Skull of Sultan Mkwawa

[warrenpeace]

Anybody familiar with this German book "The Skull of Sultan Mkwawa" by Rudolf Frank published in 1931, or it's English translation "No Hero for the Kaiser"?

http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issues/48/28674

I gather from what info I can find that the book is really about WWI in Europe, not actually about the skull.  Is this book easy to find?  Is it a good read?

"The Skull of Sultan Mkwawa" refers to article 246 of the Treaty of Versailles, which requires that Germany deliver the skull to Britain.  There is a reference to this in the epilogue of Farwell's "The Great War in Africa." The Sultan Mkwawa was a leader of the Wahehe who is supposed to have committed suicide rather than surrender during the Wahehe war against the Germans in East Africa.  His skull was supposed to have been cut off and sent to Germany.  The Nigerian author Chinua Achebe says that the skull was later found among 2000 skulls in a museum in Bremen and was ceremonially presented to Sultan Mkwawa's grandson, Chief Adam Sapi.  This must have occurred sometime before 1961, when Chinua Achebe met with Chief Adam Sapi.

[commissarmoody]

WOW! thats pretty strange

[Doc Twilight]

Haven't read the book, so can't comment on it, but this is a very interesting period, which has recently stirred up some contoversy..

Some background, if you're interested.

I have gamed the Wahehe Wars many times... they are fairly obscure, but some excellent scenarios. This was a very long, very bitter struggle, from roughly 1885 to 1898. The translation of the title is a bit off. There was no "Sultan", his title was M'kwawa, and his name, so far as I have been able to determine, was U'Marawatu. This confusion may arise from the fact that, during the same period, the Germans fought a series of wars against various coastal Arabo-Baluchi states in East Africa, culminating in a campaign against the "Pink Sultan", so-called because the prize of his kingdom was a beautifully constructed pink marble Mosque. Good gaming fodder there, too.

The war was fought essentially because the Wahehe had stepped into the vacuum of the East African slave trade left by the destruction of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the breaking of Oman's power over East Africa. Though the slave trade had essentially been outlawed in most of the Western World, there was still an illicit market for slaves - especially on the part of the Portuguese, and on the part of the Middle East (where slaves are, unfortunately, still traded today).

The whole mess had begun when the Kaiser had sent a series of missions out to the various East African tribes in the newly created German East Africa, informing them of two things:

A) They were now subjects of Berlin, with all the rights and protections thereof
B) They were to cease the slave trade -immediately-

Many tribes agreed to this, particularly since the Germans offered to protect them from slave traders. Not all of them did, however, and the Wahehe, who were lead by the very ambitious young U'Marawatu, and had their own designs on becoming the new masters of the slave trade in East Africa, decided to send a message to the Germans. The German envoy (can't think of his name) was executed, and his ears were removed. When another envoy came, looking for the previous team, he was greeted warmly and given a package containing the previous envoy's ears. The message was clear. During the intervening two years, the Wahehe essentially began a takeover of the interior of German East Africa, and conquered, allied with, or bullied other tribes into submission. When some of the "loyal" tribes sent word begging for help, Berlin demanded that something be done. Incidentally, during this time the Wahehe had, among other things, forged an alliance with the N'Goni.

The initial forays by German East Africa Company Askaris (helpfully made by Copplestone) were absolute disasters. They accomplished very little, and to make matters worse, the German East Africa Company wasn't much better than U'Marawatu. In fact, the minor league atrocities they committed made him look even better in the eyes of the other African tribes, etc...
So, in 1888, Berlin sent Colonel Emil Von Zelewski, a fighter who had studied colonial warfare extensively and, according to one source, had travelled along with the British as an observer during the second half of the Zulu Wars, to fix the problem. Zelewski rebuilt the East Africa Company Askaris, reformed their uniforms, introduced Prussian drill, etc. From that point on, the DOAK (Deutsche Ost-Afrika Kompanie) essentially faded into obscurity, and the state seized full control of the colony.

A column of handpicked Kiashueli, Zulu, and Sudanese Askari companies was then organized for a lighting strike on the Wahehe Capitol. Unfortunately, Zelewski was not impressed with the fighting ability of the Wahehe, believing them to be poor copies of the Zulus, essentially, and in April of 1889, the column was massacred near a place called Lula, resulting in the worst defeat in the history of the young German nation to that point... I won't continue to blather on about the history of the war, but essentially from that point the Wahehe have control of the interior for a couple years, during which time there are more attacks on garrisons, some of which result in massacres, others which result in miraculous victories for the Germans.

In 1898, a force of Germans lead by Tom Von Prince isolated the K'wawa and demanded his surrender. He refused, and the Askaris, who by that time included soldiers recruited from tribes abused by the Wahehe, were pretty merciless. Nobody knows for sure whether the K'wawa was already dead, whether he committed suicide, or whether Von Prince killed him,  but his head was cut off by Von prince and sent home to Berlin as a victory trophy. The skull was displayed for years as a symbol of the "native genius" who had fought the Germans for TWELVE YEARS without ever truly admitting defeat, as a token of Germany's superiority over slave trading savages, and as a tool for phrenologists... (the guys who studied bumps in skulls hoping to learn about the origins of genius, personality, etc.)

Anyway, history has become muddled on this point because most folks forget what the Wahehe were fighting for, and see it strictly as a struggle of White colonialists trying to beat up another native power. That isn't -quite- what happened, but either way, it makes for an interesting story, and there are some great personalities, heroes, and battles for both sides.

-Doc

[commissarmoody]

even more intresting

[argsilverson]

see also a wiki article with a nice photo:

http://images.google.gr/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Skull_of_Mkwawa.jpg/280px-Skull_of_Mkwawa.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Mkwawa&usg=__kyadQi7hfh1GxBfK6uQygi-NtUo=&h=210&w=280&sz=15&hl=el&start=1&tbnid=uYV5vkH0_J58UM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSkull%2Bof%2BSultan%2BMkwawa%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Del%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1T4GGLJ_elGR309GR309%26sa%3DG

I also remeber that  there was a film about this. I need to search a little more to get more details

[argsilverson]

I found something more:

http://www.baerfilm.de/headhunting.htm

[Stecal]

Wow, the Treaty of Verailles really is a bizarre document.  All kinds of lists of cows, horses, sheep, etc to be delivered to the allies.  I always thought they just wanted hard cash.

http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/versa7.html

[Doc Twilight]

Incidentally, I'd love to do a Wahehe War range with Black Army (at least the Wahehe part - the Brigade Games Askari are actually very appropriate, for Lula and after, the Copplestone Askaris for before), but I seriously doubt it'd sell particularly well. Most "obscure" colonial wars tend to do rather poorly. Nevertheless, it's something I'd like to be able to do.

In the meanwhile, those interested can actually use Zulu, who (aside from a lack of head-wraps and Turbans, which were common with the Wahehe) are equipped virtually the same. (The Wahehe are a Bantu group, driven out of South Africa by Shaka himself, according to their tribal legends.)

-Doc

[Aaron]

In the meanwhile, those interested can actually use Zulu, who (aside from a lack of head-wraps and Turbans, which were common with the Wahehe) are equipped virtually the same. (The Wahehe are a Bantu group, driven out of South Africa by Shaka himself, according to their tribal legends.)

-Doc

Sounds like you could just make some Wahehe heads then. Make them compatible with your favorite Zulu range and then at least you are happy.

[argsilverson]

Sounds like you could just make some Wahehe heads then. Make them compatible with your favorite Zulu range and then at least you are happy.

Sounds an interesting idea

[warrenpeace]

Thanks for all that great information, Doc Twilight and Argsilverson!

I'm rereading Farwell's "Great War in Africa" and it's getting me interested in painting my figures. This whole skull thing just seemed so intriguing.  It's great inpirational material for colonials, WW1, or Pulp.  And a lot of the figures could do triple duty in those genre's. 

One of my friend's has a German African force which we used for a scenario set in 1914 in Kamerun.  He's been thinking about painting some Masai, and I think I found an excuse for him to do so after reading about the "skin corps" that was encouraged by the British to raid for cattle accross the border into German territory during WW1.  Of course, there are supposed to be Masai with rifle and bandolier for that unit.

Guess I'll have to search hard for the Rudolf Frank book in English translation.  Seems that a lot of the German copies were burned in the 1930's.

[traveller]

Cool, reminds me of the Ashanti wars and the poor Sir Charles McCarthy who got his skull converted into a drinking cup by the natives. But the had to pay for it...