ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the limited documentation relating to the organization of the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905–1907 in the south and east of German East Africa. It shows that Maji Maji, as a mass movement, originated in peasant grievances, was then sanctified and extended by prophetic religion, and finally crumbled as crisis compelled reliance on fundamental loyalties to kin and tribe. Peasant involvement predominated in the early stages of Maji Maji. The chapter considers successively the peasant origins of the movement, the religious beliefs through which it spread, and its acceptance and transformation by the people outside the original nucleus. An analysis of the origins of Maji Maji must explain why it happened in that particular area at that precise moment. The chapter argues that post-pacification revolts are in reality delayed resistances, initiated by decentralized groups unable either to offer effective resistance to the first European invasion or fully to comprehend its implications.
