Revisiting a colonial landmark: caravanserais as tools of urban transformation in early colonial Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This article uncovers the colonial past of the Bagamoyo Caravanserai, a historic site in the Tanzanian town of Bagamoyo. Situating the origin of the building, as well as that of a similar structure in Dar es Salaam, within the context of both German colonial rule around 1900 and the wider history of colonial camps in Africa, it argues that the colonial authorities conceptualised caravanserais as spatial tools of demobilising and concentrating the non-sedentary group of porters working in the East African caravan trade. Based on primary sources from Tanzanian and German archives, the analysis contends that it was the aim of these tools to disentangle the thousands of transport workers, staying in the towns during the annual trade season, from the urban population for the purpose of social and sanitary control. The analysis also discusses the limitations of this regime, revealing the struggles over space and the ways in which African workers subverted colonial urban transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Caravanserai
• colonial architecture
• camps
• Bagamoyo
• Dar es Salaam
• German East Africa

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank D. Anca Cretu, Kai Florian Herzog, Philipp Krauer, Alyson Price, Harald Fischer-Tiné, as well as two anonymous reviewers for reading earlier drafts and making valuable suggestions for the improvement of this article. I am also indebted to Felix Chami for sharing his deep knowledge of the Bagamoyo Caravanserai with me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For the official entry, cf. https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2095/ [accessed 31 August 2021]. For a detailed review of the debates leading to the proposed application, cf. Lindström, Muted Memories, 17–109. For a summary of the Tanzanian efforts to preserve historical sites along the Swahili Coast, see Ichumbaki, “A History of Conservation.”

2 In June 2018, I took the tour with an official guide of the Tanzanian Department of Antiquities from whom I obtained this information. A comparable account of the tour, taken in 2004, is given in Fabian, “East Africa's Gorée.”

3 Cf. Fabian, “East Africa's Gorée;” Lindström, Muted Memories; as well as Rhodes, “History, Materialization.”

4 Fabian, “East Africa's Gorée,” 96. For the history of slavery and the slave trade in East Africa, cf. Sheriff, Slaves, Spices & Ivory; and Campbell, “Slave Trade.”

5 For the history of Bagamoyo before colonial occupation, cf. Fabian, Making Identity; Glassmann, Feasts and Riot; Brown, “Bagamoyo;” as well as Brown, Pre-Colonial History.

6 Chami et al., Caravan-Serai.

7 Fabian, “East Africa's Gorée,” 105.

8 Ibid., 106.

9 Ibid., 107.

10 Lindström, Muted Memories, 73.

11 Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 44.

12 Foucault, Surveiller et punir. See also Havik et al., “Empires and Colonial Incarceration”; Hyslop, “Invention”; Forth and Kreienbaum, “A Shared Malady”; Kreienbaum, A Sad Fiasco.

13 Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism, 7.

14 As an introduction to the compound system, cf. van Onselen, Chibaro, 128–94; as well as Crush, “Scripting the Compound.”

15 Mabin, “Labour, Capital,” 22.

16 Cf. Kreienbaum, A Sad Fiasco. For potential, controversially debated, continuities between these camps and the Nazi concentration camps, cf. Zimmerer, “Lager und Genozid.”

17 As an introduction to the East African long-distance trade system, see Sheriff, Slaves, Spices & Ivory; Alpers, Ivory & Slaves.

18 Cf. Cummings, “Note.”

19 Rockel, Carriers.

20 Ibid, esp. 65–95. For porterage in the precolonial period, cf., in addition, Pallaver, “Nyamwezi Participation;” and Greiner, “Permanente Krisen.”

21 Bundesarchiv Berlin [hereafter BAB], R 1001/7242, “Das ostafrikanische Schutzgebiet,” 1892, 6 [after folio 136 in the file].

22 Cf. Rockel, Carriers, 136. Glassman, Feast and Riot, 172–4; and Fabian, Making Identity, 56–7.

23 Brown, “Bagamoyo,” 79; Glassman, Feast and Riot, 60.

24 Glassman, Feast and Riot, 117–74.

25 Fabian, Making Identity, 56–7; Baumann, Deutsch-Ostafrika, 30–1.

26 For the company's attempts to attain political and economic power, cf. Krajewski, Kautschuk.

27 Leue, “Bagamoyo,” 15.

28 Wagner, Handelsverhältnisse, 44.

29 Cf. Leue, “Bagamoyo,” 26.

30 Zanzibar National Archives [hereafter ZNA], AL 2/107, Lucas to Otto Arendt, Zanzibar, 25 May 1886, 32.

31 ZNA, AL 2/107, Lucas to Otto Arendt, Zanzibar, 4 June 1886, 28.

32 As examples of the stereotypical representation of caravan workers as licentious, cf. Reichard, “Die Wanjamuesi.” Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, 18 October 1890, 265; as well as Portal, British Mission, 37.

33 Cf. Steudel, “Krankheiten,” 171–82.

34 Ibid., 180.

35 For the origins of the rebellion and the motivations of its participants, see Fabian, “Locating the Local;” as well as Glassman, Feast and Riot, 199–248.

36 For German colonial rule in Tanzania to c. 1900, cf. Pesek, Koloniale Herrschaft. For the trajectories of colonial statehood until the First World War, see also Tetzlaff, Entwicklung; as well as Koponen, Development. For the impact of porterage on the trajectories of colonial statehood, cf. Greiner, Human Porterage.

37 BAB, N 2303/11, Franz Stuhlmann, “Professor Schweinfurth's Kritik über afrikanische Eisenbahnen,” [c. 1900], 4.

38 Schmidt to Caprivi, Zanzibar, 1 July 1890, printed in “Aufstand in Ostafrika (Aktenstück 165).” In Verhandlungen des Reichstages: 8. Legislaturperiode 1. Session, 2. Anlageband. Berlin: Sittenfeld, 1891, 1197.

39 Schmidt to Caprivi, Zanzibar, 30 September 1890, printed in “Aufstand in Ostafrika (Aktenstück 165).” In Verhandlungen des Reichstages: 8. Legislaturperiode 1. Session, 2. Anlageband. Berlin: Sittenfeld, 1891, 1203.

40 For the transformation of Bagamoyo's waterfront into a colonial environment, cf. Rhodes, Building Colonialism, 64–6.

41 Cf. BAB, R 1001/365, “Abkommen [draft],” Bagamoyo, 22 January 1890, 103–5.

42 Chami et al., Caravan-Serai, 57.

43 Rhodes, “History, Materialization,” 172; Rhodes, Building Colonialism, 53.

44 Fabian, “East Africa's Gorée,” 104.

45 Parpart and Rostgaard, Practical Imperialist, 120.

46 Tanzania National Archives [hereafter TNA], G3/46, Gärtner to Colonial Government, Bagamoyo, 26 July 1899, 47; BAB, R 1001/365, von Saint Paul-Illaire to DOAG office Berlin, Zanzibar, 28 January 1890, 109; TNA, G3/46, Langheld to Colonial Government, Bagamoyo, 5 October 1899, 63–4.

47 “Der Etat für 1893/94 und die Denkschrift.” Koloniales Jahrbuch 5 (1893), 285.

48 For the development of Dar es Salaam under colonial rule, see Becher, Dar-es-Salaam; as well as Brennan and Burton, “Emerging Metropolis,” 19–31.

49 “Lokales.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 26 February 1899, 3.

50 BAB, R 1001/365, von Liebert, “Konzession,” Dar es Salaam, 10 February 1900, 46–7.

51 “Polizeiverordnung des Governements von Deutsch-Ostafrika betreffend die Karawanserei in Daressalam,” 13 June 1901. In Zimmermann, Kolonial-Gesetzgebung, 344.

52 “Die Karawanserei in Daressalam.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 10 May 1902, 2.

53 Graeme A. Hodge and Carsten Greve define PPPs as “cooperative institutional arrangements between public and private sector actors.” Cf. Hodge and Greve, “Public-Private Partnerships,” 545.

54 BAB, R 1001/365, Götzen to Foreign Office, Dar es Salaam, 25 July 1904, 99.

55 For the gradual penetration of DOAG and other German trade firms into the long-distance economy, cf. Krajewski, Kautschuk.

56 Cf. Matson, “Sewa Haji;” and Brown, Pre-Colonial History, 185–99.

57 Schweinitz, “Das Trägerpersonal der Karawanen”. Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, 3 February 1894: 19.

58 BAB, R 1001/365, Broschell to Colonial Government, Bagamoyo, 29 November 1894, 61–3.

59 For the correspondence between company and state officials, see BAB, R 1001/365, 42–134.

60 BAB, R 1001/366, “Vereinbarung zwischen dem Gouvernement von Deutsch-Ostafrika und der Deutsch-Ostafrikanischen Gesellschaft,” 2 August 1905, 4; “Polizeiverordnung des Governements von Deutsch-Ostafrika betreffend die Karawanserei in Bagamoyo,” 22 September 1905. In Schmidt-Dargitz and Köbner, Kolonial-Gesetzgebung, 251–2.

61 BAB, R 1001/365, Götzen to DOAG, Dar es Salaam, 14 May 1904, 45.

62 BAB, R 1001/365, “Abkommen [draft],” Bagamoyo, 22 January 1890, 103.

63 Rhodes, Building Colonialism, 111.

64 Cf. Lusugga Kironde, “Race, Class and Housing;” Lusugga Kironde, “Land Acquisition;” as well as Becher, Dar-es-Salaam, 27–58.

65 Cf. Lusugga Kironde, “Race, Class and Housing,” 100.

66 Cf., among others, Rhodes, Building Colonialism, 59–125; Wright, Politics of Design; Home, Of Planting and Planning; and Njoh, “Urban Planning.”

67 Bissell, Urban Design, 149–84; Curtin, “Medical Knowledge.”

68 Bissell, Urban Design, 149.

69 Fabian, Making Identity, 221–3.

70 TNA, G3/46, Gärtner to Colonial Government, Bagamoyo, 26 July 1899, 47.

71 “Polizeiverordnung des Governements von Deutsch-Ostafrika betreffend die Karawanserei in Daressalam,” 13 June 1901. In Zimmermann, Kolonial-Gesetzgebung, 344; BAB, R 1001/366, “Vereinbarung zwischen dem Gouvernement von Deutsch-Ostafrika und der Deutsch-Ostafrikanischen Gesellschaft,” 2 August 1905, 4; “Polizeiverordnung des Governements von Deutsch-Ostafrika betreffend die Karawanserei in Bagamoyo,” 22 September 1905. In Schmidt-Dargitz and Köbner, Kolonial-Gesetzgebung, 251–2.

72 Otter, Victorian Eye, 109–10.

73 Foucault, Surveiller et punir, 201–6.

74 TNA, G3/46, Gärtner to Colonial Government, Bagamoyo, 26 July 1899, 47; BAB, R 1001/365, von Saint Paul-Illaire to DOAG office Berlin, Zanzibar, 28 January 1890, 109.

75 “Die Karawanserei in Daressalam.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 10 May 1902, 2.

76 For the control of labour migrants in the German metropole, cf. Reinecke, Grenzen der Freizügigkeit, 38–55 and 79–105.

77 “Die Karawanserei in Daressalam.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 10 May 1902, 2.

78 Walther, Sex and Control, 98.

79 BAB, R 1001/5745, Colonial Government to Foreign Office, Dar es Salaam, 29 July 1890, 28.

80 TNA, G5/25, “Verfügung,” Dar es Salaam, 9 December 1903, 1.

81 “Arbeiter- und Trägermangel.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 3 December 1904, 1–2.

82 Cf. “Denkschrift über die Entwickelung der Deutschen Schutzgebiete im Jahre 1894/5.” In Verhandlungen des Reichstages: 9. Legislaturperiode, 4. Session, 2. Anlageband. Berlin: Sittenfeld, 1896, 888.

83 “Die Karawanserei in Daressalam.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 10 May 1902, 2.

84 Cf. the essays in Cooper, ed., Struggle for the City. See also the works cited in note 66 above.

85 “Aus Daressalam und Umgebung.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 20 June 1903, 3.

86 Crush, “Scripting the Compound,” 304.

87 Cf. Harries, Work, 194–225.

88 For violence in the plantation sector, cf. Sunseri, Vilimani, 62–71. For expeditions, cf. Rockel, Carriers, 164–79.

89 TNA, G35/1, District Office to Colonial Government, Dar es Salaam, 3 November 1904, 41.

90 Steudel, “Krankheiten,” 179–80; “Die Karawanserei in Daressalam.” Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, 10 May 1902, 2.

91 Steudel, “Krankheiten.”

92 Ibid., 178.

93 Ibid., 179–80.

94 Ibid., 183–8.

95 For this economic transformation, see Sunseri, Vilimani; and Tetzlaff, Entwicklung, 117–55.

96 For the effects of railway construction on both towns, see Tetzlaff, Entwicklung, 81–100; Krajewski, Kautschuk, 265–71; as well as Greiner, Human Portage, Chapter 8.

97 BAB, R 1001/6569, “Jahresbericht über Ostafrika 1912/3 [draft],” 176.

98 Chami et al., Caravan-Serai, 64.

99 “Bekanntmachung.” Amtlicher Anzeiger für Deutsch-Ostafrika, 15 June 1911, 1.

100 Cf. Becher, “Tabora,” 137; Jones, Mwanza, 88; BAB, R 1001/5750, Greisert “Beschreibung der Station Tanga,” 1912, 5.

101 BAB, R 155-F/81454, “Bestimmungen über die Verkehrsüberwachung am Tanganyka [draft],” 2 August 1911.