Sanamu ya Askari (Swahili) | |
6°49′00″S39°17′22″E / 6.8166341°S 39.2895626°E | |
Location | Kivukoni, Ilala, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
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Designer | James Alexander Stevenson |
Material | Bronze |
Opening date | 1927 |
Dedicated to | Tanganyikan askari |
The Askari Monument or Dar es Salaam African Memorial [1] in Kivukoni Ward in Ilala District of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is a memorial to the askari (African soldiers) who fought in the British campaign against the German Army in East Africa in World War I. It was unveiled in 1927. The monument is located at the centre of a roundabout on Samora Avenue at the perpendicular junction to Maktaba Street and Azikiwe Street, a place that reportedly also marks the exact centre of downtown Dar es Salaam.
The monument was erected in honour of the King's African Rifles and the Carrier Corps. The main feature of the monument is "The Askari", [2] a bronze sculpture of an African soldier. It was realised in the United Kingdom by British sculptor James Alexander Stevenson , who worked for Westminster's Morris Bronze Founders. Stevenson signed the statue with his pseudonym "Myrander". Before being sent to Dar es Salaam, the statue was exhibited at the Royal Academy, receiving critical praise.[ citation needed ] The soldier has a rifle with bayonet pointed towards the Dar es Salaam harbour. [3] The statue stands on a stone pedestal. On the narrow sides of the pedestal are plaques with a dedication in Swahili (Arabic and Latin script) and English; on the wide sides of the pedestal are two pictorial plaques showing fighting African soldiers and the Carrier Corps. The English inscription includes "If you fight for your country even if you die your sons will remember your name", which is attributed to Rudyard Kipling.
In the place where the Askari Monument is located, there used to be another statue, namely that of German explorer and army major Hermann Wissmann, governor of German East Africa in the late 19th century. The statue of the Wissmann Monument, unveiled in 1911, represented Wissmann standing, one hand on his hip and one on his sword, looking towards the harbour; at his feet, an African soldier covering a dead lion with a German flag. When the British entered Dar es Salaam in 1916, they removed this statue along with those of Karl Peters and Otto von Bismarck. [4]
The monument in Dar es Salaam belongs to a group of three Askari Monuments that were unveiled in the same year in what was then British East Africa; the other two are at Mombasa and Nairobi. [5] A separate Dar es Salaam British and Indian Memorial, commemorating by name more than 1,500 British and Indian officers and men who died in East Africa during and after January 1917 and who have no known grave, is now in Dar es Salaam War Cemetery. [6]
Dar es Salaam is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over five million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa and the sixth-largest in Africa. Located on the Swahili coast, Dar es Salaam is an important economic center and one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
German East Africa was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozambique. GEA's area was 994,996 km2 (384,170 sq mi), which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany and almost double the area of metropolitan Germany at the time.
Tanga is a historic city and the capital of Tanga Region. The city is the most northernly port city of Tanzania to the west of the Indian Ocean on Tanga Bay. The city has a population of 393,429 in 2022. Tanga is governed by the Tanga City Council. The city is also home to the Port of Tanga. The name Tanga means "sail" in Swahili. The city is also the capital of Tanga District.
Kariakoo is an administrative ward of the Ilala Municipical Council of the Dar es Salaam Region in Tanzania. Jangwani ward and Mchafukoge ward form the ward's northern and eastern boundaries. The Gerezani and Mchikichini wards border the ward to the south and west respectively. The ward is the home of Simba Sports Club. The name is derived from the swahilization of the British colonial occupation's "Carrier Corps", that used to be based in the area. Today, Kariakoo is mainly known for its large market that spans several city blocks. According to the 2012 census, the ward has a population of 13,780.
Shaaban bin Robert, also known as Shaaban Robert, was a Tanzanian poet, author, and essayist who supported the preservation of Tanzanian verse traditions. Robert is celebrated as one of the greatest Tanzanian Swahili thinkers, intellectuals and writers in East Africa and has been called "poet laureate of Swahili" and is also known as the "Father of Swahili." He is also honoured as the national poet.
Bagamoyo is a historic coastal town and capital of Bagamoyo District in the Pwani Region of Tanzania. Much of the settlement was founded at the end of the 18th century, though it is an extension of a much older Swahili settlement, Kaole. It was chosen as the capital of German East Africa by the German colonial administration and it became one of the most important trading ports for the Germans along the East African coast along the west of the Indian Ocean in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bagamoyo lies 75 kilometres north of Dar-es-Salaam on the coast of the Zanzibar Channel, across from the island of Zanzibar. The town hosts Bagamoyo Historic Town, that is a National Historic Site of Tanzania. In 2011, the town had 82,578 inhabitants.
The Abushiri Revolt, also known as the Slave Trader Revolt, but generally referred to by modern historians as the Coastal Rebellion, was an insurrection in 1888–1889 by the Arab, Swahili and African population of the coast of what is now Tanzania. This coast had been leased, under protest, to Germany by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a German expeditionary force commanded by Hermann Wissmann.
The Zaramo people, also referred to as Dzalamo or Saramo, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the central eastern coast of Tanzania, particularly Dar es Salaam Region and Pwani Region. They are the largest ethnic group in and around Dar es Salaam, the former capital of Tanzania and the 7th largest city in Africa. Estimated to be about 0.7 million people, over 98% of them are Muslims, more specifically the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam. Zaramo people are considered influential in Tanzania popular culture with musical genres like Sengeli originating from their community in Kinondoni District. Their culture and history have been shaped by their dwelling in both urban and rural landscapes.
The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in 1963, shortly after Tanzania gained its independence from the United Kingdom. In 1970, UEA split into three independent universities: Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa.
The Carrier Corps was a labour corps created in Kenya during the First World War to provide military labour to support the British campaign against the German Army in East Africa.
Hermann Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig Wissmann, after 1890 Hermann von Wissmann, was a German explorer and administrator in Africa.
William Robert Colton was a British sculptor. After completing his studies in London and Paris, Colton established himself with solid, career-long business relationships, secured admission to exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the Salon in Paris. His works included commissions for busts, statues and war memorials. His clientele included royalty in England and India.
Zaramo is a Niger-Congo language, formerly primary language of the Zaramo people of eastern Tanzania. Zaramo is also known as Zalamo, Kizaramo, Dzalamo, Zaramu, Saramo and, Myagatwa. The language is critically endangered. The ethnic population of the Zaramo people reaches about 200,000, yet there are only a few elderly speakers remaining.
Emil von Zelewski was a German officer of Kashubian descent who served as commander of the Schutztruppe in German East Africa. He led German forces against an uprising by the Hehe people, and was killed at the Battle of Lugalo.
The Wissmann Monument is a statue created by the sculptor Adolf Kürle in honor of the colonial governor Hermann von Wissmann who served between 1885 and 1886 as governor of German East Africa, a colonial territory that covers present-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. The statue was erected in Dar es Salaam. Later politically disputed, it is now preserved in a museum in Hamburg. Its former location in Dar es Salaam is used for the Askari Monument.
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