Absence of evidence is no proof: slave resistance under German colonial rule in East Africa

This chapter examines the lack of evidence regarding slave resistance in German East Africa and the related question of whether the colonial stereotype of the 'docile slave' is true. It starts with a brief surmise of the history of slavery and an analysis of slave actions in the period concerned (1890-1914). The labour history of population movements in Unyamwezi in central Tanzania is taken as a case study. The chapter concludes that the colonial stereotype of the submissive slave is highly misleading. The social heterogeneity of servility prevented slaves from taking concerted militant action. However, it should be acknowledged that this diversity was the result of protracted everyday struggles by individual slaves for a better life in their places of residence. Ref., sum. [Book abstract]