The Majimaji Rebellion: New Perspectives and New Directions

FAIN: RZ-20778-01

Carleton College (Northfield, MN 55057-4001)
Jamie Monson (Project Director: September 2000 to June 2003)

To support field research and a conference leading to a history of the Majimaji rebellion (1905-07) in Tanzania.

The Majimaji rebellion in Tanzania (1905-7) has been almost universally understood as a massive anticolonial movement. In the 1970s, historians of newly independent African states embraced the rebellion as an early example of "national" African unity against European rule. This project will reopen the study of Majimaji, in response to new developments in Tanzanian and in world history. We will bring together new empirical materials as well as new theoretical perspectives in an unusual combination of conference, field research, and scholarly publication. The project will be completed just before the centenary of Majimaji.