The Germans have done no development themselves for the production
of raw material, but the European plantations are huge farms in the
lower-lying country; and though on the slopes of Kilima 'Njaro there
are small holders, these are in the main Englishmen, Greeks, or British
Indians.
The Germans did not grant a full title to land, and intending planters
had to buy their land from natives and run the risk that their titles
might not be recognised, as the natives' claim to land had not yet been
adjudicated--which means, of course, that, as elsewhere, the land had
been "confiscated"; though it did not suit German policy immediately to
take it out of the hands of the natives.
The products grown on the European plantations by what has passed from
actual to semi-slave labour, are principally coffee, rubber, cotton,
and sisal hemp. The European products were heavily subsidised.
The natives contribute from the natural resources of the country grain,
medicinal herbs, copal, beeswax, hides, wild coffee, wild rubber,
palm-oil, copra, and dairy products. They have been encouraged in
every way to increase their production of raw materials by brutality
and terrorism, which almost depopulated the Ruanda country, and by
instruction in the methods of growing and collecting.
A translation in the journal of the African Society quotes Hans Zache
in "Dressig jahre Deutsch-Ost-Africa" (Thirty years of German East
Africa): "It is a falsely reasoned and falsely proved humanitarianism
which seeks to take no cognisance of the education of the native _for
manual work_. Work is provided by the European planters so that the
Colony may benefit by increased production, and not least also is it
provided for the blessing of the negro."
The blessing is not altogether so apparent to the negro, regarded in
conjunction with the fruit of his labour--usually dishonourable stripes.
The European plantations are in the hands of 758 planters, and cover an
area of about 250,000 acres--of which 80,000 were planted with rubber,
50,000 with sisal, and 35,000 with cotton; while 1,000,000 cocoa-nut
trees were also put in.
Ivory, which for years was the chief article of export, has given place
to sisal; and in 1913 the value of sisal hemp exported approached
£500,000, rubber taking second place with £325,000.
Sisal culture in East Africa is of recent origin, and was started in
German East Africa with a few plants imported from Central America.
The cultivation is difficult and the treatment of the leaves equally
so, but millions of plants now exist in both German and British East
Africa. The exportation of sisal plants was prohibited by the German
Government. While sisal takes about seven years to mature in the West
Indies, it takes only three in East Africa.
In contrast to the tropical Colonies on the west coast, the
cotton-growing is chiefly in the hands of the whites--not solely in the
natives. In 1912 it formed the principal crop, with an output of 1,882
tons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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