Iringa – A brief Historical and Cultural Tour

One of Malcolm’s interests is the history of places, so last Sunday he went on a walking tour of Iringa. This was led by a resident, Darlene, who described some of the history of the town.

 

The Germans first colonized Tanzania in the 1880’s and fortified Iringa in 1890. One of the oldest buildings, built by the Germans as a hospital, is the ‘Boma’. This has recently been renovated and houses the small museum and was the start of the tour.

The Germans did not have an easy job holding onto Iringa. One of the heroes of the country is Chief Mkwawa who defeated an expeditionary force of German soldiers (mainly Askaris) in 1891 using spears to defeat muskets. The site of the battle, Lugalo, is now used as the name of the Tanzanian military base in Dar es Salaam.

The memorial to the German 'Askaris' (Foreign mercenary troops) stands in front of the original German military headquarters.

 After the battle Chief Mkwawa continued to harass the Germans using Guerilla tactics until his death, by suicide, in 1898 to avoid being captured.

 

One interesting thing about the German occupation, is that they didn’t build a prison.  So much more efficient to ’interrogate’ any suspects – and then hang them!

The Germans lost Tanzania in 1916 when it became a British Protectorate.

The German’s also built the original market hall, which still stands but is difficult to see as it is surrounded by the new market and shops. 

Here you can by a wide range of vegetable, spices and other day to day necessities.

The tour concluded with a visit to the war cemetery which contains graves of British, Commonwealth and German soldiers killed in both world wars as well as those of the early settlers,

 

Monkey Business

There has been a lot of monkey business this week.

It all started when a Colubus monkey visited the garden by our house. We knew there was a small family of monkeys living near us but it is not often that we have seen one so close.

 On Mothering Sunday (or St Marys Day as it is called here) Irene was asked to speak to a group of married couples after the morning service.

 

 

One of the unexpected parts of the meeting was rather than receiving Mother’s Day’s gifts, the wives knelt before their husbands to give them a present as a sign of respect. This appealed to Malcolm, who thinks it is a good tradition to introduce to Britain!!! Cheeky monkey

 

The hospital employs a team of security guards (Askaris) to make sure no-one gets up to monkey business. This week they had a training session to develop their skills.

One part of the training was on how to deal with fires.

 

Talking of monkey business,  on 1^st April we had an email discussion with our family on how well Irene would cope in the jungle. Here are some photos to prove how well she survives.

 

 

 This week’s Proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from the Cameroon: “If money were to be found up in the trees, most people would be married to monkeys”