The WaHeHe Wars 1891-1898

At the time the Germans began advancing toward the interior, the WaHeHe were advancing toward the sea, both determined to enlarge their territory. The WaHeHe raided caravans and punished those natives living near the German Outposts. The Germans wished to negotiate since they had limited resources, few troops and because violence would disrupt the expansion of their trade.

In1891 the Germans sent an expedition to deal with the Ngoni, who were supposedly raiding in the interior, and then on to the WaHeHe. The expedition found no Ngoni and moved against the WaHeHe. The column commander took no precautions for security and ten Europeans and approximately 290 Askari and porters were killed, only one European and a few Askari were able to make it back to base.

In 1894 the WaHeHe main fort was captured and destroyed by the Germans. However, this did not deter the WaHeHe and they continued their raids. The Germans then built and garrisoned a town seven miles from the WaHeHe capitol. The war continued for another two years, by then the WaHeHe were worn out by hunger, disease and continual warfare and small groups began to surrender. When the Germans finally found the WaHeHe leader he had killed himself in order to avoid capture.

The Maji Maji Rebellion, 1905-1906

In order to cut the colonial deficit Germany ordered enforced taxation and placed high quotas on commercial farming of cash crops. Native elders felt they could overcome German power and bullets by ritual purification through the use of water—Maji, that nothing would come out of the German gun barrels but war—and herbs. The natives sabotaged crop fields, then when the Germans finally took the rebellion seriously the natives ambushed many German patrols and attacked and burned outposts.

But by the time the German Govenor requested help from Berlin the rebellion had succeeded and the Germans had retreated out of the territory. As the natives attempted to take Mahenge, a German fortified outpost, their uncoordinated attacks and the outposts’ two machineguns killed masses of natives. Machineguns continued to win wuntil the govenor began a scorched earth policy that brought the rebellion to an end and left 250 to 300,000 natives dead, mostly of starvation.

A Look at German Casualties

After examining German documents pertaining to various operations in Africa I was able to determine that most Europeans died from a variety of illnesses than by military actions. Fourteen Europeans died from battle actions as opposed to 143 from other causes. Unfortunately I have not found as complete a set of information for the askaris as for the Europeans.

From 1889 to 1910 there were from 90 to 276 Europeans under German colonial command, this does not take into account missionaries, traders or other government employees for a total of approximately 3,800. During the same period there were from 768 to 2528 askari under German command for an approximate total of 42,000 for the 21-year period.

Based on these figures the askari had a much greater chance of becoming a casualty in battle than the European by .01 chance to a .003 chance. However, if you only count those Europeans who would actually be considered in a combat role rather than medical or quartermaster than the numbers change. Europeans, whether NCOs or Officers had a .02 chance of being either wounded or killed in action compared to .01 KIA or .009 WIA chance for the askaris on average. A yearly check could change things drastically. Askaris had a .08 chance, of KIA or WIA, in 1889 compared to .14 chance of wounds for Officers. Some expeditions came back without a scratch while one suffered 95% KIA, most had a few casualties.

In some instances the askaris fared much better than the local population. Almost every askari was vaccinated against small pox but the local tribes could be decimated by it. The out breaks of small pox while mostly natural were also purposefully caused by Arab slavers in their hope to wipeout the Europeans.

German East Africa Casualties Charts and Tables (very slow: 237K)