Bwana Kheri | |
---|---|
Born | c.1810 |
Died | c.1850 |
Occupation(s) | Explorer and guide |
Bwana Kheri (born in the 1810s) was a Swahili long-distance caravan trader who lived in present day Mombasa. He is known for guiding into the interior of the present day northern Tanzania after he guided the German missionary Johannes Rebmann of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) in late 1848. [1]
Kheri was a close friend of the Mombasa governor of the Busaidi Mazuri clan, who recommended him to Rebmann. Kheri was about to embark on one of his recurring trips to Mount Kilimanjaro with his own trade caravan when Rebmann decided to travel with him. Kheri was already well-traveled at this point. His expertise covered much of East Africa, from the coast inland to beyond the western border of Lake Tanganyika. Further investigation confirmed the accuracy of his findings, such as his assertion that the great lakes are different bodies of water rather than a single body of water. [2]
The only other character comparable is the Swahili, Sadi, although he lacked Kheri's distinction and dependability. Kheri was the only 19th century guide of European travelers to Kilimanjaro to play such a significant role in Chagga history. Kheri was a well-established figure by the time Rebmann hired him in 1848; we don't know how many previous trips he had taken to Kilimanjaro, but we do know that he had been there throughout the reign of Mangi Rengua of Machame, who had passed away in 1848 and been succeeded by his son Mamkinga. [3]
In 1848–1849, Rebmann traveled to Kilimanjaro three times, the first time visiting Kilema and the second and third times visiting Kilema and Machame. Rebmaan crossed the wilderness from Mombasa, stayed in the middle of the route at Taita, and then went directly to the mountain, skirting Taveta because Bwana Kheri was at odds with the Taveta king.
In April 1848, before setting out on his first journey, Rebmann was warned by the governor of Mombasa, that he " must not asced the mountain kilimajaro, because it was full of jins (evil spirtits). For, said he, people who have ascended the mountain have been slain by the spirits, their fett and hands beens tiffene, their powder, has hung fire, and all kinds of disastrs have befallen them". [4]
When Rebmann first viewed the top on May 11 from a distance, Bwana Kheri, who was with him as a guide and guardian, only described the white material as "beredi," or "cold." Therefore, Rebmann had to have learnt of the story of "Rungua, king of Machame, the father of Mamkinga, once sent a large expedition to investigate the nature of the snow" from Kheri and possibly other informants much later in the journey, possibly only after he arrived in Kilema. The only member of the group who survived was the one Bwana Kheri had seen with frost-bitten hands and feet bent inward from the cold had survived. The remainder were terrified and devastated by the cold since they believed that demonic spirits were to blame for the cold's effects. [5]
Later that year, during his second journey, Rebmann stopped in Machame and found that the Chagga were aware that Kibo snow heated by fire turned into water, that they understood its nature and properties, and that rivers emanated from it. He also showed the Swhaili that the white covering could not be made of silver because it changed color with the seasons, and Bwana Kheri was persuaded, responding that the Chagga would not purchase lead armlets from caravans for this reason. The Swahili, not the Chagga, were the ones who first created the sliver narrative and its superstitious dread of the mountain, which they then disseminated around the coast. [6]
Sometime in the 1850s, Bwana Kheri was killed while returning to the coast from one of his Kilimanjaro caravan trips. [7]
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The Chagga are a Bantu ethnic group from Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They historically lived in sovereign Chagga states on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in both Kilimanjaro Region and eastern Arusha Region.
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Taveta is the name of a tribe found in Kenya. It is also the name of the principal town in the land of the Taveta people and the name of the surrounding subdistrict of Kenya.
Baron Karl Klausvon der Decken was a German explorer of eastern Africa and the first European to attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
Johannes Rebmann, also sometimes anglicised as John Rebman, was a German missionary, linguist, and explorer credited with feats including being the first European, along with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf, to enter Africa from the Indian Ocean coast. In addition, he was the first European to find Kilimanjaro. News of Rebmann's discovery was published in the Church Missionary Intelligencer in May 1849, but disregarded as mere fantasy for the next twelve years. The Geographical Society of London held that snow could not possibly occur let alone persist in such latitudes and considered the report to be the hallucination of a malaria-stricken missionary. It was only in 1861 that researchers began their efforts to measure Kilimanjaro. Expeditions to Tanganyika between 1861 and 1865, led by the German Baron Karl Klaus von der Decken, confirmed Rebmann's report. Together with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf they were also the first Europeans to visit and report Mount Kenya. Their work there is also thought to have had effects on future African expeditions by Europeans, including the exploits of Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, and David Livingstone.
Machame or Kingdom of Machame, was a historic sovereign Chagga state located in modern day Machame Kaskazini ward in Hai District of Kilimanjaro Region in Tanzania. Historically, the Machame kingdom was in 1889 referred by Hans Meyer as a great African giant, the kingdom was also the largest and most populous of all the Chagga sovereign states on Kilimanjaro, whose ruler as early as 1849 was reckoned as a giant African king with influence extending throughout all Chagga states except Rombo.
Sia Lives on Kilimanjaro is a children's book written by Astrid Lindgren and with photographs by Anna Riwkin-Brick. The original Swedish edition was published in 1958 by the Rabén & Sjögren publishing company in Stockholm. The English translation was published in 1959, in London by Methuen, and in New York by Macmillan. The book was published as part of the Children's Everywhere photo book series. It is a story of a young girl who wants to visit the king at the Chagga Feast, but her father tells her she is too young, and her brother tells her only boys are allowed. The story is about self-determination.
Nathaniel Mtui was a Tanzanian historian of Chagga origin born in 1892 in the mtaa of Mshiri in Marangu, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. He was a teacher at the Colonial German Lutheran mission in Marangu. He is known for being the first person of Chagga origin to write history of the Chagga people. He wrote the Chaggan history in Kichagga, German, and Swahili from 1913-1916.
Johann Jakob Erhardt, or John James Erhardt, was a German missionary and explorer who worked in East Africa and India. Although he remained on or near the coast of East Africa, he contributed to European knowledge of the interior through gathering descriptions from local people who had traveled there. His map of the region stimulated dispatch of the expedition of Burton and Speke.
Lake Uniamési or the Uniamesi Sea was the name given by missionaries in the 1840s and 1850s to a huge lake or inland sea they supposed to lie within a region of Central East Africa with the same name.
Ngalami or Ngalami Mmari, also known as, , was one of many kings of the Chagga. He was the king of one of the Chagga states, namely; the Siha Kingdom in what is now modern Siha District of Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Region from the 1880s to 1900. Mangi means king in Kichagga. Ngalami ruled from the Siha seat of Komboko (Kibong'oto) in the 1880s to 1900 when he was executed in Moshi by the Germans alongside 19 other Chagga, Meru and Arusha leaders. The execution of 19 noblemen and leaders on Friday 2nd of March 1900, included noblemen Thomas Kitimbo Kirenga, Sindato Kiutesha Kiwelu, King Meli of Moshi, King Lolbulu of Meru, King Rawaito of Arusha, King Marai of Arusha, and King Molelia of Kibosho.
The Chagga States or Chagga Kingdoms also historically referred to as the Chaggaland were a pre-colonial series of a Bantu sovereign states of the Chagga people on Mount Kilimanjaro in modern-day northern Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The Chagga kingdoms existed as far back as the 17th century according to oral tradition, a lot of recorded history of the Chagga states, was written with the arrival, and colonial occupation of Europeans in the mid to late 19th century. On the mountain, many minor dialects of one language are divided into three main groupings that are defined geographically from west to east: West Kilimanjaro, East Kilimanjaro, and Rombo. One word they all have in common is Mangi, meaning king in Kichagga. The British called them chiefs as they were deemed subjects to the British crown, thereby rendered unequal. After the conquest, substantial social disruption, domination, and reorganization by the German and British colonial administrations, the Chagga states were officially abolished in 1963 by the Nyerere administration during its third year as the newly independent nation of Tanganyika.
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The Battle of Moshi was fought in what is now modern day city of Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The battle was between German Empire led by Von Burlow, and the Moshi kingdom led by Mangi Meli.
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