Never eat black chickens in the Nyumba Nitu Forest in Tanzania.

Never eat black chickens in the Nyumba Nitu Forest in Tanzania. Why is this place as holy, and what do you have to do to get access? The Nyumba Nitu Forest in Tanzania (the forest is at the village of Mlevela, Ward Mdandu, in Wanging'ombe district, Njombe region (Southern Highlands), About 15 km from the city of Njombe) is considered holy because he is closely linked to the Bena's ethnic group with its culture, history and spiritual convictions. The main reasons are explained here - it's an interesting mix of myth, history and lively customs! "Nyumba Nitu" means "black house" or "dark house" on the Bena language. It refers to the dark caves in the forest. There is a legend that in these caves once black cows lived. While tribal wars (for example, against the Hehe or Sangu) or during the Maji-Maji uprising against the German colonial hostels threatened in the late 19th century, the Bena man searched for protection in these caves. From a simple hiding place was a place that was firmly anchored in the memory of the community. This is an interesting chapter of regional history! Between the Hehe, Sangu and Bena there were several tensions and armed clashes in the pre-colonial and early colonial time. I want to summarize a brief, what resulted. One of the former focuses was around the middle of the 19th century. Around 1860, the Hehe Chief Munyigumba started to unite the hover tribes. In the 1870s he attacked Sangu and crashed her chief of Merere. However, Merere returned later and could ward off the attacks in 1877. The conflicts had to do with territorial claims, the struggle for resources (such as land or cattle) and the pursuit of power domination. The Bena were geographically between the Hehe (northeast) and the Sangu (northwest). In earlier times, the Bena were subjected to Sangu: Sangu set their own relatives as chiefs in the Bena villages. When the hehe defeated the Sangu, they exchanged these chiefs against their own, the hehe kingdom. So the conflict was not only between two groups, but also had a layer of submission and detachment of local rule structures. The situation tightened when the Germans were active in the region. The colonial power strategically used the existing opposites: she castled alliances with the Bena and Sangu to counteract the Hehe. A well-known example: After the Hehe chief Mkwawa (the successor Munyigumbas) rebelled against German expansion policy, Governor Schele led an expedition. He reached the strongly fortified position of Mkwawa at Kalenga (west of Iringa). Later, the German officer Tom Prince shared the Hehe area: In the western part he set the Sangu chief Merere, in the eastern the brother Mkwawa, Mpangile. That should weaken the Hehe-Empire. However, this did not lead to permanent stability - Mpangile maintained secret contacts with Mkwawa, was then executed by the Germans, and then followed renewed restlessness and rebellion. So it was not a single, rigid conflict, but a braid of local power struggles, which were even more complex by the arrival of colonial power. The Germans used the existing tensions to pursue their own goals. The Maji-Maji uprising (1905-1907) was a great survey of the African population in German East Africa against German colonial rule. Since previously talked about tribal conflicts and the Holy Nyumba-Nitu Forest, it is important: this uprising combined many different ethnic groups - including Matumbi, Ngindo, Pare, Hehe and others - in a shared resistance, Although they often stood together in conflict. The causes of this uprising were mainly economical and political: The colonial administration demanded money taxes (eg head tax) and continued forced labor for infrastructure (roads, bridges). For many communities, that was incompatible with their traditional forms of economies. Large land areas were taken for European plantations (cotton, sisal), which complicated the use of farmland and pasture surfaces. Traditional chiefs were dismissed or abused as a leader of colonial policy, which destroyed trust and authority. The name "Maji-Maji" comes from the Swahili word "Maji" ("water"). The central idea was a spiritual protection power: - The Prophet Kinjikitile Ngwale from the Matumbi area spread the doctrine that a magical water ("Maji") would protect the insurgents against bullets - the balls would become water. - This idea enabled a superior mobilization: people of different groups felt connected by a common faith and rituals. This was also a reaction to colonial violence and degradation: the hope for a supernatural protection gave resistance in a militarily hopeless situation. Beginning of the uprising was in July 1905. The uprising broke out in the south of German East Africa, initially with the destruction of cotton fields. Thanks to networks (trade routes, relationships, drum communication), the uprising quickly reached for many regions. The German protective force used modern device (machine guns) and tactical superiority. An annoyed example is the attack on the station Mahenge, where hundreds of insurgents died. As a tactic of the "burned earth", the German fields and villages were deflined. The heaviest losses were not caused by direct struggle, but by mass hunger's groove followed by the military collapse. Kinjikitle was arrested and executed in 1905, but the resistance lasted until 1907, partly as small, local uprisings and partisan actions. Estimates expire from 75,000 to over 200,000 dead, especially by hunger and diseases. The military losses of insurgents were extremely high, which of the German troops relatively low. The German colonial power retained control, but the administration later became something "moderate": there were reforms to make economic exploitation less offensive and break less radically. In today's Tanzania historiography, the Maji-Maji uprising is an early example of Pan-African solidarity - not in the sense of a political movement, but as a broad alliance of different peoples against common oppression. Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, saw in the insurgents forerunners of the independence campaign. We have already written a lot about it. - Pan-Africanism and resistance. Maji-Maji is a historical example of how African communities organized across tribal boundaries to resist colonial violence - a root phenomenon for later liberation movements. - Holy places and local memory. In many regions where the uprising took place, places are still associated with remembrance culture - caves, villages, rivers serving as protected sites or meeting points. This is recalling the importance of the Nyumba Nitu-Forest as a safe, holy room. - Colonial violence and neo-colonial consequences. The uprising shows how military oppression, lapse and economic forced politics have left deep traces - topics that are relevant to your questions after overcoming neo-colonialism. For the Bena, the forest and the caves are a sacred place to get in touch with the ghosts of the ancestors. People visit him to carry out rituals, to give victims or ask for blessing. There are also saying that the holiness underline: for example, locals tell that attempts to burn the forest, not successed - the forest is intact again the next morning, as if ghosts have protected him. Also, stories are told about blood, which poured out of trees when someone tried to make a tree. To preserve the holiness of the place, strict rules apply. Visitors have to take off their shoes and do not wear a hat. Women who menstruise are traditionally not in the forest. It is believed that breaking these rules could bring danger or misfortune. Today, Bena-humans visit the Nyumba Nitu Forest to get their cultural identity and pass on their traditions. The forest is actively managed and protected by the local community. The forest is holy because he was not only a historical hiding place, but also the place where the connection to the ancestors and their own culture is getting alive. 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