Prehistory

1858 created Sultan Ahmad ibn Fumo Bakari of the island city godfather from the old ruler family of the Nabahani the place Witu as seat of the government on the mainland, in order to evade before the expansion of the power of Zanzibar. In view of the attempts Zanzibars to get also the area of Witu under control contacted the Sultan already 1867 the German Africa traveler burner with the request to obtain a protection contract with Prussia. 1878/79 became acquainted with the Sultan the German brothers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt, which at that time investigated the area at the Tanafluss. Also with them he knocked because of a connection to Germany. These created then in Germany the Tana society and returned 1885 to East Africa.

Wituland

On 8 April 1885 the brothers Denhardt of the Sultan Ahmad acquired an area of 25 square miles (1600 km for their Tana society and requested a charter of the German Reich. This protection became to 27. May 1885 expressed.

Sultan Seyyid Bargash of Zanzibar had been worried in the meantime most, there only few weeks before in February 1885 the German charter for the requirements issued by Karl Peter on the mainland opposite Zanzibar (Tanganyika) was. The Sultan protested in April 1885 by telegraph in Berlin and set soldiers against Witu in march. An emerging of German Kriegsschife before Sansibar forced it however to giving in and to the acknowledgment of the German requirements.

Some German settlers began with plan day economy and trade. It was however not sufficient capital for Investitonen available. The German government held back itself financially completely and was limited to a small military contingent as well as to the mechanism of an imperial post office station to Lamu. The British East Africa steamers put on however so rarely in Lamu that the post office and goods traffic had to be usually completed time-consuming and expensively over the larger ports in Malindi or Mombasa.

1890 were financial the Tana society at the end and went through contract of 10. May 1890 with the German East Africa niches society up. In the meantime the German Consul General had closed to Sansibar 5 April a protection contract with the new Sultan Fumo Bakari of Witu.

English capture

For all involved ones surprisingly the message of the German/English agreement from 1 July 1890 came: Germany withdrew its protectorate over Witu in favor of of Great Britain. Great Britain commits itself to recognize the sovereignty of the Sultans of Witu over the area which itself from Kipini to the point opposite the island of Kweihu, determined in the year 1887 as border, (today: Kiwaiyu, island of the Lamu archipelago) extends. Germany done furthermore without its so far not realized requirements on the coast bordering north on Witu until Kismayu as well as on the islands godfather and Manda.Der Sultan was annoyed and saw themselves from the Germans betraying. Annoyance spread also in the population.

An incident led then to the violent end of the German operational readiness level: the Bavarian farmer Andreas landed at the end of of August in Lamu and wanted with Mkonumbi on that areas of the Sultans a sawing mill to put on. The Sultan gave it for it no consent. In the controversy companions were arrested and brought after Witu. emerged here and insulted the Sultan publicly. There he was shot on 15 September by the Wituleuten, before representatives of the Witugesellschaft, K could here-hurry. called for from the Sultan to the settlement of the disputes. To what extent the Sultan was involved in this Gemetzel, one did not clear up. In the next weeks by the Wituleuten several settlements of the Europeans were down-burned and their inhabitants, if they had not fled themselves, were murdered.

Now the Englishmen landed a troop under the admiral Freemantle, in order to intersperse their requirement by force. On 28 October the Englishmen destroyed the city Witu. The beendte however the fights not. On 10 January 1891 Wituleute attacked a place on the island Manda and burned it down. Sultan Fumo Bakari died on the same day.

A British warship arrived a little later, on which then in January 1891 negotiations between the family of the new Sultans Fumo Omari and the British Consul General on Sansibar took place. The family Nabahani accepted the British sovereignty and the British waived on 25 January the state of siege.

The meant however not yet the end of all arguments, which dragged on still to 1894. After it the new Sultan Omar be Hamed was only recognized by the British.

1905 changed the administration from the State Department to the colonial Ministry. Since that time Wito became only as a part of the Tanaprovinz in the Kenyan coastal protectorate administer of the contractually assured was no more speech.

Today Witu belongs to Kenya and is part of the Lamu of district.

Literature

• Rochus Schmidt: Colonial pioneers, Safari publishing house Carl Boldt, Berlin, 1938
• Hans Zache: The German colonial book, William other man publishing house, Berlin Leipzig, 1925
• Josef The seed of Andreas in East Africa, publishing house William hall franc, Helmbrechts, 1930
• Hermann writer: Denhardts reaching for Africa, publishing house Scherl, Berlin, 1938
• R. Lark: The German protected area Suaheliland and the Postwertzeichen of the Suhahelilandes, Germania ring, Leipzig, 1930
• Johannes Sigleur: Fight for Wituland, Clemens and Gustav Denhardt acquire a colony, Steinger publishing house, for the German Reich Berlin, 1939
• Herbert Schrey: First German postal facilities at the east coast of Africa and the sultanate Sultanate of Wituland and Malakote, Kassel, 1961
• Bernd Nowack: The colony German Witu and their exchange against Helgoland, German Witu archives, Dessau, 1999

Related links

• Map of the Witulandes
• Meyers encyclopedia 1889 over the German Witugebiet
• EN: Witu or Vitu (Enc. Britannica 1911)
• Meyers encyclopedia Supplement 1892 over the British appropriation
• German Witu - incorrect

Articles in category "German Witu"

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