaboration: working with the colonial power, by treaty, military help or service in its administration. Collaborator: a ruler or group that chose this path. Historians use the word without the insult it carries in everyday speech: many of these leaders saw their choice as diplomacy to protect their people or their power.
Indirect rule: colonial rule through existing African rulers and institutions. Schutzbrief: German "letter of protection" given to a ruler who accepted German overlordship. Mailo land: land given as freehold to Buganda's chiefs under the 1900 Agreement.
| Form | What it meant | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Diplomatic | Signing treaties or accepting protection | Rwanda's court and Ramsay (1897); Lewanika of Barotseland and the British South Africa Company (1890) |
| Military | Fighting alongside colonial forces against other Africans | Germans helped Musinga's court defeat northern revolts (1911 to 1912) |
| Administrative | Serving as chiefs, regents and tax collectors for the colonial state | Apolo Kagwa, prime minister (Katikkiro) of Buganda from 1890 to 1926 |
| Religious and cultural | Converting, schooling children in missions, adopting European ways | Buganda's Protestant chiefs; Lewanika welcomed missionaries |
| Economic | Providing labour, porters and cash crops | Chiefs collecting taxes and organising labour |
Apolo Kagwa (1864 to 1927) was a page at the royal court when missionaries arrived, one of the first Protestant converts, and the leader of the Protestant party in the wars of the 1880s (lesson 3 of unit 5). Made Katikkiro in 1890, he was one of three regents for the infant Kabaka Daudi Chwa after Mwanga was deposed in 1897, and he negotiated the Buganda Agreement with the British Commissioner, Sir Harry Johnston, in March 1900. Article 6 recognised the Kabaka as "native ruler of the province of Uganda" only "so long as the Kabaka, chiefs, and people of Uganda shall conform to the laws and regulations instituted for their governance by Her Majesty's Government". Each house paid a hut tax of three rupees a year. And the land was divided:
The Agreement made the mostly Protestant chiefs a landowning class and gave Buganda a privileged place in the Uganda Protectorate; Kagwa went to London for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. But more than half the land went to the colonial government, including, in the Agreement's words, land "occupied without prior gift of the Kabaka or chiefs by bakopi", the ordinary peasants. The Kabaka ruled only on British terms, and ordinary people paid the tax.
Lewanika, king of the Lozi of Barotseland (in today's Zambia), heard proposals from the Ndebele for an alliance against the whites, but chose the British. In 1890 he agreed with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company that his country would become a protectorate, hoping for wealth and security against his enemies. He later felt deceived by how the company applied the terms, and appealed to the British Crown without success. He was received with respect in London at the coronation of 1902, but his kingdom was ruled by others.
Musinga's reign began under a cloud: his accession by coup made his legitimacy doubtful, his early rule earned the nickname Cyiimyamaboko ("It is force that rules"), and many regions broken away after Rwabugiri's death were outside his control. The Germans gave him what he lacked. Their small presence ruled through the monarchy, and German force helped the court defeat its opponents, for example the northern rising led by Ndungutse in 1912, which was only defeated after German intervention. German power was used to bring autonomous areas under the court. But collaboration also divided the court into factions linked to different outsiders, and it did not protect Musinga for ever: in November 1931 the Belgians deposed him (unit 7).
| For the collaborators | For their people | For the colonisers |
|---|---|---|
| Kept thrones and offices, gained land and education; but ruled on the colonisers' terms and could be removed (Musinga, 1931) | Taxes, forced labour and loss of land; divisions between those who gained and those who did not; avoided some of the destruction of war | Cheap rule through few officials; African allies and soldiers to conquer and control others |
Warning
Do not judge collaborators with a single word such as "traitor". Explain their aims and situation first: Rwanda's court in 1897 faced revolts and Leopold's army; Lewanika faced the Ndebele. Then judge the results. And note that collaboration and resistance were often choices made by the same people at different times: Mwanga collaborated, then resisted.
Tip
Why collaborate? "PRESS": Protection (from African or European rivals), Rewards, Expectation that resistance would fail, Succession and legitimacy problems, Shared religion.
Important
Discuss. In 1897 Rwanda's court made a deal it believed would protect its power and its borders. Was it a wise decision given what the court knew at the time? How should we judge leaders who made choices whose long-term costs they could not see?
AZSOMA, "East African History: The Buganda Agreement of 1900". Watch for the terms on land, tax and the Kabaka's position, and ask who gained most from each.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the analysis, the chart, the tables and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Why did Rwanda's royal court accept German protection from Ramsay in March 1897?
