RELOCATING MAJI-MAJI - THE POLITICS OF ALLIANCE AUTHORITY IN THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS OF TANZANIA, 1870-1918

In the memory of older residents of the southern highlands of Tanzania , the term 'Maji Maji' embraces an extended period of conflict and pop ulation dispersal. Maji Maji is remembered as a complex of political i nteractions that extended from the late precolonial period through the rebellion's aftermath. These narratives relocate the history of Maji Maji in the larger context of political alliances and authority in the southern highlands. African leaders had used strategic alliances thro ughout the nineteenth century to establish mutual obligations for mili tary assistance and trade. As territorial politics expanded after 1860 , alliances acquired further importance as leaders sought to establish and prefect their emerging authority. When European traders and explo rers began to travel into this region, they entered into alliance rela tionships with local leaders. German missionaries and military authori ties continued to pursue alliances during the establishment of colonia l rule.This larger context for the study of Maji Maji illuminates the role of ethnicity and gender in the rebellion and its aftermath. The g roups which reacted to German rule were not consolidated or bounded en tities. Their cohesion was determined by internal tensions of allegian ce as well as the external politics of alliance. The experience of con flict in the southern highlands was also gendered. Women were centrall y important to the politics of alliance and authority as their labor f ormed the foundation for the expansion of kinship and agrarian accumul ation in the later nineteenth century. The aftermath of Maji Maji was characterized by famine, the result of the scorched earth' policy of t he German troops. The politics of famine realigned the landscape of au thority and alliance in the southern highlands. Mission stations, gove rnment headquarters and the settlements of loyalist chiefs became new centers of protection and patronage for dispersed populations.