African Reactions to the First World War: The Case of the Mtenga-Tenga of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)

Abstract

During the First World War, 312,891 men and women from Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) were recruited as porters. Their task was to ensure a steady supply of food and artillery from Northern Rhodesia to the northern border into German East Africa (modern Tanzania and parts of Rwanda and Burundi) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique). There is a growing body of literature on African porters who served in the East Africa campaign during the First World War. Despite the recognition of the importance of African porters, the experiences of those from Northern Rhodesia remains understudied. Therefore, this article examines the experiences of Northern Rhodesian porters – the mtenga-tenga – in the East Africa campaign. It also explores the porters’ reactions to their wartime experiences. The article argues that negative experiences in the war altered these men and women in many ways. Significantly, these experiences adversely affected their relationship with the traditional authorities. This shook the very foundations of established traditional authority. The article draws extensively on new primary data stored in Zambian museums and archives, which hitherto have been underutilised.

Keywords:

• mtenga-tenga
• porters
• porterage labour
• Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)
• First World War
• East Africa campaign
• British South Africa Company (BSAC)

Acknowledgements

This paper was prepared after training at the British Academy-funded workshop ‘Promoting Zambian and Southern African Research Output: Publishing, Mentoring and Grant Writing’, organised by the University of Dundee, International Studies Group (University of Free State) and Dag Hammarskjöld Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (Copperbelt University). I would therefore like to acknowledge the help rendered by the mentorship team at the workshop. No financial aid was provided for this research or the subsequent writing.

Notes

1 In 1964, Northern Rhodesia gained independence and adopted a new name, Zambia.

2 National Archives of Zambia (hereafter NAZ) BS3/81: letter from Administrator L.A. Wallace to the High Commissioner (HC) in South Africa, 1 October 1917.

3 M.E. Page, ‘The War of Thangata: Nyasaland and the East Africa Campaign, 1914–1918’, Journal of African History, 19 (1) (1978), pp. 87–100.

4 J.B. Gewald, Forged in the Great War: People, Transport, and Labour, the Establishment of Colonial Rule in Zambia, 1890–1920 (Leiden, African Studies Centre, 2015), p. 81; D. Killingray, ‘The Maintenance of Law and Order in British Colonial Africa’, African Affairs, 85 (340) (1986), pp. 411–37; G.M. Wrigley, ‘The Military Campaigns against Germany’s African Colonies’, Geographical Review, 5,1 (1918), pp. 44–65.

5 See, for example, H. Strachan, The First World War in Africa (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 13–21.

6 D. Killingray and J. Matthews, ‘Beasts of Burden: British West African Carriers in the First World War’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 13, 1/2 (1979), pp. 5–23; M. Pesek, ‘The War of Legs: Transport and Infrastructure in the East African Campaign of World War I’, Transfers, 5, 2 (2015), pp. 102–20.

7 E.J. Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War: Forgotten Colonial Crisis (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

8 Gewald, Forged in the Great War.

9 Faith and Encounter Zambia Archives (FENZA), Chilubula Mission minutes of weekly councils, February 1908–March 1918, p. 172.

10 T.H. Parsons, The African Rank-and-File: Social Implications of Colonial Military Service in the King’s African Rifles, 1902–1964 (Oxford, James Currey, 1999), pp. 17–18.

11 NAZ 52: Mwinilunga District notebook.

12 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson (Chipata) District notebook.

13 Parsons, The African Rank-and-File, pp. 17–18.

14 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/3/793/198): paraphrase of telegram from the Officer Commanding (OC) border, Mbala to Defence, Salisbury, 1 April.

15 Gewald, Forged in the Great War, p. 122.

16 NAZ 27, Vol I: Mkushi District notebook.

17 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson District notebook.

18 NAZ 27, Vol I: Mkushi District notebook.

19 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/3/793/198): letter from Wallace to Major General Alfred Edwards, Salisbury, 21 August 1916. Major General Edwards was Commandant General of the Rhodesian Forces.

20 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/3/793/198): letter from H.C. Marshall, Visiting Commissioner, to the Secretary of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), 22 January 1916.

21 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/4): letter from Wallace to the Secretary of the BSAC in London, 12 February 1916.

22 Gewald, Forged in the Great War, p. 121.

23 NAZ BS3/81: letter from Wallace to HC in South Africa, 1 October 1917.

24 Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, p. 104.

25 R. Anderson, ‘World War I in East Africa, 1916–1918’ (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2001), p. 80.

26 See T.J. Stapleton, No Insignificant Part: The Rhodesia Native Regiment and the East Africa Campaign of the First World War (Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006), pp. 48–9; R.S. Fogarty and D. Killingray, ‘Demobilization in British and French Africa at the End of the First World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, 50, 1 (2015), pp. 100–23; M. Moyd, ‘Centring a Sideshow: Local Experiences of the First World War in Africa’, First World War Studies, 7, 2 (2016), p. 118.

27 F.H. Melland, ‘Bangweulu Swamps and the Wa-Unga’, Geographical Journal, 38, 4 (1911), pp. 381–95.

28 Data gathered from images at Moto Moto Museum, Mbala, Zambia; M.T. Mazimba-Kaunda, A History of the Unga People of the Bangweulu Swamps, Pre-Colonial Times to 1953 (Lusaka, Lead First Publishers, 2021), p. 90.

29 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/4), telegram from Defence in Harare to Wallace, 6 November 1916; telegram from Draper to the Secretary in Livingstone, 8 November 1916; telegram from DC [District Commissioner] Abercorn to Secretary in Livingstone and repeated to Defence in Salisbury, 14 November 1916; and telegram from Defence to Colonel Murray at Kasanga, 11 November 1917.

30 FENZA, Chilubula Mission diary, October 1918.

31 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/3/793/198): letter from Wallace to Major General Edwards, Salisbury, 21 August 1916.

32 Letter from Wallace to Major General Edwards, Salisbury, 21 August 1916.

33 G. Lobb, ‘The Transport Depot at Chiwutuwutu, 1914–18 War’, The Northern Rhodesia Journal, 3, 3 (1957), pp. 197–9.

34 FENZA, Chilubula Mission minutes of weekly councils, February 1908–March 1918, p. 89.

35 Moto Moto Museum exhibition on the First World War.

36 K.W. Mazala, ‘For Pleasure and Profit: Sex Work in Zambia, c.1880–1964’ (PhD thesis, University of Zambia, 2013).

37 Livingstone Museum 2/2/4/1/3/1-4: photographs.

38 Pesek, ‘The War of Legs’.

39 Lobb, ‘The Transport Depot at Chiwutuwutu’.

40 Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, p. 43.

41 FENZA, Petit Echo no. 01-577: extracts on Northern Rhodesia and Zambia, 1912–1967.

42 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson District notebook – notes on an interview between His Honour the Administrator L.A. Wallace, Cory George and the Angoni Chiefs Mpezeni and Maguya (at which six headmen were also present) at Livingstone, 1 September 1915.

43 As a king (colonial paramount chief), Mpezeni had chiefs, subchiefs and headmen under him.

44 H.S. Meebelo, Reaction to Colonialism: A Prelude to the Politics of Independence in Northern Zambia, 1893–1939 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1971), p. 83.

45 Gewald, Forged in the Great War; M. Moyd, ‘Resistance and Rebellions (Africa)’, in U. Daniel et al. (eds), 1914–1918 Online: International Encyclopaedia of the First World War (Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, 2017); Killingray, ‘The Maintenance of Law and Order in British Colonial Africa’; J. Lonsdale, ‘The Conquest State of Kenya’, in J.A. de Moor and H.L. Wesseling (eds), Imperialism and War: Essays on Colonial Wars in Asia and Africa (Leiden, Brill, 1989), pp. 87–120.

46 NAZ SP4/12/1, 1911–27: Secretary for Native Affairs, Circulars, Vol. I.

47 FENZA, Santa Maria of Kilubi and Bangweulu Mission diary, 16 February 1916.

48 R. Thomas, ‘Military Recruitment in the Gold Coast during the First World War’, Cahiers d’études africaines, 15, 57 (1975), pp. 57–83.

49 D. Killingray, ‘Labour Exploitation for Military Campaigns in British Colonial Africa, 1870–1945’, Journal of Contemporary History, 24, 3 (July 1989), pp. 483–501.

50 E. Paice, World War One: The African Front (New York, Pegasus Books, 2008), p. 299, and also Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa (London, Phoenix, 2007).

51 FENZA, Ipusukilo Mission diary, Vol I, 1914–24, p. 15.

52 NAZ 30, Vol I: Mumbwa District notebook.

53 Killingray and Matthews, ‘Beasts of Burden’, p. 11.

54 Meebelo, Reaction to Colonialism, p. 133.

55 R.W.M. Langham, ‘Memories of the 1914–1918 Campaign with Northern Rhodesian Forces, Part 1’, The Northern Rhodesia Journal, 1, 2 (1953), pp. 49–60.

56 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson District notebook.

57 V. Chitungu, 101 Years after the War: Memories and Family Stories of World War I in Zambia (Lusaka, Sotrane, 2020), pp. 4–6.

58 Langham, ‘Memories of the 1914–1918 Campaign with Northern Rhodesian Forces, Part 1’.

59 NAZ KTA, 1/1: April 1916–December 1917: correspondence, Nsumbu Island NC to Fort Rosebery (Mansa).

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid.

62 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/4): telegram from Colonel Murray to Defence in Salisbury, 6 October 1916.

63 NAZ BS3 (A2/3/4): letter from Draper to General Northey, 9 December 1916.

64 Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, p. 99.

65 NAZ, letter from Wallace to the Secretary of the BSAC in London, 28 December 1918.

66 Chitungu, 101 Years after the War, p. 35; C. Luchembe, ‘Ethnic Stereotypes, Violence and Labour in early Colonial Zambia, 1889–1924’, in S.N. Chipungu (ed.), Guardians in their Time: Experiences of Zambians under Colonial Rule, 1890–1964 (London, Macmillan, 1992), 30–49; Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, pp. 126–42.

67 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson District notebook.

68 NAZ RC/666: letter from the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) (sender’s name illegible) to the administrator in Livingstone, 13 February 1922; G. Mann, Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the Twentieth Century (London, Duke University Press, 2006), p. 75.

69 FENZA, Chilubula Mission diary, 4 January 1920.

70 M.C. Musambachime, ‘African Reactions to the 1918/1919 Influenza Epidemic in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland’, Zambia Journal of History, 6, 7 (1994), pp. 1–24.

71 NAZ 12: Livingstone District notebook; NAZ 52: Mwinilunga District notebook.

72 Recorded on the First World War cenotaph in Mbala.

73 Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, p. 144.

74 C. Koller, ‘Between Acceptance and Refusal: Soldiers’ Attitudes towards War (Africa)’, in U. Daniel et al. (eds), 1914–1918 Online: International Encyclopaedia of the First World War (Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, 2017), available at https://doi.org/10.15463/ie1418.11116, retrieved 17 December 2023.

75 B. Morris, ‘The Chilembwe Rebellion’, The Society of Malawi Journal, 68, 1 (2015), pp. 20–52.

76 A.F. Isaacman, ‘The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique’, Africa Today, 22, 3 (1975), 37–50.

77 NAZ KDG 5/1, Vol. II: Fort Jameson District notebook – notes on the Indaba of chiefs and headmen held at Fort Jameson, 9 November 2015.

78 L.H. Gann, A History of Northern Rhodesia: Early Days to 1953 (Chatto and Windus, 1954), pp. 156–72.

79 NAZ ZA/10/VOL II: some notes upon the Watchtower movement in Northern Rhodesia; D. Phiri, ‘The Socio-Economic and Political Impact of the First World War on Abercorn District, 1914–1920’ (MA dissertation, University of Zambia, 2020), pp. 96–114.

80 NAZ KDG 1/1/1, Fort Jameson Tour report, 1917: letter against Mpezeni.

81 NAZ 27, Vol I: Mkushi District notebook.

82 NAZ KDG, 5/1, Vol II: Fort Jameson District notebook – notes on the Indaba of chiefs and headmen held at Fort Jameson, 21 October 1919.

83 Chitungu, 101 Years after the War.

84 W. Watson, Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy: A Study of the Mambwe People of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1958), p. 197; Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, p. 151.

85 Yorke, Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War, pp. 30–50.

86 Ibid., p. 196.

87 Stapleton, No Insignificant Part, pp. 137–8.

88 Meebelo, Reaction to Colonialism, p. 138; S. Cross, ‘The Watch Tower Movement in South Central Africa, 1908–1945’ (PhD thesis, Oxford University, 1973), pp. 197–206.

89 Cross, ‘The Watch Tower Movement in South Central Africa’, pp. 175–188.

90 Watson, Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy, p. 201.

91 NAZ KSL 1/2/1: Isoka correspondence, Watchtower, November 1918 to November 1929.

92 Watson, Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy, p. 201.

93 NAZ BS3 (A1/1/36/171): Administrator’s letter to the HC in Cape Town, 1 October 1919; and meeting of chiefs and headmen of the northern part of the Chinsali sub-district held at Kasama, 30 March 1919.

94 Watson, Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy, p. 197.

95 FENZA, 1908–1955: WF (Bangweulu) annual reports, pp. 309–56.

96 Ibid.

97 Moyd, ‘Centring a Sideshow’, pp. 111–30.

98 Personal communication, Ackson M. Kanduza, historian/descendant of ex-servicemen, Lusaka, 2 September 2020.

99 Personal communication, Patricia Mwiche Musopelo-Muyamwa, Director of the Department of Arts and Culture in the Ministry of Tourism and Arts/descendant of war participant, Lusaka, 10 February 2021.

100 Personal communication, Kanduza.

101 M. Pesek, ‘Making Sense of the War (Africa)’, in U. Daniel et al. (eds), 1914–1918 Online: International Encyclopaedia of the First World War (Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, 2017).

102 Moto Moto Museum exhibition on the First World War.

103 T.O. Ranger, Dance and Society in Eastern Africa 1890–1970: The Bana Ngoma (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1975), p. 5; T.J. Lovering, ‘Authority and Identity: Malawian Soldiers in Britain’s Colonial Army, 1891–1964’ (PhD thesis, University of Stirling, 2002), p. 105.

104 A.B.K. Matongo, ‘Popular Culture in a Colonial Society: Another Look at the Mbeni and Kalela Dances on the Copperbelt, 1930–64’, in S.N. Chipungu (ed.), Guardians in their Time: Experiences of Zambians under Colonial Rule, 1890-1964 (London, Macmillan, 1992), pp. 180–217. See also J. Clyde Mitchell, The Kalela Dance: Aspects of Social Relationships among Urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1956).

105 A. Grundlingh, ‘Black Men in a White Man’s War: The Impact of the First World War on South African Blacks’, War & Society (May 1985), pp. 55–81.

106 K. Welsh, World of Dance: African Dance (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2010, 2nd edition), p. 6.

107 Welsh, World of Dance, p. 13.