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Project titleTwo Colonizations of Tanganyika: Attitude of German Colonial Officers and European Travelers towards Local Arab and Arab-Swahili Elite (based on written and visual sources)

Research area 08 - HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, 08-109 - History of Asia and Africa

KeywordsTanganyika; Arabs; group representation; German East Africa; memoirs and travelogues; travelers and missionaries in East Africa; narratives of German colonial officers; colonial photography; postcards of German East Africa.

Annotation
The project is focused on the clash of two civilizations meaning the "clash of two colonizations" in East Africa: centuries-old commercial Arab colonization, which produced a synthesis of cultures and population of mixed origin, and the rapid German military occupation with the establishment of full colonial control, which had a critical impact on the entire political map of Tanganyika. The study of relationship and mutual influence within the triangle "Africans – Arabs – Europeans" on the basis of materials from East Africa is a very large-scale and interesting task; the aim of the project is to examine one of its aspects – the European view of the Arabs, including the Arabized Swahili. It is planned to use two types of sources: written and visual. Written sources include narratives of German colonial leaders, military and civic; and memoirs and travelogues of European travelers and missionaries (also including Germans). Visual sources include albums, drawings and sketches illustrating both groups of narratives; German colonial photography and postcards. Arriving on new lands, German colonial administrators and officers had to interact not only with the black majority, Africans, but also with Arabs and Arabized Swahili, whose economic and financial positions were often more stable than those of the German colonists. Examined German sources have already shown that a significant number of authors had negative attitude towards Arabs, some even had an extremely negative attitude, including complaints like the following: "it's a pity that we can't simply eliminate all the Arabs, as it has been repeatedly suggested." The objective of the study is firstly to identify the "list of claims" against Arabs on the African continent; secondly, to find out an explanation of the reasons of such a negative attitude and to examine the complex of collected opinions in the context of the historical and historical-cultural development of the region in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The European view of the Arabs is interesting for it touches upon the problem of the formation and functioning of group representations and the perception of "the others", the different ones, as underdeveloped: very often this is the view of the "civilizing enlighteners" on the "retarded slave traders". Colonization for the sake of fighting the slave trade and slavery (in the European understanding, which is very much at odds with the East African reality) is the leitmotif of many narratives. A wider group of European memoirs (partly chronologically earlier) are examined "in parallel" with the German ones, since they are not burdened with such a serious colonial agenda as the works of the Germans, whose acquaintance with Africa began with the suppression of the uprising, directly defined as "Arabic". The distinctive features of such an image of Arabs, and the reasons of its formation have not been previously studied in the special literature. Visual sources reflecting this image (drawings, photographs, postcards) never were the subject of research and even scientific systematization. They require introduction into scientific circulation. As a result of the implementation of the project, a corpus of relevant texts and text fragments will be created, reflecting the views of the second colonization actors on the representatives of the first colonization; a corpus of visual sources will be created and systematized accordingly. The study of the antagonisms in the relations between Arabs, Arabized Swahili and Europeans is significant for a number of topics: the history and structure of colonialism in East Africa; interethnic relations in the region; social history of the German East Africa and the its Arab population; history and perception of the Arab-Swahili slave trade; Islamic-Christian relations and, in general, a wider range of East-West problems on the African continent.

Expected results
The project will allow to examine the attitudes of Europeans (travelers, missionaries, colonial leaders and officers) towards non-Africans in Africa – Arabs, and the population of mixed Arab-Swahili origin, who adopted many elements of Arab-Muslim culture. A comprehensive analysis of written and visual sources will help to uncover the distinctive traits features of this relation. Of particular interest is the difference in attitudes towards Arabs and Arabized Swahili in the narratives of Europeans, travelers and missionaries that were not related to military ambitions of their countries of origin, and the narratives of German colonial leaders, army and navy officers, whose presence on the continent began with the suppression of an uprising, which was perceived and described as "Arabic". The results of this project are significant for the study of a number of topics: interethnic relations and the perception of the "others"; history of the European development of the region; social history of German East Africa and its Arab population; history and perception of the Arab-Swahili slave trade; problems of group representation; the use of stereotypes in the perception of representatives of other cultures in order to construct a better image of "self"; Christian-Muslim relations in East Africa. The use of the visual sources in the course of the research (photographs, postcards, illustrations, sketches) is significant not only for the study of these topics, it is a solid contribution to the methodology of visual anthropology in general.

Annotation of the results obtained in 2023
In 2023, work on the project "Two Colonizations of Tanganyika: Attitude of German Colonial Officers and European Travelers towards Local Arab and Arab-Swahili Elite (based on written and visual sources) " was conducted on both declared blocks of sources. Based on written sources, a final article was prepared for publication and sent to the journal on the comparative perception of the Arab and Arabized population of Tanganyika by British travellers and missionaries, on the one hand, and German colonial leaders and officers, on the other: 1. Anastasia A. Banshchikova, Valentina N. Bryndina, Oxana V. Ivanchenko. From "Noble Cavaliers" to "The Plague of Africa": comparative perception of the Arab population of Tanganyika by the British and Germans and the factor of the colonial agenda // Studia historica. (In Russian; sent to journal). This study examines the influence of the colonial agenda factor on the attitude of German colonialists towards the Arab and Arabized elite of the region, which can be characterized as negative and sometimes extremely negative, in comparison with the rather neutral or positively coloured attitude of British travellers and missionaries who did not have this agenda. In addition to the negative attitude towards Islam, German memoir literature reveals such trends as dehumanization and demonization of the Arab population, creation of "the image of enemy" up to the calls for physical extermination of Arabs, a noticeable radicalization of discourse and bias, which cannot be explained only by the authors’ participation in the war against Arabs (Abushiri's uprising in many narratives is directly and unequivocally called "Arab uprising"). As for visual sources, one article was published and another article was submitted to the journal: 1. Anastasia A. Banshchikova. Visual Sources on the History of German East Africa: Brief Analysis. In: Balezin A.S. (ed.). Sources on the History of Africa: Problems, Tendencies, Prospects for Studying and Use. Moscow: Institute for World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2023. Pp. 286-307. ISBN 978-5-94067-550-1. (In Russian) 2. Anastasia A. Banshchikova. Shauri, Images of Arabs, and Representation of Colonial Hierarchies in the Visual Sources of German East Africa. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. (In Russian; sent to journal). These works considered all multi-genre visual sources on the history and anthropology of German East Africa (author's photography, propaganda postcards, book illustrations, sketches, so-called trading cards, and caricatures) as a single complex. As part of this complex, photographs and images of the Arab and Arabized elite of the colony in scenes of the shauri council (in German colonial practice, a council, a meeting of the administration of the colony, and local residents) were highlighted and examined. They convey, by artistic and compositional means, its “intermediate” position between German officers, on the one hand, and the other local population, on the other, which corresponded to the real state of affairs in German East Africa, where Arabs loyal to the Germans became intermediaries between the commanders of German strongholds and the population of the conquered territories.

Publications

1. Banshchikova A.A. Визуальные источники по истории Германской Восточной Африки: опыт анализа Источники по истории Африки: проблемы, тенденции, перспективы изучения и использования. Отв. ред. А.С. Балезин. М., Институт всеобщей истории РАН, 2023., Источники по истории Африки: проблемы, тенденции, перспективы изучения и использования. Отв. ред. А.С. Балезин. М., Институт всеобщей истории РАН, 2023. С. 286-307. (year - 2023)

2. Bryndina V.N. «Самый замечательный человек среди арабов, суахили и полукровок»: образ Типпу-Типа в мемуарах и путевых заметках европейцев вт. пол. XIX в. Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Всеобщая история., Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Всеобщая история. 2023. Т. 15. №2. С. 216–232. (year - 2023) https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-8127-2023-15-2-216-232

3. Bryndina V.N. Европейцы и Типпу Тип: взаимное описание африканских встреч по материалам европейских мемуаров и суахилийской автобиографии Восток (Oriens), Восток (Oriens). 2023. № 5. С. 129–140. (year - 2023) https://doi.org/10.31857/S086919080025179-3

4. Bryndina N.V. Европейцы и Типпу Тип: взаимные описания встреч в Центральной и Восточной Африке по материалам европейских мемуаров и суахилийской автобиографии XXXII Международный конгресс по источниковедению и историогра- фии стран Азии и Африки: Россия и Восток. К 300-летию СПбГУ. 26– 28 апреля 2023 г.: Материалы конгресса. СПб.: Изд-во РХГА, 2023., XXXII Международный конгресс по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки: Россия и Восток. К 300-летию СПбГУ. 26–28 апреля 2023 г. Материалы конгресса. СПб.: Изд-во РХГА, 2023. С. 425-426. (year - 2023)

Annotation of the results obtained in 2022
In 2022 the project "Two Colonizations of Tanganyika: Attitude of German Colonial Officers and European Travelers towards Local Arab and Arab-Swahili Elite (based on written and visual sources)" was developed in both groups of sources. The main bulk of results touched on visual sources (group image of Arabs as "the first colonizers of the region", representation of their place in colonial hierarchy based on such sources as postcards, book illustrations, and photography). Several articles on the topic were published and approved for publishing in academic journals: 1. Anastasia A. Banshchikova. Bagamoyo Imperial and Actual: Representation of the First Capital of German East Africa in Colonial Postcards and in the Works of Walter Dobbertin. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. 2022. № 2 (59). P. 96-111. DOI: 10.31132/2412-5717-2022-59-2-96-111. (In Russian) 2. Anastasia A. Banshchikova. Visual Colonization: Social Hierarchies in Postcards, Photographs and Sketches of German East Africa. Social Evolution and History. 2022. Vol. 21 No. 2. P. 108–136. DOI: 10.30884/seh/2022.02.07. 3. Anastasia A. Banshchikova. Askari, Arabs, and Africans of Tanganyika: Colonial Times through the Eyes of German Photographers and Illustrators. ISTORIYA. 2023. In print. (In Russian) Work with written sources was focused on the main figure of Central and East African (slave)trade Hamed bin Mohammed al-Murjebi known as Tippu-Tip, of mixed Arab-African descent. Travelers, colonial officers and missionaries met him personally and depicted these encounters in their memoirs and travelogues; in turn Tippu-Tip left brief descriptions of meetings with Europeans in his Swahili autobiography. Two articles on this topic were prepared for submission and submitted to academic journals: 1. Valentina N. Bryndina. "The Most Remarkable Man among Arabs, Waswahili, and Half-Castes in Africa": The Image of Tippu Tip in the Memories and Travelogues of Europeans in the Second Half of the 19th Century. RUDN Journal of World History. – submitted to Journal. (In Russian) 2. Valentina N. Bryndina. Europeans and Tippu-Tip: Mutual Descriptions of Encounters in Central and East Africa Based on European Memoirs and Swahili Autobiography. (In Russian)

Publications

1. Anastasia A. Banshchikova Visual Colonization: Social Hierarchies in Postcards, Photographs and Sketches of German East Africa Social Evolution and History, Social Evolution and History. 2022. Vol. 21 No. 2. P. 108–136. (year - 2022) https://doi.org/10.30884/seh/2022.02.07

2. Anastasia A. Banshchikova Аскари, арабы, африканцы Танганьики: колониальный период глазами германских фотографов и иллюстраторов Электронный научно-образовательный журнал «История», - (year - 2023)

3. Banshchikova A.A. Багамойо имперское и настоящее: изображение первой столицы Германской Восточной Африки в колониальных открытках и в авторской фотографии Вальтера Доббертина Ученые записки Института Африки РАН, Ученые записки Института Африки РАН. 2022. № 2 (59). С. 96-111. (year - 2022) https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2022-59-2-96-111

4. Anastasia A. Banshchikova, Valentina N. Bryndina, Oksana V. Ivanchenko The sultan of Zanzibar, Tippu Tip and Local Chiefs: Key Figures of the 19th Century Arab-Swahili Slave Trade in European Written Sources and the Views of Modern Tanzanians International Conference "Leadership and Power in Africa in the Past and the Present: Studies in Russia, Tanzania and Beyond", International Conference "Leadership and Power in Africa in the Past and the Present: Studies in Russia, Tanzania and Beyond", Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1–4 March 2022. Book of Abstracts. Moscow: IAS RAS, 2022. P. 33. (year - 2022)