ABSTRACT
In January 1889, local resistance fighters destroyed a mission station near the East African city of Dar es Salaam, murdering and kidnapping several people among its personnel. After the incident became known in Germany, a narrative was developed that portrayed the violence as a case of religious antagonism and Muslim opposition to Christian anti-slavery activities. German government officials, including Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, seized on and consolidated this narrative during parliamentary debates on the allocation of additional budgets to finance a mercenary army for the invasion of East Africa and begin a process of formal colonization. The chapter examines social relations around the Catholic mission station of Pugu immediately before the attack and analyses the violence exerted against it. It retraces the communication of the incident in German Catholic media and its subsequent discussion in parliament as well as its influence on official decision-making. The chapter argues that attending to the circulation of narratives of (religious) violence is crucial to explaining the reproduction of violent action in colonial settings. It is also central for understanding the shift from indirect German colonial activity to direct German colonialism.
