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The Abushiri Revolt was an insurrection in 1888-9 by the Arab population of the areas of the East African coast which were granted to Germany by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888. It was eventually suppressed by an Anglo-German blockade of the coast.

It was led by Abushiri ibn Salim al-Harthi, who gained the support of both the Arabs of the area and local tribes. Abushiri's father was an ethnic Arab and his mother a Galla. [1]. When Abushiri was finally betrayed to the Germans in December 1889 he was publicly hanged. It wasn't until early 1891 that the German commissioner in charge of quashing the rebellion could report back to Germany that it had been fully suppressed.

The revolt began as a form of resistance to the German control over that area, the Arabs felt that they were being both politically and economically undermined by the Germans and through the revolt they hoped to stop it.

Abushiri's Revolt was a significant reason for the end of the German East African Company's rule over the colony and the German Government's subsequent take over.

This was only one of many rebellions in East Africa at this time, a precursor to the Maji-Maji rebellion of 1905-1907, which was begun by Kinjikitile, a Bantu spiritual leader who had a vision proclaiming the defeat of the European imperialists, who would be swallowed suddenly by a hole in the earth and their bullets turned to water. This was the reason for the name of the revolution, because in Swahili "maji" means "water".

The Maji-Maji rebellion began after the word was spread throughout African populations through traditional oral forms such as songs which referred to magic water. The tribespeople refused to work on the cotton fields for the Germans and attacked both Germans and Omani officials that worked for them. Unfortunately, the Germans' bullets did not turn into water as the Africans had hoped, but retained their lethal metal composure and killed hundreds of rebels.

This led to an outcry at home for the Germans, protests at corrupt imperialist practices and many Africans being starved intentionally by the German imperialists to punish them for revolting. Hundreds more Africans were killed in the following year because of lack of food, partially due to poor harvests, and also because the Germans were halting food supply. However, the long-term impact of the Maji-Maji rebellion was beneficial for East Africans because it paved the way to further reforms.

The reason for the rebellion was the outright exploitation of the indegenous Africans by the German imperialists, who had come to Eastern Africa under the pretext of halting the slave trade but only contributed to it. In response to the dissent coming from Germans at home, they set free the African slaves whom had been forced to cultivate cotton, but at a price. The prices paid for emancipation were so high, in fact, that in order to pay them one was forced to borrow money from an official to pay it, and then to be indebted to that German meant that one would have to work off the debt... at the cotton fields. In effect, emancipation only meant trading one master for another. This led to increasing tensions, not to mention that the cultural pressures placed on the East Africans were insufferable.

German imperialists were ignorant of existing gender divisions of labor on the Swahili coast, which would usually have the man producing textiles and women doing field work. Since European division of labor was the reverse, the Germans forced the men to work in the fields, which they found immasculating. They were also encouraged to adopt European dress, and though many complied there were those who protested and wore their traditional African clothing or no clothing at all as a means of asserting tribal pride and traditional masculinity. Those who wore European dress were called "jonangas" and those who did not were known as "joyoyos".